Before:
7 my-feature HEAD
|
6
|
5 master
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
1
Oh, commit 6 was crap:
git rebase -i HEAD~2
Mark 6 to be modified.
After:
7 my-feature HEAD
|
6v2
|
5 master
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
1
Better now, ready to push.
Note: history changes change all commits SHAs. All parents are considereEven time is considered. So is commit message/author. And obviously file contents. So now commit "7" will actually have a different SHA.
Illumina by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
The by far dominating DNA sequencing company of the late 2000's and 2010's due to having the smallest cost per base pair.
Illumina actually bought their 2010's dominating technology from a Cambridge company called Solexa.
To understand how Illumina's technology works basically, watch this video: Video 1. "Illumina Sequencing by Synthesis by Illumina (2016)".
Video 1.
Illumina Sequencing by Synthesis by Illumina (2016)
Source.
The key innovation of this method is the Bridge amplification step, which produces a large amount of identical DNA strands.
Before
7 my-feature HEAD
|
6
|
5 master
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
1
Oh, commit 6 was just a temporary step, should be put together with commit 7:
git rebase -i HEAD~2
Mark 6 to be squashed.
After:
67 my-feature HEAD
|
5 master
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
1
Better now, ready to push.
ImageMagick by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
Crop 20 pixels from the bottom of the image:
convert image.png -gravity East -chop 20x0 result.png
Oh but there are usually 2 trees: local and remote.
So you also have to learn how to observe and modify and sync with the remote tree!
But basically:
git fetch
to update the remote tree. And then you can use it exactly like any other branch, except you prefix them with the remote (usually origin/*), e.g.:
  • origin/master is the latest fetch of the remote version of master
  • origin/my-feature is the latest fetch of the remote version of my-feature
In order to solve conflicts, you just have to understand what commit you are trying to move where.
E.g. if from:
5 master
|
4 7 my-feature HEAD
| |
3 6
|/
2
|
1
we do:
git rebase master
what happens step by step is first 6 is moved on top of 5:
6on5 HEAD
|
5 master
|
4                 7 my-feature
|                 |
3                 6
|                 |
2-----------------+
|
1
and then 7 is moved on top of the new 6:
7on5 HEAD
|
6on5
|
5 master
|
4                 7 my-feature
|                 |
3                 6
|                 |
2-----------------+
|
1
All good? so OK, let's move the my-feature to the new 7:
7on5 my-feature HEAD
|
6on5
|
5 master
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
1
The key to solve conflicts is:
You have to understand what are the two commits that touched a given line (one from master, one from features), and then combine them somehow.
Or in other words, at every rebase conflict we have something like:
master-commit    feature-commit
|                |
|                |
base-commit------+
|
|
Therefore there are 2 diffs that you have to understand and reconcile:
  • base-commit to master-commit
  • base-commit to feature-commit
These are good free newbie GUI options:
sudo apt install meld
git mergetool --tool meld

sudo apt install kdiff3
git mergetool --tool kdiff3
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cirosantilli/media/master/meld.png
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cirosantilli/media/master/kdiff3.png
Let's make a more interesting conflict:
git-tips-2.sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -eux

add() (
  rm -f f
  for i in `seq 10`; do
    printf "before $i\n\n" >> f
  done
  printf "conflict 1 $1\n\n" >> f
  for i in `seq 10`; do
    printf "middle $i\n\n" >> f
  done
  printf "conflict 2 $2\n\n" >> f
  for i in `seq 10`; do
    printf "after $i\n\n" >> f
  done
  git add f
)

rm -rf git-tips-2
mkdir git-tips-2
cd git-tips-2
git init

for i in 1 2 3; do
  add $i $i
  git commit -m $i
done

add 3 4
git commit -m 4

add 5 4
git commit -m 5

git checkout HEAD~2
git checkout -b my-feature

add 3 6
git commit -m 6

add 7 6
git commit -m 7
git rebase does not tell you that, and that sucks.
We only know which commit from the feature branch caused the problem.
Generally we can guess or it is not needed, but imerge does look promising: stackoverflow.com/questions/18162930/how-can-i-find-out-which-git-commits-cause-conflicts
Web technology by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
Old cheat on separate repo: web.
Now moving to either:
  • separate files under: web-cheat/ for the boring stuff
  • subsections under this section for the more exciting stuff!
Video 1.
Why web tech is like this by Steve Sanderson (2022)
Source.
Cirism by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
Welcome to the wonderful world of Cirism!
Followers of Cirism call themselves Cirists, and their primary goal in life is to obtain Cirocoins.
Enlightened Cirists donate money to the cause at: Section "Sponsor Ciro Santilli's work on OurBigBook.com". It is totally optional of course, your soul will just be eternally damned if you don't.
Ciro Santilli once proclaimed:
Thou shalt eat thy watermelon in the morning, and thy melon in the evening. Thou shalt not eat thy watermelon in the evening, nor shalt thou eat thy melon in the morning.
Webdev's Creed by Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
This is my stack. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
My stack is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.
Without me, my stack is useless. Without my stack, I am useless. I must fire my requests true. I must shoot straighter than my hackers who are trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will ...
My stack is human, even as I am human, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its ORMs and its asset bundlers. I will keep my stack clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will ...
Before God, I swear this creed. My stack and I are the defenders of my website. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life.
So be it, until victory is mine and there is no enemy, but peace!
Explanation: this is an allusion to the Rifleman's Creed. This particular version talks about the website stack chosen for a website, i.e. the libraries used.
Ciro Santilli has always felt that choosing a stack is an almost religious choice. It is perhaps part of why the prayer style of the original Rifleman's Creed resonates with the web stack choice.
It is very hard to know how things are going go, the ups and downs, before putting big hours into it.
And once you start, it is hard, though not impossible, to move away.
The same allusion would make sense with any complex library choice, but it is particularly apparent in web development since there are so many different web stacks to choose from. A bit like rifles, they are all somewhat fungible, though of course not as much.

Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
We have two killer features:
  1. topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculus
    Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
    • a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
    • a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
    This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
    Figure 1.
    Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
    . View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivative
  2. local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:
    This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
    Figure 2.
    You can publish local OurBigBook lightweight markup files to either https://OurBigBook.com or as a static website
    .
    Figure 3.
    Visual Studio Code extension installation
    .
    Figure 4.
    Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation
    .
    Figure 5.
    Web editor
    . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
    Video 3.
    Edit locally and publish demo
    . Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
    Video 4.
    OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo
    . Source.
  3. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook-media/master/feature/x/hilbert-space-arrow.png
  4. Infinitely deep tables of contents:
    Figure 6.
    Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents
    .
    Descendant pages can also show up as toplevel e.g.: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate-subclade
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact