This is a simple tool to replace the usual git branch
printout provided by Git.
When developing on branches that use ticket numbers, I find that it can sometimes be difficult to remember what exactly the branch was for. To help with this, I would add descriptions to the branches using git branch --edit-description
, but Git does not provide an easy way for you to quickly look at all of the branches along with their descriptions. Instead, to get the description of a branch, you have to use a long command: git config --get branch.<branch_name>.description
.
This tool provides an alternative to git branch
that also displays branch descriptions (if available) and recent commits. I personally find that this makes it a lot easier to quickly scan over my local branches, so hopefully it can help others too.
If you use Homebrew, git-branches
is available in my tap:
brew install cdevoogd/tap/git-branches
You can also install using go install
:
go install github.com/cdevoogd/git-branches@latest
Adding descriptions to your branches when using this tool can make it much easier to quickly determine what you were working on on a branch. I recommend setting an alias in your .gitconfig
to assist in quickly setting descriptions.
If you leave the name of this program as-is when installing, Git should automatically allow it to be used as a custom subcommand. If the program is named git-branches
and is available in your PATH, you should be able to call it using git branches
.