Advanced Git Techniques

Move beyond basic Git commands and master these advanced techniques.

Interactive Rebase

Clean up your commit history:

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

Options in interactive mode:

pick - Keep commit as is
reword - Change commit message
squash - Combine with previous commit
fixup - Like squash, but discard message
drop - Remove commit

Cherry-Picking

Apply specific commits to another branch:

# Apply a single commit
git cherry-pick <commit-hash>

# Apply multiple commits
git cherry-pick <hash1> <hash2>

# Cherry-pick without committing
git cherry-pick -n <commit-hash>

Stashing Like a Pro

Save work without committing:

# Stash with message
git stash push -m "WIP: feature X"

# List all stashes
git stash list

# Apply specific stash
git stash apply stash@{2}

# Create branch from stash
git stash branch new-branch stash@{0}

Git Bisect

Find the commit that introduced a bug:

git bisect start
git bisect bad # Current commit is bad
git bisect good v1.0.0 # v1.0.0 was good

# Git will checkout commits for you to test
# Mark each as good or bad
git bisect good
git bisect bad

# When done
git bisect reset

Reflog - Your Safety Net

Recover "lost" commits:

# View all actions
git reflog

# Recover a deleted branch
git checkout -b recovered-branch HEAD@{5}

# Undo a hard reset
git reset --hard HEAD@{2}

Worktrees

Work on multiple branches simultaneously:

# Create a worktree for a branch
git worktree add ../feature-branch feature-branch

# List worktrees
git worktree list

# Remove worktree
git worktree remove ../feature-branch

Useful Aliases

Add to your .gitconfig:

[alias]
 co = checkout
 br = branch
 st = status
 lg = log --oneline --graph --all
 undo = reset HEAD~1 --soft
 amend = commit --amend --no-edit

Conclusion

These advanced Git techniques will make you more productive. Practice them until they become second nature.