Useful git commands

git commands.md

Useful Git commands

A collection of useful git commands, because I'm lazy and can't be bothered to remember off by heart

delete all local branches that have been merged into master

scenario: free up space on your machine. delete anything that's been merged, no need to have it any more.

git branch --merged master | grep -v "\* master" | xargs -n 1 git branch -d

amend a commit to the current time

scenario: you worked on something at 2am on a Saturday morning. You don't want your colleagues to think you're a madman. Change it before standup on Monday morning.

git commit --amend --date="now"

add empty git commit without adding files

scenario: You just need to force git to accept a commit without editing files. Useful for CI

git commit --allow-empty -m "This will trigger a build"

add files without a commit message (opposite of previous command)

scenario: You just need to push some files, but there isn't any significant thing to say e.g removeing console.log commands

git commit --allow-empty-message -m ""

commit again, don't change anything, but get a new hash

scenario: useful when you need to kick off another build

git commit --amend --no-edit -m "nothing changed. need to trigger something"

add hunks of code instead of entire files

scenario: you have made a whole bunch of changes and they all deserve to be in seperate commits

git add -p

reset your branch to a commit, but keep the changes

scenario: you made a bunch of changes, you have some messed up history, you want to organise your shit

git reset --soft <commit>

revert your branch to a previous commit, without resetting the branch

scenario: you commit a bunch of stuff, pushed to github, but now you need to back out the changes, and preserve git history

git revert -m 1 <commit id>