This blog post serves as a personal reference for useful Git commands and related resources. Git is an essential tool for version control and collaboration. Below you’ll find commands grouped by their functionality. If you’re looking for additional learning materials and references, check out my Git Resources post, where I’ve compiled a list of articles and guides that have helped me understand Git better.

Frequently Used Commands

git checkout --track origin/serverfix # Create a local branch tracking 'origin/serverfix'
git log --pretty=format:"%h %ad %s" --date=short | head # Show last 10 commits concisely
git cherry-pick -n e0471aa # Apply commit 'e0471aa' without auto committing
git merge --no-commit --squash 426-feature # Squash and stage changes from '426-feature'
git commit --amend --no-edit # Amend last commit without changing its message

Occasionally Used Commands

git rebase -i HEAD~3 # Interactive rebase of last 3 commits
git reset --soft HEAD~10 # Reset last 10 commits but keep changes staged
git reset --hard origin/main # Reset local branch to match remote 'main'
git checkout --merge dev/minor-adhoc-changes # Merge changes from 'dev/minor-adhoc-changes'
git diff --word-diff 60-create-k8s-cluster dev/main # # Diff with branch 'dev/main'
git diff --word-diff origin/$(git symbolic-ref --short -q HEAD) prod/main ':*backend.tf' ':*locals.tf' path/to/dir
 # Diff specific files and branches

Setup and Configuration

git config -l # List all Git configurations
git config --global user.email 98765432+foo-bar@users.noreply.github.com
git config --global user.name "H Singh"

Viewing, Logging, and File Management

cat .git/HEAD # View current HEAD reference
git branch -r # List remote branches
git ls-files -v # View file details
git ls-tree -r dev --name-only # List files in the 'dev' tree
git update-index --no-skip-worktree market_data.json # Prevent file from being skipped

Git Log Formatting

git log --pretty=format:"%h %s"
git log --pretty=format:"%h %ad %s" --date=short | head
git log --all --decorate --oneline --graph # Display commit graph

For a typical feature squash workflow:

git checkout main
git branch feature && git checkout feature
git merge --squash 426-feature
git commit -am 'feature squash'

Remote Repository Management

git remote add -f b path/to/repo_b.git # Add and fetch remote repo 'b'
git remote update # Update all remotes
git diff master remotes/b/master # Compare local master with remote 'b' master
git remote rm b # Remove remote 'b'
git remote add dev git@github.com:har-singh/azure.git

Additional Resources