Creating Git Aliases

By  on  

I create shortcuts for everything. I create variables which act as text shortcuts, shortcuts in TextMate to generate CSS/JS/HTML, and bash scripts so I don't have to type in the same commands over and over again. So why should version control software be any different? I commit and push religiously so I create Git aliases to save myself a few keystrokes.

Sample Aliases

#make "com" alias for "commit"
git config alias.com commit

#make "co" alias for checkout
git config alias.co checkout

#make "br" alias for branch
git config alias.br branch

# When you want to see just the differences of one function in one file in two different commits
git config alias.funcdiff '!sh -c "git show \"\$1:\$3\" | sed -n \"/^[^ \t].*\$4(/,/^}/p\" > .tmp1 &&
        git show \"\$2:\$3\" | sed -n \"/^[^ \t].*\$4(/,/^}/p\" > .tmp2 &&
        git diff --no-index .tmp1 .tmp2"' -

These are just some sample Git aliases. You can view more detailed (and by detailed I mean brain-numbing) examples of git aliases at the Git Wiki.

Recent Features

  • By
    7 Essential JavaScript Functions

    I remember the early days of JavaScript where you needed a simple function for just about everything because the browser vendors implemented features differently, and not just edge features, basic features, like addEventListener and attachEvent.  Times have changed but there are still a few functions each developer should...

  • By
    6 Things You Didn’t Know About Firefox OS

    Firefox OS is all over the tech news and for good reason:  Mozilla's finally given web developers the platform that they need to create apps the way they've been creating them for years -- with CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.  Firefox OS has been rapidly improving...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Create a CSS Flipping Animation

    CSS animations are a lot of fun; the beauty of them is that through many simple properties, you can create anything from an elegant fade in to a WTF-Pixar-would-be-proud effect. One CSS effect somewhere in between is the CSS flip effect, whereby there's...

  • By
    Add Site Screenshots for External Links Using MooTools Tooltips

    Before you send your user to an unknown external website, why not provide them a screenshot of the site via a tooltip so they may preview the upcoming page? Here's how you can do just that using MooTools. The MooTools JavaScript The first step is to grab...

Discussion

  1. Nice! I use ci for commit though, more like Subversion. I also have di for diff, st for status and sta for stash.

  2. Terry

    I’m trying to get the funcdiff alias created. When I try to call it with something like:

    git funcdiff “rel\path\to\file” functionName
    or
    git funcdiff HEAD~2 HEAD “rel\path\to\file” functionName

    both give me an error like:
    fatal: Path ‘funcitonName’ does not exist in ‘sha1-2’.
    fatal: Invalid object name ‘rel\path\to\file’.

    I’ve Googled everywhere for anyone using this alias to see a sample syntax, but no one has one. Have you used it successfully?

  3. Dan

    You can make aliases for branch name, too. For example:

    git symbolic-ref head HEAD

  4. Peter

    Dan, command

    git symbolic-ref head HEAD

    ruins git repo in windows. Because it overwrites “HEAD” with “head” in “.git” directory

    For ones, that tried this: just rename the file back

  5. Shahzeb

    Very useful, thanks!

  6. Thanks for the commands,
    I need to know how to create an alias for paths.
    For example if I need to write “git push PATH” instead of “git push gitolite@codex…”
    Regards

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!