Git is an indispensable tool in the modern developer’s toolkit. Its powerful version control system and ability to make code more collaborative have made it an industry standard, yet, how much do you really know about git?
Here are some of the more interesting git commands that I’ve accumulated over the years. (Last updated on 6/18/2024)
Undoing Changes
Undo the last commit and keep the changes
git reset --soft HEAD~1
Undo the last commit and discard the changes
git reset --hard HEAD~1
Checkouts
Checkout a certain commit (without detaching HEAD)
git checkout -b <tmp-branch> <commit-hash>
Checkout a specific file form a repo
git checkout <commit-hash> -- <file-path>
Commits
Amend the last commit message
git commit --amend
Branches
Delete a local branch
git branch -d <branch-name>
Delete a remote branch
git branch <remote-name> -d <branch-name>
Logs
Show the the commmit log
git log
Show the commit log in a pretty graph
git log --graph --online --all
Stashes
Stash your changes
git stash
Apply your stashed changes
git stash apply
Submodules
Clone a repo with submodules
git clone --recurse-submodules <path-to-repo>
Add a submodule
git submodule add <path-to-submodule-repo>
Remove a submodule
git rm <path-to-submodule>
Bonus: Bisects
Using bisect to find bugs
# This starts your bisect session
git bisect start
# Mark the current commit as bad
git bisect bad
# Specify the commit where the bug was not present.
git bisect good <commit-hash>
# Git will checkout a commit halfway between the 2 specified. It is now up to the user to check that commit.
# IF the commit has the bug, it gets marked as bad
git bisect bad
# If the commit DOES NOT have the bug, it gets marked as good
git bisect good
# Repeat until the bug is found, then end the session
git bisect reset
As a reminder all staff and faculty have access to Swarthmore’s GitHub instance at github.swarthmore.edu
