45 Essential Git Commands Every Developer Should Master

What did I just commit?

If you used git commit -a and want to see what was committed, run git show or git log -n1 -p.

My commit message is wrong

If the commit hasn't been pushed, amend it with git commit --amend --only or git commit --amend --only -m 'new message'. If it has been pushed, avoid force‑pushing.

Wrong author/email in a commit

For a single commit, run

git commit --amend --author "New Author <[email protected]>"

. To rewrite history, see git filter-branch.

Remove a file from a commit

Use:

git checkout HEAD^ myfile
git add -A
git commit --amend

Delete the last commit

If not pushed, reset with git reset HEAD^ --hard and push force if needed. If already pushed, use git revert SHAofBadCommit or force‑push with care.

Delete any commit

Use rebasing:

git rebase --onto SHA1_OF_BAD_COMMIT^ SHA1_OF_BAD_COMMIT

or interactive rebase to drop lines.

Push an amended commit

After amending, you must force‑push: git push -f. Prefer creating a new commit instead of force‑pushing.

Recover after a hard reset

Run git reflog to find the lost commit SHA, then git reset --hard SHA1234.

Staging

Add staged changes to the previous commit

git commit --amend

Stage part of a new file

Use git add --patch filename (or -p) and for new files git add -N filename then edit with git diff --cached.

Split changes into two commits

Use git add -p to interactively select hunks for each commit.

Swap staged and unstaged changes

git commit -m "WIP"
git add .
git stash
git reset HEAD^
git stash pop --index 0

Unstaged Changes

Move unstaged changes to a new branch

git checkout -b my-branch

Move unstaged changes to an existing branch

git stash
git checkout my-branch
git stash pop

Discard uncommitted changes

Reset hard to a previous commit or use git checkout -f. To discard a specific file: git reset filename. To discard parts, use git checkout -p or git stash -p followed by git reset --hard and git stash pop.

Branches

Wrong branch pull

Find the correct commit with git reflog and reset: git reset --hard c5bc55a.

Discard local commits to match remote

git reset --hard origin/my-branch

Commit to a new branch after committing to main

git branch my-branch
git reset --hard HEAD^
git checkout my-branch

Copy a whole file from another ref

git checkout solution -- file1.txt

Split commits into separate branches

Use git checkout -b 21 then git cherry-pick e3851e8, repeat for other bugs.

Delete a remote branch

git push origin --delete my-branch

Delete a local branch

git branch -D my-branch

Checkout a teammate's remote branch

git fetch --all
git checkout --track origin/daves

Rebasing and Merging

Undo a rebase/merge

git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD

Combine several commits

Soft‑reset onto the base branch and recommit:

git reset --soft main
git commit -am "New awesome feature"

Or use interactive rebase ( git rebase -i) to squash, fixup, or reorder commits.

Safe merge

git merge --no-ff --no-commit my-branch

Squash a branch into one commit

git merge --squash my-branch

Combine unpushed commits

git rebase -i @{u}

Check if all commits on a branch are merged

git log --graph --left-right --cherry-pick --oneline HEAD...feature/branch

Interactive rebase conflict resolution

Use git status to find conflicted files, edit them, then git add and git rebase --continue. Abort with git rebase --abort.

Stash

Stash all changes

git stash

Stash specific files

git stash push path/to/file1 path/to/file2

Stash with a message

git stash push -m "my message"

Apply a specific stash

git stash apply "stash@{0}"

Keep unstaged changes while stashing

git stash create
git stash store -m "commit-message" CREATED_SHA1

Miscellaneous

Clone with submodules

git clone --recursive git://github.com/foo/bar.git

Delete a tag

git tag -d <tag_name>
git push <remote> :refs/tags/<tag_name>

Recover a deleted tag

git fsck --unreachable | grep tag
# note the hash
git update-ref refs/tags/<tag_name> <hash>

Cache credentials

git config --global credential.helper cache
# optional timeout (seconds)
git config --global credential.helper 'cache --timeout=3600'

Use reflog to recover lost work

git reflog
# find the desired HEAD@{n}
git reset --hard HEAD@{n}