Git Cheatsheets for Quick Reference

A shell is a program whose primary purpose is to read commands and run other programs.

The shell’s main advantages are its high action-to-keystroke ratio, its support for automating repetitive tasks, and its capacity to access networked machines.

The shell’s main disadvantages are its primarily textual nature and how cryptic its commands and operation can be.

The file system is responsible for managing information on the disk.

Information is stored in files, which are stored in directories (folders).

Directories can also store other directories, which forms a directory tree.

cd path changes the current working directory.

ls path prints a listing of a specific file or directory; ls on its own lists the current working directory.

pwd prints the user’s current working directory.

/ on its own is the root directory of the whole file system.

A relative path specifies a location starting from the current location.

An absolute path specifies a location from the root of the file system.

Directory names in a path are separated with / on Unix, but \ on Windows.

.. means ‘the directory above the current one’; . on its own means ‘the current directory’.

cat displays the contents of its inputs.

head displays the first 10 lines of its input.

tail displays the last 10 lines of its input.

sort sorts its inputs.

wc counts lines, words, and characters in its inputs.

command > file redirects a command’s output to a file (overwriting any existing content).

command >> file appends a command’s output to a file.

first | second is a pipeline: the output of the first command is used as the input to the second.

The best way to use the shell is to use pipes to combine simple single-purpose programs (filters).

A for loop repeats commands once for every thing in a list.

Every for loop needs a variable to refer to the thing it is currently operating on.

Use $name to expand a variable (i.e., get its value). ${name} can also be used.

Do not use spaces, quotes, or wildcard characters such as ‘*’ or ‘?’ in filenames, as it complicates variable expansion.

Give files consistent names that are easy to match with wildcard patterns to make it easy to select them for looping.

Use the up-arrow key to scroll up through previous commands to edit and repeat them.

Use Ctrl+R to search through the previously entered commands.

Use history to display recent commands, and !number to repeat a command by number.

Save commands in files (usually called shell scripts) for re-use.

bash filename runs the commands saved in a file.

$@ refers to all of a shell script’s command-line arguments.

$1, $2, etc., refer to the first command-line argument, the second command-line argument, etc.

Place variables in quotes if the values might have spaces in them.

Letting users decide what files to process is more flexible and more consistent with built-in Unix commands.

find finds files with specific properties that match patterns.

grep selects lines in files that match patterns.

--help is an option supported by many bash commands, and programs that can be run from within Bash, to display more information on how to use these commands or programs.

man command displays the manual page for a given command.

$(command) inserts a command’s output in place.

Version control is like an unlimited ‘undo’.

Version control also allows many people to work in parallel.

Use git config with the --global option to configure a user name, email address, editor, and other preferences once per machine.

git init initializes a repository.

Git stores all of its repository data in the .git directory.

git status shows the status of a repository.

Files can be stored in a project’s working directory (which users see), the staging area (where the next commit is being built up) and the local repository (where commits are permanently recorded).

git add puts files in the staging area.

git commit saves the staged content as a new commit in the local repository.

Write a commit message that accurately describes your changes.

git diff displays differences between commits.

git checkout recovers old versions of files.

The .gitignore file tells Git what files to ignore.

A local Git repository can be connected to one or more remote repositories.

Use the HTTPS protocol to connect to remote repositories until you have learned how to set up SSH.

git push copies changes from a local repository to a remote repository.

git pull copies changes from a remote repository to a local repository.

git clone copies a remote repository to create a local repository with a remote called origin automatically set up.

Conflicts occur when two or more people change the same lines of the same file.

The version control system does not allow people to overwrite each other’s changes blindly, but highlights conflicts so that they can be resolved.

Open scientific work is more useful and more highly cited than closed.

People who incorporate General Public License (GPL’d) software into their own software must make their software also open under the GPL license; most other open licenses do not require this.

The Creative Commons family of licenses allow people to mix and match requirements and restrictions on attribution, creation of derivative works, further sharing, and commercialization.

People who are not lawyers should not try to write licenses from scratch.

Add a CITATION file to a repository to explain how you want your work cited.

Projects can be hosted on university servers, on personal domains, or on public forges.

Rules regarding intellectual property and storage of sensitive information apply no matter where code and data are hosted.

Using RStudio’s Git integration allows you to version control a project over time.