git cheatsheet

Quick-lookup reference · all essential commands

maindevelopfeature/*hotfix/*

⇄ Git Areas Flow

WORKSPACE       STAGING      LOCAL REPO    REMOTE REPO
    |               |               |               |
    | git add/mv/rm |               |               |
    |-------------->|               |               |
    |               |  git commit   |               |
    |               |-------------->|               |
    |               |               |               |
    |        git commit -a          |               |
    |------------------------------>|               |
    |               |               |               |
    | git reset     |               |               |
    | <file>        |               |               |
    |<--------------|               |               |
    |               |               |               |
    |        git reset <commit>     |               |
    |<------------------------------|               |
    |               |               |               |
    |               |               |  git push     |
    |               |               |-------------->|
    |               |               |               |
    |               |               |  git fetch    |
    |               |               |<--------------|
    |               |               |               |
    | git diff      |               |               |
    |xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx|               |               |
    |               |               |               |
    |        git diff HEAD          |               |
    |xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx||               |
    |               |               |               |
    |          git clone / pull                     |
    |<----------------------------------------------|
    |               |               |               |

⌂ Basics

Switch branchgit switch <branch>

Restore file (discard changes)git restore <file>

Restore file to stagedgit restore --staged <file>

Detached HEAD checkoutgit checkout <commit>

Clone repogit clone <url>

Init repogit init

Stage allgit add .

Commit with messagegit commit -m "feat: msg"

Skip staging, commit trackedgit commit -a -m msg

tipAmend last commitgit commit --amend

Subject ≤50 chars, present tense, no period. Body ≤72 chars: what & why.

↺ Reset

safeUndo commit, keep stagedgit reset --soft HEAD~1

Undo commit, unstage changesgit reset --mixed HEAD~1

dangerUndo commit, discard changesgit reset --hard HEAD~1

dangerDiscard all uncommitted changesgit reset --hard HEAD

dangerReset local to remote maingit fetch origin && git reset --hard origin/main

Reset file in Staging Areagit reset <commit> <file>

dangerOverwrite staging + working dirgit checkout <commit> <file>

Squash last N into one commitgit reset --soft HEAD~N && git commit

--soft: keeps staged · --mixed: unstages · --hard: discards

⇡ Rebase

Linear rebase onto remote maingit rebase origin/main

Interactive last 5 commitsgit rebase -i HEAD~5

Interactive from commitgit rebase -i <hash>

Continue after conflictgit rebase --continue

Abort rebasegit rebase --abort

In editor: pick · squash (s) · reword (r) · drop (d) · edit (e)

Squash via mergegit merge --squash <branch>

🍒 Cherry-pick

Apply a commit to current branchgit cherry-pick <hash>

Pick multiple commitsgit cherry-pick h1 h2 h3

Pick inclusive rangegit cherry-pick h1^..h2

Continue after conflictgit cherry-pick --continue

Abort cherry-pickgit cherry-pick --abort

Wrong branch commit? checkout target, cherry-pick, then reset --hard HEAD~1 on source.

📦 Stash

Save work temporarilygit stash

Stash with namegit stash push -m "name"

List stashesgit stash list

Apply & remove top stashgit stash pop

Apply without removinggit stash apply stash@{n}

Drop specific stashgit stash drop stash@{n}

Clear all stashesgit stash clear

🏷 Tags

Create lightweight taggit tag v1.0-lw

Create annotated taggit tag -a v1.0 -m "Release v1.0"

List all tagsgit tag

Show tag metadatagit show v1.0

Push single taggit push origin v1.0

Push all tagsgit push origin --tags

Delete local taggit tag -d v1.0.1

Delete remote taggit push origin --delete v1.0.1

Lightweight = pointer only. Annotated = full object with author, date, msg.

⑂ Branches

List local branchesgit branch

List all (local + remote)git branch -a

Branches merged into maingit branch --merged main

Create & switchgit switch -c <name>

safeDelete (safe)git branch -d <name>

dangerDelete (force)git branch -D <name>

Delete remote branchgit push origin --delete <name>

Workflow: main → develop → feature/* → develop → release/* → main + develop. hotfix/* branches off main.

☁ Remote / Sync

Fetch (no merge)git fetch origin

Pull (fetch + merge)git pull

Push branchgit push origin <branch>

Push & set upstreamgit push -u origin <branch>

dangerForce push rewritten historygit push --force --mirror origin

Show remotesgit remote -v

Add remotegit remote add origin <url>

🔍 Inspect

Working dir vs staginggit diff

Staging vs last commitgit diff --cached

Working dir vs HEADgit diff HEAD

Files changed in commitgit diff-tree -r <hash>

Status overviewgit status

Commit history (pretty)git log --oneline --graph

Last author per linegit blame <file>

git diff: working↔index · git diff HEAD: working↔last commit · git status: working↔index

⏪ Revert

safeCreate undo commit (safe for shared)git revert <hash>

Revert without auto-commitgit revert -n <hash>

Revert adds a new commit. Use instead of reset on shared/main branches.

git reset

moves pointer

git restore

local files only

git revert

adds undo commit

🗑 Remove / Clean

Untrack file (keep on disk)git rm --cached <file>

dangerRemove from all history (modern)git filter-repo --path <file> --invert-paths

dangerRemove sensitive text from historygit filter-repo --replace-text <(echo 'secret==>***')

Analyze repo structuregit filter-repo --analyze

Add to gitignoreecho "file" >> .gitignore

After filter-repo, force push with --force --mirror to overwrite remote history.

🔬 Bisect

Start bisect sessiongit bisect start

Mark current as badgit bisect bad

Mark known good commitgit bisect good <hash>

Skip untestable commitgit bisect skip

Exit & return to branchgit bisect reset

Git binary-searches commits. Mark each checkout bad/good until culprit is found.

🕑 Reflog

See all HEAD movementsgit reflog

Recover deleted branchgit checkout -b <name> HEAD@{n}

Show refloggit reflog show

Git keeps 90 days of HEAD history (30 for unreachable). Untracked files are NOT recovered. Run git gc to purge manually.

🪝 Git Hooks

Enable hook (remove .sample)mv pre-commit.sample pre-commit

Make executablechmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit

pre-commitlint / format / tests — abort if exit 1

prepare-commit-msgauto-insert Jira ID or template

commit-msgenforce naming: feat: fix: docs:

pre-pushvalidate before upload

pre-receiveserver: reject policy violations

updateserver: per-branch rejection

post-receiveserver: trigger CI/CD webhook

Use Husky or pre-commit framework to share hooks — .git/ isn't tracked by VCS.

🌿 Branch Model

mainproduction-ready code

developnext release integration

feature/*branches off develop → merges to develop

release/*final prep before main

hotfix/*branches off main → merges to main + develop

⚡ Misc

List files changed in commitgit diff-tree -r <hash>

See per-line blamegit blame <file>

Show all movements of HEADgit reflog

Remove from tracking (keep disk)git rm --cached <file>

Stage patches interactivelygit add -p

Show configgit config --list

Set global usergit config --global user.name "Name"

Pretty one-line log with graphgit log --oneline --graph --all

git cheatsheet · workspace → staging → local repo → remote repo