Git advanced notes

Archived

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Branches

Rename a branch

Rename the local branch
```
 git branch -m oldname newname
```
Push the renamed branch
```
 git push origin newname
```
Delete the remote branch
```
 git push origin --delete oldname
```

Create a new, empty branch

git checkout --orphan BRANCHNAME
git rm -rf .

Rewriting history

Delete pushed commits

Never do this if other people are using the repo!

If you wish to delete all commits after a certain one:

Get the hash of the last commit you want to keep:
```
 git log -p
```
Do a hard reset to that commit
```
 git reset --hard 2221651
```
Do a force push to delete the remote commits Always specify the branch if you have more than one branch!
```
 git push --force
```

Delete a file completely from git history

https://help.github.com/articles/remove-sensitive-data/#using-filter-branch

cd /path/to/repo
git filter-branch --force --index-filter \
'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch PATH-TO-YOUR-FILE-WITH-SENSITIVE-DATA' \
--prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all
git push origin --force --all
git push origin --force --tags

Merging

Merge specific files from one branch to another, without history

http://stackoverflow.com/a/1355990/399105

Workflows

Sample feature branch workflow

These instructions are based on a feature branch workflow: https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/comparing-workflows/feature-branch-workflow

Rebasing instead of merging is used on the feature branch for cleaner project history: https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/merging-vs-rebasing

Pull the latest updates to the repo
```
 cd /path/to/repo
 git pull
```

Create a new branch named after the feature

 git checkout -b FEATURE-NAME

Ex:

 git checkout -b feature-add-logout

Do work in the new branch, committing as needed
```
 git add /path/to/file
 git commit
```
Push work periodically to the repo
```
 git push -u origin FEATURE-NAME
```
Ex:
```
 git push -u origin feature-add-logout
```
(The first push will start tracking the feature branch. After than, you can just use git push)
Discuss changes with other users of the repository

Prepare feature branch for merging

 git checkout master
 git pull
 git checkout FEATURE-NAME
 git pull
 git rebase master

Merge feature branch

To merge your branch and keep all commits:

  git checkout master
  git merge FEATURE-NAME
  git push

To add work to the main branch as one commit (losing all of the individual commit logs):

  git checkout master
  git merge --squash FEATURE-NAME
  git commit -m "Commit message for your feature"
  git push

If you’re finished with the feature branch, you can delete it
1. Delete the branch locally
```
 git branch -d FEATURE-NAME
```
2. Delete the branch remotely
```
 git push origin --delete FEATURE-NAME
```

Ignoring

Ignore local changes to a file in the repo

https://stackoverflow.com/a/20241145/399105

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