Introduction

I will show you my ultimate git setup for windows. You will read how to configure Cmder for higher productivity and take the power of aliases on steroids.

Ultimate git setup for Windows

Getting started

  1. Cmder
  2. Alias for Git (g = git)
  3. Git aliases
  4. Git-TFS aliases

Cmder

Download and install Cmder. I suggest to go with the full version.

Open cmder and press Win + Alt + P to open settings. Make sure your default startup task is {cmd::Cmder as Admin} by looking at Startup section.

Download powerline_prompt.lua and ultimate-git-win.lua from here in %CMDER_ROOT%\config.

%CMDER_ROOR% is available only in the context of Cmder, so in order to find the Cmder's config folder run echo %CMDER_ROOT%\config in Cmder.

Download and install Anonymice Powerline.ttf font. Go to Settings > Main > Main console font in Cmder and change it to Anonymice Powerline.

Restart cmder to get the new settings take place.

Git GUI and Gitk into Cmder

Sometimes I need to view/track commits in gitk or to view my staged/unstaged changes (double checking everything to be committed) in git gui, so I've created a tasks with hotkeys to integrate them in cmder. Since they are integrated as part of your terminal you won't do window switching anymore.

Go to Cmder settings and open Startup > Tasks.

Git GUI:

Setting up git gui

  1. Create a new task
  2. Name it gitgui
  3. Use /dir %CD% for task parameters
  4. Add -cur_console:s1T60V "%ConEmuDir%\..\git-for-windows\cmd\git-gui.exe" for command
  5. Assign Ctrl + G as a hotkey
  6. Save the settings

Gitk:

  1. Create a new task named gitk.
  2. Use /dir %CD% for task parameters.
  3. Add -cur_console:s1T60V "%ConEmuDir%\..\git-for-windows\cmd\gitk.exe" for command
  4. Assign Ctrl + K as a hotkey
  5. Save the settings
  6. Open Gitk by pressing Ctrl + K and navigate to color preferences (Edit > Preferences > Colors)
  7. And setup the colors as following (if you are using Monokai theme for cmder - default):
    • Background: 39 40 34
    • Foreground: 182 182 73
    • Select bg: 3 131 245

Configuring gitk colors

If you add commit or make any changes and want to refresh gitk, just click somewhere in the window and press F5. The same applies for git gui.

Alias for git

Because I'm too busy (or lazy) to write git every time to make an action, I have alias for that. So instead of writing git status, I'm writing g status.

Let me show you how to set up on your own: Open %CMDER_ROOT%\config\user-aliases.cmd and add g=git $* on a new line.

Git aliases

In order to gain some speed when working with git you will need aliases to do more with less. You will became more efficient by typing less characters and executing multiple commands in a single shot. Some quick examples:

git add --all
git commit -m "Commit message"

Could be done by g ca "Commit message"

git checkout master could be g com - it's 19 characters vs 5.

Now let me show you how to do that

Open git config for edit (%HOMEPATH%\.gitconfig) and add the following configurations:

[pretty]
  log = %C(dim magenta)%h%C(cyan)%d%C(reset) %C(yellow)[%C(dim green)%an%C(yellow)] %C(bold white)%s%C(reset) %C(reset)

  [alias]
  s = status -s
  pl = pull -r
  pls = !git stash && git pull -r && git stash pop # stash unstaged files, pull latest version and pop the stashed files
  
  d = difftool
  mrt = mergetool

  mr = merge
  mrf = merge --no-ff

  co = checkout
  com = checkout master
  cod = checkout develop

  rebm = rebase master
  rebd = rebase develop

  br = branch

  ai = add -i
  ca = !git add --all && git commit -m
  c = commit -m
  amend = commit --amend

  flush = !git checkout . && git clean -f -d
  cln = clean -f
  
  r = reset
  r1 = reset HEAD^
  r2 = reset HEAD^^
  r3 = reset HEAD^^^

  l = log -12 --graph --pretty=log
  pc = diff --cached # preview commit (staged changes)
  prev = log HEAD -1 --pretty=log --stat #--name-status for short info

  alias = !git config --list | grep 'alias\\.' | sed 's/alias\\.\\([^=]*\\)=\\(.*\\)/\\1\\t=> \\2/' | sort

Aliases explanation

I'll skip the obvious aliases like s = status -s and explain the others:

  • alias - lists all available aliases
  • pls - when you have local changes which are not committed but you want to take the latest version this alias is very helpful. It stashes all your changes, then pull the remote with rebase and pops the stashed changes
  • com - checking out master branch and cod is checking out develop branch
  • rebm - rebasing with master branch
  • ca - commit & add - adding all changes by using --all flag and commit them. Usage: g ca "<Message>"
  • l - git log but using a pretty format to show the last 12 commits as graph
  • flush - Flushing everything - all changed files are checked out and all untracked files are cleaned
  • r, r1, r2, r3 - reset the stage, last commit, last 2 commits or last 3 commits
  • prev - display summary of changes from the previous commit (changed files, insertions / deletion). Just a quick way to check what is the last thing you have done before the holiday/weekend.
  • hlp - displays a quick cheatsheet (customized it for you)

The file ultimate-git-win.lua (you already have installed) is doing some magic by adding auto completions for all your aliases (including g=git), files and branches. So if you want to write g alias just write g al and press tab - the rest will be autocompleted. The same is with g co ma will be completed as g co master.

Writing g co origin/ and pressing tab will display a list with all available branches, so you can pick one of them.

Git-TFS aliases

I'm using git-tfs bridge to work with my TFS projects. To save some time I'm using aliases for git-tfs as well:

# TFS ailiases
  checkin = tfs checkin     # check-in all commits as one changeset
  rcheckin = tfs rcheckin --no-merge        # check-in all commits as separate changeset
  latest = tfs pull -r      # getting latest version from TFS with rebase