To get a prompt which indicates Git-branch in Zsh

Question

I run the following codes separately as my prompt unsuccessfully in .zshrc. This suggests me that apparently I do not have a program called __git_ps1. It is not in MacPorts.

#1

PROMPT="$(__git_ps1 " \[\033[1;32m\] (%s)\[\033[0m\]")\$"$

#2

PROMPT="$(__git_ps1 " (%s)")\$"$

#3

# Get the name of the branch we are on
git_prompt_info() {
  branch_prompt=$(__git_ps1)
  if [ -n "$branch_prompt" ]; then
    status_icon=$(git_status)
    echo $branch_prompt $status_icon
  fi
}

# Show character if changes are pending
git_status() {
  if current_git_status=$(git status | grep 'added to commit' 2> /dev/null); then
    echo "☠"
  fi
}
autoload -U colors
colors
setopt prompt_subst
PROMPT='
%~%{$fg_bold[black]%}$(git_prompt_info)
→ %{$reset_color%}'

How can you get a prompt which shows the name of a Git-branch?

Solution 1

__git_ps1 is from git-completion.bash. In zsh you probably have to provide your own function to determine the current directories git branch. There are quite a few blog posts about a git prompt for zsh.

You just need:

• a function to provide the branch name
• enable prompt (command) substitution
• add the function to your prompt

For example

git_prompt() {
 ref=$(git symbolic-ref HEAD | cut -d'/' -f3)
 echo $ref
}
setopt prompt_subst
PS1=$(git_prompt)%#
autoload -U promptinit
promptinit

Update: use the zsh vcs_info module instead of git_prompt()

setopt prompt_subst
autoload -Uz vcs_info
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' actionformats \
    '%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{3}|%F{1}%a%F{5}]%f '
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' formats       \
    '%F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{5}]%f '
zstyle ':vcs_info:(sv[nk]|bzr):*' branchformat '%b%F{1}:%F{3}%r'

zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable git cvs svn

# or use pre_cmd, see man zshcontrib
vcs_info_wrapper() {
  vcs_info
  if [ -n "$vcs_info_msg_0_" ]; then
    echo "%{$fg[grey]%}${vcs_info_msg_0_}%{$reset_color%}$del"
  fi
}
RPROMPT=$'$(vcs_info_wrapper)'

Solution 2

A lot of these solutions seemed slow for me when mashing the return key, so here's an option that is basic and speedy:

parse_git_branch() {
    git branch 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/ (\1)/'
}

setopt PROMPT_SUBST
PROMPT='%9c%{%F{green}%}$(parse_git_branch)%{%F{none}%} $ '

You'll get a prompt that looks like this: ~/dev/project (feature-branch) $

Solution 3

Here is an extended git prompt for zsh: zsh-git-prompt.

Solution 4

ko-dos's answer is great, but I prefer a slightly more git aware prompt than the one he uses. Specifically, I like staged, unstaged, and untracked file notifications in the prompt itself. Using his answer and the zsh vcs_info examples, I came up with the following:

setopt prompt_subst
autoload -Uz vcs_info
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' stagedstr 'M' 
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' unstagedstr 'M' 
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' check-for-changes true
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' actionformats '%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{3}|%F{1}%a%F{5}]%f '
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' formats \
  '%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{5}] %F{2}%c%F{3}%u%f'
zstyle ':vcs_info:git*+set-message:*' hooks git-untracked
zstyle ':vcs_info:*' enable git 
+vi-git-untracked() {
  if [[ $(git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree 2> /dev/null) == 'true' ]] && \
  [[ $(git ls-files --other --directory --exclude-standard | sed q | wc -l | tr -d ' ') == 1 ]] ; then
  hook_com[unstaged]+='%F{1}??%f'
fi
}


precmd () { vcs_info }
PROMPT='%F{5}[%F{2}%n%F{5}] %F{3}%3~ ${vcs_info_msg_0_} %f%# '

This creates a prompt that mimics the colorized output of git status -s (which can be configured in your .gitconfig file). A picture is perhaps most helpful here:

Compared with git status -s:

If you don't like colorized output, or would prefer some other character or prompt construction, just change the stagedstr, unstagedstr, and hook_com[unstaged] values in the above code.

Solution 5

I just redid mine since we have long branch names at work. This one will truncate with an ellipsis if it's more than 35 characters.

parse_git_branch() {
    git_status="$(git status 2> /dev/null)"
    pattern="On branch ([^[:space:]]*)"
    if [[ ! ${git_status} =~ "(working (tree|directory) clean)" ]]; then
        state="*"
    fi
    if [[ ${git_status} =~ ${pattern} ]]; then
      branch=${match[1]}
      branch_cut=${branch:0:35}
      if (( ${#branch} > ${#branch_cut} )); then
          echo "(${branch_cut}…${state})"
      else
          echo "(${branch}${state})"
      fi
    fi
}

setopt PROMPT_SUBST
PROMPT='%{%F{blue}%}%9c%{%F{none}%}$(parse_git_branch)$'

(I'm embarrassed at how proud I am of this.)

View more solutions

Comments

[Anonigan]

Do not use git-branch. It is porcelain, meant for UI, not for scripting. Use git-symbolic-ref and BR=${BR#refs/heads/}

[Michal aka Miki]

@Jakub: Thank you for pointing that out! --- I just observed that git-branch causes bugs with non-git directories.

[Justin Force]

Love it! Perfect. Very nice work, and now a submodule in my own dotfiles repo. :)

[drizzt]

git_prompt is wrong, if you have a branch with / it does not work. Use cut -d'/' -f3- instead.

[balki]

Thanks!, this works. Can you please explain what those cryptic zstyle commands do?

[harm]

How does your approach compare to vcs_info? It seems that your script is reinventing the wheel? (Didn't stop me from using it though, I was unaware of vcs_info)

[ntc2]

@balki The %F{n} enable ANSI color n for foreground, and %f disables foreground color. E.g., the formats format %F{5}(%f%s%F{5})%F{3}-%F{5}[%F{2}%b%F{3}]%f becomes (%s)-[%b] if you ignore the colors. The %s gets replaced by the vc system (e.g. git) and the %b gets replaced by the current branch.

[ntc2]

@balki The (sv[nk]|bzr) subpattern on the branchformat restricts it to svn, svk, and bzr. It means that those systems should use branch:revision instead of the default branch. Because of the enable line, bzr is not supported, so this bzr restriction is "dead code". The first three lines are copied verbatim from the ZSH docs, but the last line was added by someone else, which probably explains the dead code.

[ntc2]

@balki The actionformats becomes (%s)-[%b|%a] ignoring colors. This format is used during special actions, with %a describing the action. This is the most useful feature IMHO: e.g. for git it tells when you are in the middle of a rebase (which I often forget about while trying to resolve merge conflicts).

[Thanatos]

@Jakub Narębski: You can also do git symbolic-ref --short HEAD, which will remove the "refs/heads/" business for you.

[Thomas Upton]

This is a great git-specific use of vcs_info. One thing though: git status is slow. I used git ls-files --other --directory --exclude-standard | sed q | wc -l | tr -d ' ' instead, and it's much faster.

[Christopher]

Nice modification. Updated accordingly.

[Thomas Upton]

The --directory flag might not actually be necessary. I found that it was annoying because git usually ignores empty directories.

[szeryf]

Had the same problem (i.e. empty directories ignored by git caused ?? to appear in the prompt). Fixed by adding --no-empty-directory flag to the git ls-files command.

[David Faure]

I've been using this for a long time, and it always worked well. Now however, after updating to zsh 5.0.7 and git 1.8.4, I get "fatal: Not a git repository" whenever going into a directory that is not a git repo. Any suggestions? (I see many discussions on detecting whether or not we're in a git repo, but I don't want to exit early if not, I also have svn repos... vcs_info was great at encapsulating all that...)

[David Faure]

Ah, found a solution: replacing the call to vcs_info with vcs_info 2>/dev/null

[Timofey]

having trouble during sourcing: " unrecognized modifier `A'". zsh 4.2.6 (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu). Is it a known issue?

[ssokolow]

git symbolic-ref --short HEAD 2> /dev/null will get you an answer that requires less parsing.

[Ev0oD]

Repository no longer maintained - seems like some guys took over here: github.com/zsh-git-prompt/zsh-git-prompt editing answer to link to it

[Ev0oD]

Couldn't make it run neither with the repo I mention above. Found out ohmyzsh does it nicely, see stackoverflow.com/a/63919265/1920149

[alper]

link for git prompt seems dead :(

[SwiftMango]

In the first simple solution, also use cut -d'/' -f3-, it will make sure to include the full name of the branch, if the branch name is like feature/xyz

[Manish]

Where to add this code?

[Maria Ines Parnisari]

@Manish in your ~/.zshrc file

[Weston Ganger]

Please note that the PROMPT must be in single quotes for the command to be re-run whenever changing directories

[Weston Ganger]

Please note that the PROMPT must be in single quotes for the command to be re-run whenever changing directories

[Weston Ganger]

Thank you so much for this tip about single quotes. My desire to use double quotes bit me here.

[Dan Rosenstark]

Like it is @WestonGanger or you're suggesting something else?