Version: Nov 18, 2025

Git - Maybe a cheat sheet

TLDR: Lets talk about Git commands for linux terminal and git ignore file.

I think like most people, we all end up using GUI applications (like SmartGit or Git-Fork) to do our git actions. In this blog post, I want to provide some stragiht forward commands to let you move on to the next thing in your jou Journey.

Also some nice to knows about the .gitignore file that beginners may like to know quickly.

Table of Contents

• Cheat Sheet
• Single Liner
• .gitignore

📄 Cheat Sheet

Check current status

git status

Check what branch you're on

git branch

Always pull the newest changes from origin (fast-forward only)

git pull --ff-only

If you prefer forcing your local branch to match origin:

git fetch origin
git reset --hard origin/main     # Replace 'main' with your branch

Add all changes

git add .

Commit with a message

git commit -m "Your commit message here"

Push to origin

git push origin HEAD

Single Liner

Maybe for the future, single line deployment:

git pull --ff-only && git add . && git commit -m "update" && git push

Or, if you want the force-sync first:

git fetch origin && git reset --hard origin/main && git add . && git commit -m "update" && git push

📁 .gitignore

Ignore everything in a folder except one file

/folder/*
!/folder/keep-me.txt

Ignore everything and subfolders too

**/folder/*

Without the /* at the end, it'll ignore everything regardless if you ass to negate ignore with the !

General ignores

Lots of projects and sites usually give you a .gitignore ready to go to easily kick off your project, even by language type. Eg, starting a Rust project versus C# project, different things are ignored. How and where? When creating a project in GitHub, you'll see your repo being kicked off with a chance to select a pre-made gitignore file for you.

Anyways! Below is a taste just in case you don't run into this. This really serves beginners, but you beginner, I recommend heading to GitHub and start playing around with your first repo.