A quick way to change Git branches
✅ You use Git on the command line
✅ You find yourself switching branches frequently
✅ You'd like a quick, easy way to switch branches - the fewer key presses the better
On the command line, in a Git location, enter bl.
You get a list of 8 branches for the current repository, in order of the most recent commit to the branch,
with the most recently updated branch at the top of the list.
% bl
Branches:
1. expand-all ---- Wed Apr 4 15:14:50 2018 +0100 - alistair
2. main ---- Tue Apr 3 17:18:57 2018 +0100 - John Doe
3. fix-anchors-in-edge ---- Tue Apr 3 14:56:05 2018 +0100 - alistair
4. user-css ---- Tue Apr 3 14:00:17 2018 +0100 - alistair
5. space-tidyup ---- Tue Apr 3 12:55:00 2018 +0100 - alistair
6. fix-anchor-jump ---- Wed Mar 28 15:06:35 2018 +0100 - alistair
7. index-dontsearch ---- Wed Mar 28 13:49:00 2018 +0100 - alistair
8. nonsearch-topic ---- Wed Mar 28 13:06:47 2018 +0100 - alistair
To switch to a branch just enter: bb followed by the number shown.
So, in the above example, if I want to check out the branch called fix-anchors-in-edge,
I enter bb3.
This saves me typing git checkout fix-anchors-in-edge.
To check out the first branch in the list you can just enter bb (although bb1 also works).
If you want to list more than 8 branches, give the number of branches after bl.
For example, to list the 20 most recently updated branches, enter: bl 20 (note the space before the number).
To switch to a branch listed higher than 8 use a space between bb and the number - e.g. bb 15.
Think:
bl= branch listbb= branches
It requires you to set up 10 aliases to specific commands.
bl runs a bash script called branchlister.sh.
bb and bb1–bb8 run a bash script called branchpicker.sh.
Download the latest release from https://github.com/hubwriter/branchlister/releases/, unzip the download,
and save branchlister.sh and branchpicker.sh to a suitable location (for example, /home/<username>/bash-scripts/).
Add the following 8 aliases. The files you have to edit to create these aliases will depend on the shell you are using
(e.g. .bashrc or .bash_profile for bash).
IMPORTANT: The paths to the scripts must match the location in which you saved the scripts.
Windows
Add these aliases (e.g. for bash add these to /c/Users/<username>/.bashrc):
alias bl='bash /c/programming/bash-scripts/branchlister.sh'
alias bb='bash /c/some-path/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh'
alias bb1='bash /c/some-path/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 1'
alias bb2='bash /c/some-path/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 2'
alias bb3='bash /c/some-path/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 3'
alias bb4='bash /c/some-path/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 4'
alias bb5='bash /c/some-path/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 5'
alias bb6='bash /c/some-path/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 6'
alias bb7='bash /c/some-path/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 7'
alias bb8='bash /c/some-path/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 8'
Linux
Add these aliases (e.g. for bash add these to ~/.bash_profile):
alias bl='bash /home/<username>/bash-scripts/branchlister.sh'
alias bb='bash /home/<username>/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh'
alias bb1='bash /home/<username>/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 1'
alias bb2='bash /home/<username>/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 2'
alias bb3='bash /home/<username>/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 3'
alias bb4='bash /home/<username>/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 4'
alias bb5='bash /home/<username>/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 5'
alias bb6='bash /home/<username>/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 6'
alias bb7='bash /home/<username>/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 7'
alias bb8='bash /home/<username>/bash-scripts/branchpicker.sh 8'
Force the shell to apply the updated configuration, by restarting the shell and logging in again.
Alternatively, tell the shell to re-read its configuration - (e.g. for bash configurations in .bash_profile enter source ~/.bash_profile).
If you edit the scripts, don't put #comments at the end of lines, it breaks things.
$IFS, used in both scripts, is the field separator, so oIFS="$IFS" just captures the current field separator so that we can put it back again later.
IFS=$'\n', used in both scripts, sets the field separator to a newline, which allows us to create an array of values from the Git output, by splitting it on the newline character.
In branchpicker.sh, the git for-each-ref … command gives you a list of branches:
git for-each-ref --count=8 --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/
b630797516a83a801fd5e40c7966e80aba1e9d75 commit refs/heads/main
3fc47b625c8b75155bad96cd4f9a991f93701408 commit refs/heads/local-test-docker
7bb84ca6bfdfb50b3566bcc2fd76fe8ccb6e3ed1 commit refs/heads/rc/1.19
33592a05d5cfdb91952f376f798b02178f32a826 commit refs/heads/rc/1.18
bd2fd1c3ff22bdb3ef4ab2a175e4cd1e12bf58dd commit refs/heads/newtest
bd2fd1c3ff22bdb3ef4ab2a175e4cd1e12bf58dd commit refs/heads/rc/1.16
This can be formatted - e.g. here is just the branch names:
git for-each-ref --count=8 --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format="%(refname)"
refs/heads/master
refs/heads/local-test-docker
refs/heads/rc/1.19
refs/heads/rc/1.18
refs/heads/newtest
refs/heads/rc/1.16
And here is the fully formatted list:
git for-each-ref --count=8 --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format="%(refname) ---- %(committerdate) - %(authorname)"
refs/heads/master ---- Fri Jan 18 18:11:12 2019 +0000 - John Doe
refs/heads/local-test-docker ---- Wed Jan 16 15:16:03 2019 +0000 - alistair
refs/heads/rc/1.19 ---- Thu Dec 13 17:46:22 2018 +0000 - Jenkins II
refs/heads/rc/1.18 ---- Thu Nov 15 15:30:48 2018 +0000 - Jenkins II
refs/heads/newtest ---- Tue Mar 27 18:10:03 2018 +0100 - alistair
refs/heads/rc/1.16 ---- Tue Mar 27 18:10:03 2018 +0100 - Jenkins II
In branchpicker.sh, the line:
((item_requested--))
just decrements the number you chose (e.g. 3 if you entered bb3) by 1 because arrays start at 0
so, if you want to switch to the first branch in the list, you need to checkout ${brancharray[0].