[mini.pick] git worktree picker

[felpafel]

git_worktrees.mp4

Hello, I've created this picker around 3 months ago, and decided to share it here.

This picker list all available worktrees and change neovim working directory (cwd) to the selected tree. screenshot

I choose to only change the directory so it's simple to anyone to implement their own automation. In my case, I use DirChangedPre event and mini.sessions to save my current session and load the session to the new working dir (using oil.nvim as a fallback in case I don't have a previous session).

Usage:

The picker accepts an optional cwd parameter in case you want to search a repository in another path.

• On the cmdline: :Pick git_worktrees or Pick git_worktrees cwd='my/git/repo/path';
• On keymaps: vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>fw', '<cmd>Pick git_worktrees<cr>')

Implementation:

Basically, this picker queries all available git worktrees using git -C $cwd worktree list and then the cli stdout is parsed using string.match to build a table array that has three fields: text, branch and path (you can customize the prompt by changing the content of text). So, when the user select an item the wt_switch procedure is called, changing the working dir to item.path.

Code:

local wt_switch = function(item)
  -- NOTE: Change CWD to selected item's path
  vim.schedule(function()
    vim.fn.chdir(item.path)
  end)
  vim.notify(
    'Git worktree changed to ' .. (item.branch and item.branch or '(bare)'),
    vim.log.levels.INFO
  )
end

--- @return { text: string, branch: string, path: string }[]
local wt_postprocess = function(item)
  local items = {}
  for _, entry in pairs(vim.split(item[1], '%z%z', { trimempty = true })) do
    local path, head, _, ref =
    entry:match('^worktree (.-)%zHEAD (.-)%z([^ ]+) (.+)$')
    if path then
      local branch = vim.fs.basename(ref)
      items[#items + 1] = {
        text = string.format(
          '[%s] %s %s',
          branch,
          head:sub(1, 7),
          path
        ),
        branch = branch,
        path = path,
      }
    else
      path = entry:match('^worktree (.-)%z(bare)$')
      if path then
        items[#items + 1] = {
          text = string.format('(bare) %s', path),
          branch = nil,
          path = path,
        }
      end
    end
  end
  return items
end

MiniPick.registry.git_worktrees = function(local_opts)
  local cwd = local_opts.cwd or vim.fn.getcwd()
  if vim.system({ 'git', '-C', cwd, 'rev-parse' }):wait().code ~= 0 then
    vim.notify(
      'Not in a git repository',
      vim.log.levels.ERROR
    )
    return
  end
  local opts = {
    source = {
      -- NOTE: Window Title
      name = string.format('Git Worktrees - %s', cwd),
      choose = wt_switch,
    },
  }
  local_opts.command =
  { 'git', '-C', cwd, 'worktree', 'list', '--porcelain', '-z' }
  local_opts.postprocess = wt_postprocess

  return MiniPick.builtin.cli(local_opts, opts)
end

Thanks.

[echasnovski]

Thanks for sharing!

I've wanted to try to learn more about Git worktrees for quite a while in order to incorporate them into my workflow. Yet, never really got to it :(

I like the usage of -z and zero byte character! It took me a while to understand that this is possible and even preferable to any other ad-hoc delimiter.

[felpafel]

I'm glad you like it!

I've wanted to try to learn more about Git worktrees for quite a while in order to incorporate them into my workflow. Yet, never really got to it :(

Well, I found hard to understand it at first, mostly, because everyone on the internet is trying to sell it as "the killer feature!", instead of "branches as folders".

Using mini.nvim as an example, my workflow is the following:

1. mkdir mini.nvim && cd mini.nvim
2. git clone --bare https://github.com/echasnovski/mini.nvim.git
3. cd mini.nvim.git
4. git worktree add ../main main
5. git worktree add ../stable stable

The final file-tree will be:

 mini.nvim/
 ├─ main/
 ├─ mini.nvim.git/
 └─ stable/

In the end, instead of jumping from branch to branch using git switch you just change your working directory, and since they are separate folders you don't need to commit, stash or whatever in order to switch.

To wrap up , you only need a worktree if you need to change branches and since git only works inside a git repo, you can't use git inside the root folder (mini.nvim)

workflow_demo.mp4

[echasnovski]

Thanks for the explanation and the video (I do plan to add 'mini.quickfix', just not right away :) ).

I did think about worktrees as "branches as directories". It's just that "regular" workflow with "stash - checkout" is super straightforward with LazyGit, so I am pretty happy with it.