Git Introduction

A beginner's guide to essential Git commands and configurations.

This guide provides a collection of common Git commands, along with explanations on how to configure and use Git for version control. Whether you're just getting started or need a reference for frequently used commands, this guide is designed to help.

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Table of Contents

1. Global Configuration
   • Set your name
   • Set your email
   • Set default text editor
   • Open Git config settings
   • Set line ending preferences
2. Useful Git Commands
   • Initialize a Git repository
   • Stage changes
   • Make a commit
   • Remove files
   • Rename or move files
   • View status
   • View differences
   • View commit history
   • Branch management
   • Merging changes
   • Working with remotes

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Global Configuration

Set your name

To configure Git to use your name in commits, run:

git config --global user.name "Your name"

Set your email

To set the email associated with your Git commits:

git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

Set default text editor

If you want to set a default text editor, such as VSCode, for commit messages:

git config --global core.editor "code --wait"

Open Git config settings

To open and edit Git’s global configuration settings:

git config --global -e

Set line ending preferences

For Linux/Mac systems (use Unix-style line endings):

git config --global core.autocrlf input

For Windows systems (use Windows-style line endings):

git config --global core.autocrlf true

For other options, you can view the Git configuration help:

git config -h

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Useful Git Commands

Initialize a Git repository

To initialize a new Git repository in the current folder:

git init

Stage changes

To stage all changes (deleted, modified, and new files):

git add .

Make a commit

To create a new commit with a message:

git commit -m "Initial commit"

Remove files

To remove a file from your working tree and stage the removal:

git rm <file>

Rename or move files

To rename or move a file:

git mv <old-filename> <new-filename>

View status

To check the status of your working directory:

git status

For a more concise, cleaner output of the status:

git status -s

View differences

To view the unstaged differences in your working directory:

git diff

To compare the changes already staged for commit:

git diff --staged

View commit history

To view the commit history:

git log

For a simplified, one-line-per-commit view:

git log --oneline

Branch management

• To view the current branch:

  git branch

• To view all local and remote branches:

  git branch -vva

• To create and switch to a new branch:

  git checkout -b <branch-name>

• To delete a local branch:

  git branch -d <branch-name>

• To switch between branches:

  git switch <branch-name>

Merging changes

To merge changes from one branch into your current branch:

git merge <branch-name>

Working with remotes

• To add a remote repository:

  git remote add origin https://github.com/your/repo.git

• To push changes to a remote branch:

  git push origin <branch-name>

• If local and remote branch names are different:

  git push origin <local-branch>:<remote-branch>

• To create and push to a main branch:

  git push -u origin main

• To list, remove, or rename remote repositories:

  git remote -v
  git remote rm <name>
  git remote rename <oldname> <newname>

• After pulling changes, to view the history of changes:

  git whatchanged

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For more details and advanced options, refer to the Git documentation.