Basic Git Commands for Daily Use

Working areas

Working Directory -- The checked out files, as they are sitting on disk in the git repository directory.
Staging Area -- The files and changes which were added with git add and may be commited.
Local Repository -- The commits sitting on the hidden .git folder on your local machine.
Remote Repository -- The commits stored on the remote machine, which is usually named origin.

Creating a new repository

git init -- Creates a new git repository on the current directory.
git init --bare -- Creates a new bare git repository on the current directory. A bare repository does not have a working folder, but changes can be pushed into it. Useful for self-hosting git repositories on a VM.
git clone <repo URL> -- Clones a given repo and sets its url as the origin remote for pulling and pushing.

Switching branches

git checkout master -- Switch to the local master branch.
git checkout <branch name> -- Switch to an existing local branch.
git checkout -b <branch name> -- Create and switch to a new local branch.

Staging changes

git status -- Shows the current branch and lists all modified files in the working directory.
git add . -- Add all the changes in the current directory and its subdirectories (convenient, but frowned upon since it can lead to commmitting unintended files).
git add <file1> ... <fileN> -- Add the changes to the listed files. (recommended).
git diff --staged -- Shows a diff with all the staged changes.

Committing changes

git commit -m "<message>" -- Creates a local commit with the staged changes.
git commit -- Opens an editor for editing the commit message. If the commit message file is saved, creates a local commit with the staged changes.

Undoing changes

git restore <file1> ... <fileN> -- Undoes the changes to the listed files on the working directory.
git reset HEAD~1 -- Undoes the last commit.

Merging/Syncing changes

git pull --all -- Pulls the latest commits for all branches from the origin remote.
git push -- Pushes the latest commits of the current local branch to the origin remote.
git merge master -- Creates a commit on the current local branch which merges/applies the latest changes from the local master branch.