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 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:

```plaintext
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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