A brief description of how I like to use git

my-git-workflow.md

My git Workflow

This is just one way of using git/GitHub. But I have been using this same basic flow for 15 years and I rarely have trouble.

1. Switch to the main branch

    git switch main
   

2. Pull the most recent version of main from GitHub

    git pull origin main
   

3. Checkout a new branch to begin my work

    git switch -c th/some-new-work-i-am-starting
   

4. Add the new work to the staging area

    git add .
   

5. Check the work before committing it to my new branch

    git diff --staged
   

6. Commit the work to the branch

    git commit -m "A brief message explaining what I'm changing"
   

7. Push the branch to GitHub

    git push origin th/some-new-work-i-am-starting
   

8. Open a draft Pull Request on GitHub for the new branch so my team can see what I'm working on

9. Flag the Pull Request as "Ready for Review"

When my branch cannot be merged into main

Sometimes you will need to deal with merge conflicts. Here's how I do that.

1. Checkout the branch that cannot be merged with main.

    git switch th/some-branch-with-a-problem
   

2. Fetch the latest changes to the main branch.

    git fetch
   

3. Rebase the branch with the issue.

    git rebase origin/main
   

4. Usually, git tells you that the rebase is incomplete because of a conflict. Resolve conflicts by opening each file that is flagged with CONFLICT in the error message from git.

5. One by one, find the sections of the file where the conflict occurred and edit the file - removing the old changes and keeping the correct changes.

6. After all the files with conflicts are repaired, add the files to the staging area to tell git that the conflicts are resolved.

    git add .
   

7. Now continue the rebase process.

    git rebase --continue
   

8. If the rebase completes without any CONFLICT messages, push the rebased branch up to GitHub and the merge conflict on GitHub should disappear.

    git push origin th/some-branch-with-a-problem -f
   

Stashing... error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by checkout

Sometimes git will throw this error when you are trying to pull (or checkout) a branch but you have made some changes to files locally without committing those changes. git stash is useful here.

1. When you see an error like this...

    git checkout main
   
    	error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by checkout:
    	README.md
    	Please, commit your changes or stash them before you can switch branches.
    	Aborting
   

2. Add the files you've changed to the staging area

    git add .
   

3. Stash the changes

    git stash
   

4. Try the checkout command again

    git checkout main
   

5. Bring the stashed changes back

    git stash apply