z z Posted on May 31 5 Git Commands I Wish I Knew 5 Years Ago # git # programming # productivity # tutorial Most Git tutorials show you add , commit , push . But the commands that actually save you are the ones nobody teaches. Here are 5 I use weekly. 1. git reflog — Your Undo History Ever deleted a branch or lost commits after a bad rebase? git reflog shows EVERYTHING you've done in Git for the last 90 days. git reflog # Find the hash of your lost commit, then: git checkout < hash > # View it git branch recovered < hash > # Save it Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode This has saved me more times than I can count. 2. git bisect — Find the Bug Automatically Instead of checking commits one by one to find when a bug was introduced, let Git do a binary search: git bisect start git bisect bad HEAD # Current version has the bug git bisect good v1.0 # v1.0 was working fine # Git checks out the middle commit. Test it: git bisect good # or: git bisect bad # Repeat until Git tells you the exact commit that broke things Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode From hours of manual checking to 5 iterations. 3. git stash — Switch Context in 1 Second You're working on a feature, and suddenly need to fix a critical bug on main . Don't commit half-done work: git stash # Save all changes and go back to clean state git checkout main # Switch to main, fix the bug git checkout feature-branch # Come back git stash pop # Restore your in-progress work Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode 4. git reset --soft HEAD~1 — Undo Without Losing Work Made a commit too early? Want to split it or change the message? This undoes the last commit but keeps all your changes staged: git reset --soft HEAD~1 # Your files are exactly as they were. Just re-commit when ready. Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode (If you want to delete the changes too, use --hard instead — but careful.) 5. git push --force-with-lease — The Safe Force Push Never use git push --force . It silently
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