5 ms·

A list of cool features of Git and GitHub

164 points by lmedinas 12y ago

scotchio 12y ago
This has been posted a few times before and is an excellent resource. It links to a GitHub repo [1] I made a while ago with every type of emoji as a separate file and commit as a fun and somewhat pointless demo. However, for whatever reason the emojis on the repo stopped working (after a GitHub update?). Each emoji, regardless of commit message, is defaulting to the last one that was created (:zzz:). I reached out to GitHub a few times about it, but I never got a response. It's probably super low priority for them, but I thought I would share since, although minor, I technically broke GitHub. [1] https://github.com/scotch-io/All-Github-Emoji-Icons https://github.com/scotch-io/All-Github-Emoji-Icons
- ecaron 12y ago
  Previous fruitful HN conversation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7580465 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7580465
- returnofthejedi 12y ago
  Github should definetely have more Emojis! Emojis make everything a little bit fun.
teamhappy 12y ago
> To add more color to your Git output: git config --global color.ui 1 Don't do this. The default (since 1.8.4) is auto, which adds colors if the output goes to a terminal, but doesn't if the output goes somewhere else (e.g., a pipe). That is probably what you want (and already have). I fell for this myself at some point. Somehow expecting there to be more colors, or full color support, or something like that — Nope.
- sheetjs 12y ago
  The book has a nice discussion: http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Customizing-Git-Git-Configuration http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Customizing-Git-Git-Configurat... > The default setting is auto, which colors output when it’s going straight to a terminal, but omits the color-control codes when the output is redirected to a pipe or a file. > You can also set it to always to ignore the difference between terminals and pipes. You’ll rarely want this; in most scenarios, if you want color codes in your redirected output, you can instead pass a --color flag to the Git command to force it to use color codes. The default setting is almost always what you’ll want.
- gabrielhn 12y ago
  git config --global --unset color.ui
- sergiotapia 12y ago
  Better yet, if you just want to get to work and have a sexy terminal, use https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles To install on Mac just run: git clone https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles.git && cd dotfiles && source bootstrap.sh
whizzkid 12y ago
File Explorer by pressing "t" is my favorite shortcut on Github since nested file structure gets annoying after a while of looking around.
niutech 12y ago
Any way how to automatically mirror an external Git repo to GitHub? Any webhooks for that?
- returnofthejedi 12y ago
  Can't we download and then push to github repo?
  - niutech 12y ago
    Yeah, but the point is to have it done automatically. It's easier to fork a repo on GitHub than on e.g. CGit, so I would like to mirror an external repo to GitHub and keep it in sync.
- allendoerfer 12y ago
  The point of git is, that you do not need to do this. Just push.
  - seanp2k2 12y ago
    It's somewhat useful as poor man's backup, since forgetting to push to the other remote would be a pretty human thing to do. I guess you could do some kind of bash alias to push both remotes, but that would also assume that both are available from your network location (not sure if Git can have n remotes with one push alias).
  - ekimekim 12y ago
    There's a slight difference between a git push and a full mirror operation. A git push only synchronises the current branch. Even git push --all doesn't necessarily push all reachable commits - tags, other named refs (eg. stash), the state of the reflog...
- talles 12y ago
  https://help.github.com/articles/about-github-mirrors/ https://help.github.com/articles/about-github-mirrors/ tldr; you have to set the hook yourself
sinkasapa 12y ago
One cool feature that isn't listed here is that you can use emacs org-mode files instead of markdown to document your project.
- nilved 12y ago
  There are many different formats you can use: https://github.com/github/markup https://github.com/github/markup
talles 12y ago
> The first commit of a repo, as the first commit cannot be rebased later Hey, can't I git rebase --root?
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- ekimekim 12y ago
  You can, but it's still a good idea to avoid as it tends to confuse some tools (and some people).
  - talles 12y ago
    Ya, I agree. But if you are rebasing I assume you know what you are doing. More like a shouldn't (or really shouldn't if you will) than cannot.
christop 12y ago
> Adding ?w=1 to any diff URL will remove any changes only in whitespace, enabling you to see only that code that has changed. Annoyingly, this doesn't work for pull requests.
- oneeyedpigeon 12y ago
  weirdly, an empty line is included in the example output. Does that not count as whitespace?
krat0sprakhar 12y ago
So you can have a web interface to browse your Git repo with just one command $ git instaweb Wow! Git never ceases to amaze! http://git-scm.com/docs/git-instaweb http://git-scm.com/docs/git-instaweb

164 points by lmedinas 12y ago

This has been posted a few times before and is an excellent resource. It links to a GitHub repo [1] I made a while ago with every type of emoji as a separate file and commit as a fun and somewhat pointless demo. However, for whatever reason the emojis on the repo stopped working (after a GitHub update?). Each emoji, regardless of commit message, is defaulting to the last one that was created (:zzz:). I reached out to GitHub a few times about it, but I never got a response. It's probably super low priority for them, but I thought I would share since, although minor, I technically broke GitHub. [1] https://github.com/scotch-io/All-Github-Emoji-Icons https://github.com/scotch-io/All-Github-Emoji-Icons

ecaron 12y ago
Previous fruitful HN conversation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7580465 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7580465
returnofthejedi 12y ago
Github should definetely have more Emojis! Emojis make everything a little bit fun.

teamhappy 12y ago

> To add more color to your Git output: git config --global color.ui 1 Don't do this. The default (since 1.8.4) is auto, which adds colors if the output goes to a terminal, but doesn't if the output goes somewhere else (e.g., a pipe). That is probably what you want (and already have). I fell for this myself at some point. Somehow expecting there to be more colors, or full color support, or something like that — Nope.

sheetjs 12y ago
The book has a nice discussion: http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Customizing-Git-Git-Configuration http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Customizing-Git-Git-Configurat... > The default setting is auto, which colors output when it’s going straight to a terminal, but omits the color-control codes when the output is redirected to a pipe or a file. > You can also set it to always to ignore the difference between terminals and pipes. You’ll rarely want this; in most scenarios, if you want color codes in your redirected output, you can instead pass a --color flag to the Git command to force it to use color codes. The default setting is almost always what you’ll want.
gabrielhn 12y ago
git config --global --unset color.ui
sergiotapia 12y ago
Better yet, if you just want to get to work and have a sexy terminal, use https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles To install on Mac just run: git clone https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles.git && cd dotfiles && source bootstrap.sh

whizzkid 12y ago

File Explorer by pressing "t" is my favorite shortcut on Github since nested file structure gets annoying after a while of looking around.

niutech 12y ago

Any way how to automatically mirror an external Git repo to GitHub? Any webhooks for that?

returnofthejedi 12y ago
Can't we download and then push to github repo?
- niutech 12y ago
  Yeah, but the point is to have it done automatically. It's easier to fork a repo on GitHub than on e.g. CGit, so I would like to mirror an external repo to GitHub and keep it in sync.
allendoerfer 12y ago
The point of git is, that you do not need to do this. Just push.
- seanp2k2 12y ago
  It's somewhat useful as poor man's backup, since forgetting to push to the other remote would be a pretty human thing to do. I guess you could do some kind of bash alias to push both remotes, but that would also assume that both are available from your network location (not sure if Git can have n remotes with one push alias).
- ekimekim 12y ago
  There's a slight difference between a git push and a full mirror operation. A git push only synchronises the current branch. Even git push --all doesn't necessarily push all reachable commits - tags, other named refs (eg. stash), the state of the reflog...
talles 12y ago
https://help.github.com/articles/about-github-mirrors/ https://help.github.com/articles/about-github-mirrors/ tldr; you have to set the hook yourself

sinkasapa 12y ago

One cool feature that isn't listed here is that you can use emacs org-mode files instead of markdown to document your project.

nilved 12y ago
There are many different formats you can use: https://github.com/github/markup https://github.com/github/markup

talles 12y ago

> The first commit of a repo, as the first commit cannot be rebased later Hey, can't I git rebase --root?

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
ekimekim 12y ago
You can, but it's still a good idea to avoid as it tends to confuse some tools (and some people).
- talles 12y ago
  Ya, I agree. But if you are rebasing I assume you know what you are doing. More like a shouldn't (or really shouldn't if you will) than cannot.

christop 12y ago

> Adding ?w=1 to any diff URL will remove any changes only in whitespace, enabling you to see only that code that has changed. Annoyingly, this doesn't work for pull requests.

oneeyedpigeon 12y ago
weirdly, an empty line is included in the example output. Does that not count as whitespace?

krat0sprakhar 12y ago

So you can have a web interface to browse your Git repo with just one command $ git instaweb Wow! Git never ceases to amaze! http://git-scm.com/docs/git-instaweb http://git-scm.com/docs/git-instaweb