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Automating select git operations

By default, git branch uses a pager (like the one you get with a command like less or more). This can be annoying in scripts like the one below -- but it's kind of nice when working interactively.

To solve this in scripts, I do:

git branch | cat -n

That has the added bonus of telling me how many branches are returned. You can adjust this with:

git config --global pager.branch false

Kudos to this SO answer.

For a ticket, I assembled these commands to permit me to rapidly create a new MR. 

RANDOM_INFO=$(date +%A-%m-%B-%d_at_%H-%M-%S) &&  LOCAL_BRANCH=$RANDOM_INFO &&  echo $LOCAL_BRANCH && echo "remote branch"  &&    REMOTE_BRANCH=$RANDOM_INFO && echo $REMOTE_BRANCH &&   git checkout -b dev/whatever-$LOCAL_BRANCH
date >> package.json 
COMMIT_MESSAGE=$(curl --silent  https://whatthecommit.com/index.txt)
git commit -m"Meow: $COMMIT_MESSAGE" package.json
git push -u origin dev/whatever-${LOCAL_BRANCH}:dev/whatever-${REMOTE_BRANCH}   -o merge_request.create   -o merge_request.target=master   -o merge_request.merge_when_pipeline_succeeds  -o ci.variable="CUTE_MODE=enabled"  -o ci.variable="CUTE_CATS=YESPLEASE "
  • 🔖 I have found a few different tickets where this is helpful.
  • 🐈 I built gitcute.cat so I can get cuter commit messages from https://gitcute.cat/commit than what whatthecommit.com provides.

Looking at it line by line:

Whoo, OK.

  • Create a variable called RANDOM_INFO for use in the local branch name. This uses an incantation of the date command to ensure there are no spaces or conflicts if the command is run later. (OK, within the same second, you'll have a conflict but...)
  • RANDOM_INFO=$(date +%A-%m-%B-%d_at_%H-%M-%S) &&  LOCAL_BRANCH=$RANDOM_INFO &&  echo $LOCAL_BRANCH && echo "remote branch"  &&    REMOTE_BRANCH=$RANDOM_INFO && echo $REMOTE_BRANCH &&   git checkout -b dev/whatever-$LOCAL_BRANCH

Next, we update package.json with the output of the date command. 

date >> package.json 
COMMIT_MESSAGE=$(curl --silent  https://whatthecommit.com/index.txt)
git commit -m"Meow: $COMMIT_MESSAGE" package.json
git push -u origin dev/whatever-${LOCAL_BRANCH}:dev/whatever-${REMOTE_BRANCH}   -o merge_request.create   -o merge_request.target=master   -o merge_request.merge_when_pipeline_succeeds  -o ci.variable="SANITY_MODE=TROY_SANITY_SHORT"  -o ci.variable="CUTE_CATS=YESPLEASE "

The Above...but Cuter

RANDOM_INFO=$(date +%A-%m-%B-%d_at_%H-%M-%S) &&  LOCAL_BRANCH=$RANDOM_INFO &&  echo $LOCAL_BRANCH && echo "remote branch"  &&    REMOTE_BRANCH=$RANDOM_INFO && echo $REMOTE_BRANCH &&   git checkout -b dev/whatever-$LOCAL_BRANCH
date >> README.md 
COMMIT_MESSAGE=$(curl --silent  https://gitcute.cat/commit)
git commit -m"🐈 Meow: $COMMIT_MESSAGE" README.md
git push -u origin dev/whatever-${LOCAL_BRANCH}:dev/whatever-${REMOTE_BRANCH}   -o merge_request.create   -o merge_request.target=main   -o merge_request.merge_when_pipeline_succeeds  -o ci.variable="CUTE_MODE=enabled"  -o ci.variable="CUTE_CATS=YESPLEASE "