This post will be update over time along with my git learning.
Set up
In Ubuntu, it is super easy to install and set up Git. Bascially, just follow the online reference.
sudo apt-get install git
git config --global user.name "daijiang"
git config --global user.email "daijianglee@gmail.com"
git config --global color.ui auto
git config --global core.editor subl # set default editor
git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global
git config --global credential.helper 'cache --timeout=10000000' # if you do not want to type password everytime.
I put the following things in the ~/.gitignore_global file:
*~
.*~
.Rproj.user
.Rhistory
.RData
*.Rproj
*.pdf
That’s it! You can check all of your config information by git config --list. If you want to know how to use a commend of git, simply using man git-commend, e.g. man git-add, man git-pull.
Basic steps
Initialization
Then I want to create a directory named as “github” and clone my repositories into this directory. If your repository is private, then git will ask you for username and password.
mkdir github
cd github
git clone URL
# git clone URL path/to/
cd newProject
If I already have a directory and want to version control that one, cd to the directory:
git init
git add *.txt # to track all txt files
git commit -m 'initial project version'
git commit # will open editor, add comments at there
Track files
After then, if you modified a file, you can use the following code to version control files.
git status # check the status of the project
git diff # check what has been changed (file not staged yet)
git diff ee456 # diff since commit ee456
git add filename # send file to staged
git diff --staged # file already staged but not committed
git commit -m 'message'
git commit -a # all files, and you can skip the stage step by doing this
You can also rename files by using git mv namea nameb. This is equal to: mv namea nameb; git rm namea; git add nameb.
Untrack files
How about files you do not want to track? If you tracked them before, use git rm filename to untrack and delete it. If you want just to untrack it and want to keep it in the working directory, use git rm --cached filename. If you do not want track them at the beginning, put their names in the .gitignore file in the directory. Here is an example of the .gitignore file:
*.a # ignore all .a files
!lib.a # except this file
/a.txt # ignore a.txt file in the root, but not subdir/a.txt
dire/ # ignore all files in dire directory
History
git log: check history of a project. Here are some common options:
git log -p # show diff of each commit
git log -2 # the latest two commits
git log --graph
git log --stat # only show number of lines changed
git log --shortstat
git log --name-only # or --name-status
git log --abbrev-commit
git log --relative-date
git log --pretty=oneline # oneline for each commit
git log --pretty=short # other options: full, fuller
git log --pretty=format:"%h - %an, %ar : %s"
git log --since=2.weeks # commits of the latest two weeks
git log --since='2002-01-16' # or = '2 years 1 day 3 minutes ago'
git log --pretty=oneline -- dire/ # only check history of dire directory
In order to check an older version of a file:
git show HEAD~3:path/to/file/from/root.tex
# show the version of root.tex from the 3rd latest commit
git checkout 911ead
Undo actions
git checkout -- file.name # undo the modification in file.name (unstaged)
git reset HEAD filename # unstage file
# undo the latest commit
git commit -m 'bad commit'
git add forgotten.file
got commit --amend # use the staged dire to edit the last commit
# delete the last commit
git reset --hard HEAD~1
# abandon all local changes
git fetch origin
git reset --hard origin/master
Branch
Git will reset the working directory when you switch branches. Make sure to commit everything before switch branch.
git checkout -b branch.name # create and switch to a new branch.
# equal to git branch branch.name; git checkout branch.name
git commit -a -m "message here" #After finish working, commit all things.
git push origin branch.name # push the branch to github
git checkout master # back to the origin master branch
git merge branch.name # merge all changes in branch.name to master branch
git branch -d branch.name # delete it after merging. Since it equals with master now.
git push origin --delete branch.name # delete from github.
Instead of merge, one can also use git rebase master in the branch to apply all changes in the current branch in the master branch. This will make the master branch updated but still keep both branches (git checkout master; git merge branch.name).
If two branches changed the same part of a file, there will be merge confliction. Use git status to check unmerged file names. The confliction can be located between <<<<<<< and >>>>>>>, seperating by =======. You can choose one of them or edit by yourself. After then, git add to stage them and then git commit if satisfied.
git branch # check all branches list.
git branch -v # check last commit of all branches
git branch --merged # branches have been merged into current branch
git branch --no-merged # branches have not ...
git branch -d branch.merged # delete branches already merged
git branch -D branch.not.merged # dangerous! Are you sure? -D will force to delete.
stashing
When you work on some project which is not ready to commit, but at the same time you need to switch to another branch. You can use stashing: store the current working.
git stash # store current work
git stash list # a list of stashed works
git stash apply stash@1 # apply stashed work on the same or different branch.
git stash apply --index # if you want also apply staged changes.
git stash drop stash@{0} # remove stashed work
git stash branch branch.name # create a branch, get the stashed work, apply changes,
# drop stashed work if success.
Pull from Github to update
You can simply use git pull to update your local project from Github. If you changed something in your local project, and want to apply the online update first before you push your changes. You can use git fetch origin and then git rebase origin/master or git rebase origin/gh-pages for webpages. This will include online changes whereas keep your changes on top.
Push to Github
Go to github, login, create a new repository, and follow their instruction.
If you want to use SSH key when you push things to github, see here. Then you need change the url of your local repository, following this page.