Git Amend Tutorial: Rewrite Git History

The better way to learn Git: learngit.io/
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What is the Git amend command, and how do you use it? Git amend allows you to both rewrite the previous commit's message, and/or add files to that commit you may have forgotten. Amend is a form of editing or updating Git history. In this tutorial I'll explain how to use amend to rewrite git history (including the most used commands "git commit --amend" and "git commit --amend -m"). As always, I'll illustrate the concepts with live animations alongside the actual commands.
WRITTEN ARTICLE & REFERENCE: www.themoderncoder.com/rewrit...
GIT STARTER GUIDES: www.themoderncoder.com/git/
CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:18 Git amend use-cases
0:44 Git amend: adding files to the previous commit
2:00 Important amend caveat
2:38 Use Git amend to rewrite (or update) a commit message
3:04 Altering older commits, and editing Git history
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ABOUT ME
An experienced tech professional with experience including software engineering management, and software engineering. Formerly at Amazon for over 6 years, and currently living in NYC.
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#git #linux #programming #github

[@themoderncoder]

Liked this video? I have more Git videos! kzbin.info/aero/PLfU9XN7w4tFwKwh_xPSQ_X1-hROQEpHnM. Additionally, a written reference for this video is available on my blog: www.themoderncoder.com/git/

[@orangekanso]

Your teaching approach is refreshingly efficient and straightforward, guiding learners directly towards their goals. The use of animation enhances comprehension and fosters a deeper understanding of all the concepts related to Git. many thanks

[@AnantaAkash.Podder]

Excellent Explanation... Thank You

[@uccoskun]

I watched maybe 5 videos you prepared on git. I noticed they are very useful, and I appreciate the information you packed in them. They are very well structured and down to the point. On the other hand, I have a suggestion. You speak too fast, and you edit your videos to make data flow faster. It does not give time to viewers to follow what you say. When you make a statement, viewer needs some time to understand where you are focusing or digest what you say. Please slowdown and take your time so we can digest what you say. Again, thank you for these well structured videos.

[@themoderncoder]

Appreciate you watching a couple of my videos, and noticing this point of improvement. I'll keep your feedback in mind - hopefully, my upcoming videos can strike a good balance between captivating and succinct.

[@lengors7327]

This seems like a useful feature if you're working on a project from different devices, you don't have a shared development enviroment and you wanna store your most recent modifications on remote (to use on the other device) without actually moving forward in git history. Not sure if there's a better way of accomplish the same with git, but yeah

[@themoderncoder]

You could use amend for that (or commit then un-commit). But if you’re bouncing between dev environments with any kind of frequency, a lot of software engineers use file sync utilities like FreeFileSync or rsync that will work better. Especially for use cases like local development on a laptop with a cloud machine for builds.

[@cedriclawrence8204]

I fucks with you. thank you for always getting to the point

[@themoderncoder]

I gotchu

[@notfunnydidntlaugh8621]

If you have projects from high school or university that you want to add to your portfolio, is it ethical to create a repository today and amend the commit date to when you completed the project? Should you provide additonal context in your github repository readmes ("eg Project completed on 5.2.17") and your github profile readme?

[@themoderncoder]

In your case, if you want to put old projects on GitHub: just add a README.md file (markdown down) in the root of your directory and write some notes about when the project was originally completed. Don't worry that the commit date doesn't match when it was originally complete. Since you're not going to have commit history anyways (just one large commit will all of the code already done) amending the date on that commit, wouldn't make sense. People add old code to GitHub all the time, you your situation is not unusual.

[@aogvanili1864]

Hello good morning, please, I have a question. How or with wich software do you use to make those animations on git during the video. They are really cool and I wish to do something similar

[@themoderncoder]

I create the graphics in Sketch, then I use the built-in keyframe animations that Final Cut Pro has to do the actual motion graphics part. Recently I've started incorporating Motion (Apple's motion graphics software) for more complex animations.

[@aogvanili1864]

@@themoderncoder thank you very much

[@Tony.Nguyen137]

How do I push my amended commit to remote without using >push origin -f . Is there a cleaner way

[@themoderncoder]

No matter how you slice it you'll eventually need to "push" your local changes to remote. The thing is though, amending commits that are already in your remote repo is an anti-pattern because you could be changing commits that are already used by others on your team. In general, unless your the only developer working on the repo, don't use "push -f". I didn't research it very deeply, but here's one method to get around forcing: stackoverflow.com/a/432518

[@kris.krustev]

Hello, could you also make a video about git rebase?

[@themoderncoder]

I've got a few videos coming up on interactive rebase, and I also have an older video on rebase (kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGLan4yagaqjnas). I plan on remaking my old rebase video in a month or so

[@kris.krustev]

@@themoderncoder Thanks!

[@sridhar-natuva]

I have a situation can you help me with this.. 1. Commit 2 2. Merge from master 3. Commit 1 How can i make it like 1. Commit 2 2. Commit 1 3. Merge from master

[@themoderncoder]

You can use interactive rebase to reorder the commits (kzbin.info/www/bejne/e521q4erjtGhZq8), but if any files from merge are based on changes introduced by commit 1 it's not going to work the way you intend. If commit 1 & 2 are just local changes that haven't been committed to the shared repository yet, then you might get away with a reorder.

[@sridhar-natuva]

@@themoderncoder ok. Is there any way i can get my changes from commit 1 into untracked files and delete my original commit 1 and make a fresh commit.. is tht possible even ?