git snap creates a commit that includes most local changes on a user- and
machine-specific snapshots branch. It doesn't ask for a commit message. It also doesn't
touch the working tree, saves and restores the index, and switches back to the branch that
was checked out before running git snap. In other words, everything looks the same as
before after running git snap, but your changes are safely stored by Git and can be
pushed to a remote for redundancy or sharing. This is in contrast to stashes.
git snap
This creates a commit with most local changes on a branch named
snapshots-<username>-<hostname>. There are no options or parameters. Take a look at
the snapshots-meribold-smial branch of this repository to see some commits created
using git snap.
Save git-snap to some directory in your $PATH and make it executable. E.g.:
curl -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meribold/git-snap/v2.0.0/git-snap > ~/bin/git-snap
chmod +x ~/bin/git-snapThe version of a file that gets committed is always the one in your working tree. Which files are included depends on the working tree, the index, and the tip of the snapshots branch. Only files that exist in both the working tree and in the index or tip of the snapshots branch go into a new snapshot commit:
- If the file exists in the working tree and the index, it goes into the snapshot commit.
- If the file exists in the working tree and the tip of the snapshots branch, it goes into the snapshot commit.
- Otherwise, the file doesn't go into the snapshot commit.
It's more intuitive than it sounds. Creating a new file doesn't cause git snap to start
tracking this file unless you add the file to the index. But, a file that's in the last
snapshot commit will always be updated to the working tree version in the next snapshot
commit.
Each row in the following table specifies whether a file exists in any of four trees: the
working tree, the index, HEAD, and the tip of the snapshots branch. The last column
indicates whether git snap would include this file in the commit it creates. The
version that is included is always the one from the working tree.
| working tree | index | HEAD |
tip of snapshots branch | description | effect | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| exists | exists | exists | exists | tracked file | 〰️ | updated to working tree version |
| exists | exists | exists | '' | ➕ | added to snapshots branch | |
| exists | exists | exists | untracked but staged file | 〰️ | updated to working tree version | |
| exists | exists | '' | ➕ | added to snapshots branch | ||
| exists | exists | exists | after git rm --cached |
〰️ | updated to working tree version | |
| exists | exists | '' | ||||
| exists | exists | untracked and unstaged file | 〰️ | updated to working tree version | ||
| exists | '' | |||||
| exists | exists | exists | tracked file, after rm |
➖ | removed from snapshots branch | |
| exists | exists | '' | ||||
| exists | exists | untracked file, staged and then removed | ➖ | removed from snapshots branch | ||
| exists | '' | |||||
| exists | exists | after git rm |
➖ | removed from snapshots branch | ||
| exists | '' | |||||
| exists | after git rm and committing |
➖ | removed from snapshots branch |
- Dura is a background process that automatically creates commits similar to those
created by
git snap.