A set of git tools to help manage branches better. Some of the tools use git-config hooks for local customization, have a look at the tools directly.

Sometimes branches are not actively developed anymore but need to be preserved for posterity. These branches are clogging up the branch view.

git archive-branch mybranch

moves mybranch to archive/2013/mybranch and tags the current top commit with a message containing bits of the branch history.

Working on many branches can mean you forget which branch you worked on last week, or the week before.

git recent-branches

lists the various branches checked out over the history, including the date and last commit date on that branch.

Example:

next                                          4 hours ago          last commit 6 days ago
server-1.13-branch                            4 hours ago          last commit 2 weeks ago
touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2            3 days ago           last commit 3 days ago
touch-grab-race-condition-56578               4 days ago           last commit 6 days ago      †
bug/xts-segfaults                             6 days ago           last commit 6 days ago      †
master                                        6 days ago           last commit 3 weeks ago
for-keith                                     10 days ago          last commit 2 weeks ago
memleak                                       13 days ago          last commit 2 weeks ago

git-recent-branches requires GitPython: http://pythonhosted.org/GitPython/

Can't remember what branch "fix-race-condition" was? Me neither. That's what

git branch-description [branchname] [upstream]

will tell you. If upstream is given, it'll also show you what has been merged into upstream already (by patch, not by commit).

And install the git-post-checkout-nagging-hook as your .git/hooks/post-checkout to make sure you get reminded to set the branch description.

A wrapper around git-format-patch, that drops the patches into a directory named after the patch set and date.

$> git patch-set origin/master..HEAD~2
$> ls patches
patches/patches-2013-08-30-10:47-origin\master..HEAD~2/
patches/latest -> patches/patches-2013-08-30-10:47-origin\master..HEAD~2/

patches/latest always links to the last generated patcheset.

Note: git-patch-set will run the pre-push hook (if any). Ideally, you'll have a pre-push hook that runs make check, so you never send out patches that haven't at least be built and tested.

$> cat .git/hooks/pre-push
cat ~/code/libevdev/.git/hooks/pre-push
#!/bin/bash
set -e
echo "running make check"
make check

During rebase, when you realise that a commit needs to be broken up into two. $> git rebase -i

$> git split-commit

The tool now calls git add -p, letting you add the hunks needed (and/or missing files). Finish up, it will re-commit with the same message and drop you back to the shell to finish up and continue. Alternatively,

$> git split-commit --after will drop you into a shell immediately, letting you git add and commit anything you want committed before the current commit. Exiting the shell will commit the rest.

git config's rebase.autosquash enables automatic re-ordering and squashing of commits starting with "squash!" or "fixup!", followed by a subject line that matches an earlier commit.

git-squash is a wrapper script around that to make it easier to remember. $> git add myfile yourfile $> git squash [1] this is the most recent commit [2] previos commit [3] some other commit [4] a commit message Number to squash in: 3

Arguments passed to git-squash will be passed to git-commit.