Git Force Push Practices

The cluster focuses on debates about using git push --force, its risks like overwriting remote history, safer alternatives such as --force-with-lease, and best practices like disabling it on shared branches or main repos.

➡️ Stable 0.5x DevOps & Infrastructure
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#5110
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Keywords

reasonablypolymorphic.com GitLab CI HEAD GitHub PR index.html push git branch force repo commits remote commit branches rebase

Sample Comments

adamwong246 May 27, 2014 View on HN

How about 'git push --consensual'?

Osiris Dec 4, 2013 View on HN

If no one has pulled your branch, just do a force push (use --dry-run to double-check your push).

ggregoire Jul 26, 2021 View on HN

Still need to be able to "push --force" on the remote repo for this to be useful, right?

lez Oct 23, 2019 View on HN

I really hope force push is disabled on the repo :)

drekipus Jun 2, 2024 View on HN

Can you still push to the repo? Perhaps via --force?

karatinversion Nov 23, 2023 View on HN

No, that’s not right. If you did that, you would need to force push to get the result pushed to the remote.

talldan May 11, 2019 View on HN

There's git push --force-with-lease, which is a safer alternative.

emmelaich Dec 15, 2025 View on HN

Surprised that people allow force-push on git. If it needs to be done, it should only be done after consultation and disabled after.

cjrp Aug 19, 2015 View on HN

He must be using push --force in that case.. which seems like a bad practise.

newaccount74 May 1, 2022 View on HN

Why do you force push to their branch, instead of committing your fixes as separate commits later on?