Git and GitLab Cheat Sheet

4.1 Commands You Use Every Day

Command	What it does
git status	Show what files changed
git pull	Download latest from GitLab — run every morning
git add .	Stage all changed files
git commit -m "type: message"	Save with a description
git push	Upload to GitLab
git log --oneline	See recent commit history
git diff	See exactly what changed

4.2 Commit Message Format

feat: add security group rules for web tier
fix: correct CIDR block overlap in private subnets
chore: destroy activity 1 resources after presentation
docs: update README with capstone architecture diagram
refactor: extract VPC into reusable module

4.3 GitLab Repository Hygiene

Commit after every meaningful change — not only at the end of the day.
Keep a clean .gitignore — never commit .terraform/, *.tfstate, *.tfvars with secrets, or .aws/
Write clear commit messages. Your instructor reviews your commit history as part of the evaluation.
Use a README in every repository and every module folder.

# .gitignore for Terraform projects
.terraform/
*.tfstate
*.tfstate.backup
.terraform.lock.hcl
terraform.tfvars     # if it contains secrets
*.auto.tfvars
.env
**/.DS_Store