Introduction
Here are my notes for some of the more commonly used git commands along with initial setup for git in Linux.
Installation
To begin, install as follows for Arch Linux:
# pacman -Syu git
Or
$ yay git
Pacman will include all required depencies.
Initial configuration
First, set your name and email address:
$ git config --global user.name "Firstname Lastname"
$ git config --global user.email "email@address.com"
Then, set your preferred text editor (if you have one). I use nano:
$ git config --global core.editor "nano"
You can verify the updates with:
$ git config --global core.editor
Alternatively, you can edit the git configuration directly with:
$ git config --global --edit
Store credentials
In 2021, GitHub disabled authentication via password and now requires authentication with a token. The following command sets up the credential helper, where it will store your token in ~/.git-credentials:
$ git config --global credential.helper store
After you log in during a git push with your username and token, the username or email address and token will be stored in the above location.
Note: The token is stored in plain text, so use caution if that is a concern.
Cloning repositories
Repositories can be cloned with the following:
$ git clone https://github.com/<username>/<repository>.git
Updating repositories
The local record of a repository can be updated with the following command:
$ cd <repository>/
$ git pull
Adding, committing, and pushing
Any files or directories that have been added, modified, or removed can be add to the list of changes to be pushed with the following command:
$ git add .
Then committed (staged in preparation to push) with the following command:
$ git commit -am "Add your commit message here"
Note: Without add, commit will handle any changes to files that have been modified or deleted, but will not incorporate any files that have been created.
Then finally pushed:
$ git push
If, for some reason, you would like to reset a commit:
$ git reset
These commands can be chained together with the AND operator:
$ git add . && git commit -am "Add your commit message here" && git push
Stashing changes
If you forget to update a repository before making changes, you can “stash” those changes and then re-apply them after running git pull.
First, stash the changes:
$ git stash
Then, update the local record of the repository:
$ git pull
Finally, re-apply the changes you previously made:
$ git stash apply
This has proven to be very useful for me when I forget to update a repository before making edits to the code.
References
References for git (and used for above):
https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/keeping-your-account-and-data-secure/managing-your-personal-access-tokens https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-First-Time-Git-Setup#_first_time https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Appendix-C%3A-Git-Commands-Setup-and-Config https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Credential-Storage#_credential_caching https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Stashing-and-Cleaning https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-chaining-operators-in-linux/