In the land of infinite remotes, take this with you! ⚔️

checkout-to.sh

#!/usr/bin/bash
# Author: @rexagod, et al.

# Set -e so that the script exits if any command fails.
set -e

# This utility:
# * takes in a URI, in the format: remote_name:branch,
# * adds that remote if it doesn't exist, and finally,
# * checks out to that branch.

# Example usage:
# ./checkout-to.sh foo:bar
# ./checkout-to.sh clean foo:bar

# Add this to your `git` workflow by running the command below.
# * git config --global alias.checkout-to '<path to executable script>'

# Example usage:
# git checkout-to foo:bar
# git checkout-to clean foo:bar

# Accept the URI as an argument, and validate the format.
uri=$1
clean=false

# If $1 was "clean", then assign $2 to $uri.
if [[ $uri == "clean" ]]; then
  uri=$2
  clean=true
fi

if [[ $uri != *:* ]]; then
  echo "Invalid URI format. Please use the format: remote_name:branch"
  exit 1
fi

# Split the URI into remote and branch.
remote=$(echo "$uri" | cut -d: -f1)
branch=$(echo "$uri" | cut -d: -f2)

# If clean is true, then remove the remote and branch.
if [[ $clean == true ]]; then
  git remote remove "$remote"
  git checkout -
  git branch -D "$branch"
  exit 0
fi

# Add the remote if it doesn't exist, and update it.
if ! git remote | grep -q "$remote"; then
  repo=$(basename "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)")
  remote_uri="git@github.com:$remote/$repo.git"
  git remote add "$remote" "$remote_uri"
  git remote update "$remote"
fi

# Checkout to the branch.
git checkout --track "$remote/$branch"

The general idea behind this is for collaborators or maintainers to easily checkout odd branches, and clean any artefacts when they are done with it.