Maxence Poutord

Posted on Dec 2, 2019 • Updated on Jan 22, 2020 • Originally published at maxpou.fr

Git: Cheat Sheet (advanced)

#git #cheatsheet

If you find git confusing, I created this little cheat sheet! Please, note that I voluntary skipped the basic commands like git commit, git pull/push... This cheat sheet is intended for an "advanced" usage of git.

🧭 Navigation - Go to the previous branch

git checkout -

🔍 Get the history

# Log in one line
git log --oneline

# Retrieve all commits by message
# Here all commit that contain 'homepage'
git log --all --grep='homepage'

# Retrieve all commit by author
git log --author="Maxence"

🙈Ooops #1: I reseted an unwanted commit. How to rollback?

# Get everything you did
git reflog

# then reset to the desired commit (i.e. HEAD@{4})
git reset HEAD@{4}
# ...or...
git reset --hard <commit-sha1>

For more detail about this command, I wrote this post.

What's happens when you `git commit`

Maxence Poutord ・ Oct 16 '19 ・ 5 min read

#git #tutorial #beginners

🤦‍♀️Ooops #2: I mixed-up with my local repo. How to clean it?

git fetch origin
git checkout master
git reset --hard origin/master
# You're now up-to-date with master!

🕵🏻‍♂️Difference between my branch and `master`

git diff master..my-branch

✔ Custom commits

# Edit last commit
git commit --amend -m "A better message"

# Add something to the last commit without writing message again
git add . && git commit --amend --no-edit

# empty commit - can be useful to re-trigger CI build...
git commit --allow-empty -m "chore: re-trigger build"

If you don't know what to put in your commit messages, I wrote a post about conventional commits.

♻️ Squash commits

Let say I want to rebase the last 3 commits:

git rebase -i HEAD~3
Leave the first "pick" and replace the rest by "squash" (or "s")
Tidy up the commit message and save (:wq in vi).

🎯Fixup

Let say I want to add something in the commit fed14a4c

git add .

git commit --fixup HEAD~1
# or replace HEAD~1 by the commit hash (fed14a4c)

git rebase -i HEAD~3 --autosquash
# save&quit the file (:wq in VI)

🕹Execute command on each commit when rebasing

For massives features, you might end up with a branch with a few commits inside. And then tests are failing and you want to identify the "guilty commit". You can use rebase --exec to execute a command on each commit of the history.

# Will run "npm test" command on the last 3 commit ❤️
git rebase HEAD~3 --exec "npm run test"

🦋Stash

Because it's not all about git stash and git stash pop ;)

# save all tracked files
git stash save "your message"

# list your stashes
git stash list

# retrieve stash and delete
git stash apply stash@{1}
git stash drop stash@{1}
# ... or in 1 command
git stash pop stash@{1}

🗑 Clean

# remove branches that no longer exist on remote
git fetch -p

# remove all branch that contains "greenkeeper"
git fetch -p && git branch --remote | fgrep greenkeeper | sed 's/^.\{9\}//' | xargs git push origin --delete

🐙 GitHub = `Git` + `Hub`

I use Hub as a wrapper for git. To enable it you've to set hub as an alias for git (alias git='hub').

# Open browser and go to the repository url (GitHub only)
git browse

Other commands are available here.

🦄 Bonus: my favourite git aliases

alias g='git'
alias glog='git log --oneline --decorate --graph'
alias gst='git status'
alias gp='git push'
alias ga='git add'
alias gc='git commit -v'

# 🤘
alias yolo='git push --force'

# useful for daily stand-up
git-standup() {
    AUTHOR=${AUTHOR:="`git config user.name`"}

    since=yesterday
    if [[ $(date +%u) == 1 ]] ; then
        since="2 days ago"
    fi

    git log --all --since "$since" --oneline --author="$AUTHOR"
}

And you, what's your favourite git command?

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I hope you found it useful! If you liked it, please give it a ❤️ or a 🦄! Also, feel free to comment or ask questions in the section below or on Twitter @_maxpou :)

Originally published on maxpou.fr.

Top comments (58)

Sebastian Stamm • Dec 2 '19

My favorite git utility is "reuse recorded resolution" git rerere. Sometimes if you have multiple parallel branches and try to merge or rebase between them, you get the same conflict multiple times. git rerere records your resolution and then just automatically applies it, if you encounter the same conflict again.

And it's pretty much set it and forget it because it completely works autonomously in the background. git-scm.com/docs/git-rerere

Maxence Poutord • Dec 3 '19

I never heard about this one until now. It looks very handy! I'll give a try on my next conflict!

Thanks for sharing 👍

Qrzysio • Dec 10 '19

# A good list of alises http://haacked.com/archive/2014/07/28/github-flow-aliases/
[alias]
        # Staging
        a = add
        aa = add --all

        # Branch
        br = branch
        branch-name = rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD
        branch-diff = diff master...HEAD
        branch-files = "!git diff master...HEAD --name-status | sed '/^D/d ; s/^.\\s\\+//'"

        # Commit
        c = commit
        ca = commit -a
        cm = commit -m
        cal = !git add -A && git commit              # Commit all changes
        cam = commit -am
        cne = commit --no-edit
        amend = commit --amend
        amend-all = !git add --all && git commit --amend --reuse-message=HEAD

        # Clone
        cl = clone
        sclone = clone --depth=1

        # Checkout
        co = checkout
        cb = checkout -b

        # Cherry-pick
        cp = cherry-pick

        # Diff
        d = diff --color-words
        dc = diff --cached
        df = !"git diff-index --quiet HEAD -- || clear; git --no-pager diff --patch-with-stat"

        # Merge
        m = merge

        # Pull
        up = pull
        plom = pull origin master
        plum = pull upstream master
        preb = !git fetch upstream && git rebase upstream/master

        # Push
        p = push
        pom = push origin master
        poh = push origin head

        # Stash
        st = stash
        stp = stash pop

        # Status/Logging
        s = status
        ss = status -sb
        hist = log --graph --pretty=custom           # Show custom graph
        l = log --pretty=custom                      # Show custom log
        ll = log --stat --abbrev-commit
        lc = shortlog --summary --numbered           # List contributors

        # Reset
        unstage = reset HEAD --                      # Mixed reset (affects HEAD and Index)
        undo = reset --soft HEAD~1                   # Undo last commit (affects HEAD only)
        reset = reset --hard HEAD~1                  # Remove last commit (from HEAD, Index and Working Dir)

        # Remote
        r = remote -v

        # Submodules
        subpl = submodule update --init --recursive

        # Git flow
        new = !git pull origin develop && git flow feature start
        done = !git pull origin develop && git flow feature finish "$(git symbolic-ref --short HEAD | sed -n 's/^feature\\///p')"
        go = !git checkout $1 && pull
        master = !git checkout master && pull
        develop = !git checkout develop && pull
        mmm = !git fetch origin master && git rebase origin/master
        ddd = !git fetch origin develop && git rebase origin/develop

        # Misc
        publish = "!git push --set-upstream origin $(git branch-name)"

  # - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

  # Find commits by source code

  cc = "!f() { \
      git log --pretty=custom --decorate --date=short -S\"$1\"; \
  }; f"

  # - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

  # Find commits by commit message

  cm = "!f() { \
      git log --pretty=custom --decorate --date=short --grep=\"$1\"; \
  }; f"

  # - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

  # Credit an author on the latest commit

  credit = "!f() { \
      if [ -n \"$1\" ] && [ -n \"$2\" ]; then \
          git commit --amend --author \"$1 <$2>\" -C HEAD; \
      fi \
  }; f"

  # - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

  # List remote branches

  lrb = "!f() { \
      remote="${1:-origin}"; \
      git ls-remote --heads "$remote"; \
  }; f"

  # - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

  # Merge GitHub pull request on top of the current branch or,
  # if a branch name is specified, on top of the specified branch

  mpr = "!f() { \
      declare currentBranch=\"$(git symbolic-ref --short HEAD)\"; \
      declare branch=\"${2:-$currentBranch}\"; \
      if [ $(printf \"%s\" \"$1\" | grep '^[0-9]\\+$' > /dev/null; printf $?) -eq 0 ]; then \
          git fetch origin refs/pull/$1/head:pr/$1 && \
          git checkout -B $branch && \
          git rebase $branch pr/$1 && \
          git checkout -B $branch && \
          git merge pr/$1 && \
          git branch -D pr/$1 && \
          git commit --amend -m \"$(git log -1 --pretty=%B)\n\nClose #$1\"; \
      fi \
  }; f"

  # - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

  # Remove the tag with the specified tag name if
  # exists and tag the latest commit with that name

  retag = "!f() { \
      git tag -d "$1" &> /dev/null; \
      git tag $1; \
  }; f"

  # - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

# So much color
[color]
        ui = always

[color "branch"]
        current = green bold
        local = green
        remote = yellow

[color "diff"]
        frag = magenta
        meta = yellow
        new = green
        old = red

[color "diff-highlight"]
        oldNormal = red bold
        oldHighlight = "red bold 52"
        newNormal = "green bold"
        newHighlight = "green bold 22"

[color "status"]
        added = green reverse
        changed = yellow reverse
        untracked = red reverse

# Git mergetool
[merge]
        tool = opendiff

[core]
        editor = nano
        abbrev = 12
        attributesfile = ~/.gitattributes
        excludesfile = ~/.gitignore
        autocrlf = input
        mergeoptions = --no-edit
        ignorecase = false

[pager]
        # Insanely beautiful diffs ==> npm install -g diff-so-fancy
        diff = diff-so-fancy | less --tabs=4 -RFX
        show = diff-so-fancy | less --tabs=4 -RFX

[diff "bin"]
        # Use `hexdump` to diff binary files
        textconv = hexdump -v -C

[pretty]
        custom = "%C(magenta)%h%C(red)%d %C(yellow)%ar %C(green)%s %C(yellow)(%an)"
        #                     │        │            │            │             └─ author name
        #                     │        │            │            └─ message
        #                     │        │            └─ date (relative)
        #                     │        └─ decorations (branch, heads or tags)
        #                     └─ hash (abbreviated)

[help]
        # Correct typos
        autocorrect = 1

# Any GitHub repo with my username should be checked out r/w by default
# http://rentzsch.tumblr.com/post/564806957/public-but-hackable-git-submodules
[url "git@github.com:nicksp/"]
        insteadOf = "git://github.com/nicksp/"

# Rewrites of repo paths
[url "git@github.com:"]
        insteadOf = "gh:"
        insteadOf = "git://github.com"
        pushInsteadOf = "github:"
        pushInsteadOf = "git://github.com/"
        pushInsteadOf = "https://github.com/"

[url "git://github.com/"]
        insteadOf = "github:"

[url "git@gist.github.com:"]
        insteadOf = "gst:"
        pushInsteadOf = "gist:"
        pushInsteadOf = "git://gist.github.com/"
        pushInsteadOf = "https://gist.github.com/"

[url "git://gist.github.com/"]
        insteadOf = "gist:"

# Push easily http://stackoverflow.com/a/23918418/89484
[push]
        # Make `git push` automatically push relevant
        # annotated tags when pushing branches out
        followTags = true
        default = current

# Use separate file for username / github token / etc
[include]
        path = ~/.gitconfig.local

[filter "lfs"]
        clean = git lfs clean %f
        smudge = git lfs smudge %f
        required = true

[fetch]
        prune = true

Found here: github.com/nicksp/dotfiles/blob/ma...

Maxence Poutord • Dec 11 '19

this config is... massive!!! 😯

Paulo Renato • Dec 6 '19 • Edited

Awesome article... congrats :)

My favourite and most used Git alias:

$ alias | grep wip -
gunwip='git log -n 1 | grep -q -c "\-\-wip\-\-" && git reset HEAD~1'
gwip='git add -A; git rm $(git ls-files --deleted) 2> /dev/null; git commit --no-verify --no-gpg-sign -m "--wip-- [skip ci]"'

The gwip commits everything with the message --wip-- [skip ci]. By everything I mean untracked files, changes not staged for commit, and changes already staged for commit.

The gunwip reverts gwip, with the caveat that changes already staged for commit will become changes not staged for commit.

I use it to save my work until I am ready to create a proper commit.

Having [skip ci] in the commit message tell the Continuous Integration pipeline to ignore the commit.

Viktor • Dec 9 '19

This is a great idea! This functionality should probably be included within git.

One idea that comes to my mind how you could complicate this (read: make it work "completely"). You could extend the script to open all the staged files and add a comment to the top of the file. Something like: --staged--. Then, when you "unwip", it can read that comment and stage/unstage files as needed, while also removing that comment.

tPenguinLTG • Dec 11 '19

It already is, in a way.

If you do a git stash -u, it will create a commit for you that includes staged, unstaged and untracked files, and it knows which files were staged and which ones weren't. If you wanted to keep the changes that were stashed as they were, you can issue a git stash apply immediately after (use apply to keep the stash, or pop to discard it after applying it).

Viktor • Dec 11 '19

This is amazing! Thank you!

Git never seizes to amaze me for its unlimited functionality.

For applying the stash, you need add --index as in: git stash apply --index. This will restore the index (staged/unstaged files) along with the file changes.

Vadorequest • Dec 9 '19

Awesome cheat sheet, really. Learned quite a few things despite being quite advanced with git already.

I prefer my version of git lg (logs), which also displays the date of each commit in a neat format:
gist.github.com/Vadorequest/9d1f86...

* f0d6b49 - wip (3 hours ago) <Me>

Maxence Poutord • Dec 10 '19 • Edited

Love this one 😍 Thanks!!! Will update my dotfiles right now!

Glauco Leme • Dec 10 '19

Excellent guide! I like the idea of git-standup. ☕

For alias, to work even with mistyping, I also use:

alias gti='git'

Also, one thing that was really useful for me is the meta repository of Matt Walters, so I can avoid git submodule and subtree to work with multiple repositories.

Mohammed El-Afifi • Dec 9 '19

Nice article. I got to learn about a few things I didn't know about git before.

By the way git save is deprecated now, you should rather go by git push -m.

And for the last section about git aliases, since I'm using bash I get all these aliases and much more when I install oh-my-bash.

Maxence Poutord • Dec 10 '19

Hmm.. where did I wrote a command with git save?

About the aliases, I have something similar: Oh-my-zsh. But I extract those aliases in my personal dotfiles so I can get them everywhere I need them :)

Mohammed El-Afifi • Dec 10 '19 • Edited

Sorry, it seems I completely messed up the comment. I meant to use git stash push -m instead of git stash save, as the latter is deprecated.

Maxence Poutord • Dec 11 '19

you completely right Mohammed! Thanks for pointing this out :)

Vadorequest • Dec 9 '19

Improved version:

# useful for daily stand-up
# See https://dev.to/maxpou/git-cheat-sheet-advanced-3a17
git-standup() {
    AUTHOR=${AUTHOR:="`git config user.name`"}

    since=yesterday
    if [[ $(date +%u) == 1 ]] ; then
        since="2 days ago"
    fi

    git log --color --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit --since "$since" --author="$AUTHOR"
}

Maxence Poutord • Dec 10 '19

interesting! 😃

nagyiistvan • Dec 10 '19

Nice post! Thank you!

My aliases:

# Git Command

alias   last = log -1 HEAD
alias   who = shortlog -s --
alias   unstage = reset -q HEAD --
alias   discard = checkout --
alias   nevermind = !git reset --hard HEAD && git clean -df
alias   uncommit = reset --mixed HEAD~
alias   save = commit -m
alias   resave = commit --amend
alias   last = log -1 HEAD --format = format:%Cred%H
alias   summary = status -u -s
alias   new-branch = checkout -b
alias   rename-branch = branch -m
alias   delete-branch = branch -D
alias   branches = branch -a
alias   stashes = stash list
alias   unmerged = branch --no-merged
alias   unstash = stash pop
alias   unmerged = diff --name-only --diff-filter=U
alias   patch = add --patch

Dhiraj Patra • Dec 10 '19

Nice post Maxence.

If you need to overwrite the master from the dev branch any time:

git branch -f master dev_branch [will rewrite local master branch.]

git push remote +dev_branch:master [will rewrite remote branch.]

Josh Christensen • Dec 6 '19

I love the git-standup function!

Bigyan Thapa • Dec 3 '19 • Edited

Nice article, thank you for sharing. Want to some more favorite aliases to the list.

    alias gf='git fetch'
    alias gs='git status'
    alias gcm='git checkout master'

The git -standup() one in nice. Can you please explain a bit on how to use it?

Jonathan Zarate • Dec 9 '19

Nice! :)

My favorite git aliases:

# Git Command
alias g="git"
alias gl="git log --pretty=oneline --graph --decorate --all"
alias gs="git status"
alias ga="git add"
alias gb="git branch"
alias gc="git commit"
alias gco="git checkout"
alias gp="git pull"
alias gps="git push"
alias gr="git rebase"
alias gri="git rebase -i HEAD~5"

Maxence Poutord • Dec 10 '19

we almost got the same! :D

Se-ok Jeon • Sep 24 '21

Thx for this! This is really what I wanted. Helped A LOT.
Can I translate in Korean this post? If you don't mind, I wanna share this awesome post in Korean. Surely, There will be a linke directing to this original post.

Maxence Poutord • Oct 13 '21

Hey, sure you can translate it in Korean. If you do so, could you please

link the original post (maxpou.fr/git-cheat-sheet)
let me know the URL (I'll add the link on my post)

I hope it's not too late :)

Jang Rush • Dec 17 '19

Nice summary! I'd like to translate it to Chinese (the translated text will be published at nextfe.com). Can you give me the permission?

Maxence Poutord • Dec 19 '19

Hey Jang, sorry for the late reply.
Sure! You can translate it in Chinese! :) (I just ask you to mention the original post + author)
Let me know when it's published!

Jang Rush • Dec 31 '19

Just published Chinese translation at: nextfe.com/git-cheatsheet-advanced/

Credit is given at the beginning of the translated text (also backlink to the original post).

BTW, in section "🕹Execute command on each commit when rebasing":

git rebase HEAD~3 --exec "npm run test"

I think you meant to write npm test here (as shown in the figure below), despite that npm run test and npm test are equivalent.

Maxence Poutord • Oct 13 '21

Sorry for the very late reply but thank you!

Marcus Wood • Dec 4 '19

Love the article! Thanks for sharing. I recently changed my habit from doing git add . to git add -A (--all). The difference is, it does not matter if you in subdirectory or not.

View full discussion (60 comments)

DEV Community

Git: Cheat Sheet (advanced)

🧭 Navigation - Go to the previous branch

🔍 Get the history

🙈Ooops #1: I reseted an unwanted commit. How to rollback?

What's happens when you `git commit`

Maxence Poutord ・ Oct 16 '19 ・ 5 min read

🤦‍♀️Ooops #2: I mixed-up with my local repo. How to clean it?

🕵🏻‍♂️Difference between my branch and `master`

✔ Custom commits

♻️ Squash commits

🎯Fixup

🕹Execute command on each commit when rebasing

🦋Stash

🗑 Clean

🐙 GitHub = `Git` + `Hub`

🦄 Bonus: my favourite git aliases

Top comments (58)

Read next

How to Set up: Git and GH for Unity

Protect secrets in Git with the clean/smudge filter

How to fix huggingface ssh authentication error with git

Git Good: Best Practices for Branch Naming and Commit Messages

🧭 Navigation - Go to the previous branch

🔍 Get the history

🙈Ooops #1: I reseted an unwanted commit. How to rollback?

What's happens when you `git commit`

Maxence Poutord ・ Oct 16 '19 ・ 5 min read

🤦‍♀️Ooops #2: I mixed-up with my local repo. How to clean it?

🕵🏻‍♂️Difference between my branch and master

✔ Custom commits

♻️ Squash commits

🎯Fixup

🕹Execute command on each commit when rebasing

🦋Stash

🗑 Clean

🐙 GitHub = Git + Hub

🦄 Bonus: my favourite git aliases

Read next

How to Set up: Git and GH for Unity

Protect secrets in Git with the clean/smudge filter

How to fix huggingface ssh authentication error with git

Git Good: Best Practices for Branch Naming and Commit Messages

🕵🏻‍♂️Difference between my branch and `master`

🐙 GitHub = `Git` + `Hub`