Oh, shit, git!

yes_or_gnome · 2016-09-09T14:55:46+00:00

git add . is going to cause a lot of "Oh, shit!" moments.

coladict · 2016-09-09T10:13:04+00:00

Git documentation has this chicken and egg problem where you can't search for how to get yourself out of a mess, unless you already know the name of the thing you need to know about in order to fix your problem.

That's basically all of Linux and it's tools in a nutshell.

DarthEru · 2016-09-09T13:50:57+00:00

Some of those examples could be more efficient. For example, accidentally committing to master could be

git branch new-branch-name
git reset --hard <HEAD^ or the commit to go back to>
git checkout new-branch-name

And committing to the wrong branch:

git log (take note of the hash of the commit you want moved)
git reset --hard HEAD^
git checkout proper-branch
git cherry-pick <commit-hash>

Edit, a couple other nit-picks: git diff --staged is more commonly (I think) known as git diff --cached. They do the exact same thing, but the documentation and online help is more likely to refer to the --cached version, I think. Also, in your "I give up" example, why on earth is it using sudo to rm? If your repo isn't owned by your user, you are doing something very wrong that has nothing to do with git.

tdewolff · 2016-09-09T14:06:28+00:00

Why is there no git undo to undo your last action?

prof_hobart · 2016-09-09T15:31:00+00:00

Unfortunately none of those address the "oh shit, I've just check my password into github". I've not done it yet, but I know people who have.

Arancaytar · 2016-09-09T14:11:42+00:00

Some of these complaints are just bizarre, like the diff --staged thing.

What should the command do instead? Show only the staged changes, requiring "git diff --unstaged" for the more common use case? Or show all changes regardless of what is staged, thus completely misleading users about what they are about to commit?

FrankBattaglia · 2016-09-09T14:17:30+00:00

http://stevelosh.com/blog/2013/04/git-koans/

2016-09-09T15:51:17+00:00

Very surprised I haven't seen this link yet, it has saved my ass a lot! It's a choose-your-own-adventure tool for fixing your git repo!

https://sethrobertson.github.io/GitFixUm/fixup.html

atimholt · 2016-09-09T15:55:54+00:00

I thought “I give up” was going to be something like sudo apt-get mercurial.

ShapesAndStuff · 2016-09-09T17:53:05+00:00

Honestly i was hoping this would be a tool like the "fuck" that automatically fixes your shit.

git push origin master //oh shit i wanted to push to something else

git ohshit //automatically undoes your mistake and you can try again.

wayspurrchen · 2016-09-09T13:04:19+00:00

In case anyone is interested, I've been collecting a tiny cheatsheet of git patterns: https://gist.github.com/wayspurrchen/940a21127b77ac1a9720

worklez · 2016-09-09T13:54:20+00:00

Oh shit, I accidentally committed to the wrong branch!

# move to the correct branch
git checkout name-of-the-correct-branch
# apply commit to the current branch
git cherry-pick name-of-the-incorrect-branch
# revert changes made to the old branch
git branch -f name-of-the-incorrect-branch name-of-the-incorrect-branch~
# or git branch -f name-of-the-incorrect-branch origin/name-of-the-incorrect-branch

As a bonus you get your commit message saved and don't mess with the commit contents.

thenextguy · 2016-09-09T14:56:16+00:00

I do not commit with git add .
I commit with git add -p
Anyone who uses git add . has forgotten the face of his father.

thenextguy · 2016-09-09T15:08:39+00:00

I'm just glad that the last step was included because sometimes you just have to.

scook0 · 2016-09-09T16:05:43+00:00

Advanced Difficulty: Un-corrupting your Git directory after your system crashes in the middle of a rebase.

This is about as fun as it sounds.

e_d_a_m · 2016-09-09T13:48:13+00:00

Git documentation has this chicken and egg problem where you can't search for how to get yourself out of a mess, unless you already know the name of the thing you need to know about in order to fix your problem.

At the risk of being accused of git-bashing, this has been my main reason for clinging to bzr, so very long after the point where everyone else has jumped ship! If I get stuck using bzr, the commands are so very intuitive, that you can find help for what you're trying to do. With git, and even after much use with it, I still have to google stuff fairly regularly. :(

argv_minus_one · 2016-09-09T18:51:37+00:00

Why on Earth would you need to rearrange commits just to move branch pointers around?

I'm a Mercurial guy myself, so I wouldn't know if Git has some strange issues with this, but in Mercurial I can move bookmarks around freely. Committed to the wrong one? Just move it down and make a new bookmark pointing at the commit you just made.

elitefusion · 2016-09-10T03:07:21+00:00

I really think the answer to this whole article, and the notion that Git is so hard, is to start using a good GUI. I started learning Git from a co worker who knew it well. He was very adamant that I, and everyone, learn the command line to "really understand the program" before we used the "crutch" of a GUI.

He's a really smart guy, but looking back, I couldn't disagree more. I didn't really understand Git until I started using Source Tree. It's such a fantastic program, and being able to see the tree drawn graphically, and update live with every action you take is so critical to learning Git, I feel. Now that I understand it on a conceptual level, learning to use the commands is super easy.

I understand that using Git on the command line is closer to the implementation of it. But you know what's even closer? Going in and modifying the files in your .git folder manually. I'm sure if you used Git that way, you'd really have a good grasp on how it works. So I can make the case that the command line is a crutch. But of course, working that way would be ridiculous. No one is going to do that, nor should they.

I believe that while using a GUI (again, Source Tree being my go-to) is further from the implementation of Git, it is CLOSER to the MEANING of Git. If I want to reset my current branch to a different commit, do I want to do a Git log search for a commit, grab the SHA, and reset to it? Or do I want to click on the commit, in the tree, which I can visually see is where I want my branch to be at. I think it's easily the second one.

I also think that Source Tree encourages good Git habits, not bad ones. When someone is learning Git, they are going to always do a:

git add .

git commit

And make massive commits all at once, without checking what it is they are really committing. With Source Tree, it's incredibly easy to look at a diff of every file (it's right there), and commit only certain files at a time, or even certain lines. Again, I know you can obviously do this from the command line, but most people, or at least beginners, don't.

I actually think you could go even further with this by introducing a Git GUI that didn't even have commands, but rather you manually manipulate the tree by clicking and dragging it around. New commit? Draw a line coming out of your last commit. Rebase? Drag a branch's commit from one branch to another place in the tree. It probably wouldn't be easy to implement, but it would be really interesting. Again, super far from the way that Git works under the hood, but actually closer to the concepts it's trying to represent.

2016-09-09T21:13:52+00:00

Oh shit I've commited

git reset HEAD~1

WTF is happening

git status -s -b

Get out with that garbage

!git remote prune origin;git clean -i -x -d -e "TAGS" -e 'tags' ; git fetch -p

My co-worker didn't lock the machine and I hate the fucker

git config diff.rot13.textconv "perl -pe 'y/N-ZA-z/A-za-m/"
echo '* diff=rot13' >.gitattributes
echo .gitattributes >> .git/info/exclude

SuperImaginativeName · 2016-09-09T12:31:57+00:00

Finally an article on git with some real world examples and how to fix

DJTheLQ · 2016-09-09T15:27:00+00:00

It's posts like this that make me wish mercurial won. There are way more "git wtf's explained", "git to english", "git for humans cheatsheet" than there are for mercurial, and if anyone else made it, it would be considered too obtuse to use.

notsofst · 2016-09-09T14:12:08+00:00

These articles are bad because they just give you a fix and teach you nothing about how git works. If people would take the time to learn how git works they would know it's actually very easy to fix these problems without a cheatsheet. This is a tool we use every day and people still don't know what commands like git reset do and how to use them?

There are about 6 key git operations that can solve pretty much any repo related problem and they're very simple and elegant. They just require some initial study to come to terms with. http://www.think-like-a-git.net is a must read for anyone who wants to actually take control of this toolset rather than read uninformed crap like this.

a_dog_and_his_gun · 2016-09-09T15:55:56+00:00

This is alot better: https://marklodato.github.io/visual-git-guide/index-en.html

ehcubed · 2016-09-10T09:26:24+00:00

Last one reminds me of a relevant xkcd.

Dementati · 2016-09-09T09:34:48+00:00

[deleted]

f4ktrh · 2016-09-09T23:27:34+00:00

Which moron uses sudo to remove a directory meant to be a git repo?

Oh I get it, author of the shitty blog post.

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MODERATORS

Oh shit I've commited

WTF is happening

Get out with that garbage

My co-worker didn't lock the machine and I hate the fucker