Useful Commands#
This is a selection of commands that can particularly enhance your experience with :
git status
Displays information about:
How your current branch compares to its reference branch(es).
The status of the workspace:
What files have changed and are staged,
What files changed and are unstaged.
Commands you might want to run.
Note
git status can be particularly useful wenn running a rebase during which you have to step through all rebased commits.
git checkout
Update the files in the working tree to the specified state. If a branch is provided then HEAD is also updated to point to this branch.
Note
git checkout -b new-branch will create a new branch named new-branch.
git stash
This command allow you to “put unstaged changes away” such that you can perform operations on your workspace, such as git pull, that would otherwise overwrite files you changed but did not yet add to the stage.
Note
git stash pop will reapply the changes you had put away.
git cherry-pick
git cherry-pick <commit> will apply the changes introduced in <commit> to the current branch.
git worktree
Work on different branches in separate directories without switching your current working tree.
From a repository with a main branch, create a new branch feature-x in another directory:
git worktree add -b feature-x ../my-project-feature main
git worktree list
The worktrees share the repository’s objects and branches, but each has its own working files, staging area (index), and HEAD.
Working in parallel
Continue working in the original directory, or enter ../my-project-feature to work on feature-x.
Editing or staging files in one worktree does not change the working files or staging area of another.
Commits and branch updates belong to the shared repository; worktrees are not independent clones.
Git normally prevents the same branch from being checked out in more than one worktree.
The example assumes that feature-x does not already exist.
To use an existing branch instead, omit -b: git worktree add <directory> <branch>.
Advanced setup: a bare repository
A bare repository stores Git objects, references, and administrative data without having its own working tree. It is optional: the basic example above works with an ordinary repository. Using a bare repository lets you arrange all working trees as siblings:
my-project/
├── .bare-repo.git/ # Shared Git database and administrative data; no working files
├── wt1/ # Working tree for main
├── wt2/ # Working tree for feature-x
└── wt3/ # Working tree for bugfix-y
The following is a separate setup, not a continuation of the basic example.
Start in the directory that should contain the new my-project/ folder.
Replace the example URL with an existing repository’s URL.
That repository must have a main branch with at least one commit;
feature-x and bugfix-y must not already exist in it.
mkdir my-project
cd my-project
git clone --bare https://example.org/team/project.git .bare-repo.git
# Configure normal remote-tracking branches and fetch them
git --git-dir=.bare-repo.git config remote.origin.fetch '+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*'
git --git-dir=.bare-repo.git fetch origin
# Check out main and set its upstream for subsequent pulls
git --git-dir=.bare-repo.git worktree add wt1 main
git -C wt1 branch --set-upstream-to=origin/main main
# Create two new branches, both starting from main
git --git-dir=.bare-repo.git worktree add -b feature-x wt2 main
git --git-dir=.bare-repo.git worktree add -b bugfix-y wt3 main
git --git-dir=.bare-repo.git worktree list
Unlike an ordinary clone, git clone --bare does not set up the usual remote-tracking branches.
The fetch configuration above maps remote branches to origin/*; setting main’s upstream
then allows normal fetch/pull workflows from wt1/.
The parent my-project/ directory is only a container, not a working tree.
Run normal Git commands inside a worktree, for example git -C wt1 status.
Each linked worktree contains a .git file, not a full .git/ directory;
it points to that worktree’s administrative data in .bare-repo.git/worktrees/.
Do not delete the shared .bare-repo.git/ directory while these worktrees are in use.
Removing a worktree
From the advanced example’s my-project/ directory, remove a worktree you no longer need:
git --git-dir=.bare-repo.git worktree remove wt3
This removes the working directory and its worktree registration, but does not delete the bugfix-y branch.
Git refuses removal if tracked files have uncommitted changes or non-ignored untracked files are present.
Save any files you need first, including ignored files, which can be removed with the directory.
Use git worktree remove rather than deleting the directory manually so Git also removes its registration.
See the Git worktree documentation for further commands and options.