Git Tips & Tricks

I don’t have to start this article with some cheap filler about how great Git is, right? or how everyone should use it every day? Great.

Here are some great tricks. All of these rely on creating a file called .gitconfig in your home directory (in my case /Users/kennymeyers).

CP

In my .gitconfig, I have the following:

[alias]
    cp = commit -am 'cp'

Anything after the [alias] divider creates an alias or shortcut for a Git action. When I’m in terminal and I type git cp, it will automatically add changes to files with a commit message of ‘cp’. UPDATE: Some clarity in response to comments. The phrase “cp” stands for checkpoint. I use it as a quick save method. When I’m satisfied with what I’m working on I do a rebase as described below. I remove all “cp” messages and squash them down into a single commit with a clear descriptive commit message.

What it will not do: It won’t add newly created files to a repository, meaning, it only works on files already in your git repo.

Commit template

I also have the following:

[commit]
    template = /path/to/commit-template.txt

This creates a commit message from a commit template (.txt file on my hard drive). Whenever you type git commit the .txt file will be loaded automatically into your message and you can add, replace, or delete text. Here’s a sample commit-template.txt:

Title: [ Fill this in ]
Author: Kenny Meyers
Description: [ Fill in description ] 

This keeps things consistent, and consistency is the king of useful commit logs.

What it will not do: It will not work with above “cp” alias because the message "cp" takes priority over a template.

Rebase

One of my favorite things to do with Git is an interactive rebase. When I’m working in different branches I will us the above "cp" command a lot. Then, I will type the following into terminal:

`git rebase -i [branch to compare against]` 

This gives me a list of changes I made to the repository as compared to another branch. Normally, my first commit of changes will use a fancy template then the rest will use the ‘cp’ command. The interactive rebase allows me to squash all the commits I made into one commit with a beautiful message.

Topic branches

Not really a tip (or trick) but I’m a huge fan of topic branches. Use them!

git checkout -b the-feature-or-fix-you-are-creating

DO IT FOR EVERY LITTLE THING, GOD DAMN IT!

What are your favorite tricks?