Git Alias - Multiple Commands and Parameters

Question

I am trying to create an alias that uses both multiple Git commands and positional parameters. There are Stackoverflow pages for each, and it would appear painfully obvious to do both, but I am having trouble.

As an example, I want to switch to branch foo and perform a status. So in my .gitconfig, I have:

  [alias] 
     chs = !sh -c 'git checkout $0 && git status'

which doesn't work. Whereas something like this will work.

chs = !sh -c 'git checkout $0'

echoes = !sh -c 'echo hi && echo bye'

Any insight would be appreciated.

Answer 1

You can define a shell function.

[alias] chs = "!f(){ git checkout \"$1\" && git status; };f"

Answer 2

This will work (tested with zsh and bash):

[alias] chs = !git checkout $1 && git status

Answer 3

The problem here is that the positional parameters seem to be getting sent to the shell command twice (as of git 1.9.2). To see what I mean, try this:

[alias]
  test = !git echo $*

Then, do git test this is my testing string. You should observe the following output (last two lines edited here for clarity):

03:41:24 (release) ~/Projects/iOS$ git test this is my testing string
this is my testing string this is my testing string
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
          #1                         #2

One way to work around this would be to

[alias]
  chs = !git checkout $1 && git status && git echo x >/dev/null

This will consume the extra positional parameter as it gets applied to that last echo command and have no effect on the results.

Answer 4

[alias]
chs = !git branch && git status

Answer 5

This targets Windows batch / msysgit bash; might not work on other environments.

As Olivier Verdier and Kevin Ballard have said

[alias] chs = !git checkout $1 && git status

almost works, but gives a spurious extra insertion of the argument ...

git chs demo -> git checkout demo && git status demo

But if you add && : to the end of your alias, then the spurious argument is consumed into a location tag.

So

[alias] chs = !git checkout $1 && git status && :

gives the correct output ... git chs demo -> git checkout demo && git status

Answer 6

I was able to create multi-line and quite complex git aliases. They work fine on Windows but I assume they'd work elsewhere too, for example:

safereset = "!f() { \
                trap 'echo ERROR: Operation failed; return' ERR; \
                echo Making sure there are no changes...; \
                last_status=$(git status --porcelain);\
                if [[ $last_status != \"\" ]]; then\
                    echo There are dirty files:;\
                    echo \"$last_status\";\
                    echo;\
                    echo -n \"Enter Y if you would like to DISCARD these changes or W to commit them as WIP: \";\
                    read dirty_operation;\
                    if [ \"$dirty_operation\" == \"Y\" ]; then \
                        echo Resetting...;\
                        git reset --hard;\
                    elif [ \"$dirty_operation\" == \"W\" ]; then\
                        echo Comitting WIP...;\
                        git commit -a --message='WIP' > /dev/null && echo WIP Comitted;\
                    else\
                        echo Operation cancelled;\
                        exit 1;\
                    fi;\
                fi;\
            }; \
            f"

I wrote a post and have a few more examples here.