Git is an essential tool for modern software development. While most developers are familiar with basic commands like git add, git commit, and git push, there are many lesser-known but incredibly useful Git commands that can make your workflow more efficient. This post covers some handy Git commands that might not be part of your daily routine but can be extremely valuable in specific situations:
- Finding Branches Containing a Specific Commit
- Finding the Merge Base Between Two Branches
- Finding Changes Between Commits
- Stashing Untracked Files
- Searching Through Commit History
- Checking Out Pull Requests Locally
- Recovering Lost Commits
Finding Branches Containing a Specific Commit
Have you ever needed to know which branches contain a particular commit? This is especially useful when tracking where a bug fix or feature has been merged.
git branch --contains <commit-hash>
This command lists all local branches that include the specified commit. To include remote branches in the search:
git branch -r --contains <commit-hash>
For both local and remote branches:
git branch -a --contains <commit-hash>
Example:
git branch --contains 8a7d3f1
# Output might show:
# * main
# feature/authentication
Finding the Merge Base Between Two Branches
The merge base is the common ancestor commit from which two branches diverged. This is useful for understanding the relationship between branches or determining which commits would be included in a merge.
git merge-base <branch1> <branch2>
Example:
git merge-base main feature/payment
# Output: 7d3f8a21e6c8d9b4a0f2e1d3c5b7a9f8e0d2c4b6
You can then use this commit hash to see what changes have been made since the branches diverged:
git log --oneline <merge-base-hash>..feature/payment
Finding Changes Between Commits
To see what changes were introduced in a specific commit:
git show <commit-hash>
To compare two commits:
git diff <commit-hash1>..<commit-hash2>
Example:
git diff HEAD~3..HEAD
# Shows changes between the current commit and three commits ago
Stashing Untracked Files
The standard git stash only saves tracked files. To include untracked files in your stash:
git stash -u
# or
git stash --include-untracked
To stash only specific files:
git stash push -m "stash message" path/to/file1 path/to/file2
Searching Through Commit History
To search for commits that match a specific pattern in their messages:
git log --grep="search term"
To search for commits that add or remove specific code:
git log -S"function_name"
Example:
git log -S"authenticateUser"
# Finds commits that add or remove the authenticateUser function
Temporarily Ignoring Files
Sometimes you need to make local changes to a file but don't want to commit those changes. You can temporarily tell Git to ignore changes to a specific file:
git update-index --assume-unchanged path/to/file
To start tracking changes again:
git update-index --no-assume-unchanged path/to/file
Finding Who Changed a Line
To see who last modified each line of a file and in which commit:
git blame path/to/file
To limit the blame to specific lines:
git blame -L 10,20 path/to/file
# Shows blame for lines 10 through 20
Cleaning Up Local Branches
To remove local branches that have been merged into the main branch:
git branch --merged main | grep -v "^\*\|main" | xargs git branch -d
This command finds all branches merged into main, excludes the current branch and main itself, and deletes them.
Visualizing Branch History
For a graphical representation of your branch history:
git log --graph --oneline --all --decorate
For a more compact view:
git log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit
Checking Out Pull Requests Locally
To check out a pull request from GitHub or similar platforms:
git fetch origin pull/<PR-number>/head:pr-<PR-number>
git checkout pr-<PR-number>
Example:
git fetch origin pull/123/head:pr-123
git checkout pr-123
Recovering Lost Commits
If you've lost commits due to a reset or other operations, you can find them using the reflog:
git reflog
Once you find the lost commit, you can recover it:
git checkout -b recovery-branch <commit-hash>