Just another terminal and git cheatsheet.

Terminal Commands

cd - Change directory, e.g. cd ~/Desktop where ~ simply means the current user’s home directory followed by a trailing slash / and then go to the Desktop folder.

• Both cd and cd ~ goes to the current user’s home directory.
• cd - goes back to the previous directory.
• cd / goes to the root directory of the drive.
• cd ../ goes to the parent directory of the current directory.

ls - List directory, e.g. ls ~/Desktop which lists all the files and folders inside the Desktop folder.

• Both ls and ls . lists the contents of the current directory. The . refers to the current directory.
• ls -l lists the contents of a directory in a more readable format.
• ls -a lists the contents of a directory including hidden files and folders.
• ls -la lists the contents of a directory in a more readable format including hidden files and folders.

clear - Clears the terminal screen. Another way is by pressing Ctrl + l.

pwd - Prints the absolute path of the current working directory to the terminal screen.

open - Opens a file, e.g. open index.html where index.html is the name of the file.

cat - Outputs the contents of file, e.g. cat index.html to the terminal screen.

touch - Creates a new file, e.g. touch index.html where index.html is the name of the file.

mkdir - Creates a new folder, e.g. mkdir assets where assets is the name of the folder.

rm - Removes a file, e.g. rm index.html where index.html is the the name of the file.

rm -r - Removes a folder and it’s contents, e.g. rm -r assets where assets is the the name of the folder.

cp - Copy file to file, e.g. cp ~/Downloads/index.html ~/Desktop/index.html where the ~/Downloads/index.html is the source file and the ~/Desktop/index.html is the destination file.

• To copy a file to a directory, use cp index.html ~/Desktop where index.html is the source file and the ~/Desktop is the destination folder.
• The destination file can be renamed, e.g. cp ~/Downloads/index.html ~/Desktop/about.html where the ~/Downloads/index.html is the source file and the ~/Desktop/about.html is the destination file but with a different file name.

cp -R - Copy folder to folder, e.g. cp ~/Downloads/assets ~/Desktop/assets where the ~/Downloads/assets is the source folder and the ~/Desktop/assets is the destination folder.

• The destination folder can be renamed, e.g. cp ~/Downloads/assets ~/Desktop/images where the ~/Downloads/assets is the source folder and the ~/Desktop/images is the destination folder but with a different folder name.

mv - Same with the cp command, the only difference is that it moves/cuts a file instead of copying.

mv -R - Same with the cp -R command, the only difference is that it moves/cuts a folder instead of copying.

grep - Searches the contents of a file using a “search string”, e.g. grep 'Hello World' index.html where 'Hello World' is the search string and index.html is the file being searched.

grep -r - Searches the contents of a folder using a “search string”, e.g. grep -r '.heading' assets where '.heading' is the search string and assets is the folder being searched.

• To search the contents of the current directory, use grep -r 'Hello World' . where 'Hello World' is the search string and the . (which points to the current directory) is the folder being searched.

Git Commands

git clone - Clones an existing repository to the current directory, e.g. git clone https://bitbucket.org/user/repo/ where https://bitbucket.org/user/repo/ is the remote repository source URL.

• To clone a remote repository to a different directory, use git clone https://bitbucket.org/user/repo/ ~/Desktop where ~/Desktop is the folder name.

git init - Creates a local repository inside a folder.

• This folder will be called as the “working directory”.
• The working directory is basically where the unstaged changes resides.

git status - Checks the status of a local repository if there are uncommitted changes or if there aren’t.

git add - Adds a modified file or folder to the next commit, e.g. git add index.html or git add assets where index.html is the modified file and assets is the modified folder.

• Use git add . to add all the changes to the next commit.

• Every added files/folders are moved to the “staging area”.

git commit - Commits the added changes with a commit message using the -m flag, e.g. git commit -m "Initial commit" to the local repository.

• Every commit creates a “commit hash” which is basically a unique ID for a particular commit.

git log - Lists all the commits in a local repository.

• Use git log --oneline to list all the commits in a compact format.

git remote -v - Lists the remote repository URL that your local repository is currently pointing to.

• If there’s no remote repository found, use git remote add "https://bitbucket.org/user/repo/" where https://bitbucket.org/user/repo/ is the remote repository URL.

git push - Push local repository changes/commits to the remote repository.

• To push without needing to log in every time, enter the following on the terminal: git config --global user.name "user" and git config --global user.email "user@gmail.com". Replace the "user" and "user@gmail.com" with your username and email of course.

git pull - Download changes/commits from the remote repository to the local repository.

• To pull without needing to log in every time, enter the following on the terminal: git config --global user.name "user" and git config --global user.email "user@gmail.com". Replace the "user" and "user@gmail.com" with your username and email of course.

git reset - Discard local changes.

• Use git reset --hard HEAD to discard all local changes in your working directory.
• Use git reset --hard to reset your HEAD pointer to a previous commit and discard all the changes since then, e.g. git reset --hard d53fea1 where d53fea1 is the commit hash.
• To discard local changes in a specific file, use git checkout HEAD followed by the file name instead, e.g. git checkout HEAD index.html where index.html is the name of the file.
• The HEAD is a pointer that refers to the currently active commit.

Notes

• Press the Tab key to auto-complete file and folder names.

• Try to make every commit message descriptive af. Use present tense if possible, e.g. git commit -m "Add index.html".

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