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bulletproof git workflow

Bulletproof Git Workflow

start working

git checkout master
git pull
git checkout -b feature/my-work
# edit your files
git add changed-file-a.js
git commit -m 'added my work'

Do some more work:

git add changed-file-b.js
git commit -m 'fixed something related to my work'
git add changed-file-c.js
git commit -m 'added the last bit to complete my work'

tidy up

Tidy up your commits by interactively (-i) rebasing your branch. During the rebase you will:

  • reword the top commit
  • fixup other commits as appropriate

(<n> is the number of commits)

git rebase -i HEAD~<n>
# eg. git rebase -i HEAD~3

sync with master

Get latest from master:

git checkout master
git pull

Rebase your work on latest master:

git checkout feature/my-work
git rebase -i master

Resolve conflicts and:

git add my/resolved/file.js
...
git rebase --continue

...until done.

If you get stuck, git rebase --abort and phone a friend.

code review

If working on an NPM package, use the Bulletproof NPM Workflow.

Share your branch:

git push origin feature/my-work

Go to Github/Bitbucket and create your pull request. In the pull request provide links to passing automation tests that have been executed on your branch.

review feedback

Use all of the previous workflow to apply updates to your branch from feedback in the pull request.

As you've already pushed your branch to the remote, and you've re-tidied up, you will need to force push a newly rebased & modified history to the remote.

Force pushing is dangerous as it will completely replace the remote copy of your branch with your local copy of your branch. This means that if others have pushed to your remote branch (like to add automation tests for your feature), their commits will be lost. Before force-pushing, fetch and rebase on your remote to collect any updates, just in case.

git pull --rebase origin feature/my-work # just in case
git push --force origin feature/my-work

done

Use the merge button in the pull request to merge to master, squash and rename commits as necessary, and delete the feature branch.

@matt-sm
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matt-sm commented Mar 11, 2016

If there are conflicts when rebasing you can view the conflicted files via
git status

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