git push

Updates remote refs using local refs, while sending objects necessary to complete the given refs.

The git's guide to git

git (n): British slang for "A stupid person"

What this talk is

• Practical git advice
• How to work with git on a team
• Digging through git tools

Terminology

• SHA: the 'key' of a commit. Looks like

  ac31a31ca5b899f848aca4791cbca49fcbaa9a17

• HEAD: The commit that you're currently looking at

Teamwork

Turns out programming is a team sport

Commit messages should:

• Explain the how & why
• Provide missing context
• Point to external details
• Encapsulate a single change

A Bad Commit Message

commit 32f4410abb2a901016c4a8b23c4b487e36be9916
Author: Randall Koutnik <rkoutnik@netflix.com>
Date:   Tue Jun 14 15:05:51 2016 -0700

    Fix error on alert page

A Good Commit Message

commit 6280ec89e3884e91da5c30faf8b4a55218bcac8b
Author: Igor Zhukov <igor.beatle@gmail.com>
Date:   Thu Jun 30 00:46:43 2016 +0300

  fix(copy): fix handling of typed subarrays

  Previously, it would return a copy of the whole original typed array, not its slice.
  Now, the `byteOffset` and `length` are also preserved.

  Fixes #14842

  Closes #14845

Branching

• Use small feature branches
• Keep feature branches up-to-date
• Never rewrite history on a pushed branch

Feature branches

Feature branches

Feature branches

Git Tools

git rebase

Allows you to mess with history in various exciting ways

Two main scenarios:

• Bringing in new commits from master into your feature branch
• Squashing multiple commits into a single commit

Merging

Rebasing

What's the big deal with history?

"Those without write access to history are doomed if they rebase it"

• Rewriting history that's already on the remote breaks other dev's repos
• Rewriting history that's only local is 'fine'

git log

Displays a list of all of the commits on the current branch

To the CLI!

git reflog

Lists all the commits you've looked at

Saves the day when a commit has been overridden and is no longer in regular history.

git reset

Updates the branch and/or code to another commit

Useful when you want to remove an accidental commit or when you realize you've been digging in the wrong rabbit hole

git cherry-pick

Takes a commit that exists somewhere locally and adds it to the current branch.

Great for pulling in a single commit from another branch without needing to do a full merge/rebase. Also nice for pulling things from reflog

git cherry-pick abc123

To the CLI!

git stash

Stores your current work without making a commit

Nice to have when you need to switch to another branch for some reason.

To the CLI!

Ok, now questions!