This post is not intended to be about basic git stuff, but stuff you probably didn't know about or used just once or twice.

1. Recover a commit from reset --HARD

   Just use:

    git reflog 
   

2. Diff

   If you want to check what is the difference between two branches, you can simply do:

    git diff branch1..branch2 
   

3. Show a commit that matches a regex

   
   You can find the last commit in with the message contains the string that was passed, in this case fixes, using the following command:

    git show :/fixes 
   

4. Limit git push default actions

   If you run

    git push 
   

   which is the default action is to push all branches on the remote. That can cause many accidents, if you want to prevent them, do this:

    git config --global push.default tracking 
   

   UPDATE: Git 2.0 removed this default http://blog.nicoschuele.com/posts/git-2-0-changes-push-default-to-simple
   

5. Checkout a branch, rebase and merge to master

   
   Do this magic:

    git rebase HEAD feature && git rebase HEAD @{-2} 
   

6. Git stash

   If you can't commit, because you did not finish your work yet, but something urgent comes up you can use git stash to save those changes, commit your urgent task and then git stash pop to bring your stuff back.

7. Aliases

   
   Tired of typing checkout again and again? Go ahead and:

    git config --global alias.co checkout 
   

   Now, you can checkout to master by doing: 
   

    git co master 
   

8. Renaming a local branch

   You can easily rename a local branch with:

    git branch -m old-name new-name 
   

9. Searching for an author

   You can search for a commit by an author by using:

    git log --author=jrakesh 
   

10. Status with options

    Most people just use git status, but you can pass arguments to change the way status is shown. With the command:

     git status -sb 
    

    you have an output like this:
    

         ## master
             M Gemfile
             M Gemfile.lock
             M app/controllers/home_controller.rb
             M app/views/home/index.html.erb