After reading “Zsh Prompt Magic” I created the zsh_vcs_info file which you can download. You place it in your home directory and open .zshrc and add the following line:

source /home/user/.zsh_vcs_info

Notice that I added a . (dot) in the filename because I want it to be hidden. Also, notice that “user” in the path above, is the username of the account you use to log into Ubuntu.

DISCLAIMER: There are more ways and many situations that are not described here. This is only a note to self that may also be useful to you.

Pull from your remote repository to make sure everything is up to date

git pull origin master

Create a new local branch for keeping your changes way from your local master branch

git branch my_new_feature

Switch to that branch and start working

git checkout my_new_feature

After finishing work and running successfully any cukes/specs/tests, commit

git commit -am "Implemented my new super duper feature"

Then, switch back to local master and pull if you need to also merge any changes since you first pulled

git checkout master
git pull origin master

Merge the local feature branch to master and run any cukes/specs/tests and if everything passes push changes

git merge my_new_feature
git push origin master

This is my preference: I delete the temporary local branch when everything is merged and pushed

git branch -d my_new_feature

Update – Here is a more sophisticated approach: Agile git and the story branch pattern

$ git log

command doesn’t show the actual modified/added/deleted files. You can use the following command for that:

$ git log --pretty --stat

or

$ git log --pretty=format:"[%h] %ae, %ar: %s" --stat

I found the latter in one of Alex Young’s tweets.

If you have any favorite git log formats, please feel free to mention them in a comment.