Advanced Git

Git is a powerful tool for describing and maintaining the history of a project, but most people never get beyond the basics. By giving you the ability to rewrite history (with the safety of never truly losing information), git allows you to craft a history that is more true to the intent of your changes, rather than one filled with countless "oops" and "fixed typo" commits. Of course, with great power comes great responsibility, and it is important to wield your time-travelling powers with restraint. In this talk, you'll learn how to clean up your history without confusing others, as well as how to recover if things go wrong.

You'll also learn more about the conceptual model behind git and how to bend it to your will. Once you understand how commits and branches really work, you can compose your git tools to do what you want. Need to insert a commit in the middle of a branch? See who introduced the bug two weeks ago that surfaced in production today? Resolve merge conflicts cleanly? Break a large commits into several smaller ones, or squash several smaller ones together into one? With git, you can do it.

Transcript

1. PyCon 2015 Montréal Advanced Git David Baumgold @singingwolfboy bit.ly/git-pycon-2015
2. The Story So Far $ git clone <url> Download the repo $ git checkout <branch> Switch to a feature branch $ git commit Edit some files Commit your changes $ git push/pull Sync changes to GitHub Merge pull request on GitHub
3. Visual Terminology Commit: Branch label:
4. Table of Contents Preface status, show Ch 1 blame Ch 2 cherry-pick Ch 3 reset Ch 4 rebase Ch 5 reflog Ch 6 squashing & splitting Ch 7 bisect
5. Preface: status $ git status On branch master nothing to commit, working directory clean
6. Preface: status $ git status On branch master Changes to be committed: (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage) deleted: removed.txt Changes not staged for commit: (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed) (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory) modified: modified.txt Untracked files: (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed) added.txt
7. Preface: show $ git show commit 15f81303f58fc7d8fc8f598a8c9be94e783cced2 Author: David Baumgold <david@davidbaumgold.com> Date: Sun Mar 15 21:48:25 2015 -0400 Detailed commit message diff --git a/modified.txt b/modified.txt index 2579662..d704eff 100644 --- a/modified.txt +++ b/modified.txt @@ -1 +1 @@ This line stayed the same -This line was removed +This line was added
8. Table of Contents Preface status, show Ch 1 blame Ch 2 cherry-pick Ch 3 reset Ch 4 rebase Ch 5 reflog Ch 6 squashing & splitting Ch 7 bisect
9. Ch 1: blame “What the… who wrote this code?” $ git blame path/to/file.py will tell you who to blame!
10. Ch 1: blame For each line of the file, blame will find the last commit to edit the line, and it will tell you: • Commit hash • Author’s name • Date of commit ProTip: use show to look up the commit message! $ git show d47312e1
11. Ch 1: blame 25ad0c5f setup.py (Sarina Canelake 2013-07-09 14:42:28 -0400 1) """Set up for XBlock""" 24c2a33d setup.py (Calen Pennington 2013-01-04 12:42:17 -0500 2) from setuptools import setup 34adc933 xblock/setup.py (Ned Batchelder 2012-11-30 15:20:57 -0500 3) deb68879 setup.py (Calen Pennington 2014-11-10 13:33:31 -0500 4) import versioneer deb68879 setup.py (Calen Pennington 2014-11-10 13:33:31 -0500 5) versioneer.VCS = 'git' deb68879 setup.py (Calen Pennington 2014-11-10 13:33:31 -0500 6) versioneer.versionfile_source = 'xblock/_version.py' deb68879 setup.py (Calen Pennington 2014-11-10 13:33:31 -0500 7) versioneer.versionfile_build = 'xblock/_version.py' ba6d5c45 setup.py (Calen Pennington 2014-11-10 13:50:38 -0500 8) versioneer.tag_prefix = 'xblock-' # tags are like 1.2.0 ba6d5c45 setup.py (Calen Pennington 2014-11-10 13:50:38 -0500 9) versioneer.parentdir_prefix = 'XBlock-' # dirname like 'myproject-1.2.0' deb68879 setup.py (Calen Pennington 2014-11-10 13:33:31 -0500 10) 34adc933 xblock/setup.py (Ned Batchelder 2012-11-30 15:20:57 -0500 11) setup( 34adc933 xblock/setup.py (Ned Batchelder 2012-11-30 15:20:57 -0500 12) name='XBlock', deb68879 setup.py (Calen Pennington 2014-11-10 13:33:31 -0500 13) version=versioneer.get_version(), deb68879 setup.py (Calen Pennington 2014-11-10 13:33:31 -0500 14) cmdclass=versioneer.get_cmdclass(), 34adc933 xblock/setup.py (Ned Batchelder 2012-11-30 15:20:57 -0500 15) description='XBlock Core Library', d47312e1 setup.py (Ned Batchelder 2014-02-02 07:33:04 -0500 16) packages=[ d47312e1 setup.py (Ned Batchelder 2014-02-02 07:33:04 -0500 17) 'xblock', d47312e1 setup.py (Ned Batchelder 2014-02-02 07:33:04 -0500 18) 'xblock.django', 776c85ce setup.py (Piotr Mitros 2014-07-26 18:30:13 -0400 19) 'xblock.reference', d47312e1 setup.py (Ned Batchelder 2014-02-02 07:33:04 -0500 20) ], ffe1375c setup.py (Ned Batchelder 2013-01-22 12:10:21 -0500 21) install_requires=[ d47312e1 setup.py (Ned Batchelder 2014-02-02 07:33:04 -0500 22) 'lxml', 843f42eb setup.py (Calen Pennington 2014-12-11 08:25:51 -0500 23) 'markupsafe', 2ac249d5 setup.py (Will Daly 2014-03-13 18:20:48 -0400 24) 'python-dateutil', 843f42eb setup.py (Calen Pennington 2014-12-11 08:25:51 -0500 25) 'pytz', 843f42eb setup.py (Calen Pennington 2014-12-11 08:25:51 -0500 26) 'webob', 118d4817 setup.py (David Baumgold 2015-03-11 10:05:24 -0400 27) ], 118d4817 setup.py (David Baumgold 2015-03-11 10:05:24 -0400 28) license='Apache 2.0', 118d4817 setup.py (David Baumgold 2015-03-11 10:05:24 -0400 29) classifiers=( 118d4817 setup.py (David Baumgold 2015-03-11 10:05:24 -0400 30) "License :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software License 2.0", 118d4817 setup.py (David Baumgold 2015-03-11 10:05:24 -0400 31) ) 34adc933 xblock/setup.py (Ned Batchelder 2012-11-30 15:20:57 -0500 32) )
12. Ch 1: blame 25ad0c5f setup.py (Sarina Canelake 24c2a33d setup.py (Calen Pennington 34adc933 xblock/setup.py (Ned Batchelder deb68879 setup.py (Calen Pennington deb68879 setup.py (Calen Pennington 2013-07-09 14:42:28 -0400 1) """Set up for XBlock""" 2013-01-04 12:42:17 -0500 2) from setuptools import setup 2012-11-30 15:20:57 -0500 3) 2014-11-10 13:33:31 -0500 4) import versioneer 2014-11-10 13:33:31 -0500 5) versioneer.VCS = 'git'
13. Table of Contents Preface status, show Ch 1 blame Ch 2 cherry-pick Ch 3 reset Ch 4 rebase Ch 5 reflog Ch 6 squashing & splitting Ch 7 bisect
14. Ch 2: cherry-pick “Whoops, I committed to master when I meant to commit to my feature branch. I need to move my commit!”
15. $ git show commit 1d5b2e2b273dbb945c6bf5e541d5f1c725ac906d # ... ignore the rest ... $ git checkout feature Switched to branch 'feature' $ git cherry-pick 1d5b2e [master 8b8d32c] original commit message Date: Sun Mar 15 22:04:48 2015 -0400 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) Ch 2: cherry-pick
16. Ch 2: cherry-pick cherry-pick creates an entirely new commit based off the original, and it does not delete the original commit
17. Ch 3: reset “Alright, how do I remove J from master?”
18. Ch 3: reset $ git checkout master Switched to branch 'master' $ git reset --hard HEAD^ HEAD is now at 15f8130 made things work HEAD == “the commit I’m currently sitting on” HEAD^ == “this commit’s parent” HEAD^^ == “this commit’s grandparent” (etc)
19. Ch 3: reset reset reassigns the branch pointer J will get cleaned up by git’s garbage collector eventually
20. Table of Contents Preface status, show Ch 1 blame Ch 2 cherry-pick Ch 3 reset Ch 4 rebase Ch 5 reflog Ch 6 squashing & splitting Ch 7 bisect
21. WARNING rebase is a command for changing history! Use its awesome power responsibly! wibbly wobbly timey wimey is no fun when you’re on the receiving end.
22. WARNING Never change history when other people might be using your branch, unless they know you’re doing so. Never change history on master. Best practice: only change history for commits that have not yet been pushed.
23. Ch 4: rebase “master has changed since I started my feature branch, and I want to bring my branch up to date with master. What’s the best way to do that?” Don’t merge — rebase!
24. Ch 4: rebase • Finds the merge base • Cherry-picks all commits • Reassigns the branch pointer The branch has a new base — it has been re-based!
25. Ch 4: rebase $ git checkout feature Switched to branch 'feature' $ git rebase master First, rewinding head to replay your work on top of it... Applying: Added B.txt Applying: Added another line for B.txt Applying: Added a third line for B.txt
26. Ch 4: rebase $ git status On branch feature Your branch and 'origin/feature' have diverged, and have 6 and 3 different commits each, respectively. (use "git pull" to merge the remote branch into yours) nothing to commit, working directory clean
27. Ch 4: rebase Local Remote No way to go forward from I to I′: branches have diverged!
28. Ch 4: rebase $ git push To git@github.com:singingwolfboy/example.git ! [rejected] feature -> feature (non-fast-forward) error: failed to push some refs to 'git@github.com:singingwolfboy/example.git' hint: Updates were rejected because the tip of your current branch is behind hint: its remote counterpart. Integrate the remote changes (e.g. hint: 'git pull ...') before pushing again. hint: See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for details. “You want me to do what? But that would mean changing history! Are you sure that’s what you want?” git push is saying:
29. Ch 4: rebase $ git push -f Counting objects: 9, done. Delta compression using up to 4 threads. Compressing objects: 100% (7/7), done. Writing objects: 100% (9/9), 946 bytes | 0 bytes/s, done. Total 9 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0) To git@github.com:singingwolfboy/example.git + dc206fd...ef6a658 feature -> feature (forced update) Use git push -f to force it:
30. Ch 4: rebase $ git rebase master First, rewinding head to replay your work on top of it... Applying: Adding a different line to A.txt Using index info to reconstruct a base tree... M A.txt Falling back to patching base and 3-way merge... Auto-merging A.txt CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in A.txt Failed to merge in the changes. Patch failed at 0001 Adding a different line to A.txt The copy of the patch that failed is found in: /Users/singingwolfboy/example/.git/rebase-apply/patch When you have resolved this problem, run "git rebase --continue". If you prefer to skip this patch, run "git rebase --skip" instead. To check out the original branch and stop rebasing, run "git rebase --abort". Sometimes you get conflicts…
31. Ch 4: rebase $ git status rebase in progress; onto e98d69f You are currently rebasing branch 'conflicted' on 'e98d69f'. (fix conflicts and then run "git rebase --continue") (use "git rebase --skip" to skip this patch) (use "git rebase --abort" to check out the original branch) Unmerged paths: (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage) (use "git add <file>..." to mark resolution) both modified: A.txt no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a") git status will show you which files are in conflict
32. Ch 4: rebase $ cat A.txt line one <<<<<<< HEAD line two line three ======= this line is different >>>>>>> Adding a different line to A.txt Looks the same as a merge conflict!
33. Ch 4: rebase $ git status rebase in progress; onto e98d69f You are currently rebasing branch 'conflicted' on 'e98d69f'. (fix conflicts and then run "git rebase --continue") (use "git rebase --skip" to skip this patch) (use "git rebase --abort" to check out the original branch) But the resolution is different… git rebase --continue
34. Ch 4: rebase $ git status rebase in progress; onto e98d69f You are currently rebasing branch 'conflicted' on 'e98d69f'. (fix conflicts and then run "git rebase --continue") (use "git rebase --skip" to skip this patch) (use "git rebase --abort" to check out the original branch) If something’s wrong, and you want to start over… git rebase --abort
35. Ch 2: cherry-pick $ git cherry-pick e98d69f0a5942704076182139acb50856ca8bc7c error: could not apply e98d69f... Added a third line to A.txt hint: after resolving the conflicts, mark the corrected paths hint: with 'git add <paths>' or 'git rm <paths>' hint: and commit the result with 'git commit' You can get conflicts with cherry-pick, as well git status is still your friend!
36. Ch 2: cherry-pick $ git status On branch conflicted You are currently cherry-picking commit e98d69f. (fix conflicts and run "git cherry-pick --continue") (use "git cherry-pick --abort" to cancel the cherry- pick operation) Resolve the conflicts and then git cherry-pick --continue
37. Ch 2: cherry-pick $ git status On branch conflicted You are currently cherry-picking commit e98d69f. (fix conflicts and run "git cherry-pick --continue") (use "git cherry-pick --abort" to cancel the cherry- pick operation) Not worth the trouble? git cherry-pick --abort
38. Table of Contents Preface status, show Ch 1 blame Ch 2 cherry-pick Ch 3 reset Ch 4 rebase Ch 5 reflog Ch 6 squashing & splitting Ch 7 bisect throwback!
39. Ch 5: reflog git log git reflog shows commits in ancestor order shows commits in order of when you lasted referenced them
40. Ch 5: reflog “Oh no, I screwed up and I want to get back to the way things were before, but I didn’t write down the commit hash!” reflog to the rescue!
41. Ch 5: reflog $ git reflog 909bf0d HEAD@{0}: rebase: aborting e98d69f HEAD@{1}: rebase: checkout master 909bf0d HEAD@{2}: commit: Adding a different line to A.txt db06ae9 HEAD@{3}: checkout: moving from db06ae99d4b6 to conflicted db06ae9 HEAD@{4}: checkout: moving from master to db06ae99d4b6 e98d69f HEAD@{5}: checkout: moving from feature to master ef6a658 HEAD@{6}: rebase finished: returning to refs/heads/feature ef6a658 HEAD@{7}: rebase: Added a third line for B.txt f581b81 HEAD@{8}: rebase: Added another line for B.txt 75f0730 HEAD@{9}: rebase: Added B.txt e98d69f HEAD@{10}: rebase: checkout master Step 1: find the commit you want
42. Ch 5: reflog $ git checkout 3ca7892 Step 2: checkout the commit, and make sure it’s what you want Step 3: reset the branch pointer back to the commit $ git checkout feature $ git reset --hard 3ca7892
43. Table of Contents Preface status, show Ch 1 blame Ch 2 cherry-pick Ch 3 reset Ch 4 rebase Ch 5 reflog Ch 6 squashing & splitting Ch 7 bisect
44. Ch 6: squashing commits “Darn, I forgot to include this file in the commit I just made!” $ git add missing-file.txt $ git commit --amend Makes a new commit with your file added, and replaces the most recent commit with the new one! No more “added missing file” commit messages!
45. Ch 6: squashing commits “But I already have lots of commits like that! It’s not just my most recent commit…” $ git rebase --interactive Time to bring out the big guns.
46. Ch 6: squashing commits Interactive rebase needs somewhere to start. To look at the last 5 commits, you can use HEAD~5 (or use whatever number you want) $ git rebase --interactive HEAD~5 Git will open a file in your text editor, so that you can provide further instructions
47. Ch 6: squashing commits pick 11e8557 First commit! pick e98d69f Added a widget pick 75f0730 oops, missed a file pick f581b81 fixed a typo pick ef6a658 Added a second widget # Rebase db06ae9..ef6a658 onto db06ae9 # # Commands: # p, pick = use commit # r, reword = use commit, but edit the commit message # e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending # s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit # f, fixup = like "squash", but discard this commit's log message # x, exec = run command (the rest of the line) using shell instructions commits actions
48. Ch 6: squashing commits instructions commits actions pick 11e8557 First commit! pick e98d69f Added a widget squash 75f0730 oops, missed a file squash f581b81 fixed a typo pick ef6a658 Added a second widget # Rebase db06ae9..ef6a658 onto db06ae9 # # Commands: # p, pick = use commit # r, reword = use commit, but edit the commit message # e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending # s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit # f, fixup = like "squash", but discard this commit's log message # x, exec = run command (the rest of the line) using shell
49. Ch 6: squashing commits # This is a combination of 3 commits. # The first commit's message is: Added a widget # This is the 2nd commit message: oops, missed a file # This is the 3rd commit message: fixed a typo Saving and quitting your editor will cause it to immediately reopen so that you can write a new message for your single, squashed commit
50. Ch 6: squashing commits Save and quit again, and Git will apply the changes you requested. No more “fixed typo” commits! WARNING: squashing commits changes history! Only do this for unpushed commits!
51. Ch 6: splitting commits “My commit is too big, can I split it into smaller ones?” $ git rebase --interactive Let’s change some history.
52. Ch 6: splitting commits pick 21e8569 First commit! pick 198dc9f Did a bunch of things pick 79f0c3a Made the corners rounded # Rebase db067e9..79f0c3a onto db067e9 # # Commands: # p, pick = use commit # r, reword = use commit, but edit the commit message # e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending # s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit # f, fixup = like "squash", but discard this commit's log message # x, exec = run command (the rest of the line) using shell That second commit looks too big…
53. Ch 6: splitting commits pick 21e8569 First commit! edit 198dc9f Did a bunch of things pick 79f0c3a Made the corners rounded # Rebase db067e9..79f0c3a onto db067e9 # # Commands: # p, pick = use commit # r, reword = use commit, but edit the commit message # e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending # s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit # f, fixup = like "squash", but discard this commit's log message # x, exec = run command (the rest of the line) using shell So we’ll use the edit command!
54. Ch 6: splitting commits Git will pause in the rebase process, and give us as much time as we want to create some new commits $ git rebase -i HEAD~3 Stopped at 198dc9f... Did a bunch of things You can amend the commit now, with git commit --amend Once you are satisfied with your changes, run git rebase --continue
55. Ch 6: splitting commits The too-big commit is already present, so lets pop it off, but keep the changes: $ git reset HEAD^ Note that I am not using --hard, because I want to keep the changes
56. Ch 6: splitting commits $ git status rebase in progress; onto 6b44332 You are currently editing a commit while rebasing branch 'feature' on '6b44332'. (use "git commit --amend" to amend the current commit) (use "git rebase --continue" once you are satisfied with your changes) Untracked files: (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed) file1.py file2.py file3.py nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
57. Ch 6: splitting commits $ git add file1.py $ git commit -m "Detailed message for file1 changes" [detached HEAD f59aaee] Detailed message for file1 changes 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) $ git add file2.py $ git commit -m "Detailed message for file2 changes" [detached HEAD ceb16d3] Detailed message for file2 changes 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) $ git add file3.py $ git commit -m "Detailed message for file3 changes" [detached HEAD 6d2930a] Detailed message for file3 changes 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
58. Ch 6: splitting commits And of course, when we’re done: $ git rebase --continue Finish the rebase, and admire your cleaner commit history!
59. Table of Contents Preface status, show Ch 1 blame Ch 2 cherry-pick Ch 3 reset Ch 4 rebase Ch 5 reflog Ch 6 squashing & splitting Ch 7 bisect
60. Ch 7: bisect “The feature’s broken? But it was working just fine two months ago… what changed?” bisect will help you quickly find the commit that introduced the problem
61. Ch 7: bisect You need three things to use bisect: • A test to determine if things are broken
 (manual is OK, automated is better) • A commit where things were working • A commit where things are broken bisect will use binary search to find the commit where things went from good to bad
62. Ch 7: bisect $ git bisect start $ git checkout broken-commit $ git bisect bad $ git checkout working-commit $ git bisect good Git will checkout the commit in between the two you’ve provided, and ask you to test it and determine if its working or broken
63. Ch 7: bisect $ git bisect good If it’s working, run $ git bisect bad If it’s broken, run Either way, Git will use that information to determine the best commit to test next
64. Ch 7: bisect Broken Working ?
65. Ch 7: bisect Broken Working Broken Test here next
66. Ch 7: bisect Broken Working Working Test here next And keep going recursively….
67. Ch 7: bisect $ git bisect run my_test.sh If you have an automated test, it’s even faster! With that, Git can test, checkout, test, checkout, test until it finds the commit that caused the failure
68. Table of Contents Preface status, show Ch 1 blame Ch 2 cherry-pick Ch 3 reset Ch 4 rebase Ch 5 reflog Ch 6 squashing & splitting Ch 7 bisect DONE!
69. There’s so much more… $ git help rebase http://git-scm.com/doc Any questions? David Baumgold @singingwolfboy blame cherry-pick reset rebase reflog squash split bisect