On this article, I presented the most basics of the command I use.
In this one, I'll detail the more advanced.
git ls-files -d | xargs git rm
When you deleted lots of files and forgot to use git rm.
You can rapidly improve your situation with this command.
tony@dagobah(0.20,) 18:11:09 ~/repo/perso/dot-files (master) $ rm titi tutu tata tony@dagobah(0.16,) 18:11:27 (1) ~/repo/perso/dot-files (master) $ gst # On branch master # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 2 commits. # # Changes not staged for commit: # (use "git add/rm <file>..." to update what will be committed) # (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory) # # deleted: tata # deleted: titi # deleted: tutu # no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a") tony@dagobah(0.13,) 18:11:35 ~/repo/perso/dot-files (master) $ git ls-files -d | xargs git rm rm 'tata' rm 'titi' rm 'tutu'
Explanation:
- First we delete the file we do not want anymore (the must would have been to use directly
git rm) - Then checking the status of the repository, we see that we must
git rmthe files. - At last, we fix the situation by listing all the files to 'git rm'
Note An alias could be cool here :D
git reset
soft
git reset --soft
To unstage commited modifications from the index. This also let the workspace intact, that is with your modifications.
(–soft is optional)
git reset HEAD~
Explanation: This will:
- remove the last commit (between
HEADandHEAD~) - keep the modifications you last commited
Note
You can do this with a greater interval HEAD~10 for 10 commits before HEAD.
Example:
tony@dagobah(0.11,) 18:17:19 ~/repo/perso/dot-files (master) $ gst # On branch master # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 5 commits. # nothing to commit (working directory clean) tony@dagobah(0.29,) 19:46:58 ~/repo/perso/dot-files (master) $ git last commit fccd142e7388304075c6878e3bc85bfee8b8583b Author: Antoine R. Dumont <some-email@some-server.com> Date: Tue Dec 25 18:17:14 2012 +0100 A new file README.org for fun. tony@dagobah(0.33,) 19:47:05 ~/repo/perso/dot-files (master) $ git reset HEAD~ tony@dagobah(0.25,) 19:47:45 ~/repo/perso/dot-files (master) $ gst # On branch master # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 4 commits. # # Untracked files: # (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed) # # README.org nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
Explanation:
- Check the current status of the repository, we got 5 commits.
- Last commit has for message A new file for fun.
- Reset softly the last commit.
- Then when we check again, we got 4 commits now and we see only one file README.org which is untracked.
- So we did not lose the last commit's modification, only the message. This is a soft reset.
hard
git reset --hard
To unstage commited modifications from the index. This also revert the workspace back to the indicated git's SHA1.
git reset --hard HEAD~
Explanation: This will:
- remove the last commit (between
HEADandHEAD~) - lost any last commited modifications
Litteraly, you get back one commit back in time (HEAD~)
Note
You're not limited to one commit back (e.g. HEAD~3)
git blame
Just use to see by whom the modifications have been done. Thus engaging in a discussion to help understand the code they did.
In my dot-files repository, if I git blame .stumpwmrc, I have the following starting output:
894dc3ac (Denis 2011-06-19 23:43:16 +0200 1) ;; Hey, Emacs! This is a -*- lisp -*- file! 894dc3ac (Denis 2011-06-19 23:43:16 +0200 2) 1d5aaa86 (Denis Labaye 2011-07-01 10:59:05 +0200 3) (setf *frame-number-map* "abcdefghijklmnopqrst") 894dc3ac (Denis 2011-06-19 23:43:16 +0200 4) 1d5aaa86 (Denis Labaye 2011-07-01 10:59:05 +0200 5) (setf *window-format* "%m%n%s nm=%50t cl=%c id=%i") 894dc3ac (Denis 2011-06-19 23:43:16 +0200 6) e084e02b (Antoine Romain Dumont 2011-07-31 20:17:51 +0200 7) ;;(run-commands "restore-from-file ~/.stumpwm.screendump") 894dc3ac (Denis 2011-06-19 23:43:16 +0200 8) 3be82213 (Antoine R. Dumont 2012-08-12 14:44:30 +0200 9) (defcommand terminal () () 2b4ea20d (Antoine Romain Dumont 2011-07-31 18:10:24 +0200 10) "run an xterm instance or switch to it, if it is already running." 3be82213 (Antoine R. Dumont 2012-08-12 14:44:30 +0200 11) (run-or-raise "gnome-terminal --title=xterm1 --hide-menubar" '(:class "Gnome-terminal"))) 3be82213 (Antoine R. Dumont 2012-08-12 14:44:30 +0200 12) (define-key *root-map* (kbd "x") "terminal") e9912dae (Antoine Romain Dumont 2011-07-16 17:36:10 +0200 13) e5a5ce33 (Antoine R. Dumont 2012-12-18 04:18:50 +0100 14) (defcommand ssh-add-identities () () e5a5ce33 (Antoine R. Dumont 2012-12-18 04:18:50 +0100 15) "Add the identities present in ~/.ssh-agent-identities script." 58299192 (Antoine R. Dumont 2012-08-12 19:22:08 +0200 16) (run-shell-command "~/bin/ssh/ssh-add.sh"))
Explanation: For each line (I limited to the first 16th lines), we see which developer modified lastly what.
As an example, I can ask Denis what the (setf *frame-number-map* "abcdefghijklmnopqrst") is all about :D
Note
By the way, it was an example :D.
This command told stumpwm to use the alphabet as the numerotation for the frame.
git rebase
Once upon a time, I did a lot of merge. Then I discovered rebase. Rebase permits to let you play back your commits from another moment in time.
Let's put it this way:
- You begin your development at the moment A
- you create a branch from this A, thus follows commits B, …, E
- You finish at moment E.
- Bob also starts from A and finish to H before you
- Bob integrates this H into the main branch
- You replay your commits from this H moment, so you got new commit b to e commits (it's still your commits but the SHA1 changed because the parent commit changed too!)
In the end, it's like as if you began your commits from this H moment.
This way:
- you keep the git history inlined which is simpler to follow
- when replaying the commits, if you got any conflict, you can take them down one at a time
Note One danger with the rebase is if you already pushed your development and someone left from your development, there will be divergence. For more information
Example:
- I made some dev on the branch some-dev (5 commits after master)
- I made some other dev from the same original commit but on another branch some-other-dev
- Now we can see that the 2 branches some-dev and some-other-dev have a common ancestor
- master is advanced according to some-other-dev
gco master git merge some-other-dev
Note Here I use the merge to only fast-forward the branch master according to some-other-dev
- Now master and some-dev have diverged
- I place myself to the branch some-dev and rebase my work from the master branch.
git co some-dev git rebase master
I first got a conflict because both the first commit of the branch does the same modifications
- I edit the conflicted file, chose the first implementation, and save the file
- I add the modification to the index (
git add README.md) and relaunch the rebase (git rebase --continue)
git add README.md git rebase --continue
- Once the rebase is done, all is good, we obtain an inlined history
- We can fast-forward the master with some-dev
git co master git rebase some-dev
git rebase -i
Also named interactive rebase.
This is another awesome git functionality. This command permits you to rewrite your commits.
Once you are done developing the functionality you were aiming to do. You can:
- reedit the commit messages (to more appropriate ones), etc…
- squash your commits together
- reordering commits
- splitting a commit (I never did that yet)
- remove some (if rendered useless)
At the end of it, your history is rewritten and is more straight-forward for others to see.
Note Beware, that with rewriting history has limits. Typically, do not rewrite your history if the branch is remote and used by others.
Example: I will squash all the commits I've done until now into one.
tony@dagobah(0.27,) 22:00:09 ~/repo/perso/dot-files (master) $ gst # On branch master # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 7 commits. # nothing to commit (working directory clean) tony@dagobah(0.23,) 22:00:19 ~/repo/perso/dot-files (master) $ git rebase -i HEAD~6
This opens the core.editor and presents with the 6 possibles commits to work on.
pick 5a52561 Temporary commit. pick 12e529d Some dummy and empty file for testing. pick b7484a1 Remove useless stuff. pick cad3b17 Rename file. pick 05a7f7f A new file README.org for fun. pick d74715b Delete useless file. # Rebase bc82ef2..d74715b onto bc82ef2 # # Commands: # p, pick = use commit # r, reword = use commit, but edit the commit message # e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending # s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit # f, fixup = like "squash", but discard this commit's log message # x, exec = run command (the rest of the line) using shell # # These lines can be re-ordered; they are executed from top to bottom. # # If you remove a line here THAT COMMIT WILL BE LOST. # However, if you remove everything, the rebase will be aborted. #
I selection what I want, here I want:
- to fixup all the commits
- except the last one where I want to reword the message to squash all commits message.
r Temporary commit. f 12e529d Some dummy and empty file for testing. f b7484a1 Remove useless stuff. f cad3b17 Rename file. f 05a7f7f A new file README.org for fun. f d74715b Delete useless file. # Rebase bc82ef2..d74715b onto bc82ef2 # # Commands: # p, pick = use commit # r, reword = use commit, but edit the commit message # e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending # s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit # f, fixup = like "squash", but discard this commit's log message # x, exec = run command (the rest of the line) using shell # # These lines can be re-ordered; they are executed from top to bottom. # # If you remove a line here THAT COMMIT WILL BE LOST. # However, if you remove everything, the rebase will be aborted. #
tony@dagobah(0.27,) 22:07:12 ~/repo/perso/dot-files (master) $ git rebase -i HEAD~6
[detached HEAD 9199358] squash all commits message.
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
[detached HEAD 35d77a7] squash all commits message.
2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
create mode 100644 README.org
Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/master.
Here is the final result:
