Essential Git Commands

A collection of useful Git commands for everyday development, with explanations and examples.

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Basic Operations

View commit history:

git log

View commit history as a tree:

git log --oneline --graph --all

Show differences between files or commits:

git diff <commit-hash> <file>

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Branch Management

Create and switch to a new branch (modern syntax):

git switch -c branch_name

Equivalent to:

git checkout -b branch_name

Switch branches or check out a specific commit:

git checkout <branch-or-commit>

See recently updated branches:

git branch --sort=-committerdate

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Working with Changes

Temporarily save changes:

git stash

Apply the most recent stash:

git stash pop

List all stashes:

git stash list

Remove the last stash:

git stash drop

Remove all stashes:

git stash clear

Remove a specific stash:

git stash drop stash@{2}

Remove a file from staging:

git rm --cached path/to/file

Or, if you've already made at least one commit:

git restore --staged path/to/file

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Undoing & Amending Changes

Quickly undo the last commit (but keep changes):

git reset --soft HEAD~1

or

git reset --mixed HEAD~1

• --mixed is the default; it also unstages changes.

Amend the last commit (edit message or add files):

git commit --amend

Great for fixing typos, adding missing files, or cleaning up commit messages.

Restore a file from a previous commit:

git checkout <commit-hash> -- path/to/file

• You can also specify multiple files.

Go back a number of commits:

git checkout <commit-hash>~1 -- path/to/file

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Changing Commit Dates

Change the date of the last commit:

GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2024-04-25T14:00:00" git commit --amend --no-edit --date "2024-04-25T14:00:00"

Change the date of an older commit:

1. Start an interactive rebase:

   git rebase -i HEAD~3

2. Change pick to edit for the commit you want to change.
3. When Git stops, run:

   GIT_COMMITTER_DATE="2024-04-25T14:00:00" git commit --amend --no-edit --date "2024-04-25T14:00:00"

4. Continue the rebase:

   git rebase --continue

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Repository History & Contributors

See who has contributed and how many commits they've made:

git shortlog -sn

See who made changes to specific lines in a file:

git blame -L 1,2 -w app/tldb/settings.py

• -L: Specify the line range (e.g., 1,2)
• -w: Ignore whitespace changes

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Multiple SSH Keys for GitHub

Example ~/.ssh/config:

Host github.com-personal
    HostName github.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/personal_key

Host github.com-work
    HostName github.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/work_key

Set the remote URL to use a specific key:

git remote set-url origin git@github.com-personal:username/repo.git

Check your remotes:

git remote -v

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