Git commit history commands
Git provides a rich set of commands that allow you to explore, analyze, and understand the evolution of your codebase over time. By leveraging these history commands, you can gain valuable insights, track changes, and effectively collaborate with your team.
In this section, we will dive into a variety of Git history commands that empower you to navigate through commit history, inspect changes, view branches and tags, blame specific lines of code, and more. By mastering these commands, you will be able to uncover the story behind your code, understand who made changes, when the changes occurred, and why they were made.
By understanding the intricate details of your Git history, you can improve code quality, resolve issues faster, and make informed decisions for future development. Whether you need to track down a bug, review the progression of a feature, or understand the impact of a certain change, Git history commands provide valuable tools for investigation and analysis.
Explore the world of Git history commands and unlock the power to unveil the evolutionary journey of your codebase.
Modify previous commit and messages
$ git commit --amend
Add the --amend option to overwrite the latest commit of the branch you’re working on.
When there are no files in an index, you can recommit the previous commit by adding the --amend option, and you’ll be prompted to edit the existing commit message.
See:
Modify & move past commit and messages
$ git rebase -i <commit>
Add a commit hash and a list of all commits up to the latest commit will be listed. Find the commit you wish to modify, and change that line from pick to edit then save and quit.
Next, add the --amend option to commit. A screen for adding a message will be displayed. Modify the message.
$ git commit --amend
Finally, add the --continue option to run rebase.
$ git rebase --continue
See:
Exit rebase
$ git rebase --abort
By adding the --abort option, you can exit the rebase operation.
Show reference log
$ git reflog
The reflog command allows you to see a list of commits that HEAD used to indicate in the past.
08084a5 HEAD@{0}: commit: append description of the pull command
99daed2 HEAD@{1}: commit: append description of the commit command
48eec1d HEAD@{2}: checkout: moving from main to issue1
326fc9f HEAD@{3}: commit: append description of the add command
48eec1d HEAD@{4}: commit (initial): first commit
Both deleted and successful commits gathered by rebase will be displayed.
Show reference log of branch tip
$ git reflog <ref>
This will show a list of commits for each time the tip of <ref> has changed, similar to below.
445e0ae issue1@{0}: commit (merge): Merge branch 'main' into issue1
1c904bd issue1@{1}: commit (amend): modify description of the pull command
08084a5 issue1@{2}: commit: append description of the pull command
99daed2 issue1@{3}: commit: append description of the commit command
48eec1d issue1@{4}: branch: Created from 48eec1ddf73a7fb508ef664efd6b3d873631742f
We can see the rebase history of both deleted and existing commits.
Remove previous commit
$ git reset --hard HEAD~
See:
Reset rebase
$ git reset --hard <commit>
Use the reflog command to look up commits before they were rebased. Identify the commit hash or the value of [HEAD@{number}] of the commit that occurred before the rebase. In this example, 71bdfbd and HEAD@{4} are the references to the commit.
a51f8d2 HEAD@{0}: rebase -i (finish): returning to refs/heads/dev
a51f8d2 HEAD@{1}: rebase -i (squash): update 1
3a273e1 HEAD@{2}: rebase -i (squash): updating HEAD
f55ef69 HEAD@{3}: checkout: moving from dev to f55ef69
71bdfbd HEAD@{4}: commit: update 2
f55ef69 HEAD@{5}: commit (amend): update 1
Add the hash value (71bdfbd and HEAD@{4}) to <commit> when running the reset command.
The head position of the branch will now move to the commit before the rebase was executed. The state of the branch now will be identical to that before rebase was executed.
Cancel previous reset
$ git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD
ORIG_HEAD refers to the commit before reset took place. You can revert the previous reset by using reset to ORIG_HEAD.
Copy commit from another branch
$ git cherry-pick "<commit>"
The commit identified by its hash will be copied to the current branch.
See:
Search for commit message
$ git log --grep "<pattern>"
Displays commits with text specified in <pattern>.