Clone & Commit via CLI

Git workflow

Cloning, editing, committing, pushing and pulling can be performed using Git directly from the command line, by using a Git client, or via the web interface. The former option is shown below. The latter option is detailed in the section Clone & Commit via Web.

The user in these examples is knut the polar bear, and its repository is examples. The repository was created via the Codeberg website, including a README.md file.

Clone

Cloning refers to the process of creating an identical copy of an online repository to your local machine. Clone with the Git command clone followed by the repo URL.

HTTP

~$ git clone https://codeberg.org/knut/examples.git
Cloning into 'examples'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 3, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (3/3), done.
remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (3/3), 214 bytes | 1024 bytes/s, done.

SSH

Before you are able to access Git repositories via SSH, you need to add an SSH key to your account.

If you have set up a passphrase, you will be asked for it.

~$ git clone git@codeberg.org:knut/examples.git
Enter passphrase for key '/home/knut/.ssh/id_rsa': ****
Cloning into 'examples'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 3, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (3/3), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (3/3), done.

Edit

Modify an existing file:

~$ cd examples
~/examples$ nano README.md

For illustrative purposes, we will use the nano text editor in this tutorial. You can still use your own text editor if you wish to.

Commit

A commit is a record of the changes to the repository. This is like a snapshot of your edits. A commit requires a commit message. For the example below, the message is "test". Keep in mind that "test" is not a very informative message, though. In the real world, make sure your commit message is informative, for you, your collaborators and anyone who might be interested in your work. Advice on how to write a good commit message can be found on countless websites and blogs.

Add a commit:

~/examples$ git commit -am 'test'
[main 10074d7] test
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

Here's an explanation of the command flags used here:

• -a: automatically stages modified and deleted files for commits.
• -m: commit message

Push

The last step is to synchronize (push) the commit from the local repository to the remote one on Codeberg.

If you are using HTTPS, you will be asked for your Codeberg username and password. If you want to avoid entering your password every time, consider using SSH instead.

~/examples$ git push
Username for 'https://codeberg.org': knut
Password for 'https://knut@codeberg.org':
Counting objects: 3, done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 266 bytes | 0 bytes/s, done.
Total 3 (delta 1), reused 0 (delta 0)
To https://codeberg.org/knut/examples.git
   662e04e..10074d7  main -> main

Pull

Pulling synchronizes the modifications (commit) from the remote repository on Codeberg to the local one. Pulling is important when you're working on different computers, to make sure that all computers are on the same page. It's even more important when you have collaborators on a project; they may change the files as well, so you need to pull these modifications before you start working. Because of this, it is recommended to pull before pushing.

CLI clients tea and berg for other actions

Gitea / Forgejo CLI tea

tea is a general CLI client that can be used with instances of Gitea and Forgejo. Since Codeberg runs on Forgejo, you can use tea with it.

This project is maintained by the Gitea project.

Codeberg CLI berg

The codeberg-cli project, aka. berg, is a CLI client that is tailored for Codeberg. The main difference compared to tea are:

• extra features: berg provides some features that tea doesn't implement, like editing issues or pull requests
• active development: the berg repository is actively developed and maintained by a few community members
• modern UI: berg offers an interactive and modern looking user experience

If you're interested, check out the codeberg-cli wiki, which contains just about everything you need to know about it.