Git workflow best practices

Initial setup

Fork the main WikiEduDashboard repo
Clone this repo on your machine
Add the main repo as "upstream"

git remote add upstream https://github.com/WikiEducationFoundation/WikiEduDashboard.git

Starting a new issue

Get the latest version of the project

git fetch upstream
git checkout master
git pull upstream master

Create a new branch starting from that newly updated main branch, and link it to your GitHub fork.

git checkout -b my-new-issue
git push --set-upstream origin my-new-issue

Make your changes, commit them, and push them to your fork

make changes
git commit -a "your-commit-message"
write a good commit message
git push

Rebasing your branch

When there have been changes in the main repo that you want to get, the cleanest option is often to rebase your branch on top of the latest commits.

Get the latest commits and update your local master branch

git fetch upstream
git checkout master
git pull upstream master

Rebase your in-progress feature branch

git checkout MyInProgressFeature
git rebase master
git push -f

Resetting a branch after you've messed it up

Make sure there isn't any work that you care about losing
Do a hard reset to the branch you want to restart from.

git checkout MyMessedUpBranch
git reset --hard upstream/master

Adding a single commit from one branch to another branch

Find and copy the commit ID that you want to use
Cherry-pick that commit

git checkout MyCleanBranch
git cherry-pick COMMIT_ID