Git Workflows and Best Practices

Commit Best Practices

Commit Message Format

code

<type>(<scope>): <subject>

<body>

<footer>

Types

•feat: New feature
•fix: Bug fix
•docs: Documentation
•style: Formatting (no code change)
•refactor: Code restructuring
•test: Adding tests
•chore: Maintenance

Examples

bash

# Good commits
git commit -m "feat(auth): add OAuth2 login support"
git commit -m "fix(api): handle null response from payment gateway"
git commit -m "refactor(db): extract query builder into separate module"

# Bad commits
git commit -m "fix stuff"
git commit -m "WIP"
git commit -m "changes"

Atomic Commits

bash

# Stage specific changes
git add -p  # Interactive staging

# One logical change per commit
git commit -m "feat(user): add email validation"
git commit -m "test(user): add email validation tests"

Branching Strategies

GitHub Flow (Simple)

code

main
  └── feature/add-login
  └── fix/null-pointer
  └── feature/dashboard

bash

# Create feature branch
git checkout -b feature/add-login main

# Work and commit
git add .
git commit -m "feat(auth): implement login form"

# Push and create PR
git push -u origin feature/add-login
gh pr create

Git Flow (Release-based)

code

main (production)
  └── develop
        └── feature/add-login
        └── release/v1.2.0
        └── hotfix/critical-fix

Trunk-Based (CI/CD)

code

main
  └── short-lived feature branches (< 1 day)

Common Operations

Rebasing

bash

# Rebase feature on updated main
git checkout feature/add-login
git fetch origin
git rebase origin/main

# Interactive rebase to clean up commits
git rebase -i HEAD~3
# pick, squash, fixup, reword, drop

Merging

bash

# Merge with commit
git checkout main
git merge --no-ff feature/add-login

# Fast-forward merge
git merge --ff-only feature/add-login

Cherry-picking

bash

# Apply specific commit to current branch
git cherry-pick abc123

# Cherry-pick without committing
git cherry-pick --no-commit abc123

Stashing

bash

# Stash changes
git stash
git stash push -m "WIP: login feature"

# List stashes
git stash list

# Apply and remove
git stash pop

# Apply and keep
git stash apply stash@{0}

Undoing Changes

Unstaged Changes

bash

# Discard changes in file
git checkout -- file.txt
git restore file.txt  # Git 2.23+

# Discard all changes
git checkout -- .
git restore .

Staged Changes

bash

# Unstage file
git reset HEAD file.txt
git restore --staged file.txt  # Git 2.23+

# Unstage all
git reset HEAD

Committed Changes

bash

# Undo last commit, keep changes staged
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Undo last commit, keep changes unstaged
git reset HEAD~1

# Undo last commit, discard changes
git reset --hard HEAD~1

# Create new commit that undoes previous
git revert abc123

Remote Changes

bash

# CAUTION: Only if not pushed
git reset --hard HEAD~1

# If already pushed (creates new commit)
git revert abc123
git push

Collaboration

Pull Requests

bash

# Update PR with new changes
git add .
git commit -m "fix: address review feedback"
git push

# Squash commits before merge
git rebase -i main
# Change 'pick' to 'squash' for commits to combine

Resolving Conflicts

bash

# During merge
git merge feature/other
# Fix conflicts in files
git add resolved-file.txt
git commit

# During rebase
git rebase main
# Fix conflicts
git add resolved-file.txt
git rebase --continue

Code Review

bash

# Fetch PR for review
gh pr checkout 123

# View changes
git diff main...HEAD
git log main..HEAD --oneline

Useful Commands

History and Search

bash

# View history
git log --oneline --graph --all
git log --since="2 weeks ago" --author="name"

# Search commits
git log --grep="bug fix"
git log -S "function_name"  # Search content changes

# Blame
git blame file.txt
git blame -L 10,20 file.txt  # Lines 10-20

Cleaning

bash

# Remove untracked files (dry run)
git clean -n

# Remove untracked files
git clean -f

# Remove untracked files and directories
git clean -fd

# Remove ignored files too
git clean -fdx

Bisect (Find Bug Introduction)

bash

git bisect start
git bisect bad  # Current version is bad
git bisect good abc123  # Known good commit
# Git checks out middle commit
# Test and mark as good/bad
git bisect good  # or git bisect bad
# Repeat until found
git bisect reset

Configuration

Useful Aliases

bash

git config --global alias.co checkout
git config --global alias.br branch
git config --global alias.ci commit
git config --global alias.st status
git config --global alias.lg "log --oneline --graph --all"

Global Settings

bash

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
git config --global pull.rebase true
git config --global init.defaultBranch main

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

•Force pushing to shared branches
•Committing secrets or credentials
•Large binary files in repo
•Meaningless commit messages
•Mixing unrelated changes in one commit
•Long-lived feature branches
•Ignoring merge conflicts
•Committing generated/build files