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Derek Pinkerton

Web Developer @ Voice

Git Quick Reference

I’m just getting started using git and so far I’ve used mostly GitHub Desktop and WebStorm’s built-in git support. I’m adding some common commands here as a quick reference for myself when I need/want to use terminal instead.

Moving committed changes to a new branch

I sometimes accidentally commit changes on the master branch locally. If that is a protected branch on the remote server that you cannot commit directly to, you need to move these changes to another branch and rollback master.

Note: Any changes not committed will be lost.

git branch newbranch      # Create a new branch, saving the desired commits
git reset --hard HEAD~3   # Move master back by 3 commits (GONE from master)
git checkout newbranch    # Go to the new branch that still has the desired commits

But do make sure how many commits to go back. Alternatively, you can instead of HEAD~3, simply provide the hash of the commit (or the reference like origin/master) you want to “revert back to” on the master (/current) branch, e.g:

git reset --hard a1b2c3d4

Similar approach with slightly different commands

git checkout -b newbranch # Create a new branch that includes the desired commits (current state of master)
git checkout master       # Switch back to master
git reset --hard HEAD~1   # Move master back by 1 commit (GONE from master)
git checkout newbranch    # Go to the new branch that still has the desired commits