Using version control is relatively easy, but it’s easy to get entangled when you go off the general routine.

So, below with good intentions, I mention some git pitfalls I’ve ran into, and what measures I’ve taken to solve them. Of course there can be a lot more to this list, but this might come in handy.



Problem 1

Need to remove last ‘n’ commits in a PR / committed additional changes and sent a PR already

Solution

Pretty long commit history? Follow along.

  1. Switch to the branch from which the PR has been sent - git checkout <PR_BRANCH>. This brings you to the latest commit on that branch.

  2. Let’s say I have 10 commits in the PR, and I need to remove commits after commit 6. That means commits (7, 8, 9, 10) are wrong, and need to be removed.

  3. I repeat, make sure you’re on commit 10 (i.e. last commit) of the PR’d branch.

  4. Do git rebase -i HEAD~4, and this should present before me the last 4 commits. Here, 4 should be the number of unwanted commits after the last good commit.

  5. In the list of commits that opens up, add the drop word before the hash of the commit you need to remove. So, your text editor may look like -

     drop 27a3c82 Commit message of a commit to be removed
 drop 09e1bb7 Another commit to be removed
 drop 17fe062 Yet another extra commit to be removed
 drop fd69808 This commit gotta go

 # Rebase 11b91a6..fd69808 onto 11b91a6 (4 commands)

  6. Now, doing git push -f origin <PR_BRANCH> should update your PR by removing those commits whose hash was preceeded by the drop keyword.

Problem 2

Made a typo in the last commit message

Solution

That’s an easy one, and also the most likely to happen. Try typing slow the next time.

  1. Check out the pushed branch.
  2. Run git commit --amend, and fix the typo and save the file which opens up with your commit message on it.
  3. Now, run git push origin <branch> -f, where <branch> is the branch you pushed the wrong commit to.
  4. Verify from GitHub that the commit message has been changed.

Problem 3

Badly messed up the master branch, and need to start over / master branch having issues I don’t bother to know, but want it reset anyway

Solution

Before you hit the fork button again, give it a read below.

  1. Checkout your master.
  2. Checkout the first commit on it (the very first one).
  3. Create and switch to a new temporary branch - git checkout -b tmp
  4. Now, git pull upstream master to mirror upstream/master to your local tmp.
  5. You don’t need the messed up version of the master. Delete it by git branch -D master
  6. Now, tmp is just like your master, except for it’s name. Rename it as git branch -m tmp master
  7. Further, run git push origin master to sync your origin/master with the upstream/master.

Problem 4

Cannot push a repository I cloned with --depth=x

Solution

Git/GitHub doesn’t allow that. But that don’t mean undoable.

  1. rf -rf .git
  2. git init
  3. Write your own history now.

Problem 5

Need to reset changes to just a file / don’t want to stash everything just to reset one file

Solution

Using editors like VS Code does make it more GUI, but you may need to do it via the command line.

The answer - git checkout <file>, when you need to reset all changes to that particular file.

Problem 6

Need to stage only “some” changes (not all) in a particular file / don’t wanna “add” the whole file, rather “add” only some changes in it

Solution

So you went with the flow of making changes, and later realised that you had to follow atomic commits. The concept of interactive staging can prove handy here.

Use git add --patch <file>, and follow what shows up next. There are many choices, and y and n alone did my job most of the times. But, you may also want to use e and s for more control.

y stages the visible change (hunk), and goes on to ask for the next change (top-down fashion). When done adding changes for the commit, go for n.

This basically allows you to stage only that specific change out of all changes in <file>. When that has been done, it’s time to commit that small change with a nice little message.

Problem 7

Stuck in a rebase? Trust me, it’s the last thing you need to do to get pinned down.

Solution

The magic lies in git rebase -abort.

You might already know this, but this is like getting a new life at times. Saved my life, might as well save yours :)


Notes

This isn’t a great list, but hope to add more such random problems as they come up.