The Code of No-Code

I added a new section to my .gitconfig file today and realized that looking at it as a whole it's a bit overwhelming (40 commands). However, considering it's history it just a natural evolution from my first file and simple usage of git to now. I don't remember exactly what my first .gitconfig looked like, but I can guess. It pretty much only included the most basic day to day commands:

  ad = add
  br = branch
  ci = commit
  lg = log
  mr = merge
  co = checkout
  st = status

Then I realized I was doing a lot of git ad . like commands and lots of git xx [options] over and over again. So I rethought my config and decided to add a few commands:

  al = add .
  lg = log --graph --pretty=format:'...' --abbrev-commit
  cim = commit -m

I think I used that for about a year, until the begging of this year when I realized I wanted single characters for all my most common commands with the extra characters being the added commands. So, I started with this:

  a = add
  al = add --all
  all = add --all
  b = branch
  bd = branch -d
  d = diff
  f = fetch
  g = grep
  i = commit -m
  ix = commit
  l = log --graph --pretty=format:'...' --abbrev-commit
  m = merge
  o = checkout
  p = push
  r = rebase
  s = status
  t = tag

You'll notice that I have two add --all commands which derives primarly from the fact I type too fast at times and wanted them both to achive the same result. The same goes for db and bd being the same command. I wanted a bD = branch -D command, but git is not case sensitive, so I had to remove it. Besides, it a dangerous command, so better to have it require a few more key strokes. I also, started a contract where they were pretty firm on the --ff-only merges so I added two commands to seperate my git workflow from the companies workflow:

  mn = merge --no-ff
  mf = merge --ff-only

Because I like to keep lots of branches around for feature development, testing, etc. I found I was doing a lot of rebasing so I added another section of commands for rebase. Also, because the git history for this project is almost completely linear (--ff-only) and I like to make lots of check-ins on my feature branches (e.g. git i 'EOD') I've started doing squash merges and those went in to this next update:

  ms = merge --squash
  rc = rebase --continue
  rs = rebase --skip
  ra = rebase --abort

Again you might be wondering why I don't have a m = merge command. Without it forces me to think about what I doing when I'm merging. Next up, stashing:

  st = stash
  sta = stash apply
  std = stash drop
  stl = stash list
  stp = stash pop
  sts = stash save

Then this morning I was hunting down a bug that was introduced a while back and discovered the beauty of bisect. At first I had xs = bisect start, but it's too easy to confuse this with xi = bisect skip which is a stretch to think of skip as ignore. The real problem those is start re-starts the bisect when done in the middle and that is super frustrating, so I opted make the two most dangerous command require explicit exectuion reset and start. Using x as the starting character for all these commands is a little awquard to type, If I find something more convient, but still logical for bisect this will probably change. But, for now the last section is:

  x = bisect
  xb = bisect bad
  xg = bisect good
  xs = bisect skip
  xl = bisect log
  xv = bisect view
  xvs = bisect view --stat

Below is my current .gitconfig file and I'm guess I'll continue to tweak it, but don't see much room for any big additions.

  a = add
  al = add --all
  all = add --all
  b = branch
  bd = branch -d
  db = branch -d
  c = clone
  d = diff
  ds = diff --stat
  f = fetch
  g = grep
  i = commit -m
  ix = commit
  l = log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h %Creset- %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit -n 15
  la = log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h %Creset- %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit
  mn = merge --no-ff
  mf = merge --ff-only
  ms = merge --squash
  o = checkout
  ob = checkout -b
  p = push
  r = rebase
  rc = rebase --continue
  rs = rebase --skip
  ra = rebase --abort
  s = status
  st = stash
  sta = stash apply
  std = stash drop
  stl = stash list
  stp = stash pop
  sts = stash save
  t = tag
  x = bisect
  xb = bisect bad
  xg = bisect good
  xs = bisect skip
  xl = bisect log
  xv = bisect view
  xvs = bisect view --stat