The best way to use git is from the command line. There are also a bunch of gui git clients available. These gui clients are essentially a wrapper around the git command line. However none of the gui clients fully utilise the git command line. Hence it is best to invest the time in learning how to use the git command line so that you have full control over git.
On windows, you can use git from the powershell terminal. However the git installation also comes with it’s own git terminal called “git-bash” which enhance your experience in using git (e.g. syntax highlighting).
Here’s git’s main help info:
[vagrant@localhost ~]$ git help
usage: git [--version] [--exec-path[=GIT_EXEC_PATH]] [--html-path]
[-p|--paginate|--no-pager] [--no-replace-objects]
[--bare] [--git-dir=GIT_DIR] [--work-tree=GIT_WORK_TREE]
[--help] COMMAND [ARGS]
The most commonly used git commands are:
add Add file contents to the index
bisect Find by binary search the change that introduced a bug
branch List, create, or delete branches
checkout Checkout a branch or paths to the working tree
clone Clone a repository into a new directory
commit Record changes to the repository
diff Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
fetch Download objects and refs from another repository
grep Print lines matching a pattern
init Create an empty git repository or reinitialize an existing one
log Show commit logs
merge Join two or more development histories together
mv Move or rename a file, a directory, or a symlink
pull Fetch from and merge with another repository or a local branch
push Update remote refs along with associated objects
rebase Forward-port local commits to the updated upstream head
reset Reset current HEAD to the specified state
rm Remove files from the working tree and from the index
show Show various types of objects
status Show the working tree status
tag Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG
See 'git help COMMAND' for more information on a specific command.
[vagrant@localhost ~]$
However this doesn’t list all the commands, just the most commonly used git commands. If you do “git help help”, then you’ll discover there is an “–all” option, which if you try, you’ll discover a lot more git commands:
[vagrant@localhost ~]$ git help --all
usage: git [--version] [--exec-path[=GIT_EXEC_PATH]] [--html-path]
[-p|--paginate|--no-pager] [--no-replace-objects]
[--bare] [--git-dir=GIT_DIR] [--work-tree=GIT_WORK_TREE]
[--help] COMMAND [ARGS]
available git commands in '/usr/libexec/git-core'
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add filter-branch merge-subtree rev-list
add--interactive fmt-merge-msg merge-tree rev-parse
am for-each-ref mergetool revert
annotate format-patch mktag rm
apply fsck mktree send-pack
archive fsck-objects mv shell
bisect gc name-rev shortlog
bisect--helper get-tar-commit-id notes show
blame grep pack-objects show-branch
branch hash-object pack-redundant show-index
bundle help pack-refs show-ref
cat-file http-backend patch-id stage
check-attr http-fetch peek-remote stash
check-ref-format http-push prune status
checkout imap-send prune-packed stripspace
checkout-index index-pack pull submodule
cherry init push symbolic-ref
cherry-pick init-db quiltimport tag
clean instaweb read-tree tar-tree
clone log rebase unpack-file
commit lost-found rebase--interactive unpack-objects
commit-tree ls-files receive-pack update-index
config ls-remote reflog update-ref
count-objects ls-tree relink update-server-info
describe mailinfo remote upload-archive
diff mailsplit remote-ftp upload-pack
diff-files merge remote-ftps var
diff-index merge-base remote-http verify-pack
diff-tree merge-file remote-https verify-tag
difftool merge-index repack web--browse
difftool--helper merge-octopus replace whatchanged
fast-export merge-one-file repo-config write-tree
fast-import merge-ours request-pull
fetch merge-recursive rerere
fetch-pack merge-resolve reset
See 'git help COMMAND' for more information on a specific command.
[vagrant@localhost ~]$