Git - Some tips for your .gitconfig file
In this article, we're going to explore some tips for using Git more easily by customising the ~/.gitconfig file.
We'll create a new git undo command to abandon the last local commit.
We'll see how to share Windows Credentials manager with Linux, to have multiple credentials based on your folders structure, ...
We'll also see how to better works with branches like sorting them by commit date instead of their name, to automatically prune (remove) old branches or to force the creation of a new branch on the remote.
If you're using Linux (or WSL), your Git configuration file is located here: ~/.gitconfig. You can edit the file using vi or vscode (vi ~/.gitconfig or code ~/.gitconfig).
You can edit your global configuration by running git config --global --edit in the console.
The default editor will be started (vi or perhaps nano if you've that one). If you prefer vscode, run git config --global core.editor "code --wait" in the console first. Now, you've associated git to use vscode also for, f.i., editing your commit message.
Aliases
But how many times have I tried a git undo to hop, hop, delete everything I've done locally and start again from the last commit that was done on the remote repository.
For example, I'm doing some refactoring work and ouch, no, I'm not happy and wish to undo my last local commit (=I've done git add ... && git commit ... but not git push).
Would be nice to run git undo for this no? This is where the notion of aliases comes into play.
Just add the two lines below in your ~/.gitconfig:
[alias]
undo = "!f() { git reset --hard $(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)@{${1-1}}; }; f"
Instead of updating the file manually, you can obtain the exact same results by running git config --global alias.undo '!f() { git reset --hard $(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)@{${1-1}}; }; f' in the console.
source: https://github.com/git-tips/tips
Branches
Create the new branch on the remote automatically
When working on a new feature, most probably you'll first do git checkout -b myNewFeature to create the myNewFeature branch on your computer.
Then you'll do some coding works and the time will come to push towards git using f.i. git add . ; git commit -m "wip" ; git push but it'll not directly work.
Indeed, git will complain that myNewFeature didn't exist remotely and that you need first to create the branch.
You can git rid of this but adding the two lines below in your ~/.gitconfig:
[push]
autoSetupRemote = true
Now, if the local branch didn't exist remotely, git push will create it automatically for you.
Cleaning dead branches
By default, git will remember every branch name that existed at a given time, even if the branch has been deleted from the remote repository in the meantime.
So, after several months, if you run git branch --list --all on your computer, you may get branch names that no longer exist on the remote repository.
Just add the two lines below in your ~/.gitconfig file to ask git to make automatic cleaning when running git fetch:
[fetch]
prune = true
Instead of updating the file manually, you can obtain the exact same results by running git config --global fetch.prune true in the console.
Sorting branches on the last commit date
At work, we're using Git on a very large codebase and thus, we're creating branches to add new functionalities.
By running git branch --list --all (or, shortly, git branch -a), git returns the list of branches in an alphabetical order which really isn't very useful.
It would be better to sort the list on the last commit made in the branch so, at the top of the list, we've the last used branches and, at the bottom, inactive ones.
To do this, just add the block below to your ~/.gitconfig file:
[branch]
sort = -committerdate
Instead of updating the file manually, you can obtain the exact same results by running git branch --sort=-committerdate in the console.
Credentials
Sharing Windows credentials manager with Linux
If you're on WSL2, you can reuse credentials you already have filled in in Windows. Indeed, you can use git both in a DOS environment or in a Linux console.
To share credentials between the two environments, just add the two lines below in your ~/.gitconfig file:
[credential]
helper = /mnt/c/Program\\ Files/Git/mingw64/bin/git-credential-manager-core.exe
Using multiple credentials on the same computer
As you know, during the installation of Git, you need to provide your name and your email. These two information are given on the console using command like below:
git config --global user.email "me@work.be"
git config --global user.name "Christophe Avonture"
But this isn't very practical when you're working on several types of projects, e.g. for work and for your third-party projects. Let's say you're putting professional work in a given parent folder like ~/work_repositories while your side projects are in ~/private_repositories.
When your ~/.gitconfig looks like below, every time you'll push to Git, the published commit will comes from me@work.be.
[user]
email = me@work.be
name = Christophe Avonture
And, with the configuration below, now, if you're pushing a repository located in the ~/private_repositories, this time the author will be me@private.be; no more your professional email.
[user]
email = me@work.be
name = Christophe Avonture
[includeIf "gitdir:~/private_repositories/"]
email = me@private.be
Force SSH instead of HTTPs
Even if you've cloned a repository using git clone https://... you can force, globally, to use SSH instead.
So, for instance, if you've cloned your project using git clone https://github.com/you/your_repo.git (https thus), every time you'll push to it, you'll perhaps be prompted to provide your login and password. Really painful.
But, if you already have created a SSH key for your Github profile, then, you can stop to use https and force ssl by adding the two lines below in your ~/.gitconfig:
[url "git@github.com"]
insteadOf = https://github.com/
You can edit your global configuration by running git config --global url.'git@github.com:'.insteadOf 'https://github.com/' in the console.
From now, even if the repository is still configured to use https (as you can check in the .git/config file of that project on your hard disk), you've globally forced SSL.
Prevent auto replacing LF with CRLF
If you're working on Windows and not in Linux/WSL, git, under Windows, will always try to replace the LF character to CRLF and that's sooooooo bad.
Don't allow this by adding the next configuration item in your ~/.gitconfig:
[core]
autocrlf = false
You can edit your global configuration by running git config --global core.autocrlf false in the console.