Core Git Operations

Managing your development enviroment and repositories effectively is critical for version control workflows.

Repository Setup and File Management

# Initialize a new local repository
git init

# Configure remote origin
git remote add origin <repository_url>

# Clone a specific branch
git clone -b <branch_name> <repository_url>

# Stage files for commit
git add <file_path>

# Commit changes with a descriptive message
git commit -m "Description of changes"
   

Branching and Repository Inspection

# Check status and diff
git status
git diff <file>

# View commit history
git log --oneline
git reflog

# Manage branches
git branch -a             # List all branches
git branch <name>         # Create a new branch
git checkout -b <name>    # Create and switch to new branch
git branch -d <name>      # Delete a local branch
   

Version Reversion and Modification Undo

Use git reset to move the branch pointer, or git revert to generate a new commit that neutralizes previous changes.

# Hard reset to a previous state
git reset --hard HEAD~1

# Revert a specific commit by creating an inverse change
git revert <commit_id>

# Discard local file modifications
git checkout -- <file>
   

Stashing Work-in-Progress

When you need to switch tasks without committing, use the stash functionality to temporarily save your changes.

git stash           # Hide current work
git stash list      # View stashed items
git stash pop       # Restore and remove from stash
   

Advanced Configurations

Case Sensitivity and File Modes

On systems where Git behaves incorrectly regarding file naming conventions or permissions, adjust your config:

git config core.ignorecase false
git config core.filemode false
   

Cleaning Untracked Files

Remove extraneous files that are not under version control:

git clean -nfd    # Preview files to be deleted
git clean -fd     # Remove untracked files and directories
   

Multi-Account SSH Management

To manage multiple GitHub/GitLab accounts on a single machine, use an SSH configuration file (~/.ssh/config):

# ~/.ssh/config structure
Host personal-github
   HostName github.com
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_personal

Host work-github
   HostName github.com
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_work
   

Once configured, point your remote URLs to the alias defined in the Host block: git remote add origin git@work-github:user/repo.git.