gitcheckout

gitcheckout is customized git checkout command. It is designed to switch between recently used branches very fast. It allows us to:

Create a new branch with the description

Very often I use a branch name with JIRA ID inside. It is great as unique identifier and good reference, but you have to search for JIRA if you want to switch back to some branch. You have to do a extra slow step.

gitcheckout -b <name> <description>

gitcheckout requires a human readable description for better trackability.

$ gitcheckout -b pvalo_personal_branch "implement gitcheckout -l command"
Switched to a new branch 'pvalo_personal_branch'

List latest checkouts

The most important feature is to print latest checkouts.

gitcheckout -l / gitcheckout --list

This command allows you to get the latest 10 branches to which you did a checkout action. For each entry there is assigned a unique number in the table.

$ gitcheckout -l
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +
|  n  | name                           | description                              |
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +
|  0  | pvalo_personal_branch          | implement gitcheckout -l command         |
|  1  | doc2                           | update a README documentation            |
|  2  | doc                            | create a README documentation            |
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +

Switch to branch based on the name

gitcheckout allows you to do the basic switch to branch with specific name

gitcheckout <branch_name>

You can use '-' sign to switch to previous branch as you are probably used to.

$ gitcheckout -
Switched to branch 'doc2'

Switch to branch based on the number

Sometimes the previous checkout is not enough and you would like to switch to older checkout. In that case you have to find the name, write or copy the name and switch.

gitcheckout -n <checkout_number>

gitcheckout allows us to do it quicker. The reference number from table comes to play and you can do the switch very fast with just typing the reference number.

$ gitcheckout -n 2
Switched to branch 'doc'

Delete checkout based on the number

If you don't want to see the checkout in your list you can remove it.

gitcheckout -d <checkout_number>

$ gitcheckout -l
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +
|  n  | name                           | description                              |
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +
|  0  | pvalo_personal_branch          | implement gitcheckout -l command         |
|  1  | doc2                           | update a README documentation            |
|  2  | doc                            | create a README documentation            |
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +
$ gitcheckout -d 1
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +
|  n  | name                           | description                              |
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +
|  0  | pvalo_personal_branch          | implement gitcheckout -l command         |
|  1  | doc                            | create a README documentation            |
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +

Change the description of the branch

If you don't like the description of the branch you can change it later.

gitcheckout -c <checkout_number> <new_description>

$ gitcheckout -l
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +
|  n  | name                           | description                              |
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +
|  0  | pvalo_personal_branch          | implement gitcheckout -l command         |
|  1  | doc2                           | update a README documentation            |
|  2  | doc                            | create a README documentation            |
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +
$ gitcheckout -c 1 "i dont like the description"
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +
|  n  | name                           | description                              |
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +
|  0  | pvalo_personal_branch          | implement gitcheckout -l command         |
|  1  | doc2                           | i dont like the description              |
|  2  | doc                            | create a README documentation            |
+ --- + ------------------------------ + ---------------------------------------- +

Installation

Requirements

• bash or zsh
• python3

Installation steps

chmod u+x install.sh

./install.sh