Development Workflow with Git, Part 2: Scripts and Tools to Facilitate the Workflow

Part 1 of this article described a standard development workflow using Git that took advantage of the distributed nature of the system to maintain a code base across two or three different repositories, including a primary shared "working" code repository and a development "work-in-progress" code repository. Some aspects of this workflow are tedious and reptititive, while others, such as the management of different branches in different repositories can make housekeeping a little more complex. In this, the second part of the two-part series, I present a few simple scripts or tools that, when incorporated into the development ecosystem, go such a long way in alleviating these problems that the whole process quickly becomes a seamless and natural part of the standard routine.

Note that any executable file with a name beginning with "git-" on your system path will automatically be picked up as a "git" subcommand. So by creating custom scripts that help your development workflow, and naming them "git-something", you can invoke them seamlessly as part of the Git "porcelain".

1. The whole business of creating and associating a development repository can be made easier through a tool such as YonderGit:
   $ ygit.py setup dev remote.host.ip:repos/project-dev.git
2. When pulling from a shared repository, it would be great to see in a glance what changes have been brought in. Adding the "whatsnew" and "whatsnewlog" aliased commands will give you that.
3. The creation of feature branches for works-in-progress can be wrapped up with a script such as "git-mkdev" (and invoked via "git mkdev"):
   #! /bin/sh
   
   dev_remote_name='dev'
   
   show_usage() {
       echo Usage: git mkdev \<new-branch-name\>
       echo
       echo Creates new branch with current HEAD as ancestor,
       echo and pushing branch to remote named \'${dev_remote_name}\'.
   }
   
   remotes=$(git remote)
   if [[ -n $remotes ]]
   then
       dev_found=0
       for remote in ${remotes[@]}
       do
           if [[ $remote == ${dev_remote_name} ]]
           then
               dev_found=1
               if [[ -n $1 ]]
               then
                   git checkout -b $1 && git push dev $1:$1 && exit
               else
                   show_usage
               fi
           fi
       done
       if [[ $dev_found != 1 ]]
       then
           echo No remote named \'${dev_remote_name}\'.
       fi
   fi
4. 

   An enhanced log view, showing the symbolic references associated with each commit, will make it much easier to manage multiple branches across multiple remotes.

5. The deleting of feature branches for merged or abandoned works-in-progress can be wrapped up with a script such as "git-rmdev" (and invoked via "git rmdev"):
   #! /bin/sh
   
   dev_remote_name='dev'
   
   show_usage() {
       echo Usage: git rmdev \<dev-branch-name\>
       echo
       echo Removes development branch \<dev-branch-name\> from both
       echo local as well as remote repository \'${dev_remote_name}\'.
   }
   
   remotes=$(git remote)
   if [[ -n $remotes ]]
   then
       dev_found=0
       for remote in ${remotes[@]}
       do
           if [[ $remote == ${dev_remote_name} ]]
           then
               dev_found=1
               if [[ -n $1 ]]
               then
                   git branch -d $1 && git push dev :$1 && exit
               else
                   show_usage
               fi
           fi
       done
       if [[ $dev_found != 1 ]]
       then
           echo No remote named \'${dev_remote_name}\'.
       fi
   fi
6. Pushing to multiple upstream repositories can be wrapped up wih a script such as "git-pushall":
   #! /bin/sh
   
   remotes=$(git remote)
   if [[ -n $remotes ]]
   then
       for remote in $remotes;
       do
           cmd="git push $remote $@"
           echo
           echo "[$remote]: $cmd"
           $cmd
       done
   fi