Version Control Git

August 18, 2026 at 7:19 AM

Git at DigiPen Singapore

Service Address
Repositories https://git.sg.digipen.edu/projects/<groupname>
Tickets, wiki, timeline (Trac) https://trac-git.sg.digipen.edu/projects/<groupname>/timeline
Requests and problems helpdesk.sg@digipen.edu

You sign in with your DigiPen account. If a clone or push asks repeatedly for your password, that is an authentication failure rather than a broken repository — email the helpdesk.

Reference: DigiPen wiki Git FAQ

Request a team repository

Student (Team Leader) will need to send email to helpdesk.sg@digipen.edu with the following important details.

  • Name of Group
  • List of team members (DigiPen email ID)
  • CourseCode and Instructor.

Thereafter, your repository will be accessible for the members and instructors via

Members will also have access to project-related SCM tool

How do I clone a repo?

# Clones to ./<project_name>
git clone https://git.sg.digipen.edu/projects/<project_name>

# Clones to ./<dir_name>
git clone https://git.sg.digipen.edu/projects/<project_name> <dir_name>

What state is my working copy in?

git status

Lists the following:

  • Current branch
  • Is branch up to date
  • Are there any unstaged changes
  • Changes in the staging index that are ready to be committed
  • Committed changes which have not been merged
  • Useful tips!

List all unstaged changes

# Normal output
git diff

# Highlighted output
git diff --color-words

# To view changed on staged files
git diff --staged

Create a new branch and switch to it

git checkout -b <branch-name>

Rename branch

git branch -m <new-branch-name>

Add files to the staging index

git add <file_name>

Dont forget to commit!

Commit your changes

git commit -m "<descriptive but short message about my commit>"

Push changes to a remote repo

git push

Pull changes from a remote repo

git pull

Switch to the last branch I was on

git checkout -

How do I search all changes ever made in my repo?

git grep "<something you want to find>"

How do I pull a specific commit from another branch onto my branch

git cherry-pick <sha-value>

Discard local file modifications

# Reset specified path
git checkout -- <local_path>

# Also works with multiple arguments
git checkout -- <local_path1> <local_path2>

Undo local commit

# Undo the last 2 commits, keep changes in working tree
git reset HEAD~2

# Undo the last 2 commits, discard changes
git reset --hard HEAD~2

Remove a file from GIT without removing it locally

# Or git remove --cached <filename>
git reset <filename>

Edit a commit message

# Starts $EDITOR to edit
git commit --ammend

# Replace the message directly
git commit --ammend -m "New message"

Add file to previous commit

git add <forgotten_file>
git commit --ammend

Clean local commits before pushing

git rebase --interactive

# If you don't have any tracking information for this branch add an upstream
git rebase --interactive origin branch

Revert pushed commits

# Revert specific commit
git revert <sha-value>

# Revert the second to last commit
git revert HEAD^

# Revert range of commits
git revert develop~4..develop~2

# To revert the changes to the working tree only
git revert --no-commit HEAD

Advanced and repair

Recipes for repairing a repository or rewriting history. Everything in this section is riskier than the commands above — read the whole recipe before running any of it.

Avoid repeated merge conflicts

git config --global rerere.enabled true

Locate merge that broke something

# Start the bisecting session
git bisect start

# mark the current revision as bad
git bisect bad

# Mark the last known good revision
git bisect good revision

⚠ These rewrite history. Anyone who has already cloned or pulled will have to re-clone, and a mistake here is not always recoverable. Make a backup copy of the repository directory first, and tell your team before you run them.

Remove sensitive data

git filter-branch --force --index-filter \\
  'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch PATH-TO-YOUR-FILE-WITH-SENSITIVE-DATA' \
  --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all

Push to multiple git repos at the same time

# This does not preserve history!
git remote set-url origin --push --add <link_repo1>
git remote set-url origin --push --add <link_repo2>
git remote update

Make sure to push the changes!

Fix a broken repo!

# Run this and see what is dangling etc
git fsck --full

# These should clean those things up
git reflog expire --expire=now --all
git gc --prune=now

# Run this again to see if we have fixed it
git fsck --full

Remove all broken refs from a repo

# make a backup before attempting this
git for-each-ref --format='%(refname)' | while read ref; do git rev-list --objects $ref >/dev/null || echo "in $ref"; done

(echo HEAD; git for-each-ref --format='%(refname)') | while read ref; do git rev-list -g --objects $ref >/dev/null || echo "in $ref"; done

Delete all files and history from a repo [UNRECOVERABLE]

# Create a new empty repo with an initial commit
mkdir new
cd new
echo "This is the README" > README.md
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Add README.md (initial commit)"

# Add remote repo [the repo you want to delete] as origin
git remote add origin <url-to-remote>

# Mirror push to remote
git push origin --mirror

# Note: There will be dangling ref's left over which you can then garbage collect later if you please
# see: https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-push.html

Clone history, tags, and branches to a new repo

# Clone repo1
git clone --mirror <link_repo1> repo1_dir

# We need to retrieve all the tags from repo1
git fetch --tags

# ensure your local branches and tags are correct
git tag
git branch -a

# Set the origin urls
git remote set-url origin --push --add <link_repo1>
git remote set-url origin --push --add <link_repo2>

# Update remote tracking
git remote update

# Update the repos
git push origin --all
git push --tags