Git Workflows and Best Practices
Commit Best Practices
Commit Message Format
<type>(<scope>): <subject>
<body>
<footer>
Types
feat: New featurefix: Bug fixdocs: Documentationstyle: Formatting (no code change)refactor: Code restructuringtest: Adding testschore: Maintenance
Examples
# 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
# 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)
main
└── feature/add-login
└── fix/null-pointer
└── feature/dashboard
# 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)
main (production)
└── develop
└── feature/add-login
└── release/v1.2.0
└── hotfix/critical-fix
Trunk-Based (CI/CD)
main
└── short-lived feature branches (< 1 day)
Common Operations
Rebasing
# 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
# 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
# Apply specific commit to current branch
git cherry-pick abc123
# Cherry-pick without committing
git cherry-pick --no-commit abc123
Stashing
# 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
# Discard changes in file
git checkout -- file.txt
git restore file.txt # Git 2.23+
# Discard all changes
git checkout -- .
git restore .
Staged Changes
# Unstage file
git reset HEAD file.txt
git restore --staged file.txt # Git 2.23+
# Unstage all
git reset HEAD
Committed Changes
# 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
# CAUTION: Only if not pushed
git reset --hard HEAD~1
# If already pushed (creates new commit)
git revert abc123
git push
Collaboration
Pull Requests
# 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
# 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
# Fetch PR for review
gh pr checkout 123
# View changes
git diff main...HEAD
git log main..HEAD --oneline
Useful Commands
History and Search
# 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
# 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)
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
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
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
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