UFO Sightings Solution¶

bill@gates:~$ git branch green
bill@gates:~$ git branch purple

bill@gates:~$ git switch green
bill@gates:~$ echo "background-color: green;" > style.css
bill@gates:~$ git add style.css
bill@gates:~$ git commit -m "changed background color to green"

bill@gates:~$ git switch purple
bill@gates:~$ echo "background-color: purple;" > style.css
bill@gates:~$ git add style.css
bill@gates:~$ git commit -m "changed background color to purple"

bill@gates:~$ git switch main
bill@gates:~$ git merge purple

bill@gates:~$ git branch -d purple
bill@gates:~$ git branch -D green

Explanation¶

First, lets review git log (before running the commands above ).

bill@gates:~$ git log --oneline
b02c4b1 (HEAD -> main) initial commit

Create branches using git branch <branchname>.

bill@gates:~$ git branch green
bill@gates:~$ git branch purple

Now we can run git branch to see which branches exist and which one we're on (i.e. which branch is referenced by HEAD).

bill@gates:~$ git branch
  green
* main
  purple

We're on main. This is also apparent when we run git log.

bill@gates:~$ git log --oneline
b02c4b1 (HEAD -> main, purple, green) initial commit

Switch to the green branch, modify style.css, then commit the change.

bill@gates:~$ git switch green
bill@gates:~$ echo "background-color: green;" > style.css # (1)!
bill@gates:~$ git add style.css
bill@gates:~$ git commit -m "changed background color to green"

Here we've modified style.css using the shell command echo, but you could also edit the file in your favorite text editor.

bill@gates:~$ git log --oneline
2efc22d (HEAD -> green) changed background color to green
b02c4b1 (purple, main) initial commit

Switch to the purple branch, modify style.css, then commit the change.

bill@gates:~$ git switch purple
bill@gates:~$ echo "background-color: purple;" > style.css
bill@gates:~$ git add style.css
bill@gates:~$ git commit -m "changed background color to purple"

Let's recap. At this point, the full commit tree should look like this.

Let's see if that's what git log --oneline shows us.

bill@gates:~$ git log --oneline
3d72cab (HEAD -> purple) changed background color to purple
b02c4b1 (main) initial commit

Nope. That's because git log shows the commit history starting from HEAD. In other words, git log follows the path backward from HEAD.

Use the --all flag to see every branch and the --graph flag to show the log as a graph.

bill@gates:~$ git log --oneline --all --graph
* 3d72cab (HEAD -> purple) changed background color to purple
| * 2efc22d (green) changed background color to green
|/  
* b02c4b1 (main) initial commit

Switch back to main. Then merge with purple.
```
bill@gates:~$ git switch main
bill@gates:~$ git merge purple
Updating b02c4b1..3d72cab
Fast-forward
 style.css | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
```
Notice that Git recognizes this as a fast forward merge. In other words, Git just needs to update main's pointer from commit ID b02c4b1 to commit ID 3d72cab.

To see this for yourself, inspect the contents of .git/refs/heads/main before and after the merge.

Delete the purple branch using git branch -d <branchname>.

bill@gates:~$ git branch -d purple # (1)!
Deleted branch purple (was 3d72cab).

-d is an alias for --delete

Delete the green branch using git branch -D <branchname>.

If we try to do git branch -d green (similar to step 6 above ) we'll get an error!
```
bill@gates:~$ git branch -d green
error: The branch 'green' is not fully merged.
If you are sure you want to delete it, run 'git branch -D green'.
```
In this case deleting the branch means we'll lose commit ID 2efc22d forever.

Remember, commits point to their parents, not the other way around. So if we lose the green branch, commit ID 2efc22d won't be reachable from any other commit or branch.

By contrast, when we deleted the purple branch, we didn't lose access to any commits because there wasn't anything reachable by purple that wasn't reachable by main.

Since we're super certain we want to delete the green branch, we can force Git to remove it with the -D flag.
```
bill@gates:~$ git branch -D green # (1)!
Deleted branch green (was 2efc22d).
```
1. -D is an alias for --delete --force.
garbage collection

Technically, commit 2efc22d isn't immediately deleted after we delete the green branch. It lives in our git repo until it gets garbage collected . (You can force a garbage collection with git gc).