git recent branches

git-recent-branches.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
# 1. put this in brew path `/usr/local/bin/`
# 2. make it executable `chmod +x /usr/local/bin/recent-branches`
# 3. in git config `~/.gitconfig` place an alias to the command inside `[alias]` block
#   `br = recent-branches -n 20` (n being the number of branches you wanna show by default)
require 'optparse'
require 'English'

options = { number: 20 }

opt_parser = OptionParser.new do |opt|
  opt.banner = 'Usage: receent-co [OPTIONS]'
  opt.on('-n', '--number-of-branches NUMBER', 'number of branches to list') do |number|
    options[:number] = number
  end
  opt.on('-h', '--help', 'help') do
    puts opt_parser
    exit
  end
end

opt_parser.parse!
branches_without_markup = `git for-each-ref \
                           --sort=-committerdate \
                           --count=#{options[:number]} \
                           refs/heads/ --format='%(refname:short)'`
abort('fatal: Failed to get branches') unless $CHILD_STATUS.success?
pretty_branches = `git for-each-ref \
        --sort=-committerdate \
        --count=#{options[:number]} \
        refs/heads/ \
        --color \
        --format='%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) - %(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) - %(color:blue)%(authorname)%(color:reset) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))'`
abort('fatal: Failed to format branches') unless $CHILD_STATUS.success?

nums_appended = pretty_branches.split("\n").each_with_index.map do |x, index|
  " #{index + 1}) " + x
end

puts nums_appended
begin
  puts 'Enter a branch: '
  selected_branch = Integer(gets.chomp) - 1
  raise ArgumentError unless selected_branch.between?(0, nums_appended.length - 1)
  branch_name_selection = branches_without_markup.split("\n")[selected_branch]
rescue ArgumentError
  branch_name_selection = nil
  puts 'Error: Please supply an integer branch number'
  retry # retry on exception
rescue Interrupt
  # suppress stack trace on ctrl+c
  abort
end
system("git checkout #{branch_name_selection}")

With slightly improved error handling and mostly-appeased rubocop (because yes, I am that sort of person). I'd give you a pull request but, you know, gists so I have to in comments instead.

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'optparse'
require 'English'

options = { number: 20 }

opt_parser = OptionParser.new do |opt|
  opt.banner = 'Usage: receent-co [OPTIONS]'
  opt.on('-n', '--number-of-branches NUMBER', 'number of branches to list') do |number|
    options[:number] = number
  end
  opt.on('-h', '--help', 'help') do
    puts opt_parser
    exit
  end
end

opt_parser.parse!
branches_without_markup = `git for-each-ref \
                           --sort=-committerdate \
                           --count=#{options[:number]} \
                           refs/heads/ --format='%(refname:short)'`
abort('fatal: Failed to get branches') unless $CHILD_STATUS.success?
pretty_branches = `git for-each-ref \
        --sort=-committerdate \
        --count=#{options[:number]} \
        refs/heads/ \
        --format='%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) - %(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) - %(authorname) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))'`
abort('fatal: Failed to format branches') unless $CHILD_STATUS.success?

nums_appended = pretty_branches.split("\n").each_with_index.map do |x, index|
  " #{index + 1}) " + x
end

puts nums_appended
begin
  puts 'Enter a branch: '
  selected_branch = Integer(gets.chomp) - 1
  raise ArgumentError unless selected_branch.between?(0, nums_appended.length - 1)
  branch_name_selection = branches_without_markup.split("\n")[selected_branch]
rescue ArgumentError
  branch_name_selection = nil
  puts 'Error: Please supply an integer branch number'
  retry # retry on exception
rescue Interrupt
  # suppress stack trace on ctrl+c
  abort
end
system("git checkout #{branch_name_selection}")

nicely done. I assume $CHILD_STATUS.success? just checks if previous system call was successful