Master Advanced Git Tricks: Navigation, Rebase, Stash, and More

Navigation – Jump to Previous Branch

git checkout -

Viewing History

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

# Search all commit logs for "homepage"
git log --all --grep='homepage'

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

Undoing and Resetting

# Show all operation history
git reflog

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

# Hard reset to a specific commit hash
git reset --hard <commit-hash>

Cleaning a Messy Local Repository

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

Comparing Branches

git diff master..my-branch

Customizing Commits

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

# Add changes and amend without editing the message
git add . && git commit --amend --no-edit

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

Squashing Commits

# Interactive rebase of the last 3 commits
git rebase -i HEAD~3

# In the editor, keep the first line as "pick" and change the rest to "squash" (or "s")
# Then save and exit (e.g., :wq in vi)

# Example rebase todo list
pick 64d26a1 fea: add index.js
s 45f0259 fix: update index.js
s 8b15b0a fix: typo in index.js

Rebase with Autosquash

git rebase -i HEAD~3 --autosquash

Run a Command on Every Commit (rebase --exec)

# Run npm test on the last 3 commits
git rebase HEAD~3 --exec "npm test"

Stashing

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

# List all 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}

Cleaning Remote Branches

# Remove branches that no longer exist on the remote
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 Alias

# Use 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'
alias yolo='git push --force'

# Weekly stand‑up function
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"
}