Using Git Aliases and How to Display the Current Git Branch Name in a Terminal Prompt

Here are two Git workflow hacks that help me be more productive.

Git Aliases

Git aliases help me to be more productive. With how often we as developers type git commands, using aliases allows for less typing and less typos. Here are my current git aliases.

I like to keep the above git aliases in a separate file ~/.gitshortcuts from my ~/.bash_profile. Then I add source ~/.gitshortcuts to my ~/.bash_profile. This helps keep things neat.

Display the Current Git Branch Name in a Terminal Prompt

I found myself always typing git status to find out what branch I was on before running the next git command. Always having the current git branch name displayed removes the need to always check this. Here’s my terminal prompt.

Use backup branches (Bonus)

I worked with a senior developer that once told me:

Behind the scenes I’m always managing a backup branch

This really stuck with me. His convention was to create a backup branch with the suffix -BAK. This strategy is really helpful. If you’re unsure if a git rebase will work, and all conflicts will be resolved correctly or some other series of git actions, having a backup branch allows you to easily restore from the last time that you were sure about your changes without having to use git reflog and so on.

Conclusion

That’s it for now. I’m sure there’s a lot more git hacks that I should be using. Drop me a line and let me know!

Thank you for reading.