Git Advanced commands
git stash
The git stash command is useful when you want to switch temporarily to another branch without committing your current changes. It saves your modifications in a new stash, enabling you to revert to a clean working directory. To apply the saved changes, use git stash apply or git stash pop.
# Stash your current changes
git stash
# Switch to another branch
git checkout another-branch
# Make some changes on the new branch
# ...
# Switch back to your original branch
git checkout original-branch
# Retrieve the stashed changes
git stash apply
git cherry-pick
The git cherry-pick command allows you to select and apply a specific commit from another branch to your current branch. This is useful when you want to bring in a specific change from another branch without merging the entire branch.
# Switch to your current branch
git checkout current-branch
# Cherry-pick a specific commit from another branch
git cherry-pick <commit-hash>
# Apply multiple commits from another branch
git cherry-pick <commit-hash1> <commit-hash2> <commit-hash3>
git rebase
The git rebase command changes the base of your current branch to start from a different commit, typically an updated main branch. This can be helpful to maintain a linear commit history and avoid unnecessary merges.
# Switch to your current branch
git checkout current-branch
# Fetch the latest changes from the main branch
git fetch origin main
# Rebase your current branch onto the latest commit of the main branch
git rebase origin/main
git bisect
The git bisect command is used to find the specific commit that introduced a bug in your project. It performs a binary search through the commit history, allowing you to specify whether a commit is "good"(without the bug) or "bad" (with the bug). Git continues the search until it finds the commit that caused the issue.
# Start the bisect process
git bisect start
# Mark a commit as "good"
git bisect good <commit-hash>
# Mark a commit as "bad"
git bisect bad <commit-hash>
# Git will narrow down the search by checking out intermediate commits
# Continue marking commits as "good" or "bad" until the bug is found
# ...
# Once the bug is found, end the bisect process
git bisect reset
git reflog
The git reflog command displays a log of all actions performed in the repository, such as commits, checkouts, and other operations. This can be useful for tracking past actions and recovering lost commits or reverting unwanted changes.
# View the reflog
git reflog
# Retrieve a lost commit using its commit hash
git checkout <commit-hash>
git fetch:
The git fetch command allows you to download changes from a remote repository without automatically merging them into your local branch. This is useful when you want to review the changes made by other collaborators before merging them into your local branch.
# Fetch the latest changes from the remote repository
git fetch
# View the branches and their respective commits
git log --oneline --all --decorate --graph
# Compare the changes between the remote branch and your local branch
git diff origin/remote-branch local-branch
# Merge the changes from the remote branch into your local branch
git merge origin/remote-branch
git remote
The git remote command is used to manage remote repositories connected to your local repository. You can list, add, remove, or rename remote repositories using this command. This is useful when working with multiple copies of a repository or collaborating with other developers.
# List the remote repositories
git remote -v
# Add a new remote repository
git remote add origin <repository-url>
# Remove a remote repository
git remote remove origin
# Rename a remote repository
git remote rename old-name new-name
git submodule
The git submodule command manages Git submodules, which are nested Git repositories within your main repository. Submodules are useful when you want to include libraries or other projects as part of your main project while keeping them in separate repositories.
# Add a submodule to your main repository
git submodule add <repository-url> path/to/submodule
# Update the submodules to the latest commit
git submodule update --init --recursive
# Clone a repository with submodules
git clone --recurse-submodules <repository-url>
git clean
The git clean command removes untracked files from your working directory. It helps keep your repository clean from temporary files, build artifacts, and other unwanted files that are not part of your project.
# List the untracked files
git clean -n
# Remove the untracked files
git clean -f
# Remove untracked files and directories recursively
git clean -f -d
# Dry-run to see which files and directories would be removed
git clean -n -d
