Git Branch Autocompletion

By  on  

Naming git branches is something most of us have down to a science. My branch naming pattern is usually {issue number}-short-feature-description, though many developers prefer to lead with the description and end with the issue.

Regardless of the pattern you use, having a feature like autocomplete can save you a lot of time typing or copy/pasting. Here's how you can implement autocomplete for git branches!

Start by downloading the git-completion.sh file from GitHub:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/git/git/master/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash -o ~/.git-completion.bash

Next, add the following to your ~/.bash_profile file:

if [ -f ~/.git-completion.bash ]; then
  . ~/.git-completion.bash
fi

The last step is restarting your terminal. Voila! Now you can type git checkout {search-string} and press tab to select the lone branch that matches or hit tab again to see all matches!

Autocomplete for git makes navigating all of my branches much faster!

Recent Features

  • By
    5 HTML5 APIs You Didn’t Know Existed

    When you say or read "HTML5", you half expect exotic dancers and unicorns to walk into the room to the tune of "I'm Sexy and I Know It."  Can you blame us though?  We watched the fundamental APIs stagnate for so long that a basic feature...

  • By
    CSS vs. JS Animation: Which is Faster?

    How is it possible that JavaScript-based animation has secretly always been as fast — or faster — than CSS transitions? And, how is it possible that Adobe and Google consistently release media-rich mobile sites that rival the performance of native apps? This article serves as a point-by-point...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Scrolling “Go To Top” Link Using Dojo

    One of the most popular code snippets of posted on my blog has been the scrolling "Go To Top" link snippet. The premise of the snippet is simple: once the user scrolls an element (usually the BODY element) past a given threshold, a "Go...

  • By
    Fancy FAQs with jQuery Sliders

    Frequently asked questions can be super boring, right? They don't have to be! I've already shown you how to create fancy FAQs with MooTools -- here's how to create the same effect using jQuery. The HTML Simply a series of H3s and DIVs wrapper...

Discussion

  1. JONATHAN DOS SANTOS

    this needs to find it’s way into official distribuition!

  2. Andras Somi

    If you use zsh + oh-my-zsh, you can get the same effect with the git plugin.

  3. Djibril

    Can probably run source ~/.bash_profile if you don’t want to restart your terminal

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