git-worktree-helpers

Helper scripts for git worktree

git-convert-for-worktree

Convert an existing git repository for use with git-worktree

Usage

Bash

git-convert-for-worktree.sh <directory>

Powershell

git-convert-for-worktree.ps1 <directory>

Arguments

• Directory: The directory containing an existing git repository

git-clone-for-worktree

Clone a git repository for use with git-worktree

Usage

Bash

git-clone-for-worktree.sh [--single-branch] <repository> [<directory>]

PowerShell

git-clone-for-worktree.ps1 [-Repository] <string> [[-Directory] <string>] [-SingleBranch]

Arguments

• Repository: The repository to clone from.
• Directory: The directory to clone into. By default the basename of the repository without extension.
• Single Branch: Only fetch the main branch.

Using Worktrees

You can clone a repository similar to using git-clone with:

git-clone-for-worktree git@github.com:my-project/my-repo.git

This creates a git repository in my-repo with a folder containing one worktree tracking the primary branch (usually main).

Once you enter this worktree, you can use normal commands like git checkout to checkout new and existing branches.

Creating New Worktrees

If a pressing change requires a hotfix, you can create a new hotfix worktree in the repository root with:

git worktree add -b urgent-bugfix hotfix main

This creates a new urgent-bugfix branch in the new hotfix worktree based off the main branch without disturbing your other worktrees.

For more information on worktrees, see the documentation for git-worktree.

Single Branch Clone

Projects with many contributors can have large numbers of branches. Syncing every branch on these repositories takes a long time, so it is useful to limit which branches to sync.

Common practice is to prefix branch names with your username. To setup a repository to have git pull sync only the main branch and branches with the prefix USERNAME/:

git-clone-for-worktree --single-branch git@github.com:my-project/my-repo.git
cd my-repo
git config --add remote.origin.fetch '+refs/heads/USERNAME/*:refs/remotes/origin/USERNAME/*'

You can fetch and checkout other branches, for example OTHERUSER/their-branch, with:

git fetch origin OTHERUSER/their-branch:refs/remotes/origin/OTHERUSER/their-branch
git checkout origin/OTHERUSER/their-branch