Operations 6 min read
Master Git: Essential Commands for Pushing, Branching, and Migration
This guide walks you through essential Git operations—including initializing a repository, pushing local projects to remote servers, reverting to previous commits, renaming and deleting branches, copying master code, migrating repositories while preserving history, and a collection of useful commands for efficient version control management.
Raymond Ops
Raymond Ops
1. Push local project to remote repository
<code>git init # initialize repository
git remote -v # view associated remote URLs
git add . # stage all changes
git commit -m "First commit" # commit with message
git remote add origin <url> # add remote repository
git pull --rebase origin master # sync with remote
git push -u origin master # push to remote (use -f to force)
</code>2. Revert to a specific historical version in IDEA
<code># Find the revision number via IDEA: Right‑click project → Git → Show History → select version → Copy Revision Number
# In IDEA terminal:
git reset --hard <revision-id>
# Force‑push the reverted state:
git push -f -u origin master # or git push -f
</code>3. Modify the remote URL of a project
<code># Change remote URL via command
git remote set-url origin <new-url>
# Or edit the config file directly in .git/config and update the url entry
</code>4. Rename a Git branch
<code># Example: rename br_rename_old to br_rename_new
git checkout br_rename_old # switch to old branch (if not already there)
git pull origin br_rename_old # ensure up‑to‑date
git branch -m br_rename_old br_rename_new # rename locally
git push --set-upstream origin br_rename_new # push new branch
git push origin --delete br_rename_old # delete old remote branch
</code>5. Delete a Git branch
<code># Assume you are on a different branch, e.g., dev20180927
git checkout dev20180927
# Delete local branch
git branch -d dev20181018 # safe delete
# Force delete if necessary
git branch -D dev20181018
# Delete remote branch (use with caution)
git push origin --delete dev20181018
</code>6. Copy master branch code to a new branch
<code>git branch developer # create new branch
git checkout developer # switch to new branch
git merge master # merge master into new branch
git push origin developer # push new branch to remote
</code>7. Migrate a repository to another server while preserving branches and history
<code>git clone --bare ssh://old-repo/project.git
cd project.git
git push --mirror ssh://new-repo/new-project.git
</code>8. Common Git command reference
<code># List all branches (local + remote)
git branch -a
# List local branches
git branch
# List remote branches
git branch -r
# Create a new local branch
git branch <branchName>
# Switch to a branch
git checkout <branchName>
# Push local branch to remote and set upstream
git push origin -u <branchName>
# Merge another branch into current
git merge <name>
# Clone a specific branch
git clone -b develop https://gitlab.xxx
</code>Written by
Raymond Ops
Linux ops automation, cloud-native, Kubernetes, SRE, DevOps, Python, Golang and related tech discussions.
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