I'm using a lot of branches. Almost one per feature or bug, and they add up quickly. Why I'm doing this doesn't matter for this post, but I found it to be a good workflow. The problem with that is of course that after a while I forget which branch was for what, or what branch I worked on three weeks ago. So I started hacking up some git helpers.
I pushed them to https://github.com/whot/git-branch-tools today, feel free to use them or improve on them.
Archiving branches
Some branches are not actively developed anymore but should still be preserved for posterity. These branches are clogging up the branch view.
git archive-branch mybranchmoves mybranch to archive/2013/mybranch and tags the current top commit with a message about the branch history. An example git branch output would look like this now:
... archive/2013/touch-test-libtool-linker-issues archive/2013/two-screen-coordinates archive/2013/wrong-signal-logging-merge archive/2013/xi2-protocol-tests archive/2013/xi21-confine-to archive/2013/xorg-conf-init-cleanup attic bugfix/xts-segfault devel fedora-17-branch fedora-rawhide-branch for-keith high-keycodes master memleak * next ...
Showing recent branches
Working on many branches can mean you forget which branch you worked on last week, or the week before.
git recent-brancheslists 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 agoThe output above shows the branch name, last time that branch was checked out, last commit time and a marker that shows up if this branch doesn't exist anymore. There are a few more flags you can pass in too, including git log flags, so play around with it.
Better branch descriptions
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). Example again:
:: whot@yabbi:~/xorg/xserver (next)> git-branch-description touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2
Branch touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2
Branched: Thu Feb 14 11:05:48 2013 -0800
Last commit: Fri Mar 1 16:37:49 2013 +1000
Fixes for https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56578, second attempt
============================ Unmerged commits =============================
Commits on touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 not in next:
68b937046f278d53de14b586dbf7fd5aa7367f59 Xi: return !Success from DeliverTouchEmulatedEvent if we didn't deliver
f8baab8ac32e5abb31bcd1bb4f74e82d40208221 Xi: use a temp variable for the new listener
9cbb956765c7b4f1572ab2100f46504bf6313330 dix: don't set non-exisiting flags on touch events
2a5b3f2f2293f4a428142fffdb1b6e8ffbbb5db0 dix: fix a comment
76e8756545951d7f13ca84a4bd24fe5f367c5de2 Xi: compress two if statements with the same body
61b06226a43839ed75126f9c54d47bc440285e21 dix: update coords for touch events in PlayReleasedEvents
bd1a5423bbb02a349991a52f4997e830a0dc1992 Xi: add a comment to make a condition a bit clearer
78b26498085a7589e1f4d9ac3c21b69dc3227f87 Xi: not having an ownership mask does not mean automatic acceptance
c7271c7e05cdbeb35a3558223f9c2d6544504c4c dix: don't prepend an activated passive grab to the listeners
71ee72c97e459ef76984e6da64e5dab0ce6e4465 Xi: if we delivered a TouchEnd to a passive grab, end it
9b6966187fd0e6fb7ad3c2c1073456d96e3adab0 Xi: if a pointer grabbing listener gets the touch end, the touch is over
5afef18196ce70faec3e94379c3e6d3767660c4a FIXME: Xi: fix lookup in ActivateEarlyAccept
3784283be1f482a0f039f2eb790c0c8c2cc4bedb Xi: update the core listener state if we delivered the event
3570ef1244c87aef92db97df6e2b921529ffb75a Xi: if a passive async grab is activated from an emulated touch, accept
9bef901d8e28d48f43da3167219b02ad1dba27d8 Xi: save state for early acceptance
7d51022becd5af124896817030a10eedf7f1783a Xi: when punting to a new owner, always create TouchEnd events
4775cdb0d9a2513edcf27a9c4c1916e8213c397b Xi: use public.processInputProc to replay the touch history
431b128b9138af7a208b63d4eb5b917d94c08129 Xi: Don't emit a TouchEnd event to a frozen device
4126d64f6a40d5568b2d1412d519325c02786c9a dix: AllowSome is equivalent to TouchAccept
33421e91a52be91d7121c7c2146ff7bb53bea638 dix: move EmitTouchEnd to touch.c
54f8884aef275b15f2c42e3350e2b4968124af01 dix: XAllowEvents() on a touch event means accepting it
Commits on touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 already merged to next:
================================= Activity =================================
e7b4b83 HEAD@{5 hours ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to server-1.13-branch
9cbb956 HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 9cbb956
d58ddeb HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to d58ddeb
7c3968b HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 7c3968b
a354dd8 HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to a354dd8
fdf4869 HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to fdf4869
82be6b2 HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 82be6b2
82be6b2 HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 82be6b2
68b9370 HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 68b9370
151eff1 HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 151eff1
57fa0b9 HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 57fa0b9
b43e866 HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to b43e866
ef6a120 HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to ef6a120
9064294 HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 90642948cc78834d95f7a3bddaac7ff77b68ed7e
9064294 HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 90642948cc78834d95f7a3bddaac7ff77b68ed7e
6513e0e HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 6513e0e
0d60ba6 HEAD@{3 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 0d60ba6
dd23302 HEAD@{4 days ago}: checkout: moving from f21354da571dcd39ae1423388298d5c61d3e736d to touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2
f21354d HEAD@{4 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to f21354da571dcd39ae1423388298d5c61d3e736d
0d60ba6 HEAD@{4 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 0d60ba6
ae2cac9 HEAD@{4 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to ae2cac99a75917d6c4d34b8aa4aeaec0b5d32da7
c2b3d37 HEAD@{4 days ago}: checkout: moving from d75925b9fb8b24c8134b5082294e82abf83294af to touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2
0d60ba6 HEAD@{4 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 0d60ba683e7e95049c01ac5dba48a2f5fd80d9b9
c2b3d37 HEAD@{4 days ago}: checkout: moving from 0d60ba683e7e95049c01ac5dba48a2f5fd80d9b9 to touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2
0d60ba6 HEAD@{4 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 0d60ba683e7e95049c01ac5dba48a2f5fd80d9b9
0d60ba6 HEAD@{4 days ago}: checkout: moving from 90642948cc78834d95f7a3bddaac7ff77b68ed7e to touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2
9064294 HEAD@{4 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 90642948cc78834d95f7a3bddaac7ff77b68ed7e
8e5adb4 HEAD@{4 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2 to 8e5adb4ef8bafa2a3188e69409e2908f80288311
033b932 HEAD@{4 days ago}: checkout: moving from touch-grab-race-condition-56578 to touch-grab-race-condition-56578-v2
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.