ℹ️ The search term can be a string or a regex.
Search for the first occurrence of a term in the working directory.
git grep foo
Search for all occurrences.
git grep foo $(git rev-list --all)
Limit to some subtree in your project (only return revisions for changes affecting the mentioned subtree, and limit grep to that subtree):
git grep foo $(git rev-list --all -- subtree/subsubtree) -- subtree/subsubtree
This example command searches for the string “foo” in commits made after Jan 1st, 2009 until Jan 1st, 2010 and restricts search to the specified path. Parameters are optional.
git log -Sfoo --since=2009.1.1 --until=2010.1.1 -- path_containing_change
Rename the local branch to the new name
git branch -m <old_name> <new_name>
Delete the old branch on remote - where
git push <remote> --delete <old_name
Or shorter way to delete remote branch:
git push <remote> :<old_name>
Prevent git from using the old name when pushing in the next step. Otherwise, git will use the old upstream name instead of
git branch --unset-upstream <new_name>
Push the new branch to remote
git push <remote> <new_name>
Reset the upstream branch for the new_name local branch
git push <remote> -u <new_name>
Move HEAD back x + 1 commits (HEAD will be just before the last 2 commits), undo ahead changes and re-add the changes as staged, ready to be committed again (changes are not lost).
⚠️ Using reset --hard means changes are lost.
git reset --soft HEAD~2
Alternative: Move HEAD to commit
git reset --soft <sha>,HEAD
Re-commit changes as desired
git commit -m "new commit message"
Push changes (if changes existed on remote, you’ll need to force-push)
git push -f
git branch | grep -v "main" | xargs git branch -D
⚠️ DANGER ZONE
Opens a file with all commits from the mentioned sha where you can rewrite the history.
git rebase -i [commit-sha]
Tool: bfg cleaner (needs Java installed)
Download the .jar from the website
Create an alias to be able to use the “bfg” command as shown in the tutorials (Linux env)
nano ~/.bash_aliases => alias bfg='java -jar /your/download/path/bfg-1.14.0.jar'
source ~/.bash_aliases
Create a file with the sensitive data to remove (ex passwords.txt). Expressions can be string or regex. It can be a list of expressions to replace, which will be replaced by “REMOVED” by default, or you can specify “password123=>custom_placeholder” to overwrite the default placeholder.
In the local repository, use this command to replace all instances of expressions found in the passwords.txt file:
bfg --replace-text /path/passwords.txt
bfg can also be used to remove whole files from the repository history
Finally, force push your local changes