Git alias' I use on a daily basis
"I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it."
Whether or not this quote can be attributed to Bill Gates or Walter Chrysler doesn't matter.^1 What matters is that if I have to do something repetitive frequently, I’ll find ways to make my life easier.
Most of us who write code for a living use version control, often interacting with our repositories through the command line. While I’m aware of applications like GitHub Desktop, if I can accomplish the task with a terminal, I prefer to use it.
I have typed commands like git checkout
, git merge
, and git commit xyz
more times than I can count. It feels like a waste of time, so why not find a shortcut? Setting up our Git configuration can make a huge difference. While Git provides default behaviors for many tasks, it also allows you to set your own preferences. With git alias
, we can create short, vim-inspired mnemonics that save us from repetitive typing.
All you need to do is add these, or your own, to your ~/.gitconfig
:
[alias]
ga = git add
gcm = git checkout app-main
gc- = git checkout -
gaa = git add --all
gcb = git checkout -b
gco = git checkout
gll = git log --pretty=format:"%C(yellow)%h%Cred%d\\ %Creset%s%Cblue\\ [%cn]" --decorate --numstat
gld = git log --pretty=format:"%C(yellow)%h\\ %C(green)%ad%Cred%d\\ %Creset%s%Cblue\\ [%cn]" --decorate --date=short --graph
gls = git log --pretty=format:"%C(green)%h\\ %C(yellow)[%ad]%Cred%d\\ %Creset%s%Cblue\\ [%cn]" --decorate --date=relative
gst = git status --short --branch
[color]
diff = auto
status = auto
[branch]
autosetuprebase = always
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