Daily Git Commands

Sequence of Git commands I use when implementing a new feature a.k.a my mostly used git commands

1. git checkout master — I make sure I work on top of the master branch
2. git pull origin master —I make sure that my repository is updated with the latest version
3. git checkout -B <feature/A> — Checkout a new branch for the feature
4. git stash — I want to save my rough draft and get back to it later, but it’s not ready for a commit just yet
5. git stash apply — Apply my rough draft #4, I want to continue working on it

4 & 5 don’t always happen, but I do it especially if want to checkout and review other branches

6. git add . — My changes look good, I want to commit them

7. git commit -m “Add this feature” — Commit changes and add a clear description

8. git push origin HEAD — Push this branch to remote repository

The above scenario is the simplest. But most of the time it’s more complicated and looks like this

6. git add . && git commit -m “Update implementation”

7. git add . && git commit -m “Add a small fix”

8. git add . && git commit -m “Add another fix”

As seen, I committed some little changes, but it made my commit history kinda “dirty”. So, I cleanup my commit history by rebasing interactively.

9. git rebase -i HEAD~(n) — Cleanup commits and messages, where n is the number of commits I wanted to edit starting from HEAD

In this case (git rebase -i HEAD~4). Then, I either pick, fixup, reword, or drop some commits

• pick -> use commit
• fixup (f) -> squash, by discard the commit’s log message
• drop (d) -> remove commit
• reword (r) -> edit commit messsage

Git Rebase Interactively

After rebasing, all that is left is the commit I picked, in this case commit “Add feature A”. Fixed-up (f) commits will be squashed to the previous commit, and dropped (d) commits will be removed.

10. git push origin HEAD -f — Force push the changes especially since we’re rebasing. Caveat ⚠️ it will overwrite your remote branch

That’s it! The branch is ready for Pull Request. ✨

Note: branch feature/A is not necessary a feature but more of a small Pull Request (PR). I like small PRs, I usually chop down a big feature into small PRs.