Git and GitHub

git push origin master

Send local changes to tracked remote repository. Check which one this is with git remote -v

git diff path/to/directory/or/file

Show the tracked but unstaged changes of the given file or directory.

Remote

The version of something that is hosted on a server, most likely GitHub.com. It can be connected to local clones so that changes can be synced.

Clone

A copy of a repository that lives on your computer instead of on a website's server somewhere, or the act of making that copy. With your clone you can edit the files in your preferred editor and use Git to keep track of your changes without having to be online. It is, however, connected to the remote version so that changes can be synced between the two. You can push your local changes to the remote to keep them synced when you're online.

Diff

A diff is the difference in changes between two commits, or saved changes. The diff will visually describe what was added or removed from a file since its last commit.

Fork

A personal copy of another user's repository that lives on your account. Forks allow you to freely make changes to a project without affecting the original. Forks remain attached to the original, allowing you to submit a pull request to the original's author to update with your changes.

git add path/to/directory/or/file

Add a file to the "stage". The stage can be thought of as an inbetween state between the last commit and what is ready to be committed. Once the command git commit is run, all staged files will be committed to the timeline.

git remote add [name of remote] [file path]

Add a remote repository

git remote -v

Allows you to view all the remotes that are linked to this repository

Commit

An individual change to a file (or set of files). It's like when you save a file, except with Git, every time you save it creates a unique ID (a.k.a. the "SHA" or "hash") that allows you to keep record of what changes were made when and by who. Commits usually contain a commit message which is a brief description of what changes were made. Synonyms: a revision

Git

An open source program for tracking changes in text files. It was written by the author of the Linux operating system, and is the core technology that GitHub, the social and user interface, is built on top of.

git commit -m "Commit message"

Commit all staged files to the timeline. If -m "Commit messsage" is ommitted, Git will open your default text editor (typically Vim) to enter a longer message. If for any reason Vim is opened, you can close it by typing :q.

git clone http://path/to/repo

Create a new local git repo copied from a remote one.

git fetch [branch]

Download objects and refs from another repository

git status

Get the current status of Git. Files that are "staged" (about to be committed), and files that are unstaged (files that have changed since the last commit, but are not about to be committed) will both show up here

git merge [branch]

Merges changes from the named branches

git checkout [branch]

Switch branches or restore working tree files

git init

Tells Git to start monitoring the current folder you're in. In other words, for my working directory, create a new "timeline" where we can manage our source code. If you are cloning a directory from github there is no need to do this. The clone command will initialize it for you.

Repository

The most basic element of Git. A repository is a project's folder, containing all of the project files (including documentation), and stores each file's revision history. Repositories can have multiple collaborators and can be either public or private.

Push

This term refers to sending your committed changes to a remote repository such as GitHub.com. For instance, if you change something locally, you'd want to run this command in order to send those changes so that others may access them.

git log

Visualize the timeline. You can scroll with the arrow keys or j, k, and it can be exited by typing q.