Advanced Git Cheat Sheet

Cherry-Pick

Apply specific commit to current branch.

git cherry-pick <commit-hash>

Cherry-pick without committing:

git cherry-pick -n <commit-hash>

Cherry-pick range of commits:

git cherry-pick <start-commit>..<end-commit>

Bisect - Find Bug Introduction

Binary search to find commit that introduced a bug.

git bisect start
git bisect bad  # current commit is bad
git bisect good <commit-hash>  # known good commit

Mark each commit as good or bad:

git bisect good  # or
git bisect bad

End bisect session:

git bisect reset

Submodules

Add a submodule to your repository.

git submodule add <repository-url> <path>

Clone repository with submodules:

git clone --recursive <repository-url>

Initialize and update submodules:

git submodule init
git submodule update

Update all submodules to latest:

git submodule update --remote

Worktrees

Create multiple working directories from one repository.

git worktree add <path> <branch-name>

List all worktrees:

git worktree list

Remove worktree:

git worktree remove <path>

Prune deleted worktrees:

git worktree prune

Interactive Rebase

Edit, reorder, or squash commits.

git rebase -i HEAD~5

Commands in interactive rebase:

# pick = use commit
# reword = use commit, edit message
# edit = use commit, stop for amending
# squash = combine with previous
# fixup = like squash, discard message
# drop = remove commit

Reflog Recovery

Recover lost commits or branches.

git reflog

Restore to specific reflog entry:

git reset --hard HEAD@{2}

Filter Branch

Rewrite entire branch history.

git filter-branch --tree-filter 'rm -f passwords.txt' HEAD

Remove file from all commits:

git filter-branch --force --index-filter \
  "git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch <file>" \
  --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all

Git Hooks

Automate actions on Git events. Located in .git/hooks/

# pre-commit - runs before commit
# post-commit - runs after commit
# pre-push - runs before push

# Example pre-commit hook:
#!/bin/sh
npm test

Sparse Checkout

Check out only specific directories.

git sparse-checkout init --cone
git sparse-checkout set <directory1> <directory2>

Shallow Clone

Clone with limited history depth.

git clone --depth 1 <repository-url>

Fetch more history later:

git fetch --depth=100

Archive Repository

Create archive of repository files.

git archive --format=zip HEAD > archive.zip

Archive specific branch:

git archive --format=tar main | gzip > archive.tar.gz

Blame with Line Range

Show who modified specific lines.

git blame -L 10,20 <filename>

Find Large Files

Identify large files in repository history.

git rev-list --objects --all | \
  git cat-file --batch-check='%(objecttype) %(objectname) %(objectsize) %(rest)' | \
  sed -n 's/^blob //p' | \
  sort --numeric-sort --key=2 | \
  tail -10