This post is part of a series about our Git setups. In this series we will focus on the Git aliases we use the most, particularly the ones we find interesting (i.e., not c = commit) and that have increased our productivity using Git.
A complete compilation can be found here.
Rebasing
For the following aliases we’re going to define shell functions inside of an alias and call them directly afterwards.
rbb
rbb = "!f() { git rebase -i HEAD~$1; }; f"
Interactive rebase by the amount of commits passed through the first argument. Using git rbb 3 in a project with at least three commits will leave you in your editor of choice with something like this:
cfix
We can also use backticks surrounding a command to evaluate with the shell and pass the results as a part of our git alias. We use this with rev-parse in the following alias:
cfix = "!f() { git commit --fixup `git rev-parse --short HEAD` && git rebase -i HEAD~2 -i --autosquash; }; f"
We use cfix when the following situation arises. Say you’ve committed something with the message Fix the terrible bug only to find out that the fix did not actually work the way you expected. So you make your changes and go:
git add .
Now you commit the new, real fix:
git commit -m "Fix the terrible bug... again"
Wouldn’t it be nice to just have the new changes added to the last commit? Well, you can do that with a rebase:
git rebase -i HEAD~2
This will leave you with your editor looking like the first image in this section. Then you can change the pick {COMMIT HASH} Fix the terrible bug... again line to fixup {COMMIT HASH} Fix the terrible bug... again and save the file, with the desired results.
You can do exactly the same but avoiding the numerous commands by using cfix. Here’s an example screen after adding changes and running git cfix:
A similar result can be achieved using git commit --amend, but with cfix you can also squash, or even use the commit, and/or reword the previous one. Some people, however, don’t recommend rewriting Git history. You might want to read up on the topic starting with posts like the ancient Thou Shalt Not Lie: git rebase, amend, squash, and other lies.
Logging
There are many different options when it comes to customizing git log. Some of the most common options are passed using flags like --graph or --decorate, but the main differentiator is --pretty. Here are some of ours, with screenshots to showcase them:
--pretty=format:'%h %ad | %s%d [%an]'
--pretty=format:'%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset) - %C(bold green)(%ar)%C(reset) %C(white)%s%C(reset) %C(dim white)- %an%C(reset)%C(auto)%d%C(reset)'
Extensive documentation on how to build your own --pretty line can be found here. An example of a finished git log alias could be:
lg = git log --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --pretty=format:'%h %ad | %s%d [%an]'
Pull requests
If you’ve installed the hub CLI (and here’s how to do that), you can add the following alias to your toolbelt:
pr = !hub pull-request
In case you’re wondering, that ! at the start of the alias tells git that the command has to be run by the shell.
