Better Git Branch output

better-git-branch.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Colors
RED='\033[0;31m'
GREEN='\033[0;32m'
NO_COLOR='\033[0m'
BLUE='\033[0;34m'
YELLOW='\033[0;33m'
NO_COLOR='\033[0m'

width1=5
width2=6
width3=30
width4=20
width5=40

# Function to count commits
count_commits() {
    local branch="$1"
    local base_branch="$2"
    local ahead_behind

    ahead_behind=$(git rev-list --left-right --count "$base_branch"..."$branch")
    echo "$ahead_behind"
}

# Main script
main_branch=$(git rev-parse HEAD)

printf "${GREEN}%-${width1}s ${RED}%-${width2}s ${BLUE}%-${width3}s ${YELLOW}%-${width4}s ${NO_COLOR}%-${width5}s\n" "Ahead" "Behind" "Branch" "Last Commit"  " "

# Separator line for clarity
printf "${GREEN}%-${width1}s ${RED}%-${width2}s ${BLUE}%-${width3}s ${YELLOW}%-${width4}s ${NO_COLOR}%-${width5}s\n" "-----" "------" "------------------------------" "-------------------" " "


format_string="%(objectname:short)@%(refname:short)@%(committerdate:relative)"
IFS=$'\n'

for branchdata in $(git for-each-ref --sort=-authordate --format="$format_string" refs/heads/ --no-merged); do
    sha=$(echo "$branchdata" | cut -d '@' -f1)
    branch=$(echo "$branchdata" | cut -d '@' -f2)
    time=$(echo "$branchdata" | cut -d '@' -f3)
    if [ "$branch" != "$main_branch" ]; then
            # Get branch description
            description=$(git config branch."$branch".description)
            
            # Count commits ahead and behind
            ahead_behind=$(count_commits "$sha" "$main_branch")
            ahead=$(echo "$ahead_behind" | cut -f2)
            behind=$(echo "$ahead_behind" | cut -f1)
            
            # Display branch info
	    printf "${GREEN}%-${width1}s ${RED}%-${width2}s ${BLUE}%-${width3}s ${YELLOW}%-${width4}s ${NO_COLOR}%-${width5}s\n" $ahead $behind $branch "$time" "$description"
    fi
done

@Azzam-Alotaibi Hey, i found out that cloning a repository only checkouts the default branch. This script only shows the branches you have checked out. And this script does not show the default branch.

It uses git for-each-ref command to get all the branches and selects the branches that starts with refs/heads

To checkout all the remote branches at once, run this in bash:

for branch in `git branch -a | grep remotes | grep -v HEAD | grep -v master `; do
   git branch --track ${branch#remotes/origin/} $branch
done

I realized this script only uses local branches so if your branches change remotely this may not show accurate information. I need to test if this is the case.

One liner that works with git version 2.34.1 on Linux (bash, zsh), MacOS (bash, zsh), Windows (git bash, powershell inside of Windows Terminal):

git for-each-ref --color --sort=-committerdate --format='%(color: bold magenta)%(align:60,left)%(refname:short)%(color:bold red) %(upstream:track,nobracket)%(end)%(color:nobold yellow)%(align:58,left)%(committerdate:format:%Y-%d-%m %H:%M) (%(committerdate:relative), %(committerdate:format:%A %d))%(end)%(color:green)%(align:24,left)%(authorname)%(end)%(color:green)%(align:64,left)%(contents:lines=1)%(end)' refs/heads/ --count 16

It looks a little different. It shows your current branch too and sorts by most recent commit first:

It also prints gone near branch when upstream branch is unknown/gone. On Windows may output strange characters and random guids, in current shell session type powershell/bash again and all should be fine. If you modify it and wonder why alignment seems smaller than numbers say, try piping to | cat -v and you will see ANSI color escape sequences, they count too.

Adjust --count 16 to print more/less branches.

I think if [ "$branch" != "$main_branch" ] will always be True

• main_branch=$(git rev-parse HEAD) will display the commit SHA
• branch will display a string, e.g. dev

because of git for-each-ref --format="$format_string", each line will be abc1234@feature/login@2 days ago, then when we parse branch=$(echo "$branchdata" | cut -d '@' -f2), so branch = feature/login

Fix: main_branch=$(git rev-parse HEAD) --> main_branch=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)