Working with GIT version control systems always have received a mixed bag of reviews. Some find it really easy and manageable, while others struggle with working with it and look for better updates to the open project.

Today, we’re uncovering the hidden abilities of some of the GIT commands to give you more confidence in working with it. You may also get exposed to the new magical commands.

The following hacks will always keep your mind ready to play with GIT

_{How to Use Git for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide}

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Git is a crucial tool for developers, helping you manage changes to your projects and collaborate with others.

If you're new to Git, this guide will help you get started.

_{1. Understanding Git and Version Control}

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Git is a distributed version control system that tracks changes in your files and allows multiple people to work on the same project simultaneously.

It’s particularly useful for software development but can be applied to any project where tracking changes is important.

_{2. Setting Up Git}

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Before you start using Git, you'll need to install it on your system:

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1. Windows: Download the Git installer from git-scm.com, run the installer, and follow the setup instructions.

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2. macOS: Install Git using Homebrew by running the command brew install git in your terminal.

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3. Linux: Use your package manager to install Git (e.g., sudo apt-get install git for Ubuntu).

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The hidden abilities of GIT

There will be dark times in your source code committing life- you may even see errors while connecting to GIT. Sometimes the origin for the repository may get reset based on patches updates or windows updates that may ruin your day. Don’t worry, always make sure the configurations are good to go with. 

git remote -v will always help you check if the remote configurations are in place or not. If not you can always set the remote url pointing to origin using the following command:

git remote –set-url origin the-remote-url-here

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Humans are meant to make mistakes, so do people using GIT. Many-a-times, you might add a file to indexing which you may not want. Undo is the first option that comes to mind. And the GIT community was wise enough to have a managed command ready for us to do that.

 git reset /file/path/here

In case, you made a much bigger mistake, that you even committed the code, don’t worry. The following commands will help you here:

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git reset --soft HEAD~1
git reset /file/path/here
git rm /file/path/here
git commit 

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In a hurry, it’s easy to forget adding a file to your commit. No worries! The option “amend” has got you covered:

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git add /file/path/here
git commit — amend 

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In case you push something wrongly or in the wrong state on remote, you need to be cautious.

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git push origin — delete <branchname> </branchname>

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Now go back to your console github/bitbucket, and voila! The branch is no longer in the list. But always remember, any branch you delete on remote is always archived and can be retrieved later. So be cautious before you push something confidential to remote.

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Most of the times when you have uncommitted changes, git won’t allow you to pull from remote since the changes may get wrongly overridden. But when you do really meaningful and significant work, you don’t want to revert your changes. But you still want to get the latest pull. 

This is a situation that happens everyday in the life of git user. In case you have been away from this, learn the following command:

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git stash

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This would stash your existing changes, without the need to commit them and allowing you to take the latest pull and further work on your own changes too. Told you, this is all magical!

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“Did you just merge the branches that weren't required? How can you do that?” 

Before your boss asks you these questions, make sure you know that ‘revert’ exists!  First, let’s understand how a merge works first. It simply makes the HEAD point to a specific commit. Now you only need to get the HEAD to a better place, where the issues don’t exist.

Run the following command and the HEAD pointer in GIT is back to the right commit you wanted.

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git revert HEAD 

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Reverting commands have many other customizations available, like you can make HEAD point to a particular commit. But now you know, you can revert things back to a stable state and simply dodge most of the issues.

The above mentioned hacks are frequent occurring scenarios in GIT. Once you add them to your bucket, GIT seems simpler.

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We hope this blog has helped you understand GIT a little bit more. 

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