Git Tutorial: How To See Your Most Used Git Commands Using a Script

Git has many commands but you can be productive with just a few. I used the script below to fetch my most git commands sorted by the number of their occurrences:

You can copy the script here:

history | awk '{print $2 $3}' | grep '^git'  | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -10

I’ve limited the list to just 10 commands but some of these can be extended with command options and arguments which make their uses different and making them somewhat versatile.

1. Status
2. Add
3. Commit
4. Branch
5. Push
6. Checkout
7. Log
8. Pull
9. Diff
10. Reset

1. Git Status

$ git status

• Displays the state of the repo.
• You should always use git status because knowing the status of the repo is a MUST.

2. Git Add

2.1. Add files

$ git add [file1] [file2]

• Adds modified files to git’s staging index.

2.2. Add all

$ git add .

• Period (.) - Alias to use when you want to stage all modified files.

2.3. Add specific changes

$ git add -p [file]

• The interactive mode that lets you select which parts of the file should be moved to the staging index.

3. Git Commit

3.1. With a message

$ git commit -m "[message]"

$ git commit -m "add login button"

• Commits the modified files from the staging index.

3.2. Without a message

$ git commit

• Opens a text editor so you can write longer commit messages.

3.3. Modify commits

$ git commit --amend

• Alter most recent commit.
• If the working directory is clean, opens a text editor so you can modify your recent commit message.
• Also used to add forgotten files in the recent commit.

4. Git Branch

4.1. Basic usage

$ git branch

• List all branches in the repo.
• Shows what your current branch is.

4.2. Create a branch

$ git branch [branch-name]

$ git branch feature/login-button

• Creates a new branch.

4.3. Delete a branch

$ git branch -d [branch-name]

• Deletes a branch.
• Move to another branch first.

4.4. Rename a branch

$ git branch -m [old-name] [new-name]

• Renames an existing branch.

5. Git Push

5.1. Basic usage

$ git push

• Pushes the local changes of the repo to the remote repo.

5.2. Upstream a branch

$ git push -u [remote] [local-branch]

$ git push -u origin feature/login-button

• Pushes the current local branch as a new branch of the remote repo if not existing.

5.3. Rename an upstream branch

$ git push -u [remote] [local-branch]:[remote-branch-rename]

$ git push -u origin feature/login-button:WIP/feature/login-button

• Pushes the local branch to remote but you can choose the name of the remote branch.

6. Git Checkout

6.1. Basic usage

$ git checkout [branch]

• Goes to that branch.

6.2. Create a branch

$ git checkout -b [new-branch]

• An alternative for git branch
• Create a new branch and checkout to a new branch.

6.3. Select commit

$ git checkout [commit-sha]

• Checkouts to a temporary branch that is based on the specified commit.

6.4. Undo changes

$ git checkout [file1] [file2]

• Undoes changes to an unstaged file.

6.5. Undo all changes

$ git checkout .

• Undo all modified files in the repo.

7. Git Log

7.1. Basic usage

$ git log

• Shows a list of the recent commits of a repo.
• Displays the SHA, author, date and message of the commits.

7.2. Short version

$ git log --oneline

• Displays shorter version.
• Only shows SHA and message of commits.

7.3. Search commit changes

$ git log -S"[code]"

$ git log -S"<button>Login</button>"

• Returns commits with file changes that matches the string specified with -S

8. Git Pull

8.1. Basic usage

$ git pull

• Pull changes from remote.

8.2. Specific branch

$ git pull [remote] [remote-branch]

$ git pull origin feature/login-button

• Pulls the specific branch from the remote repo.

9. Git Diff

9.1. Basic usage

$ git diff

• Displays the modified files that aren’t yet added to the staging index.

9.2. Specific file

$ git diff [file]

• Displays changes that that aren’t yet added to the staging index for a specific file.

9.3. See staged files

$ git diff --staged

• Displays the modified files that are already added to the staging index.

10. Git Reset

10.1. Unstage files

$ git reset [file1] [file2]

• Undoes git add.

10.2. Unstage all

$ git reset .

• Unstage all modified files.

10.3. Undo commits

$ git reset [commit-sha]

• Erase commits.
• Moves the current branch pointer to the referenced commit SHA.

Originally published at https://micogongob.com/how-to-see-your-most-used-git-commands