Summary table of Git commands

Command

Use

git init

Initialises a Git repository in that directory

git add .

Add all changes to the staging area to be committed

git add file_name

Add changes to the specified file to the staging area to be committed

git commit

Commits staged changes and allows you to write a commit message

git checkout SHA

Check out past commit with the given SHA

git checkout SHA – file_name

Check out the past version of a file from the commit with the given SHA

git checkout -b branch_name

Create and switch to a new branch

git checkout branch_name

Switch to a specified branch

git merge branch_name

Merge the branch you are on into the specified branch

git log

Output a log of past commits with their commit messages

git status

Output status including what branch you’re on & what changes are staged

git diff

Output difference between the working directory and most recent commit

git diff thing_a thing_b

Output difference between two things, such as commits and branches

git clone URL

Makes a clone of the repository at the specified URL

git remote add origin URL

Links local repository and repository at the specified URL

git push origin branch_name

Push local changes to the specified branch of the online repository

git pull origin branch_name

Pull changes to online repository into local repository