Git Commands Cheatsheet

Git is a distributed version control system created by Linus Torvalds in 2005 to manage Linux kernel development. Unlike client-server systems like Subversion (SVN), every developer has a complete local copy of the repository with full history, enabling offline work.

Today, over 93% of professional developers use Git as their primary version control system, according to the Stack Overflow 2022 survey. Services like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket host millions of Git repositories.

• Git Flow: The most popular branching model. Uses main for production, develop for integration, feature/* for new features, release/* for version preparation, and hotfix/* for urgent patches.
• Trunk-based development: Short-lived branches merged to main multiple times daily. Ideal for teams practicing CI/CD and continuous deployment.
• GitHub Flow: A simplified Git Flow. Create a branch, commit, open a pull request, review, and deploy. No develop or release branches.

• git init — Initializes a new repository in the current directory
• git clone <url> — Clones a complete remote repository including full history
• git add <file> — Stages changes for the next commit
• git commit -m "message" — Saves changes to history with a descriptive message
• git push — Uploads local commits to the remote repository
• git pull — Fetches and merges changes from the remote repository
• git branch — Lists, creates, or deletes branches
• git merge <branch> — Merges a branch into the current branch
• git rebase — Reorganizes commits to maintain a linear history
• git stash — Temporarily saves uncommitted changes
• git log — Shows the commit history of the repository
• git diff — Shows differences between unstaged changes

• Atomic commits: Each commit should represent a single logical change. Do not mix bug fixes with new features in the same commit.
• Descriptive messages: Use the standard format: subject line (max 50 chars) followed by a body explaining the what and why of the change.
• .gitignore: Keep an up-to-date .gitignore to avoid committing keys, passwords, compiled files, and dependencies (node_modules, vendor, .env).
• Do not commit secrets: If you accidentally commit a key, deleting the file is not enough — you must rotate the key and rewrite history with git filter-branch.
• Pull before push: Always run git pull --rebase before pushing to avoid unnecessary merge commits and keep history clean.