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
    CSS 3D Folding Animation

    Google Plus provides loads of inspiration for front-end developers, especially when it comes to the CSS and JavaScript wonders they create. Last year I duplicated their incredible PhotoStack effect with both MooTools and pure CSS; this time I'm going to duplicate...

  • By
    Welcome to My New Office

    My first professional web development was at a small print shop where I sat in a windowless cubical all day. I suffered that boxed in environment for almost five years before I was able to find a remote job where I worked from home. The first...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    WordPress-Style Comment Controls Using MooTools or jQuery

    WordPress has a nice little effect on the Admin Dashboard where it shows and hides the comment control links when you mouseover and mouseout of the record's container. Here's how to achieve that effect using MooTools or jQuery. The XHTML Notice that we place the links into...

  • By
    Animated Progress Bars Using MooTools: dwProgressBar

    I love progress bars. It's important that I know roughly what percentage of a task is complete. I've created a highly customizable MooTools progress bar class that animates to the desired percentage. The Moo-Generated XHTML This DIV structure is extremely simple and can be controlled...

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!