git snap creates a commit that includes most local changes on a user- and machine-specific snapshots branch. It doesn't ask for a commit message. It also doesn't touch the working tree, saves and restores the index, and switches back to the branch that was checked out before running git snap. In other words, everything looks the same as before after running git snap, but your changes are safely stored by Git and can be pushed to a remote for redundancy or sharing. This is in contrast to stashes.

Usage

git snap

This creates a commit with most local changes on a branch named snapshots-<username>-<hostname>. There are no options or parameters. Take a look at the snapshots-meribold-smial branch of this repository to see some commits created using git snap.

Installation

Save git-snap to some directory in your $PATH and make it executable. E.g.:

curl -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meribold/git-snap/v2.0.0/git-snap > ~/bin/git-snap
chmod +x ~/bin/git-snap

What gets included in a snapshot commit?

The version of a file that gets committed is always the one in your working tree. Which files are included depends on the working tree, the index, and the tip of the snapshots branch. Only files that exist in both the working tree and in the index or tip of the snapshots branch go into a new snapshot commit:

• If the file exists in the working tree and the index, it goes into the snapshot commit.
• If the file exists in the working tree and the tip of the snapshots branch, it goes into the snapshot commit.
• Otherwise, the file doesn't go into the snapshot commit.

It's more intuitive than it sounds. Creating a new file doesn't cause git snap to start tracking this file unless you add the file to the index. But, a file that's in the last snapshot commit will always be updated to the working tree version in the next snapshot commit.

Each row in the following table specifies whether a file exists in any of four trees: the working tree, the index, HEAD, and the tip of the snapshots branch. The last column indicates whether git snap would include this file in the commit it creates. The version that is included is always the one from the working tree.

working tree	index	HEAD	tip of snapshots branch	description		effect
exists	exists	exists	exists	tracked file	〰️	updated to working tree version
exists	exists	exists		''	➕	added to snapshots branch
exists	exists		exists	untracked but staged file	〰️	updated to working tree version
exists	exists			''	➕	added to snapshots branch
exists		exists	exists	after git rm --cached	〰️	updated to working tree version
exists		exists		''
exists			exists	untracked and unstaged file	〰️	updated to working tree version
exists				''
	exists	exists	exists	tracked file, after rm	➖	removed from snapshots branch
	exists	exists		''
	exists		exists	untracked file, staged and then removed	➖	removed from snapshots branch
	exists			''
		exists	exists	after git rm	➖	removed from snapshots branch
		exists		''
			exists	after git rm and committing	➖	removed from snapshots branch

Similar projects

• Dura is a background process that automatically creates commits similar to those created by git snap.