Git Commands I Wish I Knew Earlier

Source: Dev.to

Stashing Changes

When you’re deep into a feature and need a clean working directory for an urgent review:

# Save all your changes to the stash
git stash

# Do your other work...

# Bring your changes back
git stash pop

Useful stash variations

# Stash with a descriptive message
git stash save "halfway through login refactor"

# View all stashes
git stash list

# Apply a specific stash without removing it from the list
git stash apply stash@{2}

# Stash only specific files
git stash push -m "navbar changes" src/components/Navbar.jsx

# Stash including untracked files
git stash -u

Bisecting to Find Bugs

When tests that were passing a week ago suddenly fail, you can pinpoint the offending commit with binary search:

# Start the bisect session
git bisect start

# Mark the current (broken) commit as bad
git bisect bad

# Mark a known good commit (e.g., from last week)
git bisect good a1b2c3d

# Git checks out the middle commit; test it, then tell Git:
git bisect good   # if this commit works
git bisect bad    # if this commit is broken

# Repeat until Git finds the exact bad commit
git bisect reset

If you have an automated test script:

git bisect start HEAD a1b2c3d
git bisect run npm test

Git will automatically locate the broken commit.

Interactive Rebase

When a branch contains a series of small or typo‑fix commits that you’d like to clean up before merging:

# Rebase the last 5 commits interactively
git rebase -i HEAD~5

The editor opens with a list like:

pick a1b2c3d Add user authentication
pick b2c3d4e Fix typo in auth
pick c3d4e5f Fix typo again
pick d4e5f6g Add logout feature
pick e5f6g7h Forgot semicolon

You can change the commands:

pick a1b2c3d Add user authentication
squash b2c3d4e Fix typo in auth
squash c3d4e5f Fix typo again
pick d4e5f6g Add logout feature
fixup e5f6g7h Forgot semicolon

Command meanings

• squash (s): Merge commit with the previous one, combine messages.
• fixup (f): Merge commit with the previous one, discard this message.
• reword (r): Keep commit, but edit the message.
• drop (d): Delete the commit entirely.
• edit (e): Pause to amend the commit.

⚠️ Warning: Never rebase commits that have already been pushed to a shared branch.

Handy Git Aliases

Add these to ~/.gitconfig to speed up everyday tasks:

[alias]
    # Shorter status
    s = status -sb

    # Pretty log graph
    lg = log --oneline --graph --decorate --all

    # Undo the last commit but keep changes
    undo = reset --soft HEAD~1

    # Amend without editing message
    oops = commit --amend --no-edit

    # Show what you did today
    today = log --since='midnight' --author='Your Name' --oneline

    # Delete all merged branches (except main/master)
    cleanup = "!git branch --merged | grep -v '\\*\\|main\\|master' | xargs -n 1 git branch -d"

    # Quick commit with message
    cm = commit -m

    # Create and switch to a new branch
    cob = checkout -b

Now git s replaces git status --short --branch.

Amending Commits

Forgot to add a file or need to fix a commit message?

# Add forgotten file to the last commit
git add forgotten-file.js
git commit --amend --no-edit

# Or just fix the message
git commit --amend -m "Better commit message"

Recovering Lost Work

If you accidentally delete a branch or reset too hard, the reflog remembers everything:

git reflog

Typical output:

a1b2c3d HEAD@{0}: reset: moving to HEAD~3
b2c3d4e HEAD@{1}: commit: Add feature
...

Recover a previous state:

git checkout b2c3d4e
# or
git reset --hard b2c3d4e

Cherry‑picking a Specific Commit

git cherry-pick a1b2c3d

Finding Commits

# Search commit messages
git log --grep="bug fix"

# Search code changes for a specific string
git log -S "functionName"

# Show commits that touched a specific file (including renames)
git log --follow -p -- path/to/file.js

Cleaning Untracked Files

Dry run first:

git clean -n

Delete untracked files:

git clean -f

Delete untracked files and directories:

git clean -fd

Quick Reference Table

Git has a steep learning curve, but mastering these commands transformed my workflow. I went from fearing Git to actually enjoying version control (most of the time). Pick one command from this list and start using it this week; once it becomes muscle memory, add another. Happy coding! 🚀