Git Cheat Sheet

This section contains details helpful Git commands. For information on setting up Git see the Git Setup section and for the SUNDIALS Git workflow see the Workflow section.

Command Help

Print a list of common Git commands used in various situations

$ git --help

Print full man page for a Git command

$ git <git-command> --help

Print list of available options for a Git command

$ git <git-command> -h

Graphical Tools

Availability depends the Git installation

Visualize repo history

$ gitk

Graphical interface to Git

$ git gui

Branch

List all local branches (* denotes the current branch)

$ git branch

List all local branches with additional information

$ git branch -vv

List all remote branches

$ git branch -r

Create a new branch from an existing reference point (e.g., branch, commit hash, etc.)

$ git branch <new-branch-name> <reference>

Create a new branch from an existing reference point (e.g., branch, commit hash, etc.) and immediately checkout the new branch

$ git checkout -b <new-branch-name> <reference>

Add

Stage local changes to a file

$ git add <file-name>

Stage changes from a file in chunks

$ git add -p <file-name>

Unstage a committed file

$ git reset HEAD -- <file-name>

Discard local changes to a file and get the previously committed version

$ git checkout -- <file-name>

Discard local changes to a file in chunks

$ git checkout -p <file-name>

Commit

Commit staged files, this opens an editor for writing a commit message, an empty commit message will abort the commit

$ git commit

The desired format for a commit message is a short descriptive title followed by a blank line, and then a detailed commit message. For example, a commit making several changes to the ARKode initialization function might have the following message:

Retain history, remove LS/NLS init flag, skip init on reset

* move initializations inside FIRST_INIT
* retain error history on reset
* clear error/step history in SetInitStep
* skip stepper init checks on reset
* remove updates to ark LS and NLS init functions
* remove prototypes for old reinit utility function
* update docs

Commit staged files with short message

$ git commit -m "short commit message"

Amend the most recent commit (assuming it has not been pushed) to include the changes in this commit

$ git commit --amend

This is useful for adding forgotten changes to the last commit or for editing the commit message in the last commit (if no files are staged).

Push and Pull

Push a new branch and its commits to the remote repository and set the upstream tracking branch

$ git push -u origin <branch-name>

Push committed changes on the current branch to the remote repository

$ git push

Note: This is the same as git push origin <current-branch-name>.

Fetch and merge remote changes for the current branch

$ git pull

Note: This is the same as git pull origin <current-branch-name>.

Fetch and merge changes from a specific remote branch into the current branch

$ git pull origin <branch-name>

Fetch and rebase remote changes for the current branch

$ git pull --rebase

Note: Use caution when rebasing, see Rebasing for more details.

Fetch and rebase changes from a specific remote branch into the current branch

$ git pull --rebase origin <branch-name>

Note: Use caution when rebasing, see Rebasing for more details.

Merge

Merge a different local branch to your current branch

$ git merge <branch-name>

Resolve merge conflicts with a visual diff/merge tool

$ git mergetool

Find the newest common ancestor (fork point) of two reference points (branches, commits, etc.)

$ git merge-base <reference1> <reference2>

Rebase

Interactively rebase the committed but not pushed changes on the current branch

$ git rebase -i

Note: This command is useful for cleaning up the local commits history (e.g., reordering, squashing, updating commit messages, etc.) before pushing to the remote repository.

Rebase the commited but not pushed changes on the current branch and execute a given command (cmd) between each step in the rebase

$ git rebase -x "cmd"

Note: This command can be useful for debugging commits e.g., cmd can be used to run the test suite after each commit to find which commit causes the test suite to fail.

Cherry Pick

Apply a specific commit to the current branch

$ git cherry-pick <commit-hash>

Status and Differences

Print information on current local repo status including unstaged (changed and not added) files, staged (changed and added) files, and untracked files.

$ git status

Show all differences between unstaged changes and the current HEAD

$ git diff

Show the differences between unstaged changes and the current HEAD for a specific file

$ git diff <file-name>

Show differences between all staged files and current HEAD

$ git diff --staged

List all files changed in the current branch compared to different reference point (branch, commit hash, etc.)

$ git diff --name-only <reference>

Compare files between two branches

$ git diff <branch1>..<branch2> -- <file-name>

To view the differences going from the remote file to the local file

$ git diff remotename/branchname:remote/path/file1 local/path/file1

To view the differences going from the local file to the remote file

$ git diff HEAD:local/path/file1 remotename/branchname:remote/path/file1

To view the differences between files at any two reference points (e.g. branches, commit hashes, etc.)

$ git diff ref1:path/to/file1 ref2:path/to/file2

Note: In the above commands diff can be replaced with difftool if a visual diff tool has been setup with Git.

Log

Show commit log

$ git log

Show commit log for the last n commits

$ git log -n

Show commit log with more change information

$ git log --stat

Show all commits impacting a specific file

$ git log <file-name>

Stash

Save uncommitted changes in the stash

$ git stash

Save uncommitted changes in the stash with a stash message

$ git stash save "stash message"

View saved changes in the stash

$ git stash list

Apply to first set of stashed changes and remove the changes from the stash

$ git stash pop

Apply changes from the stash (does not remove changes from the stash)

$ git stash apply <stash-name>

Remove changes from the stash

$ git stash drop <stash-name>

Show difference between current HEAD and stashed work

$ git stash show -p <stash-name>