Is there a shortcut for git branch name?

Question

I tend to have long branch names for git (e.g., step110_create_search_engine_to_replace_google).

How should I refer to it simply as step110 in checkout/commit statements?

Answer 1

If you're on a Unix-like system (Linux, Mac OS X, perhaps others), there's the contrib/complete/git-completion.bash bash auto-complete ruleset, which will let you auto-complete git commands (you can type git checkout step110<tab> and your shell will autocomplete the branch-name.

To activate this:

• If you've got the git source, in contrib/complete/ there's a file git-completion.bash. Put that somewhere safe (like ~/.git-completion), and then add the following line to your ~/.bashrc file: source ~/.git-completion. Either restart your shell session or run source ~/.git-completion to get it running in the current shell session.
• If you dont have the git source, you can get the script from here (github.com). Then follow the same instructions as above.

If you're lucky enough to be using zsh instead of bash, I know that oh-my-zsh has git autocompletion plugins (I'm not sure how to activate them without oh-my-zsh).

Sources:

• mbuttu.wordpress.com
• codethatmatters.com

Answer 2

Here is how I installed it on OS X...

Check if it's on your local system first. It seems MacPorts and Homebrew download it for you.

$ find / -name "git-completion.bash" 

Otherwise, download it...

$ wget https://raw.github.com/git/git/master/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash -O ~/.git-completion 

If you don't have wget, you can install it easily with Homebrew or use cURL.

$ vim ~/.profile 

...or your editor of choice.

Then add...

source ~/.git-completion 

If your autocompletion doesn't work automatically...

$ source ~/.profile 

...and then you have Git autocompletion.