git-pr-branch 0.1.0

A command line tool to manage the relationship between branches and pull-requests.

GIT PR branch

git-pr-branch is a command line tool designed to manage the relationship between branches and pull-requests.

At the moment it only supports Github and Pagure, but other backends are possible.

You need to create a personal token in your Github settings page if you plan to use Github (Pagure can work without a token). When you start the program for the first time, it will ask you for it and store it in a configuration file.

Cloning a repository

When contributing to a new project, one needs to clone the repository, fork it, and clone the fork to upload the contributions in. git pr-branch can do these three steps for you by running: git pr-branch clone https://github.com/project/repo. The Git remote for the newly created fork will be called fork.

If you already have cloned the repository and just want to create and/or register your fork, you can use: git pr-branch add-fork.

Downloading pull requests

git pr-branch pull 42 will download pull request #42 in a local branch, creating a new branch each time the command is run. Why, you ask? Because it is common for PR authors to amend their commits after a review instead of adding more commits, and as a reviewer it's hard to see the differences between the code you reviewed and the new code. By creating a new branch each time, you can just diff with the previous branch.

If you have not checked out this PR before, it will create a branch for every existing review in the PR's history. This way it'll be easy to see what's changed between earlier reviews even if you did not run the command at that time (this behavior is not supported on Pagure).

When you're working on the PR branch, running git pr-branch update or git pr-branch up will download the latest version of the PR in a new branch and switch to it. It is a shortcut to running the same command, so you don't have to remember and type in the PR number again.

Displaying branches and pull requests

git pr-branch show will list all your local branches and show you whether they are associated with a pull request, whether that PR is still open or not, and the URL for that PR.

Purging branches

git pr-branch purge will delete the branches that are linked to a closed pull request (or multiple pull requests that are all closed). This will let you keep your local repo tidy.

Options

If the remote name for the repository you're forking from (here called "upstream") is not named "origin", you can set which remote is your upstream with the -u or --upstream option. Here is an example: if Bob wants to fork Alice's repository he may clone his own fork first and then add Alice's repository as a remote:

$ git clone [e-mail]:/bob/repo
$ git remote add upstream [e-mail]:/alice/repo

The original repository is therefore not in the default origin remote but in the upstream remote. In this configuration, git-pr-branch must be used with the -u option as such:

$ git pr-branch -u upstream show

The value will be set in the local repository's configuration and you won't need to use the option in the future.

If most of your local repositories don't use the remote origin as upstream, you can configure a different default value in the configuration file. The first-time setup "wizard" will ask you.

Installation

You can install git-pr-branch from PyPI with:

pipx install git-pr-branch

There is also a COPR repository that provides RPMs for some distributions.