Using Git rebase to sync latest changes in main branch to feature branch

You have a scenario where you create a feature branch from the main branch. Then you work for a while on the feature branch and want to merge these changes into main.

But in the meantime changes have also been made to main and you are unsure if there are now conflicts.

With Git rebase you can take all the latest changes from main and sync them into your current feature branch. And all your current commits will be added on top of those changes from main (this keeps the commit history clean). It is similar to if you started over on a fresh feature branch from main and then added all your changes again.

It is also described here and on YouTube here.

To use git rebase, run the following commands:

Go to main branch first and get latest changes:

git switch main

git pull

Then switch to your existing feature branch:

git switch feature/my-feature-branch

If others have worked on the same feature branch, you can pull the latest changes with:

git pull --rebase (optional)

If only you have worked on the feature branch you can skip that (as you know you have the latest changes) and then run the rebase command:

git rebase main

This will add all the latest changes to your local feature branch.

Then you need to push those changes to the remote feature branch (typically, so you can create a pull request and merge everything into main):

git push --force-with-lease

You cannot run a regular git push since the local and remote branch history are no longer the same (since changes from main have been interjected into the feature branch). Using --force-with-lease is safe as it checks that remote and local are still the same before pushing and if not it will fail.

That's it.

If you run into a merge conflict you can try and open the file and update as needed and then run: 

git add the-file-name-you-updated

git rebase --continue

Or if you want to cancel entirely, run:

git rebase --abort

To see more info on general Git usage and commands, see here.

Installing tools on Windows with Chocolatey - a package manager

 Chocolatey is a useful tool to install apps and tools on a fresh laptop or developer VM via command line.

Install Chocolatey

To install Chocolatey, follow below steps:

• Install PowerShell 7, see link
• Open PowerShell 7 as administrator
• Run the following command to install Chocolatey (copied from the official install instructions)
• Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
• Close and re-open the PowerShell 7 window, again as administrator
• Run the following command to verify that install is succesful:
• choco upgrade all
• Enable long paths in PowerShell (command copied from here):
• New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" -Name "LongPathsEnabled" -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD -Force

Install apps with Chocolatey

Below are some commands for common tools:

• choco install -y notepadplusplus
• choco install -y git
• choco install -y vscode
• choco install -y 7zip
• choco install -y kubernetes-cli
• choco install -y kubernetes-helm
• choco install -y azure-cli
• choco install -y az.powershell
• choco install -y bicep
• choco install -y terraform
• choco install -y firefox

You can see a list of available apps here (and search as well, there are many)

Here's instructions on initial config for Git (set user.name and user.email)

Git commands - for setup and daily work

 This article is just to collect some of the Git commands that are being used on a regular basis.

Git commands for daily work

git clone <https link to repo> (clone a remote repo. Make sure you’re in the correct directory when running)

git pull (sync the latest changes from remote repo)

git checkout -b feature/new_branch_name (create new feature branch)
git switch -c feature/new_branch_name (create new feature branch)

git checkout main (switch to main branch)
git switch main (switch to main branch)

git add -A (pre-commit/stage command to add all new/modified/deleted files to local staging for whole repo, run this before local commit)

git add . (same as -A but for current directory and sub directories only)

git add -u (stages all modified and deleted files but leaves new and untracked files)

git commit -a -m "adding a test file" (commit all files to local branch and add a message)

git push --set-upstream origin feature/testingbranch (publish local branch to remote repo, use the same name as the current feature branch)

The git push command can be simplified further, see below around the push.autoSetupRemote setting (then you can just use git push).

git add -A && git commit -a -m "adding a test file" (combine git add and git commit and run sequentially)

git checkout main && git pull (combine switch to main branch and run git pull)

git branch -d localBranchName (delete local branch)

git push origin --delete remoteBranchName (delete branch remotely)

git branch -l (list local branches)

git branch --all (see all branches including remote)

Undo last commit

If you've pushed a local repo to a remote repo and also created a PR in e.g. Azure DevOps (but not yet merged changes to main), you can undo the last commit, make some changes or remove/add files and re-push the changes:

git reset --soft HEAD~1 (undo last commit but keep changes staged)

git reset (unstage currently staged changes)

git add . (run this after changes have been made to re-stage)

git commit -m "updated commmit message"

git push --force (this will overwrite the remote branch history. If you don't use --force it will throw an error that remote branch is ahead)

Load everything from remote branch and overwrite local branch

git switch my-local-branch

git fetch origin

git reset --hard origin/my-remote-branch

Sync latest changes from main branch into your current feature branch

This can be done using git rebase which will keep the commit history clean, see link here.

Git commands configuring Git

git config --global user.name "First Last" (user name and email should be set up as a one time config)

git config --global user.email <user@email.com>

git config --global core.longpaths true (fixes an error with long path names)

git config --list (show git config)

git config --list --show-origin (show git config including where variables are defined)

git config --global http.https://dev.azure.com/.proxy https://someaddress (this is a proxy related setting)

git config --global http.https://dev.azure.com/.proxyauthmethod negotiate (this is a proxy related setting)

git config --global http.https://dev.azure.com/.emptyAuth true (this is a proxy related setting)

git config --global --edit (edit the global config file in VI editor)

git config --global --replace-all user.name "username" (replaces current user name)

git config --global --replace-all user.email <user@email.com>

git config --unset-all credential.helper (unset named settings)

git config --global --set credential.helper (set the credentials helper type)

Note, that if you set push.autoSetupRemote to true with the below command, it is enough to just run: git push and you don't have to specify (--set-upstream origin feature/testingbranch) and it will automatically create a remote branch with same name as current local branch and enable tracking, see more info here:   

git config --global --add --bool push.autoSetupRemote true