Master Git in 15 Minutes: Essential Commands for Everyday Projects

Workflow Steps

This article demonstrates a complete Git workflow that can be performed on a single machine or across multiple machines.

Install Git

On most Unix-like systems Git is pre‑installed; you can update to the latest development version with: git clone https://github.com/git/git Windows users can download the installer from the official site.

Create a Remote Repository

Register an account on Bitbucket (or GitHub) and create a private repository. After logging in, click the “Create” button and enable the private option.

Configure Git

Set your username and email (preferably the same as your Bitbucket account) with:

git config --global user.name "your_username"

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

Also set the default push behavior:

git config --global push.default simple

Create a Local Repository

Navigate to your project folder and initialize a repository:

cd ~/workspace/my_site/

git init

This creates a hidden .git directory.

Stage Files

Add all files to the staging area: git add . Or add specific files:

git add my_file my_other_file

Commit Files

Commit the staged files with a meaningful message: git commit -m "initial commit" Check the status at any time with:

git status

Create a Branch

Create and switch to a new branch: git checkout -b new_feature List all branches:

git branch

Merge a Branch

After finishing work on the feature branch, stage and commit any changes, then switch back to master and merge:

git add .

git commit -m "adds my new feature"

git checkout master

git merge new_feature

Discard a Branch

If you want to discard changes, commit them, switch to master, then delete the branch:

git add .

git commit -m "feature to be discarded"

git checkout master

git branch -d new_feature

Use -D to force‑delete an unmerged branch.

Delete a Branch

git branch -d new_feature

git branch -D new_feature

Rollback to a Previous Commit

List commits with: git log Checkout a specific commit (using the first 9 characters of its SHA): git checkout 085bb3bcb Or create a new branch from that commit:

git checkout -b my_previous_version 085bb3bcb

Push to a Remote Repository

Add the remote origin (replace placeholders with your credentials):

git remote add origin https://[email protected]/your_username/name_of_remote_repository.git

Push the master branch:

git push origin master

Clone or Pull a Remote Repository

Clone a repository to a new machine:

git clone https://[email protected]/your_username/name_of_remote_repository.git

Or pull the latest changes into an existing local project:

git pull origin master

Aliases

Create shortcuts for frequently used commands, for example:

git config --global alias.c 'commit -m'

git config --global alias.co 'checkout'

git config --global alias.cob 'checkout -b'

git config --global alias.br 'branch'

git config --global alias.m 'merge'

git config --global alias.a 'add .'

git config --global alias.s 'status'

git config --global alias.dbr 'branch -d'