Git Bash Aliases

Introduction

Do you have a have a distaste for typing the same things over and over again? I’m sure you do! Do you have a distaste for typing the same things over and over again? Who doesn’t?!

This article is the result of me typing git commands.. and well.. being lazy about it!

I’ll show you how to configure git aliases so that you can quickly preform your git commands without the ho-hum of whole words!

Prerequisites

• Windows 10
• https://git-scm.com/download/win

Aliases

Lets look at a common scenario of wanting to add all adds/edits and commit the changes to your git branch.

git add -A && git commit -m "my comment"

Git allows for aliases but you have to type a little more.

git ac "my comment"

With bash, you can type something like

gac "my comment"

If you think this doesn’t matter, this article is not for you! For the rest of us lazy-fingered devs, proceed to the steps below!

Steps

Okay, assuming you’ve installed git for windows and have git bash installed. Lets knock out some quick steps that will get you on your way to typing less and coding more!

1. Open git bash
   • You can do this from you start menu by just searching for ‘git bash’
2. Run these commands

    cd ~/
    notepad .bash_profile
   

3. Paste the following into the notepad file and save it

    # ----------------------
    # Git Aliases
    # ----------------------
    alias g='git'
   
    if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ] && ! shopt -oq posix; then
        . /etc/bash_completion
    fi
   
   
    function_exists() {
        declare -f -F $1 > /dev/null
        return $?
    }
   
    for al in `__git_aliases`; do
        alias g$al="git $al"
           
        complete_func=_git_$(__git_aliased_command $al)
        function_exists $complete_fnc && __git_complete g$al $complete_func
    done
   

4. Find your git config file. This command should tell you right where it is. It should be located at C:\Users\your_user_name\.gitconfig

    git config --global --edit
   

5. Using explorer or your terminal, open the .gitconfig file.
6. Paste the following into your .gitconfig file

    [alias]
    # logs
    l = log --pretty=format:"%C(yellow)%h\\ %ad%Cred%d\\ %Creset%s%Cblue\\ [%cn]" --decorate --date=short
    lg='git log --graph --oneline --decorate --all'
   
    a = add
    ap = add -p
    aa = add .
    ac = !git add -A && git commit -m
    c = commit --verbose
    ca = commit -a --verbose
    cm = commit -m
    cam = commit -a -m
    m = commit --amend --verbose
       
    d = diff
    ds = diff --stat
    dc = diff --cached
    a = add
    ap = add -p
    aa = add .
    c = commit --verbose
    ca = commit -a --verbose
    cm = commit -m
    cam = commit -a -m
    m = commit --amend --verbose
       
    d = diff
    ds = diff --stat
    dc = diff --cached
   
    s = status -s
    co = checkout
    cob = checkout -b
    # list branches sorted by last modified
    b = "!git for-each-ref --sort='-authordate' --format='%(authordate)%09%(objectname:short)%09%(refname)' refs/heads | sed -e 's-refs/heads/--'"
   
    # list aliases
    la = "!git config -l | grep alias | cut -c 7-"
   

7. Run the following in bash or simply close and re-open your bash terminal

    source ~/.bash_profile
   

8. Run the following to see your git aliases

    //in cmd or powershell
    git la
    //in bash you can also do
    g la
    //also works in bash
    gla
   

Cmder

To use bash with cmder you can specify bash to be your startup terminal.

In my bash settings I had to put the following below instead of the default to get bash to load. It seems like they have an outdated git-for-windows directory reference. I also had issues with the variables used so I just kept it simple with the following command to open bash. You can specify the start directory to whatever you’d like.

C:\Program Files\Git\git-bash.exe -new_console:d:C:\

VS Code Terminal

To be able to benefit from our git bash aliases in VS Code we must overwrite a couple user settings.

Open settings by using (Ctrl + ,) or

1. File Menu
2. Preferences
3. Settings (Ctrl ,)

Then paste the following lines into the right settings override window.

{

...

//Git Bash
"terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\Program Files\\Git\\bin\\bash.exe",
// start a login shell to pick up aliases from .bash_profile
"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows": ["--login"]
}

Summary

So there you go. You’ve got git aliases set up as well as bash aliases to help you even more. One downside to the bash function shown above is load time for your bash terminal. If you find it to be too slow you can use something like the following instead of a function that scans your git aliases.

# ~/.bash_profile
# ----------------------
# Git Aliases
# ----------------------
alias g='git'
alias ga='git add'
alias gaa='git add .'
alias gaaa='git add --all'
alias gau='git add --update'
alias gb='git branch'
alias gbd='git branch --delete '
alias gc='git commit'
alias gcm='git commit --message'
alias gcf='git commit --fixup'
alias gco='git checkout'
alias gcob='git checkout -b'
alias gcom='git checkout master'
alias gcos='git checkout staging'
alias gcod='git checkout develop'
alias gd='git diff'
alias gda='git diff HEAD'
alias gi='git init'
alias glg='git log --graph --oneline --decorate --all'
alias gld='git log --pretty=format:"%h %ad %s" --date=short --all'
alias gm='git merge --no-ff'
alias gma='git merge --abort'
alias gmc='git merge --continue'
alias gp='git pull'
alias gpr='git pull --rebase'
alias gr='git rebase'
alias gs='git status'
alias gss='git status --short'
alias gst='git stash'
alias gsta='git stash apply'
alias gstd='git stash drop'
alias gstl='git stash list'
alias gstp='git stash pop'
alias gsts='git stash save'

References

• https://gist.github.com/mwhite/6887990
• https://jonsuh.com/blog/git-command-line-shortcuts/
• https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Git-Aliases
• http://durdn.com/blog/2012/11/22/must-have-git-aliases-advanced-examples/
• https://github.com/GitAlias/gitalias
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2114111/where-does-git-config-global-get-written-to