CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashgitunix
Kevin H.
Kevin H.

Reputation: 348

How can I make a bash command to check out the latest version of a git branch?

I'm building some aliases in my ~/.profile for common command strings. One case is when I begin a new feature branch, I will checkout the current base which has a naming convention of release/1.1.0, then make my new feature/feature-name branch from there.

My question is how to make my bash command automatically checkout the latest version. If I type manually and tab over the results, some of the projects have many available like release/1.0.0, release/1.1.0, release/1.1.2, release/1.2.0.

What can I add to my following function that can will default to the latest available version?

relb(){
  git checkout release/???
  git pull
}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 199

Answers (1)

Benjamin W.
Benjamin W.

Reputation: 52506

You can use --sort='-v:refname' as an option to git branch to version sort by refname,1 descending (the -); the --format option makes sure there is no unwanted whitespace in the output, and head -n1 returns just one branch:

git checkout \
    "$(git branch \
        --list \
        --sort='-v:refname' \
        --format='%(refname:short)' \
        'release/*' \
    | head -n1)"

You might have to git fetch first.

Alternatively, you can do it without any external tools at all:1

git checkout \
    "$(git for-each-ref \
        --sort='-v:refname' --format='%(refname:short)' --count=1 \
        refs/heads/release/)"

1Hat tip to Hauleth for pointing out that git branch has sorting built-in and the git for-each-ref can do it all.

Upvotes: 4

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