My List of Commonly-Used Git Commands

One of the tools I use on a daily basis is Git, a Distributed Version Control System (DVCS). Other than the usual git checkout -b branch, git tag -a and git merge/push/pull, the Git workflow generally demands very little of me to keep the repository under control.

If not for a few “human errors” that happen once in a while (or a couple of times every week), there’s not much to write home about. In those instances, I have to admit that relying on the search engine to answer specific questions usually gets things done faster than parsing the man/help page or going through the docs. Lazy. I know!

After repeating the same process a few times and finding answers on different sites, I decided to just compile a list as I go along rather than trying to remember the search terms I used to get the answer last time. In any case, here is the list of my commonly-used as well as “almost” commonly-used Git commands.

Branching with Git

:::bash
#list all branches
git branch -l

# create and immediately checkout a new branch
git checkout -b [branchname]

# create a new branch
git branch [branchname]

# delete branch
git branch -d [branchname]

# all local branches up to remote repository
git push [remotename] --all

# delete remote branch
git push [remotename] :[branch name]

# track a remote repository
git branch --track [branchname] origin/[branchname] 

Tagging with Git

:::bash
# list all available tags
git tag -l

# create an annotated tag
git tag -a [tagname]

# delete tag
git tag -d [tagname]

# remove remote tag
git push [remotename] :refs/tags/[tagname]

# push all local tags to remote
git push [remotename] --tags

# fetch all remote tags
git fetch --tags

# show verbose view of the tag
git show [tagname]

Remote Repository Management with Git

:::bash
# view existing remote urls
git remote -v

# change origin remote's URL
git remote set-url origin [path to new repository]

# add remote
git remote add [remote-name] [path to remote repository]

# pull changes from remote
get fetch [remote-name]

Other Commonly-used git Commands

:::bash
# merge codes with another branch
git merge [branchname]

# neater way to view git log that I actually created an alias called "git_pretty"
git log --pretty=oneline --max-count=[no. of lines] --abbrev-commit

I plan to update this list every time I have to search for the same thing twice! So what are some of your commonly used git commands?