Christopher Cave Ayland: How to use Git to Look Like a Very Stable Genius
Channel: Society of Research Software Engineering
Date: 2022-12-22

A walkthrough from RSECon2022.

Details: https://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/#/event/3101/submission/79

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Abstract: This walkthrough is for anybody who has ever felt slightly embarrassed by their chaotic Git commit history and covers some intermediate/advanced Git techniques that can be used to fool the world and make you look like a Very Stable Genius.

A persistent modern myth of software development is that of Homo Gitus. This idealised engineer writes code in logical, atomistic and oh so revertable commits, their CI configuration works first time and, none of their commit messages begin with “Oops”.

In the experience of the author however real-world problem solving rarely lends itself to the ideal Git commit history. Mistakes are made and corrected, plans constructed and abandoned before a final solution is arrived at. Yet there is always that colleague or that seems to have the squeaky-clean commit history you’ve always dreamed of. Are they really just smarter, tidier and better than you? Probably not. Probably they just know a bit more Git.

This walkthrough will expose the intermediate and advanced Git techniques that you need to get that beautiful commit history for yourself and perpetuate the myth of Homo Gitus on those around you without interfering with your creative process. We’ll cover how to stash, selectively commit, interactively rebase, and force-push your way into tricking your colleagues that you are impeccably organised, infuriatingly logical, and unspeakably tidy. We’ll also consider the limitations of the Git command line interface and look at an example of how a Git porcelain makes the above quick and easy.


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0:00 Speaker introduction
0:12 Walkthrough
41:00 Q&A