22 May 2010 - San Antonio

I like knowing which Git branch I’m currently in. I use the git-ps1 function feature that comes with git-core. If you clone or download the git source:

git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git

There is a file in the contrib/completion folder called git-completion.bash:

~> cd git/contrib/completion

~> ls

total 96
-rwxr-xr-x  1 user  staff    44K Apr 14 15:26 git-completion.bash

I copy this file to my $HOME folder as .git-completion.bash and then reference it and the ps1 prompt feature in my .bashrc file

~> cp git-completion.bash ~/.git-completion.bash

inside by ~/.bashrc file

export PS1='\w$(__git_ps1 "(%s)") > '
source ~/.git-completion.bash

And now whenever I cd into a folder that is a Git repository I see something like the following prompt:

~/gitosis-admin(master) >

Notice the (master) notation. That is telling me I’m on the master branch. It’s just easier than issuing a “git branch” command everytime I want to know.

I know there are many other configurations out there, but I like to use the simplest thing that works.