Here you will find some tips on how to be more efficient with you daily work in Git.

It's super convenient to specify some aliases for most frequently used Git commands. This saves you a lot of keystrokes - and time. Add the following to ~/.bash_profile:

alias gs='git status '
alias go='git checkout '
alias gb='git branch '

Reload changes:

$ source ~/.bash_profile

Now to switch branches you can simply type:

$ go BRANCH_NAME

Now open up your ~/.gitconfig file and add the following aliases:

[alias]
    co = checkout
    br = branch
    ci = commit
    st = status
    unstage = reset HEAD --
    last = log -1 HEAD
    hist = log --pretty=format:'%h %ad | %s%d [%an]' --graph --date=short
    lg = log --all --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%ci) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit

You can make your life much easier by enabling autocomplete for running Git commands in Terminal. This enables autocomplete for:

• local and remote branch names
• local and remote tag names
• .git/remotes file names
• git 'subcommands'
• tree paths within 'ref:path/to/file' expressions
• file paths within current working directory and index
• common --long-options

First, copy git-completion.bash to your home directory. If you installed Git via homebrew:

$ cp /usr/local/git/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash ~/.git-completion.bash

Then add the following line to your ~/.bash_profile:

test -f ~/.git-completion.bash && . $_

Finally, restart Terminal or just run:

$ source ~/.bash_profile

You can have some basic Git information displayed right at the prompt.

$ cp /usr/local/git/contrib/completion/git-prompt.sh ~/.git-prompt.sh

Add the following lines to ~/.bash_profile:

test -f ~/.git-prompt.sh && source $_

GIT_PS1_SHOWDIRTYSTATE=1
GIT_PS1_SHOWSTASHSTATE=1
GIT_PS1_SHOWUNTRACKEDFILES=1
GIT_PS1_DESCRIBE_STYLE="branch"
GIT_PS1_SHOWUPSTREAM="auto git verbose"
PROMPT_COMMAND='__git_ps1 "\[\e[31;1m\]\u@\h\[\e[0m\]:\[\e[33m\]\w" " \[\e[0m\]\$ " "\[\e[37m\][%s]\[\e[0m\]"'

Also, remove any export PS1 entries you might have already placed in ~/.bash_profile.

Optionally You can read more about adjusting prompt colors here

Apply changes:

$ source ~/.bash_profile

Now when you're in a Git repository, your prompt should look more or less like this:

gm@mbp:~/dev/projects/starbroker[master *% u+2] $ 

In addition to standard information (user, hostname, current directory) it will now show you Git related information (in brackets at the end). This includes:

• current branch name
• * - you have unstaged changes
• + - you have staged changes
• $ - you have something stashed
• % - you have untracked files
• difference between your HEAD and it's upstream branch
  • -2 - you are 2 commits behind
  • +2 - you are 2 commits ahead
  • = - no difference
  • <> - you have diverged

Credits: Grzegorz Mausolf