Git

Index

• How to create a script to make a new Git repository
• How to create a script to update an existing Git repository
• Oh shit, git!

Some sanity preserving tips on Linus’ monstrous creation

There’s no two ways about it, Git, to some of us at least, is a struggle. It seems to fail the oft overlooked Principle of Least Astonishment more often than is strictly necessary. So, with this in mind, here are some common head scratchers and the best solutions I have found so far.

Prerequisites / Assumptions

• Install Homebrew

  • /bin/bash -c “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

• I like to keep my own scripts in a new folder below my user folder ~bin and make sure that it is included in my $PATH.

• As of macOS 10.15 Catalina, Zsh is supplied as the default shell in place of Bash.

• In order to keep using HTTPS rather than SSH, do the following…

  • Install GitHub CLI: brew install gh
  • then enter: gh auth login
    • Select github.com
    • Select HTTPS
    • Enter Y to Authenticate Git with your GitHub credentials?
    • Select Login with a web browser
    • Copy one-time code
    • Paste in activation code into github.com in browser
    • Confirm by pressing Authorize github
    • Congratulations, you’re all set 👍

• Make sure that you have set up your Git credentials…

  • git config –global user.name “Your Name”
  • git config –global user.email “youremail@yourdomain.com”

How to create a script to make a new Git repository

These instructions have been revised now that I have worked out how to use shell scripts to make the job ridiculously easy.

Follow these steps:

• Create a default .gitignore file and place it in ~
• touch ~/bin/gitnew.sh
• chmod 755 ~/bin/gitnew.sh
• edit ~/bin/gitnew.sh

to contain…

#!/bin/zsh

# get the CWD and put it in $folder
folder=${PWD##*/}

# I'm sure there are more concise ways of doing this...
if [ ! -e README.md ]; then
    touch README.md
    chmod 755 README.md
fi
echo "# $folder" >> README.md

# delete previous .gitignore, if any. This deals with cp not supressing override prompts!
rm -rf .gitignore

# copy default .gitignore file from ~
cp ~/.gitignore .

# this command has been tweaked to make it entirely portable
gitname=`git config user.name`

# instructions as per https://github.com/new
git init

# note neat trick to supress message if remote rm fails
(git remote rm origin) 2>/dev/null

git remote add origin https://github.com/$gitname/$folder.git

git branch -M main
git add README.md
git commit -m "first commit"

# the final push!
git push -u origin main

• Optionally, create an alias simply called gitnew by putting alias gitnew='gitnew.sh' in your shell config file

How to use the script

Before using the script, it is assumed that you have created a new working folder for your source code and that your Github repository will have the same name.

• Create the repository in Github, but do not do any of the follow up steps described on https://github.com/new. They are all done by the shell script.
• cd to the working folder and type gitnew or gitnew.sh ⏎ depending on whether you created an alias.

How to create a script to update an existing Git repository

Follow these steps:

• touch ~/bin/gitadd.sh
• chmod 755 ~/bin/gitadd.sh
• edit /usr/local/bin/gitadd.sh

to contain…

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# update/add files recursively
git add -A .

# commit with user supplied message
git commit -m "$1"

# the final push!
git push

• Optionally, create an alias simply called gitadd by putting alias gitadd='gitadd.sh' in your shell config file.

How to use the script

• Make your code changes or create new files/folders using your favorite editor.
• Type gitadd "<commit message>" or gitadd.sh "<commit message>" ⏎ depending on whether you created an alias.

Summary

This makes the basic workflow for Git very easy…

• Create Git repository at https://github.com
• Type gitnew or gitnew.sh ⏎
• Make code changes or create new files/folders
• Type gitadd "<commit message>" or gitadd.sh "<commit message>" ⏎

Some more Git related tips from ohshitgit.com…

Oh shit, git!

The wonderful Katie Sylor-Miller @ksylor and @ohshitgit has put together a marvellous site full of intelligence, insight, attitude and profanity. See it at ohshitgit.com

Here’s @minortm’s tip about matching Git files to .gitignore

• git ls-files -i -c –exclude-from=.gitignore | xargs git rm –cached