Gitv2.45INTERMEDIATE

Git Modern Command Reference & Internal Architecture

High-density Git cheat sheet covering interactive staging, branch rebase workflows, reflog recovery, and visual branch architecture.

12 min read

Category: DevOps

Core Commands & Staging

Staging files, interactive hunk commits, and status checking.

Interactive Staging & Commits

Selectively stage hunks and format conventional commits.

Staging Command Reference

Command	Scope	Working Tree Effect	Use Case
git add <path>	Selected file or path	None	Stage a complete intentional change
git add -p	Selected hunks	None	Split mixed edits into focused commits
git restore --staged <path>	Selected staged path	Keeps working-tree edits	Remove a file from the next commit
git diff	Unstaged changes	None	Review what remains outside the index
git diff --staged	Staged changes	None	Review the exact next commit

BASH

Open Visualizing Git Sandbox

# Interactive hunk staging

git add -p

# Stage all tracked modifications

git add -u

# Commit with inline message

git commit -m "feat: add user authentication flow"

Code Annotations:

git add -p

Interactively prompts to stage individual code hunks instead of entire files

💡

Conventional Commits

Use prefixes like feat:, fix:, docs:, refactor:, or test: for automated changelogs.

stagingcommitadd

Branching & Interactive Rebase

Branch management, rebasing onto main, and interactive squashing.

Branch Workflows & Interactive Rebase

Maintain a clean linear git history with interactive rebasing.

Visual Architecture & Flowchart

Mermaid.js

graph TD MainBranch["Main Branch: C1 -> C2 -> C3"] FeatureBranch["Feature Branch: C2 -> F1 -> F2"] RebaseResult["Rebased Linear: C1 -> C2 -> C3 -> F1' -> F2'"] MainBranch --> RebaseResult FeatureBranch --> RebaseResult

BASH

Practice on Learn Git Branching

# Create and switch to feature branch

git checkout -b feature/login

# Rebase feature branch onto updated main

git fetch origin

git rebase origin/main

# Interactive rebase last 4 commits

git rebase -i HEAD~4

Code Annotations:

git rebase -i HEAD~4

Launches interactive editor to pick, reword, squash, or drop commits

⚡

Golden Rule of Rebasing

Never rebase a public branch that other team members are actively pulling from.

📌

Autostash On Rebase

Use git rebase --autostash to automatically stash uncommitted changes before rebasing.

branchingrebasemerge

Undo & Reflog Recovery

Recovering lost commits, soft/hard resets, and reflog time travel.

Git Reflog & Emergency Recovery

Recovering deleted branches or bad resets using HEAD history.

BASH

# Inspect HEAD movement reflog

git reflog

# Restore lost commit HEAD@{2}

git checkout -b recovered-branch HEAD@{2}

# Hard reset to specific reflog entry

git reset --hard HEAD@{1}

Code Annotations:

git reflog

Logs every single HEAD movement locally, even for deleted branches or resets

git reflog»314f44c HEAD@{0}: commit: feat: initial DevSheets MVP

💡

Reflog Expiration

Git keeps reflog entries for 90 days before garbage collection runs.

⚡

Hard Reset Danger

git reset --hard permanently discards uncommitted working directory changes.

reflogundorecovery

Related References

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INTERMEDIATE

62 MIN