I know the basic git commands but I feel like I'm missing out on powerful version control tricks. What advanced git features or workflows have saved you significant time or headaches? Looking for those less-known commands that solve common problems elegantly.
Version control tricks: git bisect is magical for finding which commit introduced a bug. You mark a good commit and a bad commit, and git automatically binary searches through history. Also, git worktree lets you have multiple working directories from the same repo - great for working on multiple branches simultaneously without stashing.
Learn interactive rebase (git rebase -i). It lets you squash commits, reorder them, edit commit messages, etc. Super useful for cleaning up your commit history before merging. Also, git cherry-pick for applying specific commits from one branch to another. And git blame with -L to see who wrote specific lines in a file - great for understanding why code is the way it is.
Use git hooks for automation. Pre-commit hooks can run linters, tests, or format code automatically. Pre-push hooks can prevent pushing broken code. Also, learn about git submodules or subtrees for managing dependencies within your repo. And git archive for creating clean releases without git history.