You can use git switch -
to switch to the previous branch. In the following example, we see switching back and forth between branches main
and my_dev_branch
:
C:\git\my-repo [my_dev_branch]> git switch -
Switched to branch 'main'
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/main'.
C:\git\my-repo [main ≡]> git switch -
Switched to branch 'my_dev_branch'
C:\git\my-repo [my_dev_branch]>
Edit: Old habits die hard. Updated to use switch
instead of checkout
since switch
has a clearer responsibility. Obviously they work exactly the same for this scenario.
- vampatori ( @vampatori@feddit.uk ) English11•1 year ago
Which follows the similar functionality used by the
cd -
command to switch to the previous directory you were in. Very handy!- invicticide ( @invicticide@programming.dev ) English7•1 year ago
You can do what 👀
- vampatori ( @vampatori@feddit.uk ) English7•1 year ago
There’s more! Well, it’s more a bash thing than a cd thing… in bash the variable
$_
refers to the last argument to the previous command. So you can do the following:> mkdir -p my/nested/dir > cd $_ > pwd /home/user/my/nested/dir
It’s handy for a whole host of things, like piping/touching then opening a file, chown then chmod, etc.
- zygo_histo_morpheus ( @zygo_histo_morpheus@programming.dev ) English4•1 year ago
On many terminal emulators you can also use Alt-. to search through your history of previous arguments, so
mkdir foo
followed bycd [Alt-.]
will populate your command line withcd foo
for example. If you have some other command in between you can just hit Alt-. repeatedly- rewire ( @rewire@programming.dev ) English1•1 year ago
Or ESC followed by “.” Repeating it works too.
- navigatron ( @navigatron@beehaw.org ) English2•1 year ago
You are an absolute king. Never again will I cp a file to a far off land, and then retype the entire path a second time to open it. Thank you!
- static_motion ( @static_motion@programming.dev ) English2•1 year ago
That’s incredible, I never knew that. Thank you!
- invicticide ( @invicticide@programming.dev ) English1•1 year ago
This is amazing ♥️
- zygo_histo_morpheus ( @zygo_histo_morpheus@programming.dev ) English4•1 year ago
There’s also
pushd
andpopd
so that you canpushd
into one directory, move around as much as you want and then go back to before thepushd
withpopd
- fades ( @fades@beehaw.org ) English3•1 year ago
… how have I not ever come across that before?!
This thread has been invaluable for me lol
- JackbyDev ( @JackbyDev@programming.dev ) English9•1 year ago
Use
switch
, boomer!Old habits die hard. Thanks for pointing this out. I updated the post.
- JackbyDev ( @JackbyDev@programming.dev ) English1•1 year ago
Oh lol, I was just trying to poke fun, sorry if it came across as accusatory. 😎👍
- Nibbler ( @Nibbler@lemmy.ml ) English1•1 year ago
NEVER!!
- Hexarei ( @Hexarei@programming.dev ) English1•1 year ago
What’s the difference? Genuine question
- JackbyDev ( @JackbyDev@programming.dev ) English1•1 year ago
Checkout was one of those commands that I joking would call Turing complete because of how much you can do with it (I haven’t actually tried to see if it is, but am fully prepared for someone to be nerd sniped and tell me it actually is). I think they’re mostly the same, but switch and restore were added as more straightforward versions of checkout and reset.
- Erlingur ( @erlingur@programming.dev ) English3•1 year ago
Great tip!! Thanks!
- Mert Şişmanoğlu ( @mertssmnoglu@programming.dev ) English2•1 year ago
That’s so cool, this can be my favorite command so on. Switching between two branches is easy with that.
- Ethan ( @firelizzard@programming.dev ) English1•1 year ago
But evidently
git rev-parse -
will not print out the previous branch 😔 that would have been useful for scripts - Jakub Narębski ( @jnareb@programming.dev ) English1•1 year ago
Note that
git checkout -
/git switch -
examine reflog to find previous branch. Which means if you renamed the branch, at least current version of Git would be unable to rungit switch -
.