Git tips / gitk by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
For the newbs.
Slick? No. But gitk does the job, like any one of the other 100 billion free Git UI viewers out there
gitk master HEAD
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cirosantilli/media/master/gitk.png
Many IDEs are also implementing this now (e.g. VS Code, Eclipse. Most free IDE GIt implementations are still crap, but that is the future, because you want to edit, view history, edit, view history, commit, edit.
For the strong.
git log --abbrev-commit --decorate --graph --pretty=oneline master HEAD
Output:
* b4ec057 (master) 5
* 0b37c1b 4
| * fbfbfe8 (HEAD -> my-feature) 7
| * 7b0f59d 6
|/
* 661cfab 3
* 6d748a9 2
* c5f8a2c 1
If we also add the --simplify-by-decoration, which you very often want want on a real repository with many commits:
* b4ec057 (master) 5
| * fbfbfe8 (HEAD -> my-feature) 7
|/
* c5f8a2c 1
As we can see, this removes any commit that is neither:
  • under a branch or tag
  • at the intersection of too branches or tags
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
y86.js.org by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
The good:
  • slick UI! But very hard to read characters, they're way too small.
  • attempts to show state diffs with a flash. But it goes by too fast, would be better if it were more permanent
  • Reverse debugging
The bad:

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