gitprompt is an efficient, highly configurable prompt for Git status information in command-line shells.
To use it, attach the associated script, gitprompt.pl, to your shell's mechanism for running a command before the prompt is displayed (in bash, this is PROMPT_COMMAND), storing its result in PS1 (or whatever your shell's prompt variable). For example, in bash, you could put this in your .bashrc or .bash_profile:
# if you already have a PROMPT_COMMAND
export PROMPT_COMMAND=$PROMPT_COMMAND';export PS1=$(gitprompt.pl)'
# if you don't already have a PROMPT_COMMAND
export PROMPT_COMMAND='export PS1=$(gitprompt.pl)'
(The above assumes that gitprompt.pl is in your PATH; if not, specify its path explicitly.)
You also need to define the template which will be filled in with your Git status information. This template goes in the PS0 environment variable:
# ugly! start with a nice-looking one from further below!
export PS0='\u@\h %{[%b; %c%u%f] %}\$ '
This tells gitprompt.pl to return (for use in PS1) a regular bash prompt like \u@\h $ normally, but, when in a Git repo (%{ ... %}), to also include the branchname (%b) and flags for when files are to be committed (%c), updated but not added for commit (%u), or untracked (%f), all wrapped in [...]. There are many such flags and many ways to combine and configure them in a way that is useful to you and your workflow. By default, the above flags just return their letter (c, u, f), but this is completely configurable. For example:
user@host [master; ] $ touch new-file
user@host [master; f] $ echo "a" >> file1
user@host [master; uf] $ echo "b" >> file2; git add file2
user@host [master; cuf] $ git status
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
# modified: file2
#
# Changed but not updated:
# modified: file1
#
# Untracked files:
# new-file
The gitprompt.pl script itself also takes extra arguments that control how it returns its output. These are all passed as name=value arguments to the script itself, usually specified within the invocation in PROMPT_COMMAND. For example, if you like counts for each type of flag and symbols instead of letters, you could do:
export PROMPT_COMMAND='export PS1=$(gitprompt.pl c=\+ u=\~ f=\* statuscount=1)'
Now, the above example turns into:
user@host [master; +1~1*1] $
Here's a more interesting example which also removes the semicolon when the repo is clean:
user@host [master; +1~1*1] $ git reset --hard; rm new-file
user@host [master; ] $ export PROMPT_COMMAND='export PS1=$(gitprompt.pl c=\+ u=\~ f=\* statuscount=1 keepempty=0)'
user@host [master; ] $ export PS0='\u@\h %{[%b%}%{; %c%u%f%}%{%g] %}\$ '
user@host [master] $ touch new-file
user@host [master; *1] $
These can be placed in PS0 or the option definitions (for options which take
strings to output). In PS0, bash escapes should be preferred when available.
%b - current branch name
%i - current commit id
%c - to-be-committed flag
%u - touched-files flag
%f - untracked-files flag
%A - merge commits ahead flag
%B - merge commits behind flag
%F - can-fast-forward flag
%t - terrible tragedy flag
%g - is-git-repo flag
%e - ascii escape
%[ - literal '\[' to mark the start of nonprinting characters for bash
%] - literal '\]' to mark the end of nonprinting characters for bash
%% - literal '%'
%{ - begin conditionally printed block, only shown if a nonliteral expands within
%} - end conditionally printed block
These are specified as arguments to the call to gitprompt.pl in the form
name=value, such as $(gitprompt.pl c=\+ u=\~ f=\* statuscount=1).
c - string to use for %c; defaults to 'c'
u - string to use for %u; defaults to 'u'
f - string to use for %f; defaults to 'f'
A - string to use for %A; defaults to 'A'
B - string to use for %B; defaults to 'B'
F - string to use for %F; defaults to 'F'
t - string to use for %t after a timeout; defaults to '?'
l - string to use for %t when the repo is locked; defaults to '?~'
n - string to use for %t when no data could be collected, such as
if run from within a .git directory; defaults to '??'
g - string to use for %g; defaults to the empty string (see %{)
statuscount - boolean; whether to suffix %c/%u with counts ("c4u8")
keepempty - boolean; whether to always keep conditionals which only
contain empty %x codes (but %g is always kept); default 1
A full prompt with symbols for statuses:
export PS0='\[\e[0;31m\][\t]\[\e[1m\][\h]\[\e[0;1m\][\w]\[\e[30;1m\]%{[%b\[\e[0m\]%c%u%f%t\[\e[30;1m\]]%}%{[\[\e[0m\]%B%A%F\[\e[30;1m\]]%}\[\e[0m\]\u\$ '
export PROMPT_COMMAND=$PROMPT_COMMAND';export PS1=$(gitprompt.pl c=\+ u=\~ f=\* A=/ B=\\\\ F=\ \>\> statuscount=1)'
Change branchname color:
export PS0='%{[\[%f%c%u%t\]%b\[\e[0m\]]%}\[\e[0m\]\u\$ '
export PROMPT_COMMAND=$PROMPT_COMMAND';export PS1=$(gitprompt.pl c=%e[32m u=%e[31m f=%e[35m t=%e[30\;1m)'
Colored counts instead of flags:
export PS0='%{\[\e[0;36m\](\[\e[1;36m\]%b\[\e[0;36m\])[%c%u%f%t\[\e[0;36m\]]%}\[\e[0m\]$ '
export PROMPT_COMMAND=$PROMPT_COMMAND';export PS1=$(gitprompt.pl statuscount=1 u=%[%e[31m%] c=%[%e[32m%] f=%[%e[1\;30m%])'
A simple style that used to be popular at Synacor:
export PS0='[\t]\[\e[36m\]%{(%b)\[\e[0;1m\][%c%u%f%t]%}\[\e[0m\]\u\$ '
export PROMPT_COMMAND=$PROMPT_COMMAND';export PS1=$(gitprompt.pl statuscount=1)'
If your .bashrc doesn't already define a $PROMPT_COMMAND (this is common in /etc/bashrc, which is often sourced by default), use this PROMPT_COMMAND line instead:
export PROMPT_COMMAND='export PS1=$(gitprompt.pl ...)'
A good rule of thumb is to use real bash escapes (backslash flavor) inside
the definition for PS0 (where escaping is normal) and gitprompt.pl escapes
(percent flavor) inside the arguments to gitprompt.pl (where escaping is
troublesome).
To prevent your prompt from getting garbled, wrap all nonprinting sequences
(like color codes) in \[...\] or %[...%]. This tells Bash not to count
those characters when determining the length of your prompt and prevents it
from becoming confused.
For... (assuming %c is whatever flags you care about)
- brackets no matter what, use
[%c] - brackets only in a git repo, regardless of status, use
%{[%c%g]%} - brackets only when a flag is set, use
%{[%c]%}