branch annotations?

branch annotations?

[Tim Chase]

Is there any way to associate some sort of note with a branch that
would be shown when listing them?  While I currently have things like
"issue/QA-42", it would be nice to have a note associated with it so
I could do something like

  $ git branch --show-notes
    issue/CR-88: make sure NoSQL engines support .CSV file backends
    issue/QA-31: add missile launch codes
  * issue/QA-42: support flying cars
    master

as I currently need to flip back and forth between my git/terminal
and my issue-tracker to know that, if I need to be adding missile
launch codes, I need to be working on QA-31.  I know there are "note"
features elsewhere for commits, and I know that git-branch supports
showing the most recent commit (that's not always enough info to
discern the branch's purpose).

Thanks for any ideas on how to ease this pain-point, :-)

-tkc

Re: branch annotations?

[Johan Herland]

On Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 3:46 PM, Tim Chase <git@tim.thechases.com> wrote:
> Is there any way to associate some sort of note with a branch that
> would be shown when listing them?  While I currently have things like
> "issue/QA-42", it would be nice to have a note associated with it so
> I could do something like
>
>   $ git branch --show-notes
>     issue/CR-88: make sure NoSQL engines support .CSV file backends
>     issue/QA-31: add missile launch codes
>   * issue/QA-42: support flying cars
>     master
>
> as I currently need to flip back and forth between my git/terminal
> and my issue-tracker to know that, if I need to be adding missile
> launch codes, I need to be working on QA-31.  I know there are "note"
> features elsewhere for commits, and I know that git-branch supports
> showing the most recent commit (that's not always enough info to
> discern the branch's purpose).
>
> Thanks for any ideas on how to ease this pain-point, :-)

"git branch --edit-description" allows you to write a descriptive
string for your branch. AFAICS, however, it currently only shows up
when using request-pull. It does not show up in any git branch
command. IMHO that should be fixed.

As a workaround, you can use this one-liner:

  git for-each-ref --format "%(refname:short)" refs/heads/ | while
read branch; do echo "$branch - $(git config
branch.$branch.description)"; done

I guess that could even be turned into an alias...


Hope this helps,

...Johan

-- 
Johan Herland, <johan@herland.net>
www.herland.net

Re: branch annotations?

[Tim Chase]

On 2013-11-25 15:55, Johan Herland wrote:
> "git branch --edit-description" allows you to write a descriptive
> string for your branch. AFAICS, however, it currently only shows up
> when using request-pull. It does not show up in any git branch
> command. IMHO that should be fixed.
> 
> As a workaround, you can use this one-liner:
> 
>   git for-each-ref --format "%(refname:short)" refs/heads/ | while
> read branch; do echo "$branch - $(git config
> branch.$branch.description)"; done

That works like a charm.  Thanks!

-tkc

Re: branch annotations?

[Jeff King]

On Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 08:46:44AM -0600, Tim Chase wrote:

> Is there any way to associate some sort of note with a branch that
> would be shown when listing them?  While I currently have things like
> "issue/QA-42", it would be nice to have a note associated with it so
> I could do something like
> 
>   $ git branch --show-notes
>     issue/CR-88: make sure NoSQL engines support .CSV file backends
>     issue/QA-31: add missile launch codes
>   * issue/QA-42: support flying cars
>     master

There is a "branch description" config entry that you can edit with "git
branch --edit-description" (or by simply tweaking the config file
yourself). However, it is currently only used by git-request-pull when
generating the request.

I think it makes sense to be able to show it as part of "git branch",
but the verbose branch listing there is a bit of a mess. Doing it
cleanly would probably involve refactoring the branch-display code to
allow users to specify more flexible formats.

Ramkumar (cc'd) was looking into that refactoring a while back, but I
did not follow it closely (it looks like some of the underlying
for-each-ref refactoring is on the 'next' branch?).

-Peff

Re: branch annotations?

[Ramkumar Ramachandra]

Jeff King wrote:
> I think it makes sense to be able to show it as part of "git branch",
> but the verbose branch listing there is a bit of a mess. Doing it
> cleanly would probably involve refactoring the branch-display code to
> allow users to specify more flexible formats.

Certainly. I'm quite unhappy with the current 'git branch', and am
looking to improve it. Branch descriptions will definitely be useful
to display as well.

> Ramkumar (cc'd) was looking into that refactoring a while back, but I
> did not follow it closely (it looks like some of the underlying
> for-each-ref refactoring is on the 'next' branch?).

The previous effort in collaboration with Duy fell apart,
unfortunately. Currently, there are a few small patches enhancing
f-e-r from the original series in 'next'. Once they graduate, the plan
is to refactor f-e-r a bit so that 'git branch' can slowly be moved
into using its machinery.