git-tricks

random things to make git work for you

Know where you are

export PS1='[\u@\h \W$(__git_ps1 " (%s)")]\$ '

https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/contrib/completion/git-prompt.sh

Selectively pick parts of a file to commit

git add --patch

Interactive Rebase

git rebase -i

• Shuffle around commits to a more meaningful order
• "squash" commits together
• Change commit messages
• ...

The reflog is your safety net

git reflog

This gives you an "out-of-band" history of every revision your local repo has been in. If a merge goes bad, or you accidentally overwrite a commit, bad rebase, etc. you can always get back to the last state.

The index / staging area

It's not that magical; think about it as BEGIN / QUERY / COMMIT for version control.