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https://github.com/rougier/50-git-questions

50 Frequently Asked question about Git & GitHub
https://github.com/rougier/50-git-questions

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50 Frequently Asked question about Git & GitHub

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# 50 Git questions (with answers)



A list of 50 frequently git questions with answers.

Released under a [CC-BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) license.



**WARNING**: not yet finished...



#### 1. How to check if git is available on your system?



``` bash

$ git --version

```



#### 2. How to initialize a new Git repository?



``` bash

$ git init project

$ cd project

```



#### 3. How to tell git about your name and email?



``` bash

$ git config --global user.name ""

$ git config --global user.email ""

```



#### 4. How to tell git to not use vi as the default editor?



``` bash

$ git config --global core.editor "nano -w"

```



#### 5. What is the staging area?



The staging area is an intermediate storage for changes that will be part of the

next commit.



#### 6. How to add a file to the staging area?



``` bash

$ git add 

```



#### 7. How to remove a file from the staging area?



``` bash

$ git reset HEAD -- 

```



#### 8. How to make a commit?



``` bash

$ git commit -m "Commit message"

```



#### 9. Where are git preferences saved?



``` bash

$ git config --list --show-origin

```



#### 10. How to ignore untracked files?



Add them to a local `.gitignore` file



#### 11. How to untrack a file without deleting it?



``` bash

$ git rm --cached 

```



#### 12. How to undo the most recent commit?



``` bash

$ git reset HEAD~

$ nano 

$ git add 

$ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD

```



#### 13. How to change the message of the last commit?



``` bash

$ git commit --amend -m "New message"

```



#### 14. How to add a remote repository?



``` bash

$ git remote add  

```



#### 15. How to compare a file to the last committed version?



``` bash

$ git diff HEAD -- 

```



#### 16. How to rename a remote?



``` bash

$ git remote rename  

```



#### 17. How to change the address of a remote?



``` bash

$ git remote set-url  

```



#### 18. How to send your changes to a remote repository?



``` bash

$ git push

```



#### 19. How to synchronize your local and remote repositories?

#### 20. What is the different between `reset` and `revert`?

#### 21. How to tell git to ignore trailing whitespaces?

#### 22. What is the difference between `git add *; git commit` and `git commit -a -m`?

#### 23. What is the difference between `pull` and `fetch`?

#### 24. How to make a commit from another author?



```bash

$ git commit --author "Name Surname " ...

```



#### 25. How to create a branch?



``` bash

$ git branch BRANCHNAME

```



#### 26. How to switch to a branch?



``` bash

$ git checkout BRANCHNAME

```



Tip:



``` bash

$ git checkout -b BRANCHNAME

```



Will create and switch to the branch called BRANCHNAME



#### 27. How to know when a file was first added to the repository?

#### 28. How to get a list of all deleted files?

#### 29. How to completely remove (sensitive) files from history?



You can't unless you change the history



#### 30. How to list remote repositories?



```bash

$ git remote -v

```



#### 31. How to tag a specific commit?



```bash

$ git tag -m '...' 

```



#### 32. How to get a list of tags?



```bash

$ git tag

```



#### 33. How to merge 3 last commits into a single one?

#### 34. How to get last modification for a given file?

#### 35. How to swap branch master with another one?

#### 36. How to access all commits in case of problem?

#### 37. How to get all the commits from a specific user?

#### 38. How to ignore the .gitignore file?



In the global gitignore add a line like this



`.gitignore`



Or in the root of a dir add a line like this



`folder_where_is_its_gitignore/.gitignore`



#### 39. How to get the list of unpushed commits?



```bash

$ git log @{u}..

```



#### 40. How to compare a file across two different branches?



```bash

$ git diff   -- 

```



#### 41. How to merge two git repositories?



A single branch of another repository can be easily placed under a subdirectory retaining its history. For example:



git subtree add --prefix=rails git://github.com/rails/rails.git master



#### 42. What is the difference between HEAD and ORIG_HEAD?

#### 43. How to use a global .gitignore?



Create `~/.config/git/ignore` with a list of patterns.



#### 44. What if the difference between `rm` and `git rm`?



`git-rm` - Remove files from the working tree and from the index

`rm` - remove files or directories



#### 45. How prevent a push if remote has extra commits?



This is the default with `git push`, not necessary to do anything.



You need to do that in the remote

 

#### 46. How to create a git alias command?



``` bash

$ git config --global alias.THEALIASED "WHAT_GIT_COMMAND_TO_ALIAS"

```



Note:

If you want to alias a real command __not a git command__ you need to use ! but your shell will try to find an event so you need to use a 

"\!echo 'Test'"



#### 47. How to undo a pushed commit?



[Some blog post on freecodecamp](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/git-fetch-vs-pull/)



Briefly :



`git fetch` is the command that tells your local git to retrieve the latest meta-data info from the original (yet doesn’t do any file transferring. It’s more like just checking to see if there are any changes available).



`git pull` on the other hand does that AND brings (copy) those changes from the remote repository.



#### 48. How to find the first commit?



``` bash

git log master HEAD~ --oneline | tail -1 | awk '{ print $1 }'

```



#### 49. How to find top contributor?



``` bash

git shortlog -s -n | head -1

```



If you remove | head -1 you get all contributors



#### 50.