Gitisms - useful git invocations for everyday use.

gistfile1.eclass

# get the name of the currently checked out tag
git describe --tags --abbrev=0

# list all branches (local and remote)
git branch -a

# list all tags
git tag

# delete a tag
git tag -d tag-name

# create a tag and push to master
git tag tag-name
git push --tags

# make sure you have latest tags
# (because a git pull wont automatically do it for you)
git fetch --tags

# show a list of existing remotes
git remote

# checkout and fetch a branch
git checkout -b branch-name origin/branch-name

#
# sometimes the above will complain with:
#
#   fatal: git checkout: updating paths is incompatible with switching branches/forcing
#   Did you intend to checkout ‘origin/‘ which can not be resolved as commit?’
#
# it just means you need to do a `git pull` first.
#

# checkout and track a remote branch
git checkout -t /remotes/origin/branch-name

# checkout a tag (but first make sure you have the latest)
git fetch --tags
git checkout tag-name

# cherry pick a commit into another branch (the commit id will be the hash number printed after a commit - it looks something like: df76d32)
git checkout another-branch
git cherry-pick commit-hash

# revert a file (in the same sense as a revert in svn)
git checkout the-file-to-revert

# get git to keep an empty directory
touch /path/to/empty/dir/.gitkeep
git add /path/to/empty/dir
git commit -a -m '-- blah --'
git push

# create a new remote branch, fetch, switch and track locally
git push origin origin:refs/heads/branch-name          # create the new remote branch 
git fetch origin                                       # makes sure everything is up-to-date
git branch -r                                          # verify that the branch is created (visually)
git checkout --track -b branch-name origin/branch-name # checkout and track the new branch locally