Git Stuff

A collection of commands for me to get things done.

Setup

Cloning Repository
Setting up Origin

Commit

Commit Amend
Commit Reset File

Branches

Create Branch
Switching Branch
Reset Branch
Fast Forwarding A Branch
Delete A Branch

Handling the copy mistakes in git

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51713049/git-retroactively-mark-a-deleted-and-new-file-as-moved-instead

TLDR; you can’t its git that decides, however you can configure a threshold.

Aliases

# create alias
git config --global alias.tree "log --graph --all --format='%C(yellow)%h%C(reset) %C(cyan)%as%C(reset) %C(bold)%s%C(reset) %C(dim)%an%C(reset)%C(auto)%d%C(reset)'"
# use with 
git tree

# create alias
git config --global alias.lg "log --oneline --graph --decorate --all"
#use with
git lg

Cross-Branch & History Tricks

Restore a file or folder from another branch into your current working tree (stays on current branch, no merge/commit — just drops the files as unstaged changes):

git checkout <branch> -- <path>

Same but targeting a specific commit hash instead of a branch:

git checkout <commit-hash> -- <path>

View what a file looked like on another branch without touching your working tree:

git show <branch>:<path/to/file>

Find any commit that added or removed a specific string across all history:

git log -S "some string" --all

Stash only specific files instead of everything:

git stash push <path>

Binary search through history to find which commit introduced a bug:

git bisect start
git bisect bad                # current commit is broken
git bisect good <commit-hash> # known good commit
# git checks out midpoints; mark each good/bad until it pinpoints the culprit
git bisect reset              # when done

Worktrees & Bare Clones

A normal clone ties you to one checked-out branch at a time. Worktrees and bare clones let you have multiple branches checked out simultaneously in separate directories — no stashing, no switching.

Bare Clone

A bare clone stores only git internals with no working tree. Used as a base for worktrees:

git clone --bare <repo-url> <folder-name>

Convention is to name the folder with a .git suffix:

git clone --bare git@github.com:user/repo.git repo.git

Worktrees

Add a worktree — checks out a branch into a new directory alongside your bare clone:

git worktree add <path> <branch>

Example — working on main and a feature branch simultaneously:

cd repo.git
git worktree add ../repo-main main
git worktree add ../repo-feature feature/my-feature

Each directory is a fully functional working tree sharing the same git history. Changes in one are immediately visible to the others via git (commit, merge, rebase, etc.) without any pushing.

List active worktrees:

git worktree list

Remove a worktree when done:

git worktree remove <path>

Why This Matters

The typical use case is avoiding the git stash / git switch cycle when you need to context-switch mid-work. Each worktree has its own index and HEAD so you can have a long-running build in one terminal while actively editing another branch in a second terminal.

Git Software - GUI

Official Git software
https://git-scm.com/

GUI’s can be found here
https://git-scm.com/tools/guis

Personally I’ve used GitKraken since it’s been free and gone through different product phases. It’s by far one of the best GUI’s I’ve used making complex tasks of branch management,

https://www.gitkraken.com/git-client

Their choice to make access to private repositories (for example self owned on GitHub) require payment is the reason I have stopped using it. Primarily I use CLI and VS Code’s interface. (Damn I miss rebasing with GitKraken)