When I first installed Git I did not really know what it was for besides interacting with Github. I learned the basics and got back to whatever project I was working on. Beyond cloning, committing, and pushing my Git skillset did not advance much over time.

Recenty I fell into a challening development situation that prompted me to learn more about Git and version control workflows. I read through the excellent and free Pro Git book. This text covers the full spectrum of Git, from the basics of branching through Git’s internal state.

One of the actionable learnings is how to integrate Git with Bash to smooth out workflows and increase project awareness. Below are some notes on how to:

  1. Enable Git command tab completion
  2. Add Git status info the the prompt
  3. Set aliases to streamline commands

Get source code

In order to set up tab completion and decorate the prompt we need two scripts packaged with the Git source code:

  1. Clone a copy of Git source from Github
  2. Change into the cloned Git directory
  3. Checkout the tag corresponding to the installed Git version
  4. Copy git-completion.bash to home
  5. Copy git-prompt.sh to home
mlr@pop-os:~/Desktop$ cd git

mlr@pop-os:~/Desktop/git $ git version
git version 2.34.1

mlr@pop-os:~/Desktop/git $ git checkout tags/v2.34.1
HEAD is now at e9d7761bb9 Git 2.34.1

mlr@pop-os:~/Desktop/git $ cp contrib/completion/git-completion.bash ~/

mlr@pop-os:~/Desktop/git $ cp contrib/completion/git-prompt.sh ~/

Add tab completion

To set up tab completion the git-completion.bash script needs to be referenced in the .bashrc:

# git completion
. ~/git-completion.bash

This line can be added where ever it makes sense. I added the reference to the bottom of the configuration file.

Now source the .bashrc and confirm tab completion:

mlr@pop-os:~$ source .bashrc

mlr@pop-os:~$ git cl<tab>
clean   clone

Decorate prompt

To decorate the shell prompt the git-prompt.sh script also needs to be referenced in the .bashrc:

# git prompt
. ~/git-prompt.sh

After the script reference set an environment variable to add status markers to the prompt:

# set status marker
export GIT_PS1_SHOWDIRTYSTATE=1

Next locate the PS1 prompt string in the .bashrc, move it to the end of the file, and append the Git prompt format string to it:

# set PS1 
export PS1='$<current PS1>$(__git_ps1 " (%s)")\$ '

This part may require some trial and error to clearly append Git information to the current prompt.

Checkout the comments in git-prompt.sh for more environment variables and general notes.

Now source the .bashrc and change into a directory with a repository. Confirm that a current branch shown with some sort of marker:

mlr@pop-os:~/Desktop/rckwzrd.github.io (gh-pages *)$

Set Aliases

Finally, aliases can be set with git config to shorten or combine commands.

The status command can be shorted with:

git config --global alias.st status

A log command that displays the last 10 commit messages can be created with:

git config --global alias.ol log '--pretty=oneline -10'