Vi and Vim Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people using the vi and Vim families of text editors. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Right now I'm using fugitive to manage almost everything git related, but I can't find a good workflow to quickly visualize and switch between available branches.
I can do :Git checkout <branch-name>, the problem is that it autocompletes both file names and branches, and I'd prefer a branch list.
To summarize the answers, here are the ways to accomplish this:
Press CTRL-Z in normal mode will drop you back in to the shell and suspend Vim. After executing your git checkout [branchname], run the fg builtin to return to the suspended Vim which will also force Vim to refresh (:help timestamp).
It is also noteworthy that the :checktime command in Vim will perform a buffer scan to see what filesystem changes there have been. See :help :checktime for more info.
In vim 8, you can use :terminal to start a shell, or :terminal git checkout [branchname] to run one command. Neither will automatically :checktime.
Some gvim implementations will have :shell support which will open a shell inside of Vim using a dumb terminal. However it may be easier to just type:
:!git checkout [branchname]
This will execute the command without having to open a new shell prompt. (This option is also usable in the terminal Vim).
plugin-fugitive is a plugin that allows you to use Git from within Vim. The command would be:
:Git checkout [branchname]
vim-merginal is a plugin that uses plugin-fugitive and provides a user friendly-ish interface.
:Merginal.cc to check out that branch.
ctrl-z because it auto loads the files. Co-workers like to have a tmux window for the command line and one for vim but when they do a checkout or merge when they return to vim they have to go to each open file and :e! each time. (:bufdo e) which is a pain to remember. Instead it is easier to ctrl-z then when fg happens Vim performs the :e auto-magically.
– Sukima
Nov 25 '16 at 17:25
Use the vim-merginal plugin (fugitive extension). It offers interactive TUI for:
You should embrace your terminal. If you use CTRL-Z, it will background Vim (or whichever process you are currently running), then you can run any commands you want, the fg to bring the process back to the foreground:
<CTRL-Z>
git checkout <tab>
fg
:shell is the way to go or alt tabbing in to your other favorite terminal emulator
– 65-e9-7e-17
Dec 23 '15 at 5:32
The fugitive Git checkout <branch> has a downside that it doesn't autocomplete the branch name. Using fzf.vim I've created this command:
function! s:changebranch(branch)
execute 'Git checkout' . a:branch
call feedkeys("i")
endfunction
command! -bang Gbranch call fzf#run({
\ 'source': 'git branch -a --no-color | grep -v "^\* " ',
\ 'sink': function('s:changebranch')
\ })
hope you find it useful
The answer provided by @kubek2k is so phenomenal. That solution is better than I could have imagined and implemented in in less lines of code that I could have imaged. It opened the door to help me understand the powerful personalization use of 'fzf'.
I have slightly modified it to additionally provide:
Here is the slight modification:
function! s:gitCheckoutRef(ref)
execute('Git checkout ' . a:ref)
" call feedkeys("i")
endfunction
function! s:gitListRefs()
let l:refs = execute("Git for-each-ref --format='\\%(refname:short)'")
return split(l:refs,'\r\n*')[1:] "jump past the first line which is the git command
endfunction
command! -bang Gbranch call fzf#run({ 'source': s:gitListRefs(), 'sink': function('s:gitCheckoutRef'), 'dir':expand('%:p:h') })
:Gbranch) whereas kubek2k solution does work.
– Sebastian Müller
Mar 7 '20 at 22:57
I found this FZF plugin that adds a GBranches command to browse your repo.
