Q: Would you lose any work if your local clone of a git repository were lost?
A: Run this script to find out.

The script is useful to check the state of your project and what needs to be cleaned up. It checks for

• whether this is a git repository at all
• untracked files
• diffs not yet checked in
• stashes
• detached HEAD
• branches not pushed to origin
• tags not pushed to origin
• all of the above for any submodules

It returns 0 if the repository passes all checks (no untracked files, no diffs, ...), and 1 otherwise.

With the -a flag, take the first relevant automatic action. In every case that is not purely informational, ask permission before doing anything. If an action feels unsafe or inappropriate, just say no or hit -C to leave.

• If this is not even a git repository, run git init.
• If there are untracked files, run git status -s.
• If there are diffs, run git diff.
• If there is one stash, run git stash show -p [i.e., print the stash diff].
• If there are multiple stashes, run git stash list.
• If there are tags not pushed to origin, push them.
• If in a detached HEAD state, merge to master.
• If a branch (incl. master) needs to be git push origin-ed, do so.
• If there are submodules, recurse into them and run all of the above; else print nothing.
• If everything is clean, remove the directory!

The last step is intended for people who have the work habit of not leaving copies of repositories in their home directory if they aren't needed—effectively putting them back on the shelf to take down later. If that isn't your habit, it is safe to remove the last block of this script that takes that action. If you do delete the directory entirely, you will still need to cd to another directory yourself (a subshell can't change its parent shell's working directory.)

Setup: Add this to your ~/.gitconfig:

[alias]
    isclean = !/path/to/git-isclean

Now you can run git isclean or git isclean -a from any repository.

Limitations:

• Misses empty subdirectories---including those with only dot files!
• Assumes your only remote is origin.

License: CC BY SA [creative commons, attribution, share-alike] By Ben Klemens. See http://modelingwithdata.org/arch/00000194.htm for discussion.