39 Git Commands You Must Know.
Cloud & DevOps Engineer | Ex-Virtusan | AWS | Terraform | Jenkins | Docker | Kubernetes |
Here are 39 Git commands every engineer should know.
Not just DevOps ~ almost every field in tech uses Git.
Because everything lives in Git.
Your code.
Your infrastructure.
Your pipelines.
Your rollbacks.
Your AI experiments and models.
That’s when real Git knowledge starts to matter.
Because Git isn’t just version control.
It’s what saves you when something inevitably breaks.
So if you’re in tech ~ learn Git beyond the basics.
📌 1️⃣ Basic Git Commands
1. Initialize Repository
git init
Creates a new Git repository in the current directory.
2. Clone Repository
git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git
Copies a remote repository to your local machine.
3. Check Status
git status
Shows working directory and staging area state.
4. Add File to Staging
git add file.txt
5. Commit Changes
git commit -m "Initial commit"
6. Configure Git User
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "your@email.com"
7. View Commit History
git log
8. Show Commit Details
git show <commit-hash>
9. View Differences
git diff
10. Unstage File / Reset
git reset HEAD file.txt
🌿 2️⃣ Branching & Merging
11. Create Branch
git branch feature-branch
12. Switch Branch (Legacy)
git checkout feature-branch
13. Switch Branch (Recommended)
git switch feature-branch
14. Merge Branch
git merge feature-branch
15. Rebase Branch
git rebase main
16. Cherry-pick Commit
git cherry-pick <commit-hash>
🌍 3️⃣ Remote Repository Commands
17. Add Remote
git remote add origin https://github.com/user/repo.git
18. Push Changes
git push origin main
19. Pull Changes
git pull origin main
20. Fetch Changes
git fetch origin
21. View Remote URLs
git remote -v
📦 4️⃣ Stashing & Cleaning
22. Stash Changes
git stash
23. Apply & Remove Stash
git stash pop
24. List Stashes
git stash list
25. Clean Untracked Files
git clean -f
🏷 5️⃣ Tagging (Release Management)
26. Create Annotated Tag
git tag -a v1.0 -m "Version 1.0"
27. Delete Tag
git tag -d v1.0
28. Push Tags
git push origin --tags
🔍 6️⃣ Debugging & Recovery
29. Find Bug Using Binary Search
git bisect start
Identifies the commit that introduced a bug.
30. Track Line-Level Changes
git blame file.txt
31. Recover Lost Commits
git reflog
Helps restore commits after accidental reset or rebase.
📁 7️⃣ Repository Management
32. Add Submodule
git submodule add <repo-url>
33. Create Repository Archive
git archive --format=zip HEAD > repo.zip
34. Optimize Repository
git gc
🐙 8️⃣ GitHub CLI (gh) Commands
Modern DevOps teams heavily use GitHub CLI for automation and faster workflows.
35. Authenticate GitHub CLI
gh auth login
36. Clone Repo via GitHub CLI
gh repo clone user/repo
37. Create New GitHub Repository
gh repo create
38. List Issues
gh issue list
39. Create Pull Request
gh pr create
