Essential Git Commands for Junior Developers

Git is the most widely used version control tool in software development. If you're starting your career as a developer, mastering these commands will save you many headaches.

1. Initial Setup

The first thing to do after installing Git is to configure your identity:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@email.com"

2. Clone a Repository

To download an existing project to your machine:

git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git

3. Daily Basic Flow

These are the commands you'll use literally every day:

# Check the status of your files
git status

# Add files to the staging area
git add .                   # all files
git add src/file.ts         # specific file

# Commit changes with a message
git commit -m "feat: add login form"

# Push changes to the remote repository
git push origin main

4. Working with Branches

Branches are fundamental to avoid breaking main code:

# Create and switch to a new branch
git checkout -b feature/new-feature

# List all branches
git branch

# Switch branch
git checkout main

# Merge a branch into the current one
git merge feature/new-feature

5. Get Team Changes

# Download latest changes without merging
git fetch origin

# Download and merge latest changes
git pull origin main

6. View History

# View all commits
git log --oneline --graph

# See what changed in a specific commit
git show abc1234

7. Undoing Changes

# Discard changes in a file (caution: irreversible!)
git checkout -- file.ts

# Remove a file from staging without losing changes
git reset HEAD file.ts

# Temporarily save changes without committing
git stash
git stash pop  # recover them later

Commit Message Convention

Use Conventional Commits to keep your history readable:

• feat: new feature
• fix: bug fix
• docs: documentation changes
• refactor: code refactoring
• chore: maintenance tasks