eedrah/how-to-be-a-git-bad-ass

A quick tutorial for friends to level up one's git skills

How to be a git bad-ass

• How to be a git bad-ass
  • Logging/Information
    • git log --oneline
      • Boss level
      • Wizard level
      • Bad-ass level
    • git log -p
    • git diff and friends
      • Boss level
      • Wizard level
      • Bad-ass level
    • git blame
  • Recovery
    • git reflog
  • Minimizing work
    • git cherry-pick
    • git revert
    • git rebase
    • Abusing remotes to scaffold projects
    • Small commits lead to reusable commits
    • Abusing the index with git update-index or git symbolic-ref
    • git clean
  • Staging
    • git add -p
    • Reset unstaged work
    • Swap unstaged and staged work
  • Aliases
  • Final note on technique

Logging/Information

git log --oneline

Show a concise form of the log

Boss level

> git log --oneline

3a1e99a Merge branch 'package-development' into 'master'
e5026ba remove unused files
583c018 remove unnecessary lodash package
d46c3b6 use packages
a1ab583 Merge branch 'master' into package-development
7376699 update packages

Wizard level

--graph shows the graph of branches and merges

--decorate adds annotations of branches, such as (master, origin/master)

--all also shows branches that you are not descended from

This comes in pretty colors on the command line

> git log --oneline --graph --decorate --all

*   3a1e99a (HEAD -> master, origin/master, origin/HEAD) Merge branch 'package-development' into 'master'
|\
| | * 35af8f1 (origin/demo) add select
| | * d1ffa22 add textinput
| | * a363b16 remove other cards
| | * b4e9821 add elementwrapper
| | * 8f2bb41 add more cards
| | * c4b9f15 add card
| | * 4f463be add dashboard
| | * bc07575 add styles
| | * d831f28 add appframe
| | * 01aa308 remove styles
| | * 4bc8aff tweak setup
| | * 76c2395 setup demo
| | * 8e5fe7f enableDevServer
| |/
| * e5026ba remove unused files
| * 583c018 remove unnecessary lodash package
| * d46c3b6 use packages
| *   a1ab583 Merge branch 'master' into package-development
| |\
| |/
|/|
* |   744d95c Merge branch '260-display-group-category-filters-on-appliance-list-page-manufacturer-customer-specific' in
to 'master'
|\ \
| * | 14d7592 Remove unneeded key from Cards
| * | 200ed0d Create front-end for filtering appliances by category
| * | 5634673 Start adding categories

Bad-ass level

> log --graph --date=relative --abbrev=4 --color --decorate --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%C(yellow)%d %C(bold blue)%an %Creset%s %Cgreen(%ad)%Creset'

*   3a1e (HEAD -> master, origin/master, origin/HEAD) Andrew Cox Merge branch 'package-development' into 'master' (3 day
s ago)
|\
| * e502 Jesse Eedrah remove unused files (3 days ago)
| * 583c Jesse Eedrah remove unnecessary lodash package (3 days ago)
| * d46c Jesse Eedrah use packages (3 days ago)
| *   a1ab Jesse Eedrah Merge branch 'master' into package-development (3 days ago)
| |\
| |/
|/|
* |   744d Andrew Cox Merge branch '260-display-group-category-filters-on-appliance-list-page-manufacturer-customer-spec
ific' into 'master' (4 days ago)

git log -p

Show the log with the patch

commit 83ebcef712caafc2291a36cc77b5c86486fc67ac
Author: Jesse Eedrah <jesse@end-game.com>
Date:   Fri May 6 12:47:52 2016 +1200

    remove rocket--ui-fields

diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index cb97f13..62e780c 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -69,7 +69,6 @@
     "react-input-slider": "^1.5.0",
     "react-moment-proptypes": "^1.1.1",
     "react-router": "^2.0.0",
-    "rocket--css-base": "^0.2.0",
-    "rocket--ui-fields": "^0.5.0-1"
+    "rocket--css-base": "^0.2.0"
   }
 }

commit a941df84b3e8af8ed3835c91b2b2930426e213ff
Author: Jesse Eedrah <jesse@end-game.com>
Date:   Fri May 6 12:10:52 2016 +1200

    remove empty files

diff --git a/Futronix.Web.Portal/Styles/Rocket/Placeholders/card-background.scss b/Futronix.Web.Portal/Styles/Rocket/Pla
ceholders/card-background.scss
deleted file mode 100644
index 2449052..0000000
--- a/Futronix.Web.Portal/Styles/Rocket/Placeholders/card-background.scss
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-@import 'variables';

git diff and friends

Boss level

git diff does a diff on your unstaged edits

git diff --cached does a diff on your staged edits

Wizard level

> git diff --word-diff

Bad-ass level

-C matches your file renames

> diff -C --word-diff-regex=.

var React = require([-"-]{+'+}react[-"-]{+'+});
var ReactDOM = require([-"-]{+'+}react-dom[-"-]{+'+});
var Router = require([-"-]{+'+}react-router[-"-]{+'+}).Router;
var Route = require([-"-]{+'+}react-router[-"-]{+'+}).Route;
var IndexRoute = require([-"-]{+'+}react-router[-"-]{+'+}).IndexRoute;

git blame

> git blame --date=short --abbrev=3 -w codes.js

834f6 (Natalie Johnstone 2016-03-02  1) var codes = {
92bee (Natalie Johnstone 2016-02-19  2)     ApplianceTableColumn: {
92bee (Natalie Johnstone 2016-02-19  3)         SerialNumber: "APPLIANCE_SERIAL_NUMBER",
92bee (Natalie Johnstone 2016-02-19  4)         ManufactureDate: "APPLIANCE_MANFACTURE_DATE",
7612c (Natalie Johnstone 2016-04-15  5)         ModelName: "APPLIANCE_MODEL_NAME",
7612c (Natalie Johnstone 2016-04-15  6)         VersionNumber: "APPLIANCE_VERSION_NUMBER"
92bee (Natalie Johnstone 2016-02-19  7)     },
b6f33 (Natalie Johnstone 2016-03-15  8)     ApplianceSettingTypeCode: {
b6f33 (Natalie Johnstone 2016-03-15  9)         Temperature: "TEMP",
b6f33 (Natalie Johnstone 2016-03-15 10)         ControlMode1: "CONTROLMODE1",
b6f33 (Natalie Johnstone 2016-03-15 11)         LightRange: "LIGHTRANGE",
b6f33 (Natalie Johnstone 2016-03-15 12)         DateTime: "DATETIME",
b6f33 (Natalie Johnstone 2016-03-15 13)         IntervalMin: "INTERVALMIN",
b6f33 (Natalie Johnstone 2016-03-15 14)         TempOffset: "TEMPOFFSET"
b6cf9 (Andrew Cox        2016-03-17 15)     },
b6cf9 (Andrew Cox        2016-03-17 16)     ApplianceStatusCode: {
b6cf9 (Andrew Cox        2016-03-17 17)         UnRegistered: "UNREGISTERED",
b6cf9 (Andrew Cox        2016-03-17 18)         OffLine: "OFFLINE",
b6cf9 (Andrew Cox        2016-03-17 19)         Running: "RUNNING"
b6239 (Jesse Eedrah      2016-03-30 20)     },
052cb (peterheesterman   2016-05-03 21)     CustomerTableColumn: {
052cb (peterheesterman   2016-05-03 22)         CustomerName: "CUSTOMER_NAME"
052cb (peterheesterman   2016-05-03 23)     },

Recovery

git reflog

> git reflog

3a1e99a HEAD@{0}: reset: moving to head^
f73cafb HEAD@{1}: commit: delete package.json
3a1e99a HEAD@{2}: checkout: moving from master to test
3a1e99a HEAD@{3}: checkout: moving from abce6ccc5678955bc666270b6ac807ecf09e2df5 to master
abce6cc HEAD@{4}: checkout: moving from master to head^^^
3a1e99a HEAD@{5}: checkout: moving from allTheCommits to master
0639b13 HEAD@{6}: commit: love commits
c56b81d HEAD@{7}: commit: love commits
2dece37 HEAD@{8}: commit: love commits

Minimizing work

git cherry-pick

Applies the changes of a commit(s) to your branch

-n leaves the changes in your staging area, not making another commits

git cherry-pick -n 2e95
git diff --cached

diff --git a/Futronix.Web.Portal/Views/Home/Index.cshtml b/Futronix.Web.Portal/Views/Home/Index.cshtml
index c6af781..3a8c324 100644
--- a/Futronix.Web.Portal/Views/Home/Index.cshtml
+++ b/Futronix.Web.Portal/Views/Home/Index.cshtml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
         var CSRF = "@Model.Window.CSRFToken";

     </script>
-    <script src="~/Scripts/bundle.js"></script>
+    <script src="http://localhost:8080/bundle.js"></script>
     <!--[if IE]>
         <script src="http://html5shiv.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"></script>
     <![endif]-->

git revert

Does the opposite of cherry-pick - it reverses the given commits, leaving the reversal in your commit history. It is much superior to a git reset --hard head^ and a git push --force.

git rebase

Moves commits around on mass. Perfect for cherry-picking a large number of commits or moving your commits away from the branch of which you originally branched off.

Abusing remotes to scaffold projects

md rocket-ui-buttons | cd
git init
git remote add scaffold ..\rocket-ui-card-dashboard-system
git fetch scaffold
git cherry-pick ae96
git remove remote scaffold

Small commits lead to reusable commits

When you utilize commits in this way all those arguments about small commits become obsolete. Your commits are a tool - using them in this way will mean you make small commits because you desire, not because you are forced.

Abusing the index with git update-index or git symbolic-ref

Don't do these unless you have an extremely good reason to and you are really bad-ass!

git update-index can ignore files (without using a git ignore)

git symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/myFeatureBranch can switch your branch to myFeatureBranch without checking out any files or resetting the index. This is great for doing sensitive file operations such as removing that 4 gigabyte file someone accidentally committed without having to checkout the file.

git clean

Want a clean build? Don't delete and reclone the entire repo - just run git clean -X -d

Staging

git add -p

Will allow to stage part of a file. -p is short for --patch

Reset unstaged work

git commit --allow-empty -m 'temp'
git add -A
git reset --hard
git reset --soft head^

Swap unstaged and staged work

git commit --allow-empty -m 'temp'
git add -A
git stash
git reset HEAD^
git stash pop --index

Aliases

are your friends! It is much nicer to type git swap than the above 5 lines! However, only make aliases to save on typing. Don't make them as a substitute for actually learning how git works under the hood. If you don't know what a command does it shouldn't be in your aliases.

To make an alias: git config --global alias.witchhunt "blame -w"

If you are really bad-ass you can put bash in here. I have git alias aliased to view all my aliases:

alias = "!f() { git config --get-regexp ^alias\\. | sed -r -e 's_^alias\\.([^ ]*)_\\1 ........................_; s_^(.{26}[^.]*)\\.*_\\1_' ;}; f"

ch ....................... checkout
co ....................... checkout
st ....................... status
b ........................ branch
cp ....................... cherry-pick
rv ....................... revert --no-edit
df ....................... diff -C
bl ....................... blame -w
lg ....................... log --graph --date=relative --abbrev=4 --color --decorate --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%C(yellow)%d %C(bold blue)%an %Creset%s %Cgreen(%ad)%Creset'
lga ...................... !git lg --all
lg-status ................ !git lg --name-status
last ..................... log -1 --pretty=%s
...

Final note on technique

When moving files, do a commit for the move and then a commit for the edit. Git will track your changes better, particularly when you are editing a significant portion of the file.