Git Survival Guide

This series is a practical guide to Git and GitHub workflows, with a focus on the issues that actually slow people down: diverged histories, recovery, safe collaboration, and confident troubleshooting.

Series Progress

All Posts in This Series

Part 0: GIT in 10 minutes 4 Dec, 2021 Version control systems are handy to keep track of file versions. This is useful for tracking your code, scripts and text information. Currently, GIT is one of the best open-source and cross-platform version control solutions. It enables distributed repository management; it works fast over HTTP and ssh protocols. GIT is relatively easy to use, with command-line utility or Graphical User Interface.
Part 1: Git Commands and a Contribution Workflow 7 Nov, 2022 I have created a list of arguably the most useful Git commands and an example contribution workflow. I have also found a great JavaScript application for learning Git branching!
Part 2: Pushing Your New Project to GitHub (Clean First Push Workflow) Coming Soon A reliable first-push workflow for new projects: initialize Git, create a clean commit, connect to GitHub, push securely, and avoid common authentication mistakes. This post is currently being written and will be published soon.
Part 3: Storing Your Local Project to GitHub 12 Feb, 2025 This post shows you how to create a Git repository for your local (Python) project and push it to GitHub using the command line and a personal access token. Following these steps, you can securely host your code on GitHub for easy access and collaboration.
Part 4: Collaboration in GitHub 10 Jun, 2022 In this post, I have covered GitHub collaboration when working with other team members. Git branching, forking, pull requests, and issues were briefly explained.
Part 5: Leveraging Git Tags 21 Jul, 2023 Git tags are useful for marking specific points in a repository's history, such as release points or important milestones. They provide a way to easily reference and access specific versions of your codebase. Let's dive deeper into the details of working with Git tags.
Part 6: Git Log 24 Apr, 2025 The git log command allows you to view your project's history by listing commits with their authors, dates, and messages. It's essential for debugging, tracking changes, and understanding your project's evolution. It is indeed my favourite Git command.
Part 7: Debugging Git Commits: Finding Exactly What Broke Coming Soon A practical workflow to compare two commits, isolate regressions, and safely recover good changes into a clean branch. This post is currently being written and will be published soon.
Part 8: Git Bisect: Binary Search for Bug-Introducing Commits Coming Soon Use git bisect to find the exact commit that introduced a bug in logarithmic time, with optional test automation. This post is currently being written and will be published soon.
Part 9: Reverting Commits in GitHub 26 Aug, 2022 This post is about reverting your changes in GitHub. Sometimes it's good to step back and think about something different, right? With the use of git reset, revert and rebase we can remove changes from commits or even history.
Part 10: Restoring deleted files in Git 5 Dec, 2023 A late-night Wi-Fi glitch wiped a folder of images from my Git repository. Here is exactly how I got them back—and what I learned about navigating Git history along the way.
Part 11: Preserve your local changes on Git Pull 2 Aug, 2023 When we get the Git error on pull - your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by merge - it means that you have some uncommitted changes in the working directory. Git cannot perform the merge operation because those changes would be lost or overwritten during the merge process. Read some good solutions to resolve this error while keeping local changes.
Part 12: Git Failed to Push Some Refs 5 Jun, 2023 I was away from my big MAC computer and did some repository updates using my laptop. When arriving back, I could not push an update from my big MAC computer. Git updates were rejected because my current branch is behind. That happens quite often when we should integrate the remote changes before pushing git updates. Herein I am sharing possible solutions in detail.
Part 13: GitHub Webhooks: Triggering Python Automation Safely Coming Soon A practical setup for GitHub webhooks that trigger Python automation, with signature verification, event filtering, and safe execution patterns. This post is currently being written and will be published soon.
Part 14: Git Tango: Dancing with Divergent Branches Coming Soon This Git tutorial delves into the process of reconciling divergent branches, providing step-by-step guidance for developers. By understanding the current branch status and updating the local repository, users gain a solid foundation for branch reconciliation. The tutorial covers merging branches to combine changes and resolving conflicts that may arise during the merge process. Additionally, it explores the concept of rebasing branches to maintain a linear commit history. With these techniques, developers can effectively manage divergent branches in their Git workflow, promoting collaboration and efficient code integration. This post is currently being written and will be published soon.
Part 15: Git Failed to Push Some Refs Coming Soon I was away from my big MAC computer and did some repository updates using my laptop. When arriving back, I could not push an update from my big MAC computer. Git updates were rejected because my current branch is behind. That happens quite often when we should integrate the remote changes before pushing git updates. Herein I am sharing possible solutions in detail. This post is currently being written and will be published soon.
Part 16: Git Push from Branch to Master Coming Soon What do you call a developer who's afraid of the dark? A Git-in-the-middle attacker! But seriously, if you've ever seen a warning message about a changed SSH host key while pushing code changes, don't panic - it might just be a legitimate update. To fix the issue, simply delete the saved RSA key fingerprint and let the SSH client verify the new one. And remember, always keep an eye out for those pesky man-in-the-middle attackers lurking in the shadows! You can learn how to create and use SSH keys, explained so simply in this post. This post is currently being written and will be published soon.
Part 17: I have cloned my git repository and landed on main. How to get your branch 3 Oct, 2025 Cloning a repository defaults to the main branch, often leaving developers confused about how to access remote development branches. Here is the architectural reason why, and the two-second command to fix it.
Part 18: Should you use rebase? 16 Oct, 2025 Rebase isn't safer than merge—it's cleaner. Learn when to use Git rebase, how to avoid destroying your team's history, and the disaster recovery commands to undo your mistakes.
Part 19: GitHub Codespaces 5 Jan, 2022 GitHub codespaces provide a development environment running in the cloud. A codespace environment is created with the help of configuration files added to a GitHub repository.
Part 20: Linters and Git Pre-commit 11 Sep, 2022 It's great to focus on code development while keeping the coding style right. This could be achieved with automatic formatting checks before committing files into the code repository. In this post, I have described the pre-commit usage with git hooks and a simple setup for checking Python files.
Part 21: The SSH host key mystery 10 Apr, 2023 What do you call a developer who's afraid of the dark? A Git-in-the-middle attacker! But seriously, if you've ever seen a warning message about a changed SSH host key while pushing code changes, don't panic - it might just be a legitimate update. To fix the issue, simply delete the saved RSA key fingerprint and let the SSH client verify the new one. And remember, always keep an eye out for those pesky man-in-the-middle attackers lurking in the shadows! You can learn how to create and use SSH keys, explained so simply in this post.
Part 22: The Token Way to GitHub Security 8 May, 2023 In this brief post I describe the setup and usage of GitHub personal access tokens.
Part 23: Git Remotes 24 Jun, 2024 This post is about managing remote repositories in Git. We explore tasks such as adding, renaming, removing remotes, and updating remote URLs. We also practice fetching, pulling, and pushing changes to and from remote repositories.
Part 24: Git Checkout for overwriting directories from different branches 22 Sep, 2024 To overwrite the "scripts" directory in the master branch with the files from the "scripts" directory of the "dev" branch, you can use the Git checkout command. Just be cautious, as this will completely replace the files in the destination branch.
Part 25: GitHub Gists 30 May, 2025 Sharing code snippets via Slack or email can lead to formatting issues. GitHub Gists offers a solution for easily sharing or saving code or text for future use. In this post, I explain how to use Gists effectively.
Part 26: Git Stash: The CTRL-Z for Your Working Directory 23 Jan, 2026 Git Stash is the temporary clipboard for your code changes. Learn how to stash, pop, and manage work-in-progress efficiently without polluting your commit history.
Part 27: Stop Committing Garbage: A Masterclass in .gitignore 30 Jan, 2026 A clean repository is a happy repository. In this post, I dive into how to use .gitignore effectively to prevent system files, secrets, and dependencies from polluting your project history.
Part 28: Git Hooks: The Robot Butler for Your Code 6 Feb, 2026 Why remember to run tests when a robot can do it for you? In this post, I explain Git Hooks and how to set up simple automations that ensure you never commit broken code again.
Part 29: Type Less, Do More: My Top 10 Git Aliases 13 Feb, 2026 If you type 'git checkout' fifty times a day, you're wasting time. In this post, I share my personal list of Git aliases that help me work faster and smarter.
Part 30: Git Cherry-Pick: The Surgeon's Knife 20 Feb, 2026 merging takes everything. Rebase rewrites everything. But sometimes, you just want that ONE bug fix from the development branch applied to production. That's where git cherry-pick comes in.
Part 31: Testing Blog Designs with Git Branches and GitHub Pages 20 Feb, 2026 Did you know you can publish different versions of your GitHub Pages blog on separate branches and preview them live before committing to a design? Here is how I do it.
Part 32: Live Design Testing with GitHub Pages and a Custom Domain 20 Feb, 2026 Want to preview two completely different blog designs at domain.com/test1 and domain.com/test2 while keeping your main blog running perfectly? Here is how to do it with two extra GitHub repositories — no downtime, no risk.
Part 33: Your GitHub Token Is Hiding in Plain Sight: Keep Secrets Out of .git/config Coming Soon Your GitHub token can sit in plain text inside .git/config. The file is never pushed, so it feels safe — but the token is still exposed on your machine. Here is how to store credentials properly, switch to SSH, and rotate a leaked token. This post is currently being written and will be published soon.

Getting Started

New to this series? Start with Part 0: GIT in 10 minutes.

Each post builds on the previous one, so reading them in order is recommended. Each post also works on its own if you need to jump to a specific topic.