Git Tips

This is mainly just a list of git commands for my own reference

Key

• {COMMIT_HASH}: the hash of a commit
• {N}: a number
• {REMOTE}: the name of a remote repository (most of the time the name is 'origin')
• {BRANCH}: the name of a branch
• {PATH}: the path to a file(s)

---

To amend the author of the last commit...

git commit --amend --author="John Doe <john@doe.org>"

To undo the last commit...

and discard the changes from that commit:

git reset --hard HEAD^

and keep the changes from that commit:

git reset --soft HEAD^

To undo the last N commits...

and discard the changes from those commits:

git reset --hard HEAD~{N}

and keep the changes from those commits:

git reset --soft HEAD~{N}

To undo all commits made after the given commit...

and discard the changes from those commits:

git reset --hard {COMMIT_HASH}

and keep the changes from those commits:

git reset --soft {COMMIT_HASH}

To rebase a local branch and force push to the remote:

See https://blog.verslu.is/git/git-rebase/ for a good explanation of rebasing.

1. Make sure you're on the branch you want to rebase.

   git checkout {BRANCH}

2. Rebase interactively onto a desired branch.

   git rebase -i {OTHER_BRANCH}

3. Go through the required steps to rebase (picking commits, resolving merge conflicts, etc).

4. Force push the branch (only this single branch) to overwrite the remote copy.

   git push origin {BRANCH} -f

To squash the last N commits:

git reset --soft HEAD~{N}

git commit -m "Your message"

Force push to the origin git push origin +{BRANCH}

To sync a fork with the original repository:

Check if you have the upstream remote setup. git remote -v

If not, then set up the upstream. git remote add upstream https://github.com/ORIGINAL_OWNER/ORIGINAL_REPOSITORY.git

Fetch the changes from the upstream. git fetch upstream

Make sure you're on your local master branch. git checkout master

Merge the changes into your local repo's master branch. git merge upstream/master

Push the changes to the origin remote. git push origin master

To fetch a remote branch (while also creating a local branch that tracks it)

git checkout --track {REMOTE}/{BRANCH}

To delete a branch remotely

git push --delete {REMOTE} {BRANCH}

To delete a branch locally

git branch -d {BRANCH}

To untrack files that have already been committed (if you don't want to just straight up delete them)

Add the files to your .gitignore.

Run git rm --cached {PATH}