Get started with GIT Commands
Want to know what is Git and how to use it? This is the best article suit for you. Let’s take a look and learn what is Git? the difference between Git vs GitHub & the most important Git commands to use in your projects.
What is Git?
Git is an open-source, distributed version control system introduced in 2005. Simply Git allows one to manage small to large projects on the computer and keep track of the source codes’ history. It enables multiple developers to work together in a nonlinear method.
Users can add the files of the project created on the computer to Git by initializing it as a Git project.
To initialize a project as a Git project and track its changes, you must have installed the Git version on your computer.
Install Git on Windows
Click here to download the latest Git version
- Select the suitable version for your computer and download it.
- Run the downloaded .exe file to install git.
- After installation open the command prompt and type git to check the status of the installation.
- If it shows as bellow. Then you have successfully installed Git on your computer.
What is GitHub?
Git Hub is a cloud service that let users manage their Git repositories. (git repository is a container that manages the files and tracks the history of the changes in the files of the project)
Users can create a Git project in Git Hub and clone it to the local computer or push the Git project in the local computer to the Git Hub.
Create a Git Hub account
- Click here and go to Git Hub.
- Click the sign-up button and create a new account.
Git vs Git Hub
Git commands
You can manage your Git repositories using Git GUI or Git Bash on your computer. Here we discuss how to manage Git repos using Git Bash. You can use the following Git commands on Git Bash or Windows Powershell to manage local Git repositories.
git init- used to initialize the existing project as a git repository (Should move to the relevant directory in the shell)
git init file_name — Create and initialize the file or the folder as a git repository.
After initializing a project as a git repository you can see the .git folder as a hidden file.
git config — First of all you should define the username and email, It helps to identify the users who did changes at each commit or push.
git config — global user.email youremail@example.com
git config — global user.name yourname
–global — use the defined user name & email to use in all the git repos.
–local — use the defined user name & email to use only in that repo.
git status — used to check the status of the git repo.
git add — When creating a new file/folder in a git repo you should add that file as a tracked file. If not It does not track the changes done in the files. This command makes the untracked files tracked.
After adding the files as tracked they are in the staging environment.
git add filename — make the mentioned file into a track file.
git add . / git add –all / git add -A — make all the untracked files into a track file.
Gitignore — If you want to ignore some files/ folders from committing to the repository, you can add a .gitigore file and add the files that should ignore.
Create a new file in the local repository -> name the file .gitignore
OR
Create the file using the command prompt
touch .gitignore
Then open the .gitignore file using the text editor and add the files that should ignore according to the given format.
git commit — used to commit (take the snapshot of the changes) the changes in the tracked files to the repository.
git commit -m “First release of Hello World!” — by this, the staging environment has been committed to the repo with the message. -m “commit message” used to add a message to the commit.
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git commit -a -m “Updated index.html with a new line” — commit the changes by skipping the staging environment.
Warning: Skipping the Staging Environment is not generally recommended. Skipping the stage step can sometimes make you include unwanted changes.
git log- used to view all the git commits done Each commit has a unique id.
git log : view logs in a more descriptive way
git log –oneline : view logs by log id in one line
git log -p : view logs with changes
git diff — used to check the difference between the current changes in the files with the last commit of that file.
Remove tracked or commit file/folder
git rm filename.txt
Restore deleted tracked file/folder
git restore filename.txt
Rename git file/folder
git mv oldfilename.txt newfilename.txt
git branch — Used to check the available branches in the local git repository
With * it represents that currently you are in that branch
Create a new git branch
git branch branch_name
git switch- Used to change the current branch into another branch
git switch branch_name
git merge- Merge changes in other branches to the main branch.
git merge -m “merge message” branchNameToMerge
Clone the cloud GitHub repository to the local repository.
git remote- Used to clone the cloud GitHub repository to local repository
git remote add origin repository_url
You can get the repository URL below.
git push- Push all the committed changes in the local repository to the remote git repository.
git push -f — Forcly push the changes to the remote branch by overwriting and deleting the existing files/folders.
git push -u origin branchName — Useful when pushing a new branch, this creates an upstream tracking branch with a lasting relationship to your local branch
git push — all — Push all branches available in the local to the remote repo.
Getting the changes in the remote repo to local & merge them to the local branch
git fetch
git merge
Instead of these two commands, you can use the command called git pull
git pull origin branch_name
Remove remote Git repository from the local repository
git remote remove origin
