Advanced git tricks

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add patch

• Selectively add parts of a file to make more meaningful commits

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bisect

• Sometimes you pull a large number of commits and suddenly find a problem
• git-bisect lets you select a problem commit and a last-known good commit, then binary search for the cause
• Can use an automated test to search for you

https://git-scm.com/docs/git-bisect

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cherry-pick

• Copy and paste a commit between branches

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commit amend

• Change the contents of the last commit or commit message
• Add --no-edit to only update the commit contents

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gitattributes

• Allows you to change settings by file path/extension
• Force CR or LF
• Binary vs text handling
• Run checkout/commit filters - formatter by source language
• Custom diff tools
• Embed commit ID in files

https://git-scm.com/docs/gitattributes

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Pretty history

• git log –graph –oneline –all
• git log –pretty=oneline –abbrev-commit
• git shortlog

Also, aliasing:

• git config –global alias.tree “log –oneline –decorate –all –graph”
• git tree

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rebase

• Rebasing is your powertool for fixing history
• Simplest form is to just fetch upstream history and layer it under your new commits
  • From last week: git pull --rebase
• Interactive rebasing opens a world of crazy possibilities
  • Edit the past five commits: git rebase -i HEAD~5

https://git-scm.com/docs/git-rebase

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reflog

• git remembers all the commits you’ve checked out
• reflog shows you that history and lets you jump between points in history
• Can be very helpful for repairing damage after failed merges and rebases

https://git-scm.com/docs/git-reflog

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ssh signing

git config --global gpg.format ssh
git config --global user.signingkey ~/.ssh/examplekey.pub
git commit -S -m "My commit msg"
git config --global commit.gpgsign true

https://docs.gitlab.com/user/project/repository/signed_commits/ssh/

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worktrees

• git allows you to store the .git metadata folder outside the working directory
• Worktrees allow you to reuse a git directory, and check out another branch to a parallel directory
• Possibly interesting for compairing code for web apps, where you need both running to see the changes

https://git-scm.com/docs/git-worktree