Git Cheat Sheet 2026: Essential Commands for DevOps

A quick reference for Git — essential commands for daily development. Bookmark this page.

Setup and Config

# Set identity
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

# Set default branch name
git config --global init.defaultBranch main

# Enable credential caching
git config --global credential.helper cache

# Show current config
git config --list

Basic Workflow

# Clone a repository
git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/user/repo.git  # Shallow clone

# Check status
git status
git status -s  # Short format

# Stage changes
git add file.txt
git add .                  # Stage all
git add -p                 # Interactive staging (patch mode)

# Commit
git commit -m "feat: add new feature"
git commit -am "fix: quick fix"   # Stage tracked + commit
git commit --amend                 # Amend last commit

# Push
git push origin main
git push -u origin feature-branch  # Set upstream
git push --force-with-lease        # Safe force push

Branching

# List branches
git branch          # Local
git branch -r       # Remote
git branch -a       # All

# Create and switch
git checkout -b feature/new-feature
git switch -c feature/new-feature  # Modern syntax

# Switch branches
git checkout main
git switch main  # Modern syntax

# Delete branch
git branch -d feature/done       # Safe delete (merged only)
git branch -D feature/abandoned  # Force delete
git push origin --delete feature/done  # Delete remote branch

Merging and Rebasing

# Merge branch into current
git merge feature-branch
git merge --no-ff feature-branch  # Always create merge commit

# Rebase current onto main
git rebase main
git rebase -i HEAD~5  # Interactive rebase (squash, edit, reorder)

# Abort merge or rebase
git merge --abort
git rebase --abort

# Cherry-pick a commit
git cherry-pick abc1234

Stash

# Stash current changes
git stash
git stash -m "work in progress on feature X"

# List stashes
git stash list

# Apply and drop
git stash pop         # Apply latest and remove
git stash apply       # Apply latest but keep
git stash apply stash@{2}  # Apply specific stash

# Drop a stash
git stash drop stash@{0}
git stash clear  # Drop all

History and Diff

# View log
git log --oneline
git log --graph --oneline --all
git log --author="Name" --since="2026-01-01"
git log -p file.txt  # Show changes to a file

# Diff
git diff                  # Unstaged changes
git diff --staged         # Staged changes
git diff main..feature    # Between branches
git diff HEAD~3..HEAD     # Last 3 commits

# Find who changed a line
git blame file.txt

Undo and Reset

# Discard unstaged changes
git checkout -- file.txt
git restore file.txt  # Modern syntax

# Unstage a file
git reset HEAD file.txt
git restore --staged file.txt  # Modern syntax

# Undo last commit (keep changes)
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Undo last commit (discard changes)
git reset --hard HEAD~1

# Revert a commit (creates new commit)
git revert abc1234

Tags

# Create tags
git tag v1.0.0
git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "Release version 1.0.0"

# Push tags
git push origin v1.0.0
git push origin --tags

# List and delete tags
git tag -l "v1.*"
git tag -d v1.0.0
git push origin --delete v1.0.0

Tips and Tricks

• Use git reflog to recover lost commits
• Use .gitignore patterns: *.log, node_modules/, .env
• Set git config --global pull.rebase true for cleaner history
• Use git bisect to find the commit that introduced a bug
• Use commit message conventions: feat:, fix:, docs:, chore:

Related Resources

• Bash Cheat Sheet
• Vim Cheat Sheet
• Linux Cheat Sheet