I’ve been using GitHub mainly as a backup for my projects (so I don’t accidentally destroy them with water or something ). I’m familiar with the basics—push, pull, and the occasional merge conflict—but my commit messages are a mess. They usually read like a stream of consciousness, something like: “Uhh…this is what I’m doing right now, here’s the code, hope it works.” Yeah, I know, it’s pretty sloppy.
I want to step up my Git game and get a proper workflow going, instead of just pushing everything straight to main. Any tips or best practices?
First off, don’t commit directly to main! Create a new branch for every feature or bug fix you work on. That way, your main stays clean and stable. Once you’re done, you can merge your branch back in after testing. And as for commit messages, keep them short and meaningful, like “Fix login bug” or “Add user profile feature.” It’ll make your life way easier when looking through your commit history.
One thing that helped me is writing commit messages in two parts. The first line is a short, imperative statement like “Fix button alignment.” Then, you can add a longer description if necessary. And yeah, echoing what was said, branching is key. You can have separate branches for development, staging, and production. Keeps everything organized!
Think of each commit as a milestone. You shouldn’t commit unfinished, experimental code unless it’s to a temporary branch. Also, I’d suggest looking into GitFlow or Trunk-based development as a structured workflow to keep things clean. It’s a bit more structured but worth checking out.
One cool thing that helps me is using Git hooks! You can set them up to automate tasks like formatting or running tests before every commit. It keeps you from pushing broken or messy code. Also, try squashing your commits into one before merging a branch, so your history looks cleaner.
If you’re worried about tons of “random” commits cluttering things, learn to “squash” them. Basically, it combines multiple commits into one before merging. That way, your main branch won’t look like a stream of random ideas. You’ll have neat, tidy commits that actually reflect what you did.
). I’m familiar with the basics—push, pull, and the occasional merge conflict—but my commit messages are a mess. They usually read like a stream of consciousness, something like: “Uhh…this is what I’m doing right now, here’s the code, hope it works.” Yeah, I know, it’s pretty sloppy.