gitlab-org--gitlab-foss/doc/topics/git/useful_git_commands.md

---
type: reference
---

# Useful Git commands

Here are some useful Git commands collected by the GitLab support team. You may not
need to use often, but they can can come in handy when needed.

## Remotes

### Add another URL to a remote, so both remotes get updated on each push

```shell
git remote set-url --add <remote_name> <remote_url>
```

## Staging and reverting changes

### Remove last commit and leave the changes in unstaged

```shell
git reset --soft HEAD^
```

### Unstage a certain number of commits from HEAD

To unstage 3 commits, for example, run:

```shell
git reset HEAD^3
```

### Unstage changes to a certain file from HEAD

```shell
git reset <filename>
```

### Revert a file to HEAD state and remove changes

There are two options to revert changes to a file:

- `git checkout <filename>`
- `git reset --hard <filename>`

### Undo a previous commit by creating a new replacement commit

```shell
git revert <commit-sha>
```

### Create a new message for last commit

```shell
git commit --amend
```

### Add a file to the last commit

```shell
git add <filename>
git commit --amend
```

Append `--no-edit` to the `commit` command if you do not want to edit the commit
message.

## Stashing

### Stash changes

```shell
git stash save
```

The default behavior of `stash` is to save, so you can also use just:

```shell
git stash
```

### Unstash your changes

```shell
git stash apply
```

### Discard your stashed changes

```shell
git stash drop
```

### Apply and drop your stashed changes

```shell
git stash pop
```

## Refs and Log

### Use reflog to show the log of reference changes to HEAD

```shell
git reflog
```

### Check the Git history of a file

The basic command to check the Git history of a file:

```shell
git log <file>
```

If you get this error message:

```text
fatal: ambiguous argument <file_name>: unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
```

Use this to check the Git history of the file:

```shell
git log -- <file>
```

### Find the tags that contain a particular SHA

```shell
git tag --contains <sha>
```

### Check the content of each change to a file

```shell
gitk <file>
```

### Check the content of each change to a file, follows it past file renames

```shell
gitk --follow <file>
```

## Debugging

### Use a custom SSH key for a Git command

```shell
GIT_SSH_COMMAND="ssh -i ~/.ssh/gitlabadmin" git <command>
```

### Debug cloning

With SSH:

```shell
GIT_SSH_COMMAND="ssh -vvv" git clone <git@url>
```

With HTTPS:

```shell
GIT_TRACE_PACKET=1 GIT_TRACE=2 GIT_CURL_VERBOSE=1 git clone <url>
```

### Debugging with Git embedded traces

Git includes a complete set of [traces for debugging Git commands](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Internals-Environment-Variables#_debugging), for example:

- `GIT_TRACE_PERFORMANCE=1`: enables tracing of performance data, showing how long each particular `git` invocation takes.
- `GIT_TRACE_SETUP=1`: enables tracing of what `git` is discovering about the repository and environment it’s interacting with.
- `GIT_TRACE_PACKET=1`: enables packet-level tracing for network operations.

## Rebasing

### Rebase your branch onto master

The -i flag stands for 'interactive':

```shell
git rebase -i master
```

### Continue the rebase if paused

```shell
git rebase --continue
```

### Use `git rerere`

To _reuse_ recorded solutions to the same problems when repeated:

```shell
git rerere
```

To enable `rerere` functionality:

```shell
git config --global rerere.enabled true
```

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