The most basic way to use Git is to use the git clone command to clone an origin Git repository (such as example.git) to a directory on your PC (such as /home/john.doe/git), make a change to a file in the cloned repository on your PC (such as example.txt), use the git commit command to commit the change to the file, and to then use the git push command to upload the file to the origin Git repository.

Branches are used as an isolated way to make changes to files in a repository. A common example would be to create a new branch using the git branch or git checkout command, switch to the new branch using the git checkout command, make a change to a file, commit the change using the git commit command, and then merge the branch to the master branch using the git merge command.

The git branch command with the -a or --all flag can be used to display all of the branches in the repository. The wildcard character is used to identify the branch you are currently using (feature/foo in this example). Let's say you want to delete the feature/foo branch.

~]# git branch --all
* feature/foo
  master
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/feature/foo
  remotes/origin/feature/bar
  remotes/origin/master

The git checkout command can be used to switch to a different branch. In this example, you will be switched to the master branch.

~]# git checkout master
Switched to a new branch 'master'

Now the git branch --all command should show that master is the currently selected branch.

~]# git branch --all
* master
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/feature/foo
  remotes/origin/feature/bar
  remotes/origin/master

The git branch command with the --delete option can be used to delete a branch.

git branch --delete feature/foo

And then use the git push command to remove the branch in the origin repository.

git push origin :feature/foo