Git Shell Scripts for Windows (Batch Files)

Simple Windows Batch files for common Git operations.

Welcome, Let's get Productive with Git on Windows!

If you are completely new to Git and you are on the Windows platform you're in luck, because I'm about to walk you through the steps to get productive with Git quickly!

And in the process of getting you up-to-speed with Git I'll also provide some recommendations for overall dev machine setup on Windows as well.

Windows - Setup for First Time Git User

My first word of advice is to familiarize yourself with using Git from the command-line. Yes, Git integration is available in most graphical code editors/IDEs, but it would be impossible to describe how to use them all, they change their interfaces from time-to-time, and you won't always be able to use your favorite editor. So learn the command-line and you'll have a solid foundation in Git skills.

Install Cmder

On Windows I highly recommend the Cmder console emulator (Full download with Git for Windows) instead of the built-in command-line (Git Bash shell and the Hyper shell by Zeit are also popular and useful cmd.exe alternatives). So before proceeding please download and install Cmder.

Cmder can be used inside the Visual Studio Code (VSCode) integrated terminal. See here for details. See below for help installing VSCode and other tools.

Verify that Git for Windows was Installed

Cmder installed Git for Windows, so let's verify that. First, do Start, Run, cmder and at the command prompt type:

git --version

If Git for Windows responded, you're all set to move on to the next step.

Folders

So now you are in Cmder at the C:\Users\... prompt. So change directory into your root C:\ folder.

cd \

And make a directory for all of the projects and source code that you'll be working on. I recommend:

md src
cd src

Why use your root C:\ folder and abbreviate the folder name? I recommend this because you'll often end up with extremely long/deep nested folder hierarchies when working with source code and it's best to start with something very short.

Clone Your First Repo

So you're at the C:\src prompt in Cmder and here's where the good stuff begins.

When you "clone" a source code repository (repo) Git will remember the original master location of the code, and thus allow you to easily check-in and "push" your changes/contributions back to that location (e.g., GitHub).

But if you simply download code (from GitHub, for example) instead of cloning it, there is no link established (and no tracking of changes by Git at all) and you will have a harder time configuring your folder to push your contributions to the original location.

If you are in that situation where you have downloaded code and made some minor changes, I'd recommend that you follow these steps to actually clone the repo, and then copy your previous changes from the download folder to this new, cloned folder.

So here goes, let's clone this git-scripts-win repo as an example. Here's the command:

git clone https://github.com/slathrop/git-scripts-win.git

(You can also read the GitHub documentation here for more details on this command.)

This creates a new folder named git-scripts-win. So change your current directory to that subfolder.

cd git-scripts-win

You'll notice that Cmder has added some Git information to the command-prompt:

C:\src\git-scripts-win (master -> origin)

Cmder knows that Git is setup to track changes in this folder, and that you are currently working on the "master" branch.

Congratulations, you have cloned your first Git repo!

Installation and Use of Windows Batch Scripts

Now that you have cloned this repo, add your local repo folder (C:\src\git-scripts-win if you followed the example above) to your PATH environment variable.

After editing your PATH environment variable, you'll need to exit Cmder and re-run it to allow the PATH change to be seen by Cmder. So do that now before continuing with the next step.

Practice Switching Between Branches

You may have been asked to make contributions to, say, a dev branch instead of the master branch. So how do you do that? Using the batch files (*.bat) in this repo makes it easy. Enter this command:

git-switch-branch

And you'll see a list of available branches:

  dev
* master
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/dev
  remotes/origin/master


Switch to a different branch...

Branch Name:

Your current branch, master, is starred, and you are prompted to enter the name of the branch to which you'd like to switch. Enter dev.

You'll see:

Branch Name: dev
Switched to branch 'dev'

Make Your First Contribution

Assuming you are working against a repo to which you have write access, making your first contribution to the repo is easy. After cloning, simply add/edit files as needed, or copy files from other locations into your local, cloned folder structure.

And then you can type:

git-update

You'll be prompted for a short "commit message" (no quotes are needed in the message). Type it in and press ENTER.

Congratulations, you've made your first contribution to a git repo!

Additional Nice-to-Have Setup for Devs on Windows

For software development on Windows you'll want to install a number of popular tools. The Windows Package Manager Chocolatey makes it very easy to install these tools.

When setting-up a Windows 10 machine from scratch, here's my recommended routine.

Chocolatey Package Manager and Recommended Installs

From the Cmder (or other) command prompt, install Chocolatey (this is the cmd.exe method recommended on the Chocolatey website) by pasting and executing this command.

@"%SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoProfile -InputFormat None -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET "PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin"

And here are the Chocolatey install (cinst) commands for installing popular dev tools.

cinst winmerge
cinst vscode
cinst nodejs-lts
cinst yarn
cinst dotnetcore-sdk
cinst slack
cinst azure-cli
cinst AzureStorageExplorer
cinst docker-for-windows
cinst postgresql
cinst pgadmin4
cinst procexp

Additional Chocolatey packages can be discovered by using the list (aka search) command.

clist <filter>

For example:

clist mongodb

Recommended Git Configuration

Some of the batch files in this repo assume that you have installed WinMerge and that you have configured git to use it as your merge tool.

git config --global merge.tool winmerge

git config --global mergetool.keepBackup false

It's also a good idea to establish your identity with git using these two commands:

git config --global user.name "YourUserName"

git config --global user.email YourEmailAddress@example.com

Finally, if you need to sign-in to GitHub repos with different credentials (say, with a work account to access private repos and also with a personal account to access public repos) you'll need to tell the Credential Manager to use the full path of the repo instead of just the host (Github.com). And you may need to set the name of the credential helper too.

git config --global credential.useHttpPath true

git config --global credential.helper manager

# Optional - prefer GUI prompt for credentials
git config --global credential.modalPrompt true

And if you ever need to clear any previously-cached credentials for GitHub to force prompting for new credentials (on your next git action requiring a login) you can run this command:

git credential-wincred erase
host=github.com
protocol=https

Note that using this command is a little tricky. Paste the first line and execute it. Then paste the 2nd and 3rd line and complete the command by pressing CTRL+Z.

Batch File Documentation

To use a batch file, simply enter its name at the Windows command prompt. The Cmder console emulator (Full download with Git for Windows) is recommended over the built-in cmd.exe shell.

These batch scripts are designed to prompt you before taking any action against your repo. So you may always press CTRL+C to exit a script after launching it but before it performs any actions.

The batch script you would use most commonly is git-update, but all of the scripts are documented below.

git-branches

Displays information about the branches in the current repo.

git-changes

Prompts you for the path to a file for which you would like to review the changes and launches your diff tool (e.g., WinMerge) to allow you to review the changes.

git-cherry-pick

Walks you through the process of picking a commit from another branch and merging it into your current branch

git-del-local-branch

Walks you through deleting a local branch.

git-del-remote-branch

Walks you through deleting a remote branch.

git-merge-branch

Walks you through merging a branch to master.

git-merge

When git fails to auto-merge your changes with other commits, use this command to launch the diff tool (e.g., WinMerge) to review each change and make the decisions necessary to complete the merge.

git-new-branch

Walks you through the process of creating a new branch. For example, you may want to create a branch for a new or experimental feature. It is recommended that you not use a branch for refactoring existing code that might also be touched by others while you are working on it.

git-switch-branch

Walks you through switching from your current branch to a different branch so that you can work there.

git-update

Walks you through committing your changes locally and then syncing those changes with the remote repo.

git-ff-branch

When your branch has had no intervening changes since it was branched from, rebased against, or merged with master, and you simply want to bring your branch even with the latest changes in master, this does the job.

git-rebase-branch

When your branch does have intervening changes that cause it to differ from master, and commits have been applied to master that you want to be applied to your branch as well, this will do the job. This script is formulated to minimize merge conflicts and "just work" most of the time by favoring the changes in the local branch over otherwise conflicting changes in master.

git-merge-master

Merge master locally into your current branch, favoring the current branch's changes over master however. This avoids the duplicate "replay" of commits that can occur with rebasing.

git-log

Display a simple list of the latest commits.