📝 Git Cheat Sheets

Essential Git commands grouped by common workflows with explanations and examples for quick reference.

1. Initialize & Clone

git init — create a new Git repository locally.

git init

Starts tracking your project by creating a .git folder.

git clone <repo-url> [folder-name] — clone a remote repo into a local folder.

git clone https://github.com/user/NanoMVC.git
git clone https://github.com/user/NanoMVC.git NaniMVC-dev

Specify an optional folder name to clone into a custom directory instead of the default repo name.

git status — shows changes in working directory and staging area.

git status

git log -1 --pretty=%B — shows the commit message body of the latest commit.

git log -1 --pretty=%B

git add . — stage all changed files in the current directory.

git add .

git commit -m "message" — commit staged changes with a message.

git commit -m "Fix login bug"

git reset --soft HEAD~1 — undo last commit but keep changes staged.

git reset --soft HEAD~1

Useful if you want to edit your last commit or re-commit differently.

git checkout <branch> — switch to another branch.

git checkout develop

git merge <branch> — merge specified branch into current branch.

git merge feature-branch

git push origin <branch> — push commits to remote branch.

git push origin main

git push -u origin <branch> — push and set upstream tracking branch.

git push -u origin feature-branch

After this, you can use git push without arguments.

git pull origin <branch> — fetch and merge remote changes.

git pull origin main

git difftool <file> — compare changes in a file using an external diff tool.

git difftool README.md

git config --global diff.tool <toolname> — set default diff tool globally.

git config --global diff.tool meld

git config --global difftool.prompt false — disable confirmation prompts for difftool.

git config --global difftool.prompt false

git rev-parse --git-dir — shows the path to the Git metadata directory.

git rev-parse --git-dir