rapid-git

rapid-git provides shortcuts for often-used git commands which aim to make your daily git use more efficient by typing less.

rapid-git enables you to interact with files and branches using numbers (called indexes). Indexes represent the files that git status or branches that git branch prints on the screen. When interacting with files you may define ranges using the numbers and dots notation.

The concept behind rapid-git was introduced by Alexander Groß in his repository git_shizzle. In contrast to this repository, which uses shell, he implemented his project using Ruby. If you are interested, please have a look at his project too.

Gregor Woiwode recorded a video about rapid-git:

Prerequisites and installation

There are a few prerequisites worth mentioning:

Your bash version needs to be at least v4.0.0. Use the command bash --version to check yours.
If you use zsh, be aware that we tested the script with v5.0.2 and v5.1.1. Use zsh --version to check yours.
If you use macOS, make sure, that you have gnu-sed installed. The easiest way is to use homebrew to install it: brew install gnu-sed --with-default-names. For more extensive instructions on how to install GNU command line tools on macOS, please refer to this blog post.

Let's install rapid-git:

Start with cloning this repository:

git clone https://github.com/rapid-git/rapid-git.git

Add rapid-git.sh to .bashrc or .zshrc:
```
source path/to/rapid-git.sh
```
At this point rapid-git should already work, but you may also add alias.rapid-git.sh to get some default aliases.
```
source path/to/alias.rapid-git.sh
```

Note for Windows users: There is a certain trick for Windows users, who wish to create files such as .bashrc via the Windows Explorer. When typing the file name, do it as follows without defining a file extension: .bashrc.

Commands

Specifying Indexes

Indexes always refer to the position of a file, directory or branch in the output of git status and git branch. Indexes start at 1 not at 0. Ranges can be defined using numbers and dots notation. There are the following notations available:

notation	description
`#`	select a single list entry
`..`	select all list entries
`..#` e.g. `..5`	select the first entry up to the fifth one
`#..` e.g. `3..`	select the third entry up to the last one
`#..#` e.g. `4..7`	select the fourth entry up to the seventh entry

Index commands support indexes or ranges.
Index commands allow multiple arguments to be passed.
Branch commands only support a single index.

Index Commands

These commands relate to the git index and the working copy.

rapid status
rapid track
rapid stage
rapid unstage
rapid drop
rapid remove
rapid diff
Create your own commands

Branch Commands

These commands relate to git branches.

rapid branch [-d | -D | -a | -r]
rapid checkout
rapid merge
rapid rebase [-c | --continue | -a | --abort]

rapid status

Show staged files with index
Show unstaged files with index
Show untracked files with index
Show unmerged files with index (no other rapid command works with these indexes yet)

rapid track

Track one or multiple files by index or range
Equivalent to git add, allows passing arbitrary options
Indexes based on untracked files and folders of rapid status

rapid stage

Stage one or multiple files by index or range
Equivalent to git add, allows passing arbitrary options (e.g. --patch)
Indexes are based on unstaged files of rapid status

rapid unstage

Unstage one or multiple files by index or range
Equivalent to git reset HEAD, allows passing arbitrary options (e.g. --patch)
Indexes are based on staged files of rapid status

rapid drop

Drop unstaged changes of one or multiple files by index or range
Equivalent to git checkout, allows passing arbitrary options (e.g. --patch)
Indexes are based on unstaged files of rapid status

rapid remove

Remove one or multiple files by index or range
Equivalent to rm -rf, allows passing arbitrary rm options
Indexes are based on untracked files of rapid status
When removing a directory, this command tries to remove sub-level files and directories, too

rapid diff

Show the diff of one or multiple files by index or range
Equivalent to git diff, allows passing arbitrary options options (e.g. --word-diff)
Indexes are based on unstaged files of rapid status when using no additional option
Indexes are based on staged files of rapid status when using --cached or --staged as the first option

Custom file commands

You can create your own rapid commands to handle untracked files, unstaged files and staged files. It's best to define these as aliases to save you some typing.

There are three sub-commands available to you:

rapid custom untracked to handle untracked files by index or range
rapid custom worktree to handle unstaged files by index or range
rapid custom index to handle staged files by index or range

All commands require 3 arguments of which 2 should be defined in your aliases. The general form is:

rapid custom {untracked|worktree|index} <mark> <command> <index>...

mark and command should be defined by the alias, whereas indexes will later be added to the command when you execute the alias.

mark is responsible for displaying the symbol in front of files processed:

stage displays >, ~ or + depending on file status
reset displays <, ~ or - depending on file status
drop displays - or ~ depending on file status
false disables all output, even in case of errors

command can be any git command, e. g. git add, git add --patch, git reset HEAD, git update-index --assume-unchanged, git diff --staged etc. You need to make sure not to pass any arguments describing files to be processed. E.g. git add --all is forbidden, albeit not checked for.

In fact, you can also use other programs like cat:

$ alias qcat='rapid custom worktree false cat'
$ qcat 1
# Displays contents of unstaged file at index 1.

Using this facility you can in fact recreate all builtin commands.

rapid branch

Show all local branches
Mark the current branch
Display the index of each branch
Show all remote branches by using the option -r
Show all branches by using the option -a
Delete a branch by using the option -d
Force-delete a branch by using the option -D
Using the options -r, -a, -d and -D requires to pass a branch along by using its index
Indexes are based on git branch | rapid branch

rapid checkout

Checkout a branch by using its index
Indexes are based on git branch | rapid branch

rapid merge

Merge a branch by using its index
Indexes are based on git branch | rapid branch

rapid rebase

Rebase a branch by using its index
Indexes are based on git branch | rapid branch
Continue rebasing by using the option -c | --continue
Abort rebasing by using the option -a | --abort

Default aliases

alias	description
`rst`	`rapid status`
`rt`	`rapid track`
`ra`	`rapid stage`
`ru`	`rapid unstage`
`rdr`	`rapid drop`
`rr`	`rapid remove`
`rd`	`rapid diff`
`rb`	`rapid branch`
`rco`	`rapid checkout`
`rme`	`rapid merge`
`rre`	`rapid rebase`

Color configuration

Disabling colors

rapid-git colorizes output by default unless output is being redirected or if it is invoked as part of a pipeline. You can explicitly disable output coloring by setting the variable RAPID_GIT_COLORS to a falsey value (0, false, off). You do not need to export the value.

Example:

$ RAPID_GIT_COLORS=off

Custom color values

Color values are either determined by corresponding git colors (e.g. unstaged changes are colored like git status would - search for color.status.<slot>). You may override some or all of the color values by defining RAPID_GIT_COLORS as an associative array. The following array subscripts are evaluated by rapid-git:

subscript	description	git config	default color
`reset`	reset color back to defaults		(invisible)
`branch`	branch names	`color.branch.local`	cyan
`branch_index`	branch indexes		yellow
`branch_current`	current branch name	`color.branch.current`	bold cyan
`branch_current_index`	current branch index		bold yellow
`status_index`	index of `rapid status`		bold yellow
`status_staged`	staged files	`color.status.added`	bold red
`status_unstaged`	unstaged files	`color.status.changed`	bold green
`status_untracked`	untracked files	`color.status.untracked`	bold blue
`status_unmerged`	unmerged files	`color.status.changed`	bold magenta
`mark_stage`	color of symbol printed in front of files about to be staged		yellow
`mark_reset`	color of symbol printed in front of files about to be unstaged		yellow
`mark_drop`	color of symbol printed in front of files about to be removed		cyan
`mark_error`	color of symbol for errors (e.g. nonexistent index)		bold red

Defining colors on Windows will most certainly speed up your rapid-git invocations because we can omit creating a couple of git processes.