Git Cheat Sheet for Economists
A one-page reference for the commands you will use most often.
Setup (One-Time)
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "your.email@uvm.edu"Starting a Project
| What You Want | Command |
|---|---|
| Create a new repo from scratch | git init |
| Download an existing repo | git clone <url> |
Daily Workflow
This is the sequence you will repeat constantly:
[edit files] → git status → git add <files> → git commit -m "message" → git push| Command | What It Does |
|---|---|
git status |
Show what has changed since the last commit |
git add <file> |
Stage a file (mark it for the next commit) |
git add . |
Stage all changes (use cautiously — check status first) |
git commit -m "message" |
Save a snapshot with a descriptive message |
git push |
Upload your commits to GitHub |
git pull |
Download your collaborator’s commits from GitHub |
Inspecting History
| Command | What It Does |
|---|---|
git log --oneline |
Show commit history (compact) |
git log |
Show commit history (full detail) |
git diff |
Show unstaged changes (what you have edited but not yet added) |
git diff --staged |
Show staged changes (what will be in the next commit) |
git show <hash> |
Show what a specific commit changed |
git show <hash>:<file> |
Show a file as it existed at a specific commit |
Undoing Things
| Situation | Command |
|---|---|
Unstage a file (undo git add) |
git restore --staged <file> |
| Discard uncommitted edits to a file | git restore <file> |
| Undo the last commit (keep changes staged) | git reset --soft HEAD~1 |
| See what a file used to look like | git show <hash>:<file> |
Key Concepts
Repository (repo): A project folder tracked by Git.
Commit: A snapshot of your project at a point in time. Each commit has a unique hash (like a3b8f2d), a message, an author, and a timestamp.
Staging area: A holding zone between your working files and a commit. You choose which changes go into each commit.
Remote: A copy of your repo on GitHub (or another server). push sends your commits there; pull brings commits from there.
HEAD: A pointer to your most recent commit. HEAD~1 means “one commit before the current one.”
When Things Go Wrong
“I do not know what is going on”
git statusRead the output carefully. Git usually tells you what to do next.
“I committed a file I should not have (and have not pushed yet)”
git reset --soft HEAD~1
git restore --staged <unwanted-file>
git commit -m "Same message as before"“I want to see what the file looked like before I changed it”
git log --oneline <file>
git show <hash>:<file>“My collaborator and I edited the same file” Run git pull. If Git reports a merge conflict, open the file — Git marks the conflicting sections with <<<<<<<, =======, and >>>>>>>. Edit the file to keep what you want, then git add and git commit.
“I accidentally ran git init in the wrong folder”
rm -rf .gitThis removes the Git repository (not your files). The folder becomes a regular folder again.
Files to Ignore
Use a .gitignore file to tell Git which files to skip. Common entries for economics projects:
*.dta # Stata data
*.csv # CSV data
*.log # Stata logs
.DS_Store # macOS system fileSee econ_gitignore in this folder for a complete template.