---
title: "Git cheat sheet"
slug: "git-bash-command-line-cheat-sheet"
description: "Click here and view the Git Bash command line cheat sheet to advance your processes."
updated: 2024-03-25T17:19:17Z
published: 2024-03-25T17:19:17Z
canonical: "learn.allspice.io/git-bash-command-line-cheat-sheet"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://learn.allspice.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Git bash | command line cheat sheet

## Setup

Global user information settings

          Set the name you will use to add changes to the repo

          

```
git config --global user.name "[firstname lastname]"
```

          Set the email address will use to add changes to the repo

          

```
git config --global user.email "[valid-email]"
```

          Format colors for easy review

          

```
git config --global color.ui auto
```

## Initialization

Configuring new repos

          Initialize an existing directory as a repo

          

```
git init
```

          Copy entire remote repo to current directory

          

```
git clone [url]
```

## Staging

Working with your local filesystem repo

          Show modified files in your working directory. These files are staged for your next commit

          

```
git status
```

          Diff list of what files have changed, but are not staged

          

```
git diff
```

          Display diff list of what files have been staged, but not committed

          

```
git diff --staged
```

          Add a file as-is to your next commit, aka stage the file

          

```
git add [file]
```

          Stage all changes in [directory] for the next commit

          

```
git add [directory]
```

          Remove file from staging, but keep the changes

          

```
git reset [file]
```

          Commit your staged files as a new commit

          

```
git commit -m "[descriptive message]"
```

## Branching and merging

Organize your changes into branches and merge them together

          List your branches. Your currently active branch will have a * next to it

          

```
git branch
```

          Create a new branch [branch-name] at the current commit

          

```
git branch [branch-name]
```

          Switch to another branch and check it out to your current working directory

          

```
git switch
```

          Merge [branch-name]'s history into the current branch

          

```
git merge [branch-name]
```

          Display all commits in the current branch's history

          

```
git log
```

## Inspect and compare

          Display commits that are on branchA but not on branchB

          

```
git log branchB..branchA
```

          Display the commits of the file, even across renames

          

```
git log --follow [file]
```

          Display the diff of what is in branchA but not branchB

          

```
git diff branchB...branchA
```

          Display any git object in human-readable format

          

```
git show [SHA]
```

## Tracking Changes

Removing and moving files

          Delete the local file and stage the removal for commit

          

```
git rm [file]
```

          Change or rename existing file path and stage the change for commit

          

```
git mv [existing-path] [new-path]
```

          Display all commit logs of filepaths that have been moved

          

```
git log --stat -M
```

## Ignoring patterns

Prevent uninentional staging or commiting of files

          Add filter to .gitignore to avoid committing these files. Can use string literals or use "*" wildcard

          

```
logs/
*.notes
pattern*/
```

          Global ignore pattern for all local system repos

          

```
git config --global core.excludesfile [file]
```

## Share & Update

Retrieve updates from a different repo and update local repos

          Add a git URL as an alias

          

```
git remote add [alias] [url]
```

          Fetch all the branches from the remote alias repo

          

```
git fetch [alias]
```

          Merge a remote branch into your current branch

          

```
git merge [alias]/[branch]
```

          Transfer your local branch commits to the remote branch repo

          

```
git push [alias] [branch]
```

          Fetch and merge any commits from the tracking remote branch

          

```
git pull
```

## Rewrite history

Rewrite branches, update commites, and clear history

          Apply any commits of current branch ahead of specified branch

          

```
git rebase [branch]
```

          Clear staging area, rewrite working tree from specified commit

          

```
git reset --hard [commit]
```

          Replace the previous commit with the stange changes and last commit combined. Use with nothing staged to edit the last commit's message.

          

```
git commit --amend
```

          Create a new commit that undoes all the changes in [commit], then apply it to the current branch

          

```
git revert [commit]
```

          Shows which files would be removed from working directory by clean

          

```
git clean -n
```

          Removes files from working directory

          

```
git clean -f
```

## Temporary commits

Temporarily store modified and tracked files in order to change branches

          Save modified and staged changes and reverts to pre-change status

          

```
git stash
```

          Display list stack-order of stashed file changes in the file

          

```
git stash list
```

          Write working files from top of stash stack

          

```
git stash pop
```

          Discard the changes from the top of the stash stack

          

```
git stash drop
```