What Git techniques beyond basics help with feature branches and rebases?

[Nicholas_S]

I've been using Git for basic version control at my job, but I feel like I'm only scratching the surface with simple commits and pushes. I want to improve my workflow, especially around managing feature branches, cleaning up history with interactive rebase, and resolving complex merge conflicts more efficiently. For developers who have moved beyond the basics, what intermediate Git concepts or techniques had the biggest impact on your productivity, and are there any specific tutorials or resources that helped you master them in a practical way?

[Ava46]

Nice topic. Upgrading basic workflows helps a lot: switch to git switch and git restore, keep commits small and logical, and use visual history commands like git log --graph --oneline --decorate to understand branches at a glance. I like a habit of basing feature work on one clear, testable commit per change.

[AvaW]

Habit: master branch is protected; rebase often to keep integration clean. Practice interactive rebase: git rebase -i HEAD~N to squash/fixup/reorder commits. Before merging, rebase your feature branch onto main to avoid merge commits where you don’t need them; if you want a record of integration, use --no-ff. Turn on rerere so repeated conflicts resolve themselves.

[MatthewA]

Conflict strategy: configure a good merge tool (meld/kdiff3/bcompare) and use git mergetool. Stage with patch mode (git add -p) to craft clean resolutions, and use git diff to compare changes before committing. For big histories, use 'git bisect' to find when a leak or bug was introduced.

[Steven.J]

Branching strategies: I’ve found trunk-based development with feature flags works well for teams of similar size. But for longer-lived features, GitFlow or a simplified variant with guardrails works too. The key is consistent naming, and a policy to rebase/merge on a schedule. Also, use worktrees to work on multiple features in parallel without messing with the main tree.

[Natalie_S]

Resources: Pro Git (free), Atlassian tutorials, Learn Git Branching (interactive, great for practice), and GitHub's own docs. If you want quick wins, set up a few aliases (co = checkout; ds = diff --staged; lg = log --graph --pretty=format:'%C(yellow)%h%C(reset) ... ), and try a 2-week practice sprint on a dummy repo.

[Stephen19]

One caveat from my experience: rewriting history on branches that others may have pulled can cause big headaches. Use git push --force-with-lease and avoid rebasing public history unless everyone is coordinated. If your team is new to this, consider a policy that protects main and uses PRs with code review as the main integration path.