Look cool with these sick Git configs

At least two things are true of programmers: they have the memory of a gold fish and instead put all of their energy into minimizing the time it takes to look-up or invoke the same crap 5000 times and they love showing off sick, colorful terminal output.

Let’s combine the twisted incantations used to invoke beautiful git logs with the git alias configuration.

Fancy Log

The git log is awesome. It shows you all the terrible mistakes and feverish attempts to correct them throughout the life of a project.

Git Log Output
Git Log Output

It’s pretty nice on its own with a simple git log but lets be real, you cannot let this obviously stock output print to your terminal or everyone will know what a noob you are.

Fancy Git Log Output
Fancy Git Log w/ Branch Graph

This is what you wanted the git log to look like you just had no way of conceptualizing it. Like a fish in the ocean that knew they were sick of getting chased by dolphins but had no idea what a tree is.

The graph on the left maps branching so you can easily see the merge history. The commit hash is reduced to a size we actually need and the time is displayed in a way my over-caffeinated brain can actually do something useful with.

But maybe you’re going to squash and re-base everyone’s commits and force push it back on the remote. You can ditch that branch graph and get a more concise view like so:

Concise (but still fancy) Git Log
Concise (but still fancy) Git Log

But How?

Check out my udemy course for just $9.99 – just kidding.

The answer is git aliases. Git aliases can be defined within any config scope, but here we’ll just do the global because honestly, where would you not want these bitchin’ logs.

Launch VS Code and go have a coffee while it starts or gather what dignity you haven’t sacrificed to the electron apps in exchange for more memory and open ~/.gitconfig in vim.

# ~/.gitconfig

[alias]
    lg1 = log --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --format=format:'%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset) - %C(bold green)(%ar)%C(reset) %C(white)%s%C(reset) %C(dim white)- %an%C(reset)%C(bold yellow)%d%C(reset)' --all
    lg2 = log --graph --abbrev-commit --decorate --format=format:'%C(bold blue)%h%C(reset) - %C(bold cyan)%aD%C(reset) %C(bold green)(%ar)%C(reset)%C(bold yellow)%d%C(reset)%n''          %C(white)%s%C(reset) %C(dim white)- %an%C(reset)' --all

Change lg1 and lg2 to whatever you want since I know you have a way more creative and informative descriptor than 1 and 2 (enjoy it while it lasts).

Aliases

Here are the other kick-ass git aliases I’m using

# vim: ft=gitconfig
# ~/.config/git/alias

[alias]
	a = add
	st = status -sb
	fresh = !"git clean -x -d -f"

	# Worktrees
	wt = worktree
	lswt = worktree list
	mkwt = "!f() { git worktree add \"$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)+$@\"; }; f"
	rmwt = "!f() { git worktree remove \"$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)+$@\"; }; f"

	# Commits
	c = commit
	ca = commit -a
	cm = commit -m
	cam = commit -am

	# Branches
	pu = push                           
	pl = pull                           
	fe = fetch                          
	co = checkout                       
	cob = checkout -b					

	# Diff and Merge
	cp = cherry-pick
	mmm = !git fetch origin master && git merge origin/master --no-edit
	d = diff
	dt = difftool
	dtg = !"git difftool -g"
	dtlast = !"git difftool HEAD@{1}"

	# Work-in-progress
	wip = !git add -A && git commit -m 'WIP'

	# Drop current changes
	drop = !git stash && git stash drop

	# revert last commit
	undo = reset HEAD~1 --mixed  		

	# revert added files 
	unstage = reset HEAD --      		
	ua = reset HEAD

	# revert all modifications
	rev = reset HEAD~1 --hard        

	# add and commit all changed files
	cm = !git add -A && git commit -m   

	# Update including submodules
	up = !git pull --rebase --prune $@ && git submodule update --init --recursive  

	# Total obliteration
	wipe = !git add -A && git commit -qm  WIPE SAVEPOINT  && git reset HEAD~1 --hard

	# Compact and readable log
	l = log --graph --pretty=format:'%C(magenta)%h%C(blue)%d%Creset %s %C(blue bold)- %an, %ar%Creset'

	# Log with list of changed files for each commit
	ll = log --stat --abbrev-commit

	# List of my own commits
	my = !git log --branches=* --no-merges --pretty=format:'%C(reset)%C(bold)%cd %C(reset)%C(white)%s  %C(reset)%h' --date=short --author=\"$(git config user.name)\"

	# pick a default log style
	lg = log --graph --decorate --oneline --abbrev-commit

	# List of branches ordered by last change
	branches = for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(color:bold)%(refname:short)%(color:reset)\t%(committerdate:relative)'

	# show last commit in directory
	slc = !"git show $(git lcd)"  

	# Last modified by
	lum = log -s -n1 --pretty='format:%an %ae%n'

	# List of files with merge conflicts
	wtf = diff --name-only --diff-filter=U

	# Rebase: add changes and continue
	cont = !git add . && git rebase --continue

	# Rebase: skip a rebase step
	skip = rebase --skip

	# Rebase: abort
	abort = rebase --abort

	# Cancel local commits in the branch: git fuck master
	fuck = "!f() { git reset --hard origin/$1; }; f"

I shamelessly stole or adapted almost everything here from some other nerds at various times. If I could give a better attribution than that I would.

#git #linux #programming