Master Over 70 Essential Git Commands and Tricks for Developers

Git is a distributed version‑control system that records every change in a project, enabling retrieval of any past state, collaboration across machines, and efficient history management. The commands below are collected from the open‑source repository https://github.com/521xueweihan/git-tips (6.8K Stars) and the related collection https://github.com/521xueweihan/HelloGitHub (11K Stars).

Fundamental concepts

Working directory – where files are added, edited, or deleted.

Staging area – files added with git add are placed here.

Local repository – created with git commit; each commit represents a version.

Remote repository – updated with git push and fetched with git pull or git fetch.

Commit‑id – the SHA‑1 hash shown by git log that uniquely identifies a commit.

Commonly used commands

Help and information

git help -g

Lists concept guides and common command groups.

Synchronise with remote

git fetch --all && git reset --hard origin/master

Discard all local changes and reset the working tree to the state of the remote master branch.

Reset the first commit

git update-ref -d HEAD

Deletes the current HEAD reference, removing all existing commits so a new initial commit can be created.

Show differences

git diff

Shows changes between the working directory and the staging area. git diff --cached Shows changes staged for the next commit. git diff HEAD Shows changes between the working directory and the last commit.

Branch operations

git branch -vv

Displays local branches with upstream tracking information. git checkout - Switches quickly to the previously checked‑out branch.

git branch --merged master | grep -v '^\*\| master' | xargs -n 1 git branch -d

Deletes branches that have already been merged into master. git branch -r Lists all remote branches. git branch -a Lists both local and remote branches. git checkout -b <branch-name> Creates and switches to a new local branch.

git checkout -b <branch-name> origin/<branch-name>

Creates a local branch that tracks a remote branch. git branch -d <local-branch> Deletes a local branch. git push origin --delete <remote-branch> Deletes a remote branch (alternative syntax: git push origin :<remote-branch>). git branch -m <new-branch-name> Renames the current branch.

Tag management

git tag

Lists all tags. git describe --tags --abbrev=0 Shows the most recent tag on the current branch. git tag -ln Shows detailed information for each tag. git tag <version-number> Creates a lightweight tag on the latest commit.

git tag -a <version-number> -m "v1.0 release" <commit-id>

Creates an annotated tag on a specific commit. git push origin <local-version-number> Pushes a single tag to the remote. git push origin --tags Pushes all local tags. git tag -d <tag-name> Deletes a local tag. git push origin :refs/tags/<tag-name> Deletes a remote tag.

git checkout -b <branch-name> <tag-name>

Creates a new branch from a tag.

Stash operations

git stash

Saves current changes (including staged files) without committing. git stash -u Saves changes and untracked files. git stash list Shows all stash entries. git stash apply <stash@{n}> Applies a specific stash without removing it. git stash pop Applies the latest stash and removes it from the stash list. git stash clear Removes all stashes.

git checkout <stash@{n}> -- <file-path>

Restores a specific file from a stash.

Inspecting the repository

git ls-files -t

Shows all tracked files. git ls-files --others Shows all untracked files. git ls-files --others -i --exclude-standard Shows all ignored files. git status --ignored Displays ignored files in the status output. git log Shows commit history.

git log --pretty=oneline --graph --decorate --all

Shows a condensed, graphical commit history. git reflog Shows a log of all updates to HEAD, useful for recovering lost commits. git blame <file-name> Shows line‑by‑line author information for a file. git log --show-signature Displays GPG signatures in the commit log.

Amending and resetting

git commit --amend

Modifies the most recent commit message or adds staged changes to it. git revert <commit-id> Creates a new commit that undoes the changes introduced by the specified commit. git reset <commit-id> Resets HEAD to a specific commit (default --mixed), affecting the staging area. git reset --hard <commit-id> Resets HEAD, index, and working directory to the given commit, discarding all changes. git reset --soft HEAD~3 Moves HEAD back three commits while keeping changes staged.

Configuration

git config --global alias.st status

Creates a shortcut alias git st for git status. git config --global --list Shows global configuration entries. git config --local --list Shows configuration for the current repository. git remote set-url origin <URL> Changes the URL of the remote named origin. git remote add origin <remote-url> Adds a new remote repository. git remote Lists all configured remotes.

Advanced operations

git bundle create <file> <branch-name>

Exports a branch into a single bundle file.

git clone repo.bundle <repo-dir> -b <branch-name>

Clones a repository from a bundle and checks out the specified branch. git rebase --autostash Automatically stashes local changes before a rebase and reapplies them afterward.

git fetch origin pull/<id>/head:<branch-name>

Fetches a specific pull‑request commit from a remote repository. git diff --word-diff Shows word‑level differences. git clean -f <file-name> Force‑removes an untracked file (cannot be recovered). git clean -df <directory-name> Force‑removes an untracked directory. git clean -X -f Removes files ignored by .gitignore. git config core.fileMode false Ignores permission changes when detecting file modifications.

git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate --format='%(refname:short)' refs/heads/

Lists all local branches ordered by most recent commit. git log --all --grep='<given-text>' Searches commit messages for a specific text across all branches. git reset <file-name> Unstages a specific file, moving it back to the working directory.

git push -f <remote-name> <branch-name>

Force‑pushes a branch to the remote.

All commands have been tested with git version 2.7.4 (Apple Git-66) . It is recommended to try commands in a safe test repository before applying them to production code.