Useful Git Commands

Just documenting some useful git commands that I use occasionally. This list is hopefully being extended over time :-)

Basic commands

List all branches:

git branch -a

Get remote url:

git config --get remote.origin.url

Switch to branch:

git checkout branch_name

Create a new branch and push to remote:

git checkout -b new_branch_name
git push -u origin new_branch_name

Create a new branch and switch to it:

git checkout -b new_branch_name

Reset local git back to a specific commit.

git reset --hard <commit id>

And force push it back:

git push origin master -f

Count lines of code (of e.g., *.go files):

git ls-files | grep go | xargs wc -l

Adding upstream to a fork

Our branch is named master, the origin of our fork is named upstream.

git remote add upstream https://github.com/USER/REPO.git
git fetch --all # fetch from remote (or git remote update)
git branch -v -a # to see branches
git checkout master # make sure to be on master
git rebase upstream/master # rebase upstream on our master branch
git push -f origin master # push new commits to our remote

Cherry pick a commit for a pull request:

git checkout -b upstream upstream/master
git cherry-pick <SHA hash of commit>
git push origin upstream

Submodules

Adding a submodule:

git submodule add https://github.com/USER/REPONAME.git ./REPONAME

Cloning including all submodules:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/USER/REPONAME.git

Remove a submodule:

git rm --cached PATH/TO/SUBMODULE

Then:

1. Remove the relevant lines from .gitmodules
2. Remove the relevant lines from .git/config
3. Commit.
4. Delete local files.
5. Remove .git/modules/SUBMODULE