Master Advanced Git Commands: A Practical Cheat Sheet for Power Users

Navigate – Jump to Previous Branch

git checkout -

View History

# Show each commit on one line
git log --oneline

# Search all logs for a keyword
git log --all --grep='homepage'

# Show commits by a specific author
git log --author="Maxence"

Undo an Unwanted Reset

# List reflog entries
git reflog

# Reset to a specific reflog entry
git reset HEAD@{4}

# Hard reset to a known commit hash
git reset --hard <code>COMMIT_HASH</code>

Clean a Messy Local Repository

git fetch origin
git checkout master
git reset --hard origin/master

Compare Branch with Master

git diff master..my-branch

Customize Commits

# Amend the last commit message
git commit --amend -m "Better commit message"

# Add changes to the last commit without changing the message
git add . && git commit --amend --no-edit

# Create an empty commit (useful to trigger CI builds)
git commit --allow-empty -m "chore: re-trigger build"

Squash Commits

To squash the last three commits:

git rebase -i HEAD~3
# Keep the first line as "pick", change the others to "squash" (or "s")
# Save and exit (e.g., :wq in vi)

Fixup a Specific Commit

# Stage changes and mark them as fixup for the previous commit
git add .
git commit --fixup HEAD~1

# Rebase interactively with autosquash
git rebase -i HEAD~3 --autosquash

Run a Command on Every Commit During Rebase

# Execute a test command on each of the last three commits
git rebase HEAD~3 --exec "npm test"

Stash Changes

# Save all tracked files with a message
git stash save "log info"

# List stash entries
git stash list

# Apply and drop a specific stash
git stash apply stash@{1}
git stash drop stash@{1}

# Or pop in one step
git stash pop stash@{1}

Clean Up Remote Branches

# Remove remote‑tracking branches that no longer exist on the server
git fetch -p

# Delete all remote branches containing "greenkeeper"
git fetch -p && git branch --remote | fgrep greenkeeper | sed 's/^.{9}//' | xargs git push origin --delete

GitHub Shortcuts (using hub)

# Treat hub as a wrapper for git
alias git='hub'

# Open the repository URL in a browser (GitHub only)
git browse

Useful Git Aliases

alias g='git'
alias glog='git log --oneline --decorate --graph'
alias gst='git status'
alias gp='git push'
alias ga='git add'
alias gc='git commit -v'
# Force‑push shortcut
alias yolo='git push --force'

# Weekly stand‑up report function
git-standup() {
    AUTHOR=${AUTHOR:="$(git config user.name)"}
    since=yesterday
    if [[ $(date +%u) == 1 ]]; then
        since="2 days ago"
    fi
    git log --all --since "$since" --oneline --author="$AUTHOR"
}