7 Powerful Git Tricks to Boost Your Productivity

1. Enable Git’s automatic command correction

Activate help.autocorrect to let Git suggest and automatically run the most likely correct command when you mistype a subcommand. $ git config --global help.autocorrect 1 Omit --global to apply the setting only to the current repository.

2. Count commits easily

Use git rev-list --count <branch-name> to obtain the total number of commits on a branch, which is handy for build numbers or project progress tracking.

$ git rev-list --count master
$ git rev-list --count dev

3. Optimize your repository

Maintain a clean .gitignore to exclude unnecessary files, and run garbage collection to prune unreachable objects.

$ git gc --prune=now --aggressive

4. Backup untracked files

Create a zip archive of all untracked files (excluding those ignored by .gitignore) with a single pipeline command.

$ git ls-files --others --exclude-standard -z | xargs -0 tar rvf ~/backup-untracked.zip

5. Explore the .git directory

The hidden .git folder stores all repository metadata, including HEAD, refs, and configuration. Viewing files like .git/HEAD or .git/description reveals the current branch and repository description.

$ cat .git/HEAD
ref: refs/heads/master
$ cat .git/description

6. View a file from another branch without switching

Use git show to display the contents of a file on a different branch directly in the terminal.

$ git show main:README.md

7. Search across the entire repository

Combine git rev-list and git grep to search for a string in all commits and branches.

$ git rev-list --all | xargs git grep -F ''
$ git rev-list --all | xargs git grep -F 'font-size: 52 px;'

These tips can significantly improve your efficiency when working with Git.