Git
DOs and DONTs
Hints and Common Pitfalls
Matthias Mnnich, July 19th
2011
Hint 1:
Separate Local Branches
recommended: One Change, One
Branch
easy checkout your isolated changes
amend / rebase if necessary and push again
delete branches that got obsolete
fetch fresh branch information
branches can be deleted with d if commits
are public
Hint 1:
Separate Local Branches
name your branches to remember
the source and the intention
mergeHana
ISCrashFix_f4d
B1234_hana
Hint 2:
Switching the target branch
you intended to work on feature1 for
hana
=> branch : feature1_hana
now it should go to orange
git checkout b feature1_orange
origin/orange
git log feature1_hana to get the
hash(es)
git cherry-pick <hash>
Hint 3:
Do not switch branches during build!
switching branches with checkout
changes working directory
use hdbenvinit to set up a second
workspace
e.g. for git only tasks
Hint 4:
When to merge, when to rebase?
Merge public branches for integrations
done by topic owners
$
$
$
$
git fetch
git checkout b mergeIntoHana origin/hana
git merge --no-ff --no-commit origin/dev
git commit
- adjust the commit message
Do not rebase merge commits.
Always begin with the first command to redo a merge.
Hint 4:
When to merge, when to rebase?
Rebase local branches containing
YOUR UNPUBLISHED changes H feature
-1
$ git checkout b feature-1
origin/test
origin/te
$ hack hack hack
st
$ git commit
$ git fetch
$ git rebase origin/test
G
1
F
2
C
B
A
E
1
feature
-1
Hint 4:
When to merge, when to rebase?
Unpublished means:
not yet merged to any public branch
Your means:
your local changes that come up in your
history
if you think this is always obvious, wait
for the next slide
Hint 5:
What is a rebase of public commits?
What exactly does a rebase?
$ git checkout mybranch
$ git rebase origin/dev
Go to the latest commit in origin/dev
Put on top everything that mybranch has,
but origin/dev doesnt
Right questions: What exactly gets
rebased?
Hint 5:
What is a rebase of public commits?
Simple case:
mybranch has been based on origin/dev
-> OK
origin/d
ev
B
A
mybran
ch
Hint 5:
What is a rebase of public commits?
First bad case:
mybranch has been based on origin/fixes-for-dev
D
mybran
ch
C
origin/d
ev
origin/fixes-fordev
B is rebased on origin/dev but is already public
Hint 5:
What is a rebase of public commits?
Second bad case : Rebase after merge
mybran
ch
D
B
origin/d
ev
origin/fixes-fordev
C
A
simplified graph
B is again put on dev (but B is already public on
f4d)
Hint 6:
Recover from unintended situations
use local branches as markers
if you are not sure about the upcoming
operation
git branch save_me
to easily get back to states
mark important commits
Hint 6:
Recover from unintended situations
git reflog: history of your local actions e.g.
with commit hashes
fc2180e HEAD@{0}:
checkout: moving from secondbranch to master
28e2275 HEAD@{1}:
commit: second commit
fc2180e HEAD@{2}:
checkout: moving from master to secondbranch
Hint 6:
Recover from unintended situations
git reflog g <branch>
history of local actions for a certain local
branch
Hint 6:
Recover from unintended situations
If you think you did something wrong
1. save console log to have the command history and
output
2. find important commits (gitk / reflog / cons. log)
3. mark important commits
4. temporary commit dirty files
5. think about the next actions
6. in most situations a fresh branch and cherry-picking
your marked local commits is the most efficient way
This usually only takes some minutes.
Hint 7:
Cherry-Picking done right
Avoid cross-branch cherry-picking of
public commits
Potential conflicts have to be solved
upstream
Only push one commit when doing
local cherry picking
not the original one AND the picked one
Hint 8:
Getting your changes in quickly
fetch and rebase before push
this reduces the merge path
avoids conflicts while merging in
changes
use commands provided by Gerrit
Webinterface (checkout, cherry-pick)
build and test locally before pushing
Hint 9:
What is local, what is remote?
remote (porcelain) commands:
clone
fetch
push
pull
local (porcelain) commands:
everything else (commit, add, rebase,
merge, status, checkout, )
Hint 10:
Do not use pull!
Pull is
fetch and merge
If you rebase afterwards:
potential rebase of public commits
Just dont use it in our infrastructure
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