Git is the tool every developer uses daily and few people truly master. You don’t need to know every command \u2014 but a handful of good habits will make your history cleaner, your code reviews easier and your mistakes reversible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A good commit message explains what changed and why<\/strong>. The widely used convention:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compare these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many teams also use Conventional Commits<\/strong> prefixes such as One commit = one logical change. Small commits are easier to review, easier to understand later and much easier to revert if something breaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use interactive staging to commit only part of a file:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep Then open a pull request. Branches that live for weeks drift away from Use Regularly bring the latest changes into your branch so conflicts stay small:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rebase<\/strong> gives a clean, linear history; merge<\/strong> preserves exactly what happened. Both are fine \u2014 just agree as a team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Never rebase a branch that other people are also working on. Rebasing rewrites history and will cause headaches for everyone else who has pulled it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before opening a pull request, you can squash “oops” and “typo” commits into meaningful ones:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the editor, change Never commit build output, dependencies, editor settings or secrets. A typical web project might include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Templates for almost every language are available at github.com\/github\/gitignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n API keys and passwords in Git history are effectively public once pushed \u2014 even if you delete them in a later commit. Keep them in environment variables or a secrets manager. If a secret does leak, rotate it immediately<\/strong>; deleting it from history isn’t enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Write clear messages, keep commits small, use short-lived branches, sync with Clean commits, sensible branches and stress-free merges. The Git habits that make you a better teammate \u2014 plus the commands that save you when things go wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[11,20,21,29],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programming","tag-best-practices","tag-git","tag-github","tag-productivity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexooraclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexooraclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexooraclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexooraclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexooraclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexooraclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexooraclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexooraclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexooraclub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Short summary in the imperative (max ~50 chars)\n\nLonger explanation of what and why, wrapped at 72 characters.\nMention the problem being solved, not just the code touched.\n\nFixes #142<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n\n
fixed stuff<\/code><\/li>\n\n\nupdate<\/code><\/li>\n\n\nFix checkout crash when cart is empty<\/code><\/li>\n\n\nAdd rate limiting to login endpoint<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nfeat:<\/code>, fix:<\/code>, docs:<\/code> and refactor:<\/code>, which allow changelogs to be generated automatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. Make small, focused commits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
git add -p # review and stage changes hunk by hunk\ngit commit<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n3. Use short-lived feature branches<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
main<\/code> always deployable. Do your work on a branch named after what you’re doing:<\/p>\n\n\n\ngit switch -c feature\/user-avatars\n# ...work, commit...\ngit push -u origin feature\/user-avatars<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nmain<\/code> and create painful merge conflicts \u2014 aim to merge within a few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\ngit switch<\/code> and git restore<\/code> instead of the older, overloaded git checkout<\/code>. They’re clearer and harder to misuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n4. Stay up to date with main<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
git fetch origin\ngit rebase origin\/main # or: git merge origin\/main<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n5. Tidy up before you share<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
git rebase -i origin\/main<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\npick<\/code> to squash<\/code> (or fixup<\/code>) for commits you want to combine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n6. Use a proper .gitignore<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
node_modules\/\ndist\/\n.env\n.DS_Store\n*.log\n.vscode\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n7. Never commit secrets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Commands that save the day<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
git status # what's going on right now?\ngit log --oneline --graph # compact visual history\ngit diff --staged # review what you're about to commit\n\ngit commit --amend # fix the last commit message or add a forgotten file\ngit restore <file> # discard uncommitted changes to a file\ngit stash \/ git stash pop # park work in progress temporarily\ngit revert <commit> # safely undo a commit that's already pushed\n\ngit reflog # find \"lost\" commits after a bad reset or rebase<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\ngit reflog<\/code> is the ultimate safety net: it records where your branch pointed at every step, so even “deleted” commits can usually be recovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSummary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
main<\/code> often and keep secrets out of your repo. Master these habits and Git stops being scary \u2014 it becomes your time machine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"