git save

If you’re not using git’s aliases feature (here’s a nice, curated list of examples), you’re really missing out on a speedier, and safer workflow.

One of my favorites that I’ve written is git save, which just takes all of my local changes (and untracked files) and commits them to a new branch. I use it to create quick “checkpoints” that allow me to safely track my progress with micro-commits, so that I don’t accidentally blow away 97 files and an hour of work.

It’s really simple to use aliases.

1. Use git config -e --global to open your global git config file in your editor of choice. (Determined by the $EDITOR variable)
2. Add your aliases underneath the appropriate header.

[alias]
  save = "!f() { git add -A && git commit --no-verify -am 'SAVEPOINT'; }; f"

This alias looks pretty wild, but is simple once you know what f is doing here. We’re defining an inline-bash function, and then immediately calling it at the end.

So !f() { ... }; f is just a construct to define some random bash functionality, and then run it. The meat inside those brackets, is the real logic:

• git add -A adds all of the changes in the current directory to the staging area, including untracked files.
• git commit --no-verify -am 'SAVEPOINT' commits all of those changes to a new commit, with the message SAVEPOINT.

The --no-verify flag is important, because it skips any pre-commit hooks that you might have set up, which is useful in projects that do linting or other checks before committing. Ideally this is used to create quick-n-dirty commits to keep your work tracked in VCS… You know, so you don’t accidentally blow away 97 files and an hour of work.