My GitHub and Git Cheetsheet

 GITHUB + GIT CHEAT SHEET

Assumption:

The repository name is <repo>, and the GitHub username is <user>.

GitHub URL: https://github.com/<user>/<repo>

The local project directory for the source code is <project_name>.

You are working on your own  Linux/macOS/Windows server or development machine.

PART 1: ONE-TIME SETUP

This must be done once for each new project.

1. Install Git (if not already installed which can be verified by calling  git — version)

Linux (with apt)

sudo apt update

sudo apt install git

macOS (with Homebrew)

# Install Homebrew:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

# Install git:

brew install git

Windows (with Chocolate Package Manager)

choco install git.install

2. Configure your Git identity

git config --global user.name "Your Full Name"

git config --global user.email "your@email.com"

3. Create an SSH key for GitHub (if you don’t have one yet)

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your@email.com"

4. Add your public key to GitHub

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Copy the output, then:

• Go to: https://github.com/settings/keys

• Click: New SSH key

• Paste the key, name it something like “MyServer”

5. Test SSH connection

ssh -T git@github.com

You should see:

Hi <user>! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

6. Create your repo on GitHub

• Go to: https://github.com/new

• Name it whatever you prefer

• Leave it empty (don’t initialize with README, license, etc.)

7. Initialize the local project

cd ~/projects/<project_name>    # Or wherever your project lives

git init

git add .

git commit -m "Initial commit"

8. Add the GitHub remote

git remote add origin git@github.com:<user>/<repo>.git

git branch -M main        # Rename local branch to main

git push -u origin main   # Push and set tracking branch

PART 2: DAILY WORKFLOW

These steps are what you use day-to-day as you edit and work on the code.

1. Check current status

git status

2. See what changed

git diff

3. Add new or changed files

git add file1.py file2.txt     # Add specific files

git add .                      # Add all changed files

4. Commit with a message

git commit -m "Fix bug in login logic"

5. Push changes to GitHub

git push

6. Pull latest changes from GitHub

git pull

7. See log of commits

git log --oneline --graph --decorate

8. Create a new branch

git checkout -b feature-x

9. Switch between branches

git checkout main

git checkout feature-x

10. Merge changes from another branch

git checkout main

git merge feature-x

11. Clone an existing repo (on a different machine)

git clone git@github.com:<user>/<repo>.git

12. Avoid pushing unnecessary files

Add a .gitignore file, for example :

__pycache__/

*.pyc

*.log

.DS_Store

venv/

1. Set origin to remote Github repository

git remote set-url origin git@github.com:<user>/<repo>.git

1. Use ssh agent on own machine and add ssh key

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)" 

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_github

1. Check connection for <repo>

git remote -v

1. Check Logs

git log

TROUBLESHOOTING

“src refspec main does not match any”

→ You haven’t committed anything yet, or the branch name is wrong.

“Permission denied (publickey)”

→ SSH key isn’t added or GitHub doesn’t recognize it. Check ssh -T git@github.com.

“Everything up-to-date but nothing on GitHub”

→ You’re pushing to the wrong branch (master instead of main). 

Fix with:

git branch -M main

git push -u origin main