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Created April 13, 2010 13:08
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#!/bin/bash
# Copyright (c) 2010, Nicolas Pouillard
# All rights reserved.
#
# Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
# modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
# met:
#
# * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
# notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
#
# * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
# copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
# disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided
# with the distribution.
#
# * Neither the name of the copyright holders nor the names of other
# contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
# from this software without specific prior written permission.
#
# THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
# "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
# LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
# A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
# OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
# SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
# LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
# DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
# THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
# (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
# OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
info() {
echo "$@" > /dev/stderr
}
err() {
echo "$@" > /dev/stderr
}
usage() {
cat > /dev/stderr <<EOS
Usage: git vbranch (show|merge|create|reset) [<virtual-branch>]
# Purpose
'git vbranch' aims at dealing with your topic branches easily.
As a contributor to a project you may want to isolate each of your
contributions as what is called a topic branch. A topic branch is a short
living branch that fix a particular bug, add a specific feature, etc. In
this situation you branch off master for each of your topics. You propose
those topics to upstream, but in the mean time you may have to integrate
upstream changes, improve your topics, and enjoy having all your topics
merged in a big local branch of yours. This script is about this last
branch that I personally name the "my" branch, and that we will call a
virtual branch. This script helps to manage which topic branches are
behind a given virtual branch, and create/merge/reset this
virtual branch.
# Setup
git config virtual.<virtual-branch>.base <base-branch>
git config virtual.<virtual-branch>.topics <topics>
git config virtual.default <virtual-branch>
# Hint: Using a virtual.default configuration allows to omit
# the <virtual-branch> argument to vbranch commands.
# Setup Example
git config virtual.my.base master
git config virtual.my.topics topic1,topic2,bugfix3,feature4
git config virtual.default my
# Show details of a virtual branch (however 'git wtf' is much
# better at this (http://git-wt-commit.rubyforge.org/).
git vbranch show [<virtual-branch>]
# Merge in all the topic branches associated to this virtual branch
git vbranch merge [<virtual-branch>]
# Create the virtual branch and 'merge'
git vbranch create [<virtual-branch>]
# Hard reset the virtual branch to the base branch and 'merge'
git vbranch reset [<virtual-branch>]
EOS
exit 1
}
cmd="$1"
shift
if [ -z "$cmd" ]; then
err "no command"
usage
fi
case "$1" in
-*|"")
vbranch=$(git config virtual.default || :);;
*)
vbranch="$1"
shift;;
esac
if [ -z "$vbranch" ]; then
err "No virtual branch name argument nor configuration value for virtual.default"
usage
fi
base=$(git config virtual."$vbranch".base)
if [ -z "$base" ]; then
err "Virtual branch $vbranch not configured."
err "Configuration option virtual.$vbranch.base is empty"
exit 1
fi
topics=$(git config virtual."$vbranch".topics)
if [ -z "$topics" ]; then
err "Virtual branch $vbranch not configured."
err "Configuration option virtual.$vbranch.topics is empty"
exit 1
fi
basehash=$(git show-ref -s heads/$base)
if [ -z "$basehash" ]; then
err "The base branch ('$base') of '$vbranch' should exists."
exit 1
fi
merge() {
info "Merging all the topics to branch '$vbranch'..."
echo -n "$topics" | xargs -d, git merge
}
create() {
vbranchhash=$(git show-ref -s heads/$vbranch)
if [ -z "$vbranchhash" ]; then
info "Making and checking out the virtual branch..."
git checkout -b "$vbranch" "$base"
merge "$@"
else
err "The branch $vbranch already exists, use 'vbranch reset' to overwrite it."
exit 1
fi
}
no_more_args() {
if [ $# != 0 ]; then
err "No more arguments expected"
usage
fi
}
case "$cmd" in
create|c|cr|cre|crea|creat)
create "$@";;
merge|m|me|mer|merg|merge)
merge "$@";;
reset|rese|res|re|r)
info "Reseting the virtual branch..."
git checkout "$vbranch"
git reset --hard "$base"
merge "$@";;
show)
no_more_args "$@"
echo "=== Virtual branch '$vbranch' ==="
echo "Base branch:"
echo "* $base"
echo "Topic branches:"
echo -n "$topics" | xargs -d, -n 1 echo '*' ;;
*)
usage;;
esac
@tf
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tf commented Feb 28, 2015

This solves a long standing problem for me. Thanks!

@christianbundy
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Thanks for sharing this! Are there any similar tools in this space? I was surprised that I didn't find lots of different Git branching tools for maintaining forks and being able to push those changes back upstream.

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