{Coding, Life}

Git, in my opinion, is undoubtedly the best version control system, mostly, but not only, for its distributed nature, and the way branching and merging are handled.

However having used subversion for many years I find git learning curve a real pain, some of the commands are slightly arcane, therefore not easy to remember.

In this post I will try to keep a git memo of commands that I occasionally need and regularly forget:

create new repo with first commit and push

assuming new repo is called hayate

• add hayate to gitosis config file (gitosis.conf)
  more on gitosis in this excellent tutorial: http://scie.nti.st/2007/11/14/hosting-git-repositories-the-easy-and-secure-way
  
[group hayate]
writable = hayate
members = andrea@myhost

  then git add --all, git commit -a -m 'added hayate repo', git push
• go in the hayate directory i.e. cd /var/www/hayate and type git init
• git remote add origin git@hostname.com:hayate.git
• add and/or update files and directories
• git add --all
• git commit -a -m 'First hayate commit'
• then for the first push: git push origin master:refs/heads/master which creates the master branch

tagging

• git tag v1.0 -m 'my first tag'
• git push --tags commits the tag
• git tag -l list all tags

clone into current directory

• git clone git@hostname.com:hayate.git . <- note the dot (hayate directory will not be created)

change working branch

• git branch -l lists local branches
• git checkout <branch-name> switches working branch to “branch-name”

remove an added file or directory (before it is committed)

• git reset <file-or-directory-name>

add submodule (an external repository) within local source tree

• git submodule add <repo-url> <local-path>
  i.e. git submodule add git@hostname.com:hayate.git hayate

checkout a submodule

• git submodule update --init

create a new remote branch tracking it locally

• git branch --track <branch_name>
• git push origin <branch_name>
• git checkout <branch_name> to switch to the new branch
• add this to .git/config
  
[branch "branch_name"]
remote = origin
merge = refs/heads/branch_name


start tracking a remote branch

• git checkout --track -b <local name> origin/<remote name>

to suppress the following warning

warning: You did not specify any refspecs to push, and the current remote
warning: has not configured any push refspecs. The default action in this
warning: case is to push all matching refspecs, that is, all branches
warning: that exist both locally and remotely will be updated. This may
warning: not necessarily be what you want to happen.
warning:
warning: You can specify what action you want to take in this case, and
warning: avoid seeing this message again, by configuring ‘push.default’ to:
warning: ‘nothing’ : Do not push anything
warning: ‘matching’ : Push all matching branches (default)
warning: ‘tracking’ : Push the current branch to whatever it is tracking
warning: ‘current’ : Push the current branch

• git config [--global] push.default current (–global is optional)