Git is the free and open source distributed version control system that’s responsible for everything GitHub related that happens locally on your computer.

Installation & GUIS

GitHub for Windows

https://windows.github.com

GitHub for Mac

https://mac.github.com

GitHub for All Platforms

http://git-scm.com

Setup

Configuring user information used across all local repositories

set a name that is identifiable for credit when review version history

git config –global user.name “[firstname lastname]”

set an email address that will be associated with each history marker

git config –global user.email “[valid-email]”

set automatic command line coloring for Git for easy reviewing

git config –global color.ui auto

Init

Configuring user information, initializing and cloning repositories

initialize an existing directory as a Git repository

git init

retrieve an entire repository from a hosted location via URL

git clone [url]

Stage & Snapshot

Working with snapshots and the Git staging area

show modified files in working directory, staged from your next commitgit status

add a file as it looks now to your next commit (stage)

git add [file]

unstage a file while retaining the changes in working directory

git reset [file]

diff of what is changed but not staged

git diff

diff of what is staged but not yet committed

git diff –staged

commit your staged content as a new commit snapshot

git commit -m “[descriptive message]”

Branch & Merge

Isolating work in branches,changing context,and integrating changes

list your branches.a*will appear next to the currently active branch 

git branch

create a new branch at the current commit

git branch [branch-name]

switch to another branch and check it out into your working directory

git checkout

merge the specified branch’s history into the current one

git merge [branch]

show all commit in the current branch’s history

git log