Git Workflows

Advanced git operations for real-world development. Covers interactive rebase, bisect, worktree, reflog recovery, subtrees, submodules, sparse checkout, conflict resolution, and monorepo patterns.

When to Use

• Cleaning up commit history before merging (interactive rebase)
• Finding which commit introduced a bug (bisect)
• Working on multiple branches simultaneously (worktree)
• Recovering lost commits or undoing mistakes (reflog)
• Managing shared code across repos (subtree/submodule)
• Resolving complex merge conflicts
• Cherry-picking commits across branches or forks
• Working with large monorepos (sparse checkout)

Interactive Rebase

Squash, reorder, edit commits

# Rebase last 5 commits interactively
git rebase -i HEAD~5

# Rebase onto main (all commits since diverging)
git rebase -i main

The editor opens with a pick list:

pick a1b2c3d Add user model
pick e4f5g6h Fix typo in user model
pick i7j8k9l Add user controller
pick m0n1o2p Add user routes
pick q3r4s5t Fix import in controller

Commands available:

pick   = use commit as-is
reword = use commit but edit the message
edit   = stop after this commit to amend it
squash = merge into previous commit (keep both messages)
fixup  = merge into previous commit (discard this message)
drop   = remove the commit entirely

Common patterns

# Squash fix commits into their parent
# Change "pick" to "fixup" for the fix commits:
pick a1b2c3d Add user model
fixup e4f5g6h Fix typo in user model
pick i7j8k9l Add user controller
fixup q3r4s5t Fix import in controller
pick m0n1o2p Add user routes

# Reorder commits (just move lines)
pick i7j8k9l Add user controller
pick m0n1o2p Add user routes
pick a1b2c3d Add user model

# Split a commit into two
# Mark as "edit", then when it stops:
git reset HEAD~
git add src/model.ts
git commit -m "Add user model"
git add src/controller.ts
git commit -m "Add user controller"
git rebase --continue

Autosquash (commit messages that auto-arrange)

# When committing a fix, reference the commit to squash into
git commit --fixup=a1b2c3d -m "Fix typo"
# or
git commit --squash=a1b2c3d -m "Additional changes"

# Later, rebase with autosquash
git rebase -i --autosquash main
# fixup/squash commits are automatically placed after their targets

Abort or continue

git rebase --abort      # Cancel and restore original state
git rebase --continue   # Continue after resolving conflicts or editing
git rebase --skip       # Skip the current commit and continue

Bisect (Find the Bug)

Binary search through commits

# Start bisect
git bisect start

# Mark current commit as bad (has the bug)
git bisect bad

# Mark a known-good commit (before the bug existed)
git bisect good v1.2.0
# or: git bisect good abc123

# Git checks out a middle commit. Test it, then:
git bisect good   # if this commit doesn't have the bug
git bisect bad    # if this commit has the bug