git-machete#

git machete is a robust tool that simplifies your git workflows.

The bird’s eye view provided by git machete makes merges/rebases/push/pulls hassle-free even when multiple branches are present in the repository (master/develop, your topic branches, teammate’s branches checked out for review, etc.).

Using this tool, you can maintain small, focused, easy-to-review pull requests with little effort.

A look at a git machete status gives an instant answer to the questions:

What branches are in this repository?
What is going to be merged (rebased/pushed/pulled) and to what?

git machete traverse semi-automatically traverses the branches, helping you effortlessly rebase, merge, push and pull.

When git-machete is installed, it adds machete command to git, so it can be called from command line: git machete <command> <options>. git machete comes with a wide variety of customizable commands and in this site you can find their documentation.

git machete commands and help topics:

add – Add a branch to the tree of branch dependencies
advance – Fast-forward merge one of children to the current branch, push it and then slide out the child
anno – Manage custom annotations
clean – Delete untracked and unmanaged branches and also optionally check out user’s open GitHub PRs
completion – Print out completion script for bash/fish/zsh
config – Display docs for the git machete configuration keys and environment variables
delete-unmanaged – Delete local branches that are not present in the branch layout file
diff – Diff current working directory or a given branch against its computed fork point
discover – Automatically discover tree of branch dependencies
edit – Edit the branch layout file
file – Display the location of the branch layout file
fork-point – Display or override fork point for a branch
format – Display docs for the format of the branch layout file
github – Create, check out and manage GitHub PRs while keeping them reflected in git machete
gitlab – Create, check out and manage GitLab MRs while keeping them reflected in git machete
go – Check out the branch relative to the position of the current branch, or interactively select a branch
help – Display this overview, or detailed help for a specified command
hooks – Display docs for the extra hooks added by git machete
is-managed – Check if the current branch is managed by git machete (mostly for scripts)
list – List all branches that fall into one of pre-defined categories (mostly for internal use)
log – Log the part of history specific to the given branch
reapply – Rebase the current branch onto its computed fork point
show – Show name(s) of the branch(es) relative to the position of a branch
slide-out – Slide out the current branch and sync its downstream (child) branches with its upstream (parent) branch via rebase or merge
squash – Squash the unique history of the current branch into a single commit
status – Display formatted tree of branch dependencies, including info on their sync with upstream branch and with remote
traverse – Walk through the tree of branch dependencies and rebase, merge, slide out, push and/or pull each branch one by one. By default starts from current branch
update – Sync the current branch with its upstream (parent) branch via rebase or merge
version – Display the version and exit

Learning Materials#

Check the git-machete tutorial.

To get help via CLI run:

git machete help
git machete help go
git machete go --help

General options#

--debug: Log detailed diagnostic info, including outputs of the executed git commands.
-h, --help: Print help and exit.
-v, --verbose: Log the executed git commands.
--version: Print version and exit.

Commands & help topics#

add#

Usage:

git machete add [-o|--onto=<target-upstream-branch>] [-R|--as-root] [-y|--yes] [<branch>]

Adds the provided <branch> (or the current branch, if none specified) to the branch layout file. If <branch> is provided but no local branch with the given name exists:

if a remote branch of the same name exists in exactly one remote, then user is asked whether to check out this branch locally (as in git checkout),
otherwise, user is asked whether it should be created as a new local branch.

If the branch layout file is empty or -R/--as-root is provided, the branch will be added as a root of the tree of branch dependencies. Otherwise, the desired upstream (parent) branch can be specified with -o/--onto. Neither of these options is mandatory, however; if both are skipped, git machete will try to automatically infer the target upstream. If the upstream branch can be inferred, the user will be presented with inferred branch and asked to confirm.

Note: all the effects of add (except git branch creation) can as well be achieved by manually editing the branch layout file.

Options:

-f, --as-first-child: Add the given branch as the first (instead of last) child of its parent. Cannot be specified together with -R/--as-root.
-o, --onto=<target-upstream-branch>: Select the target parent branch to add the given branch onto. Cannot be specified together with -R/--as-root.
-R, --as-root: Add the given branch as a new root (and not onto any other branch).
-y, --yes: Don’t ask for confirmation whether to create the branch or whether to add onto the inferred upstream.

advance#

Usage:

git machete advance [-y|--yes]

Fast forwards (as in git merge --ff-only) the current branch C to match its downstream D, pushes C and subsequently slides out D. All three steps require manual confirmation unless -y/--yes is provided.

The downstream D is selected according to the following criteria:

if C has exactly one downstream (child) branch d connected with a green edge (see help for status) to C or is overridden, then d is selected as D,
if C has no downstream branches connected with a green edge to C, then advance fails,
if C has more than one downstream branch connected with a green edge to C, then user is asked to pick the branch to fast-forward merge into (similarly to what happens in git machete go down). If --yes is specified, then advance fails.

As an example, if git machete status --color=never --list-commits is as follows:

master
|
m-develop *
  |
  | Enable adding remote branch in the manner similar to git checkout
  o-feature/add-from-remote
    |
    | Add support and sample for machete-post-slide-out hook
    o-feature/post-slide-out-hook

then running git machete advance will fast-forward the current branch develop to match feature/add-from-remote, and subsequently slide out the latter. After advance completes, status will show:

master
|
| Enable adding remote branch in the manner similar to git checkout
o-develop *
  |
  | Add support and sample for machete-post-slide-out hook
  o-feature/post-slide-out-hook

Note that the current branch after the operation is still develop, just pointing to feature/add-from-remote’s tip now.

If the current branch C is annotated with push=no qualifier, the push is not performed. If the downstream branch D is annotated with slide-out=no qualifier, the slide-out is not performed. See help for traverse for more details on the qualifiers.

Options:

-y, --yes: Don’t ask for confirmation whether to fast-forward the current branch or whether to slide-out the downstream. Fails if the current branch has more than one green-edge downstream branch.

anno#

Usage:

git machete anno [-b|--branch=<branch>] [<annotation text>]
git machete anno -H|--sync-github-prs
git machete anno -L|--sync-gitlab-mrs

If invoked without any <annotation text>, prints out the custom annotation for the given branch (or current branch, if none specified with -b/--branch).

If invoked with a single empty string <annotation text>, like git machete anno '', then clears the annotation for the current branch (or a branch specified with -b/--branch).

If invoked with -H/--sync-github-prs (for GitHub) or -L/--sync-gitlab-mrs (for GitLab), annotates the branches based on their corresponding GitHub PR/GitLab MR numbers and authors. When the current user is not the author of the PR/MR associated with that branch, adds rebase=no push=no branch qualifiers used by git machete traverse, so that you don’t rebase or push someone else’s PR/MR by accident (see help for traverse). Any existing annotations (except branch qualifiers) are overwritten for the branches that have an opened PR/MR; annotations for the other branches remain untouched.

Note

See the help for github for how to configure GitHub API access. TL;DR: GITHUB_TOKEN env var or ~/.github-token file or gh/hub CLI configs if exist.

See the help for gitlab for how to configure GitLab API access. TL;DR: GITLAB_TOKEN env var or ~/.gitlab-token file or glab CLI config if exists.

For enterprise domains, non-standard URLs etc., check git config keys in either command’s help.

In any other case, sets the annotation for the given/current branch to the given <annotation text>. If multiple <annotation text>’s are passed to the command, they are concatenated with a single space.

Note: anno command is able to overwrite the existing branch qualifiers, for example with git machete anno "rebase=no push=no".

Note: all the effects of anno can be always achieved by manually editing the branch layout file.

Options:

-b, --branch=<branch>: Branch to set the annotation for.
-H, --sync-github-prs: Annotate with GitHub PR numbers and author logins where applicable.
-L, --sync-gitlab-mrs: Annotate with GitLab MR numbers and author logins where applicable.

config#

Documentation about available git machete git config keys and environment variables that change the command’s default behavior.

Note: config is not a command as such, just a help topic (there is no git machete config command).

Git config keys:

machete.github.{domain,remote,organization,repository}:

GitHub Enterprise domain
E.g. git config machete.github.domain git.example.org

Remote name (as in git remote)
E.g. git config machete.github.remote origin

Organization and repository name
E.g. git config machete.github.organization VirtusLab; git config machete.github.repository git-machete

Note that you do not need to set all four keys at once. For example, in a typical usage of GitHub Enterprise, it should be enough to just set machete.github.domain. Only machete.github.organization and machete.github.repository must be specified together.

machete.github.annotateWithUrls:

Setting this config key to true will cause all commands that write GitHub PR numbers into annotations to not only include PR number and author (if different from the current user), but also the full URL of the PR.

The affected (sub)commands clearly include anno --sync-github-prs and github anno-prs, but also github checkout-prs, github create-pr, github retarget-pr and github restack-pr.

machete.github.forceDescriptionFromCommitMessage:

Setting this config key to true will force git machete github create-pr to take PR description from the message body of the first unique commit of the branch, even if .git/info/description and/or .github/pull_request_template.md is present.

machete.github.prDescriptionIntroStyle:

Select the style of the generated section (“intro”) added to the PR description:

full — include both a chain of upstream PRs (typically leading to main, master, develop etc.) and a tree of downstream PRs
full-no-branches — same as full, but no branch names are included (only PR numbers & titles)
up-only — default, include only a chain of upstream PRs
up-only-no-branches — same as up-only, but no branch names are included (only PR numbers & titles)
none — prepend no intro to the PR description at all

machete.gitlab.{domain,remote,namespace,project}:

GitLab self-managed domain
E.g. git config machete.gitlab.domain git.example.org

Remote name (as in git remote)
E.g. git config machete.gitlab.remote origin

Namespace and project name
E.g. git config machete.gitlab.namespace foo/bar; git config machete.gitlab.project hello-world

Note that you do not need to set all four keys at once. For example, in a typical usage for GitLab self-managed instance, it should be enough to just set machete.gitlab.domain. Only machete.gitlab.namespace and machete.gitlab.project must be specified together.

machete.gitlab.annotateWithUrls:

Setting this config key to true will cause all commands that write GitLab MR numbers into annotations to not only include MR number and author (if different from the current user), but also the full URL of the MR.

The affected (sub)commands clearly include anno --sync-gitlab-mrs and gitlab anno-mrs, but also gitlab checkout-mrs, gitlab create-mr, gitlab retarget-mr and gitlab restack-mr.

machete.gitlab.forceDescriptionFromCommitMessage:

Setting this config key to true will force git machete gitlab create-mr to take MR description from the message body of the first unique commit of the branch, even if .git/info/description and/or .gitlab/merge_request_templates/Default.md is present.

machete.gitlab.mrDescriptionIntroStyle:

Select the style of the generated section (“intro”) added to the MR description:

full — include both a chain of upstream MRs (typically leading to main, master, develop etc.) and a tree of downstream MRs
full-no-branches — same as full, but no branch names are included (only MR numbers & titles)
up-only — default, include only a chain of upstream MRs
up-only-no-branches — same as up-only, but no branch names are included (only MR numbers & titles)
none — prepend no intro to the MR description at all

machete.overrideForkPoint.<branch>.to:

Executing git machete fork-point --override-to[-parent|-inferred|=<revision>] [<branch>] sets up a fork point override for <branch>.

The override data is stored under machete.overrideForkPoint.<branch>.to git config key.

There should be no need for the user to interact with this key directly, git machete fork-point with flags should be used instead.

machete.squashMergeDetection:

Select the algorithm used to detect squash merges. Possible values are:

none: Fastest mode, with no squash merge/rebase detection. Only strict (fast-forward or 2-parent) merges are detected.
simple (default): Compares the tree (files & directories in the commit) of the downstream branch with the trees of the upstream branch. This detects squash merges/rebases as long as there exists a squash/rebase commit in the upstream that has the identical tree to what’s in the downstream branch.
exact: Compares the patch (diff introduced by the commits) of the downstream branch with the patches of the upstream branch. This detects squash merges in more cases than simple mode. However, it might have a significant performance impact on large repositories as it requires computing patches for commits in the upstream branch.

This has an impact on:

whether a gray edge is displayed in status,
whether traverse suggests to slide out the branch.

machete.status.extraSpaceBeforeBranchName:

To make it easier to select branch name from the status output on certain terminals (like Alacritty), you can add an extra space between └─ and branch name by setting git config machete.status.extraSpaceBeforeBranchName true.

For example, by default the status is displayed as:

develop
│
├─feature_branch1
│
└─feature_branch2

With machete.status.extraSpaceBeforeBranchName config set to true:

develop
│
├─ feature_branch1
│
└─ feature_branch2

machete.traverse.fetch.<remote>:

Configure the behavior of git machete traverse command for the given remote when --fetch flag is used. If set to false, this remote will not be fetched before the traversal. The default value of this key is true. This is useful for excluding remotes that are temporarily offline, or take a long time to respond.

machete.traverse.push:

Set to false to change the behavior of git machete traverse so that it doesn’t push branches by default. The default value of this key is true. Configuration key value can be overridden by the presence of the --push or --push-untracked flags.

machete.traverse.whenBranchNotCheckedOutInAnyWorktree:

Controls the behavior of git machete traverse when it needs to act on a branch that is not currently checked out in any worktree.

Allowed values:

cd-into-main-worktree (default): change directory to the main worktree and check out the branch there.
stay-in-the-current-worktree: check out the branch in whichever worktree traverse is currently operating in, without changing directory. Note that this worktree might differ from the one where traverse originally started.
cd-into-temporary-worktree: create a new worktree in a temporary directory, check out the branch there, and remove this temporary worktree once traverse moves on to the next branch (or finishes). This ensures that no existing (non-temporary) worktree has its checked-out branch changed by traverse.

machete.worktree.useTopLevelMacheteFile:

The default value of this key is true, which means that the path to branch layout file will be .git/machete for both regular directory and worktree.

If you want the worktree to have its own branch layout file (located under .git/worktrees/.../machete), set git config machete.worktree.useTopLevelMacheteFile false.

Environment variables:

GIT_MACHETE_EDITOR

Name of the editor used by git machete e[dit], example: vim or nano.

GIT_MACHETE_REBASE_OPTS

Extra options to pass to the underlying git rebase invocations, space-separated. Example: GIT_MACHETE_REBASE_OPTS="--keep-empty --rebase-merges" git machete <command>.

Used by commands such as reapply, slide-out, traverse and update.

GITHUB_TOKEN

Used to store GitHub API token. Used by commands such as anno --sync-github-prs and github.

GITLAB_TOKEN

Used to store GitLab API token. Used by commands such as anno --sync-gitlab-mrs and gitlab.

clean#

Usage:

git machete clean [-c|--checkout-my-github-prs] [-y|--yes]

Deprecated. Use github checkout-prs --mine, delete-unmanaged and slide-out --removed-from-remote.

Synchronizes with the remote repository:

if invoked with -H or --checkout-my-github-prs, checks out open PRs for the current user associated with the GitHub token and also traverses the chain of pull requests upwards, adding branches one by one to git-machete and checks them out locally as well,
deletes unmanaged branches,
deletes untracked managed branches that have no downstream branch.

No branch will be deleted unless explicitly confirmed by the user (or unless -y/--yes option is passed). Equivalent of git machete github sync if invoked with -H or --checkout-my-github-prs.

Note

See the help for github for how to configure GitHub API access. TL;DR: GITHUB_TOKEN env var or ~/.github-token file or gh/hub CLI configs if exist. For enterprise domains, non-standard URLs etc., check git config keys in github help.

Options:

-c, --checkout-my-github-prs: Checkout your open PRs into local branches.
-y, --yes: Don’t ask for confirmation when deleting branches from git.

Environment variables:

GITHUB_TOKEN: GitHub API token.

completion#

Usage:

git machete completion <shell>

where <shell> is one of: bash, fish, zsh.

Prints out completion scripts.

Supported shells:

bash

Put the following into ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile:

eval "$(git machete completion bash)"  # or, if it doesn't work:
source <(git machete completion bash)

fish

Put the following into ~/.config/fish/config.fish:

git machete completion fish | source

zsh

Put the following into ~/.zshrc:

eval "$(git machete completion zsh)"  # or, if it doesn't work:
source <(git machete completion zsh)

delete-unmanaged#

Usage:

git machete delete-unmanaged [-y|--yes]

Goes one-by-one through all the local git branches that don’t exist in the branch layout file, and ask to delete each of them (with git branch -d or git branch -D) if confirmed by user. No branch will be deleted unless explicitly confirmed by the user (or unless -y/--yes option is passed).

Note: this should be used with care since deleting local branches can sometimes make it impossible for git machete to properly figure out fork points. See help for fork-point for more details.

Options:

-y, --yes: Don’t ask for confirmation.

diff#

Usage:

git machete d[iff] [-s|--stat] [<branch>] [-- <pass-through-arguments>]

Runs git diff of the given branch tip against its fork point or, if none specified, of the current working tree against the fork point of the currently checked out branch. See help for fork-point for more details.

Note: the branch in question does not need to occur in the branch layout file.

Options:

– <pass-through-arguments> Arguments to pass directly to the underlying git diff, for example git machete diff -- --name-only.

-s, --stat: Make git machete diff pass --stat option to git diff, so that only summary (diffstat) is printed.

discover#

Usage:

git machete discover [-C|--checked-out-since=<date>] [-l|--list-commits] [-r|--roots=<branch1>,<branch2>,...] [-y|--yes]

Discovers and displays tree of branch dependencies using a heuristic based on reflogs and asks whether to overwrite the existing branch layout file with the new discovered tree. If confirmed with a y[es] or e[dit] reply, backs up the current branch layout file (if it exists) as $GIT_DIR/machete~ and saves the new tree under the usual $GIT_DIR/machete path. If the reply was e[dit], additionally an editor is opened (as in: git machete edit) after saving the new branch layout file. discover retains the existing branch qualifiers used by git machete traverse (see help for traverse).

Options:

-C, --checked-out-since=<date>: Only consider branches checked out at least once since the given date. <date> can be, for example, 2 weeks ago or 2020-06-01, as in git log --since=<date>. If not present, the date is selected automatically so that around 10 branches are included.
-l, --list-commits: When printing the discovered tree, additionally list the messages of commits introduced on each branch (as in git machete status --list-commits).
-r, --roots=<branch1,…>: Comma-separated list of branches that should be considered roots of trees of branch dependencies. If not present, master is assumed to be a root. Note that certain other branches can also be additionally deemed to be roots as well.
-y, --yes: Don’t ask for confirmation before saving the newly-discovered tree. Mostly useful in scripts; not recommended for manual use.

edit#

Usage:

git machete e[dit]

Opens an editor and lets you edit the branch layout file manually.

The editor is determined by checking up the following locations:

$GIT_MACHETE_EDITOR
$GIT_EDITOR
$(git config core.editor)
$VISUAL
$EDITOR
editor
nano
vi

and selecting the first one that is defined and points to an executable file accessible on PATH.

Note that the above editor selection only applies for editing the branch layout file, but not for any other actions that may be indirectly triggered by git machete, including editing of rebase TODO list, commit messages etc.

The branch layout file can be always accessed and edited directly under the path returned by git machete file (usually .git/machete, unless worktrees or submodules are involved).

Environment variables:

GIT_MACHETE_EDITOR: Name of the editor executable.

file#

Usage:

git machete file

Outputs the absolute path of branch layout file. The file is always called machete and is located in the git directory of the project.

Three cases are possible:

if git machete is executed from a regular working directory (not a worktree or submodule), the file is located under .git/machete,
if git machete is executed from a worktree, the file path depends on the machete.worktree.useTopLevelMacheteFile config key value:
- if machete.worktree.useTopLevelMacheteFile is true (default), the file is located under .git/machete
- if machete.worktree.useTopLevelMacheteFile is false, the file is located under .git/worktrees/.../machete,
if git machete is executed from a submodule, this file is located in the git folder of the submodule itself under .git/modules/.../machete.

fork-point#

Usage:

git machete fork-point [--inferred] [<branch>]
git machete fork-point --override-to=<revision>|--override-to-inferred|--override-to-parent [<branch>]
git machete fork-point --unset-override [<branch>]

Note: in all three forms, if no <branch> is specified, the currently checked out branch is assumed. The branch in question does not need to occur in the branch layout file.

Without any option, git machete fork-point displays full hash of the fork point commit for <branch>. Fork point of the given <branch> is the commit at which the history of <branch> diverges from history of any other branch.

Fork point is assumed by many git machete commands as the place where the unique history of <branch> starts. The range of commits between the fork point and the tip of the given branch is, for instance:

listed for each branch by git machete status --list-commits
passed to git rebase by git machete reapply/slide-out/traverse/update
provided to git diff/log by git machete diff/log.

git machete assumes fork point of <branch> is the most recent commit in the log of <branch> that has not been introduced on that very branch, but instead occurs on a reflog (see help for git reflog) of some other branch. This yields a correct result in typical cases, but there are some situations (esp. when some local branches have been deleted) where the fork point might not be determined correctly. Thus, all rebase-involving operations (reapply, slide-out, traverse and update) run git rebase in the interactive mode by default, unless told explicitly not to do so by --no-interactive-rebase flag. This way, the suggested commit range can be inspected before the rebase starts. Also, reapply, slide-out, squash, and update allow to specify the fork point explicitly by a command-line option.

git machete fork-point is different (and more powerful) than git merge-base --fork-point, since the latter takes into account only the reflog of the one provided upstream branch, while the former scans reflogs of all local branches and their remote tracking branches. This makes git machete’s fork-point more resilient to modifications of .git/machete file when certain branches are re-attached under new parents (upstreams).

With --override-to-parent, overrides fork point of <branch> to the commit pointed by <branch>’s parent in branch layout. The override data is stored under machete.overrideForkPoint.<branch>.to git config key. Note: the override only works as long as parent of <branch> is an ancestor of current <branch> commit.

With --override-to=<revision>, overrides fork point of <branch> to the selected commit. Note: this option is deprecated since it may lead to confusing user experience (due to the “hidden” commits between fork point and parent branch in green-edge case). Use --override-to-parent, or rebase the branch onto its parent with git machete update --fork-point=<revision>.

With --inferred, displays the commit that git machete fork-point infers to be fork point of <branch>. If there is no fork point override for <branch>, this is identical to the output of git machete fork-point. If there is a fork point override for <branch>, this is identical to the what the output of git machete fork-point would be if the override was not present. Note: this piece of information is also displayed by git machete status --list-commits in case a yellow edge occurs.

With --override-to-inferred option, overrides fork point of <branch> to the result of git machete fork-point --inferred for <branch>. Note: similarly to --override-to=<revision>, this option is deprecated.

With --unset-override, unsets fork point override for <branch>. This is simply done by removing the corresponding machete.overrideForkPoint.<branch>.to git config entry.

Note: if branch B has an overridden fork point, then B is considered to be connected with a green edge to its upstream (parent) U, even if the overridden fork point of B is not equal to the commit pointed by U.

format#

Note: there is no git machete format command as such; format is just a topic of git machete help.

The format of the branch layout file should be as follows:

develop
    adjust-reads-prec PR #234 rebase=no push=no
        block-cancel-order PR #235 rebase=no
            change-table
                drop-location-type
    edit-margin-not-allowed
        full-load-gatling push=no
    grep-errors-script
master
    hotfix/receipt-trigger PR #236

In the above example develop and master are roots of the tree of branch dependencies. Branches adjust-reads-prec, edit-margin-not-allowed and grep-errors-script are direct downstream branches for develop. block-cancel-order is a downstream branch of adjust-reads-prec, change-table is a downstream branch of block-cancel-order and so on.

Every branch name can be followed (after a single space as a delimiter) by a custom annotation, for example PR #234 rebase=no push=no, PR #235 rebase=no or push=no. These annotations might contain branch qualifiers (push=no, rebase=no, slide-out=no) that control the behavior of traverse (see help for traverse). Also see help for anno command.

Tabs or any number of spaces can be used as indentation. It’s only important to use indentation characters consistently between all lines.

github#

Usage:

git machete github <subcommand>

where <subcommand> is one of: anno-prs, checkout-prs, create-pr, retarget-pr, restack-pr or update-pr-descriptions.

Create, check out and manage GitHub PRs while keeping them reflected in branch layout file.

Note

See Git config keys below in case the target repository cannot be detected automatically (for example, in case of GitHub Enterprise).

Note

To allow GitHub API access for private repositories (and also to perform side-effecting actions like opening a PR, even in case of public repositories), a GitHub API token with repo scope is required, see settings/tokens. This will be resolved from the first of:

GITHUB_TOKEN env var,
content of the .github-token file in the home directory (~),
current auth token from the gh GitHub CLI,
current auth token from the hub GitHub CLI.

GitHub Enterprise domains are supported.

GITHUB_TOKEN is used indiscriminately for any domain, both github.com and Enterprise.

gh and hub have their own built-in support for Enterprise domains, which is honored by git-machete.

.github-token can have multiple per-domain entries in the format:

ghp_mytoken_for_github_com
ghp_myothertoken_for_git_example_org git.example.org
ghp_yetanothertoken_for_git_example_com git.example.com

Subcommands:

anno-prs [--with-urls]:

Annotate the branches based on their corresponding GitHub PR numbers and authors. Any existing annotations are overwritten for the branches that have an opened PR; annotations for the other branches remain untouched. Equivalent to git machete anno --sync-github-prs.

When the current user is not the author of the PR associated with that branch, adds rebase=no push=no branch qualifiers used by git machete traverse, so that you don’t rebase or push someone else’s PR by accident (see help for traverse).

Options:

--with-urls: Also include full PR URLs in the annotations (rather than just PR number).

checkout-prs [--all | --by=<github-login> | --mine | <PR-number-1> ... <PR-number-N>]:

Check out the head branch of the given pull requests (specified by numbers or by a flag), also traverse chain of pull requests upwards, adding branches one by one to git-machete and check them out locally. Once the specified pull requests are checked out locally, annotate local branches with corresponding pull request numbers. If only one PR has been checked out, then switch the local repository’s HEAD to its head branch.

Options:

--all: Checkout all open PRs.
--by=<github-login>: Checkout open PRs authored by the given GitHub user, where <github-login> is the GitHub account name.
--mine: Checkout open PRs for the current user associated with the GitHub token.

Parameters:

<PR-number-1> ... <PR-number-N> Pull request numbers to checkout.

create-pr [--draft] [--title=<title>] [-U|--update-related-descriptions] [-y|--yes]:

Create a PR for the current branch, using the upstream (parent) branch as the PR base. Once the PR is successfully created, annotate the current branch with the new PR’s number.

If .git/info/milestone file is present, its contents (a single number — milestone id) are used as milestone. If .git/info/reviewers file is present, its contents (one GitHub login per line) are used to set reviewers.

Unless --title is provided, the subject of the first unique commit of the branch is used as PR title. If .git/info/description or .github/pull_request_template.md template is present, its contents are used as PR description. Otherwise (or if machete.github.forceDescriptionFromCommitMessage is set), PR description is taken from message body of the first unique commit of the branch.

If the newly-created PR is stacked atop another PR, the actual PR description posted to GitHub will include a generated section (“intro”) listing the entire related chain of PRs. This section will be delimited with  and  comments in Markdown. If a PR template file exists and contains these comments already, the generated section will be placed between them; otherwise, it will be placed at the beginning.

Options:

--draft: Create the new PR as a draft.
--title=<title>: Set the PR title explicitly (the default is to use the first included commit’s message as the title).
-U, --update-related-descriptions: Update the generated sections (“intros”) of PR descriptions that list the upstream and/or downstream PRs. See help for git machete github update-pr-descriptions --related for details.
-y, --yes: Do not ask for confirmation whether to push the branch.

restack-pr [-U|--update-related-descriptions]:

Perform the following sequence of actions:

If the PR for the current branch is ready for review, it gets converted into a draft.
The PR is retargeted to its upstream (parent) branch, as in retarget-pr.
The branch is (force-)pushed into remote.
If the PR has been converted to draft in step 1, it’s reverted to ready for review state.

The drafting/undrafting is useful in case the GitHub repository has set up CODEOWNERS. Draft PRs don’t get code owners automatically added as reviewers.

Options:

-U, --update-related-descriptions: Update the generated sections (“intros”) of PR descriptions that list the upstream and/or downstream PRs. See help for git machete github update-pr-descriptions --related for details.

retarget-pr [-b|--branch=<branch>] [--ignore-if-missing] [-U|--update-related-descriptions]:

Set the base of the current (or specified) branch’s PR to upstream (parent) branch, as seen by git machete (see git machete show up).

If after changing the base the PR ends up stacked atop another PR, the PR description posted to GitHub will include a generated section (“intro”) listing the entire related chain of PRs.

This intro will be updated or removed accordingly with the subsequent runs of retarget-pr, even if the base branch is already up to date.

Options:

-b, --branch=<branch>: Specify the branch for which the associated PR base will be set to its upstream (parent) branch. The current branch is used if the option is absent.
--ignore-if-missing: Ignore errors and quietly terminate execution if there is no PR opened for current (or specified) branch.
-U, --update-related-descriptions: Update the generated sections (“intros”) of PR descriptions that list the upstream and/or downstream PRs. See help for git machete github update-pr-descriptions --related for details.

sync:

Deprecated. Use github checkout-prs --mine, delete-unmanaged and slide-out --removed-from-remote.

Synchronize with the remote repository:

check out open PRs for the current user associated with the GitHub token and also traverses the chain of pull requests upwards, adding branches one by one to git-machete and checks them out locally as well,
delete unmanaged branches,
delete untracked managed branches that have no downstream branch.

update-pr-descriptions [--all | --by=<github-login> | --mine | --related]:

Update the generated sections (“intros”) of PR descriptions that list the upstream and/or downstream PRs (depending on machete.github.prDescriptionIntroStyle git config key).

Options:

--all: Update PR descriptions for all PRs in the repository.
--by=<github-login>: Update PR descriptions for all PRs authored by the given GitHub user, where <github-login> is the GitHub account name.
--mine: Update PR descriptions for all PRs opened by the current user associated with the GitHub token.
--related: Update PR descriptions for all PRs both upstream and downstream of the PR for the current branch (the entire stack).

Git config keys:

machete.github.{domain,remote,organization,repository} (all subcommands):

GitHub API server URL will be inferred from git remote. You can alter the default behavior by setting the following git config keys:

GitHub Enterprise domain
E.g. git config machete.github.domain git.example.org

Remote name (as in git remote)
E.g. git config machete.github.remote origin

Organization and repository name
E.g. git config machete.github.organization VirtusLab; git config machete.github.repository git-machete

machete.github.annotateWithUrls (all subcommands):

The affected (sub)commands clearly include anno --sync-github-prs and github anno-prs, but also github checkout-prs, github create-pr, github retarget-pr and github restack-pr.

machete.github.forceDescriptionFromCommitMessage (create-pr only):

machete.github.prDescriptionIntroStyle (create-pr, restack-pr and retarget-pr):

Select the style of the generated section (“intro”) added to the PR description:

full — include both a chain of upstream PRs (typically leading to main, master, develop etc.) and a tree of downstream PRs
full-no-branches — same as full, but no branch names are included (only PR numbers & titles)
up-only — default, include only a chain of upstream PRs
up-only-no-branches — same as up-only, but no branch names are included (only PR numbers & titles)
none — prepend no intro to the PR description at all

Environment variables (all subcommands):

GITHUB_TOKEN: GitHub API token.

gitlab#

Usage:

git machete gitlab <subcommand>

where <subcommand> is one of: anno-mrs, checkout-mrs, create-mr, retarget-mr, restack-mr or update-mr-descriptions.

Create, check out and manage GitLab MRs while keeping them reflected in branch layout file.

Note

See Git config keys below in case the target project cannot be detected automatically (for example, in case of GitLab self-managed instance).

Note

To allow GitLab API access for private projects (and also to perform side-effecting actions like opening an MR, even in case of public projects), a GitLab API token with api scope is required, see -/user_settings/personal_access_tokens. This will be resolved from the first of:

GITLAB_TOKEN env var,
content of the .gitlab-token file in the home directory (~),
current auth token from the glab GitLab CLI.

Self-managed GitLab domains are supported.

GITLAB_TOKEN is used indiscriminately for any domain, both for gitlab.com and a self-managed instance.

glab has its own built-in support for non-gitlab.com domains, which is honored by git-machete.

.gitlab-token can have multiple per-domain entries in the format:

glpat-mytoken_for_gitlab_com
glpat-myothertoken_for_git_example_org git.example.org
glpat-yetanothertoken_for_git_example_com git.example.com

Subcommands:

anno-mrs [--with-urls]:

Annotate the branches based on their corresponding GitLab MR numbers and authors. Any existing annotations are overwritten for the branches that have an opened MR; annotations for the other branches remain untouched. Equivalent to git machete anno --sync-gitlab-mrs.

When the current user is not the author of the MR associated with that branch, adds rebase=no push=no branch qualifiers used by git machete traverse, so that you don’t rebase or push someone else’s MR by accident (see help for traverse).

Options:

--with-urls: Also include full MR URLs in the annotations (rather than just MR number).

checkout-mrs [--all | --by=<gitlab-login> | --mine | <MR-number-1> ... <MR-number-N>]:

Check out the source branch of the given merge requests (specified by numbers or by a flag), also traverse chain of merge requests upwards, adding branches one by one to git-machete and check them out locally. Once the specified merge requests are checked out locally, annotate local branches with corresponding merge request numbers. If only one MR has been checked out, then switch the local repository’s HEAD to its source branch.

Options:

--all: Checkout all open MRs.
--by=<gitlab-login>: Checkout open MRs authored by the given GitLab user, where <gitlab-login> is the GitLab account name.
--mine: Checkout open MRs for the current user associated with the GitLab token.

Parameters:

<MR-number-1> ... <MR-number-N> Merge request numbers to checkout.

create-mr [--draft] [--title=<title>] [-U|--update-related-descriptions] [-y|--yes]:

Create an MR for the current branch, using the upstream (parent) branch as the MR source branch. Once the MR is successfully created, annotate the current branch with the new MR’s number.

If .git/info/milestone file is present, its contents (a single number — milestone id) are used as milestone. Note that you need to use a global (not per-project) milestone id. Look for something like Milestone ID: 4489529 on milestone web page.

If .git/info/reviewers file is present, its contents (one GitLab login per line) are used to set reviewers.

Unless --title is provided, the subject of the first unique commit of the branch is used as MR title. If .git/info/description or .gitlab/merge_request_templates/Default.md template is present, its contents are used as MR description. Otherwise (or if machete.gitlab.forceDescriptionFromCommitMessage is set), MR description is taken from message body of the first unique commit of the branch.

If the newly-created MR is stacked atop another MR, the actual MR description posted to GitLab will include a generated section (“intro”) listing the entire related chain of MRs. This section will be delimited with  and  comments in Markdown. If an MR template file exists and contains these comments already, the generated section will be placed between them; otherwise, it will be placed at the beginning.

Options:

--draft: Create the new MR as a draft.
--title=<title>: Set the MR title explicitly (the default is to use the first included commit’s message as the title).
-U, --update-related-descriptions: Update the generated sections (“intros”) of MR descriptions that list the upstream and/or downstream MRs. See help for git machete gitlab update-mr-descriptions --related for details.
-y, --yes: Do not ask for confirmation whether to push the branch.

restack-mr [-U|--update-related-descriptions]:

Perform the following sequence of actions:

If the MR for the current branch is ready for review, it gets converted into a draft.
The MR is retargeted to its upstream (parent) branch, as in retarget-mr.
The branch is (force-)pushed into remote.
If the MR has been converted to draft in step 1, it’s reverted to ready for review state.

The drafting/undrafting is useful in case the GitLab project has set up code owners. Draft MRs don’t get code owners automatically added as reviewers.

Options:

-U, --update-related-descriptions: Update the generated sections (“intros”) of MR descriptions that list the upstream and/or downstream MRs. See help for git machete gitlab update-mr-descriptions --related for details.

retarget-mr [-b|--branch=<branch>] [--ignore-if-missing] [-U|--update-related-descriptions]:

Set the target of the current (or specified) branch’s MR to upstream (parent) branch, as seen by git machete (see git machete show up).

If after changing the base the MR ends up stacked atop another MR, the MR description posted to GitLab will include a generated section (“intro”) listing the entire related chain of MRs.

This intro will be updated or removed accordingly with the subsequent runs of retarget-mr, even if the target branch is already up to date.

Options:

-b, --branch=<branch>: Specify the branch for which the associated MR source branch will be set to its upstream (parent) branch. The current branch is used if the option is absent.
--ignore-if-missing: Ignore errors and quietly terminate execution if there is no MR opened for current (or specified) branch.
-U, --update-related-descriptions: Update the generated sections (“intros”) of MR descriptions that list the upstream and/or downstream MRs. See help for git machete gitlab update-mr-descriptions --related for details.

update-mr-descriptions [--all | --by=<gitlab-login> | --mine | --related]:

Update the generated sections (“intros”) of MR descriptions that list the upstream and/or downstream MRs (depending on machete.gitlab.mrDescriptionIntroStyle git config key).

Options:

--all: Update MR descriptions for all MRs in the project.
--by=<gitlab-login>: Update MR descriptions for all MRs authored by the given GitLab user, where <gitlab-login> is the GitLab account name.
--mine: Update MR descriptions for all MRs opened by the current user associated with the GitLab token.
--related: Update MR descriptions for all MRs both upstream and downstream of the MR for the current branch (the entire stack).

Git config keys:

machete.gitlab.{domain,remote,namespace,project} (all subcommands):

GitLab API server URL will be inferred from git remote. You can alter the default behavior by setting the following git config keys:

GitLab self-managed domain
E.g. git config machete.gitlab.domain git.example.org

Remote name (as in git remote)
E.g. git config machete.gitlab.remote origin

Namespace and project name
E.g. git config machete.gitlab.namespace foo/bar; git config machete.gitlab.project hello-world

machete.gitlab.annotateWithUrls (all subcommands):

The affected (sub)commands clearly include anno --sync-gitlab-mrs and gitlab anno-mrs, but also gitlab checkout-mrs, gitlab create-mr, gitlab retarget-mr and gitlab restack-mr.

machete.gitlab.forceDescriptionFromCommitMessage (create-mr only):

machete.gitlab.mrDescriptionIntroStyle (create-mr, restack-mr and retarget-mr):

Select the style of the generated section (“intro”) added to the MR description:

full — include both a chain of upstream MRs (typically leading to main, master, develop etc.) and a tree of downstream MRs
full-no-branches — same as full, but no branch names are included (only MR numbers & titles)
up-only — default, include only a chain of upstream MRs
up-only-no-branches — same as up-only, but no branch names are included (only MR numbers & titles)
none — prepend no intro to the MR description at all

Environment variables (all subcommands):

GITLAB_TOKEN: GitLab API token.

go#

Usage:

git machete g[o] [<direction>]

where <direction> is one of: d[own], f[irst], l[ast], n[ext], p[rev], r[oot], u[p]

If <direction> is not provided, an interactive mode is launched where you can navigate the branch tree using arrow keys and select a branch to check out.

Interactive mode controls:

↑/↓: Navigate up/down through branches
Shift+↑: Jump to the first branch
Shift+↓: Jump to the last branch
←: Jump to the parent branch of the currently selected branch
→: Jump to the first child branch of the currently selected branch
Enter or Space: Check out the selected branch
q or Ctrl+C: Quit without checking out

Note: Interactive mode is not supported on Windows yet.

If <direction> is provided, checks out the branch specified by the given direction relative to the current branch:

down: the direct children/downstream branch of the current branch.
first: the first downstream of the root branch of the current branch, or the root branch itself if the root has no downstream branches.
last: the last branch in the branch layout file that has the same root as the current branch; can be the root branch itself if the root has no downstream branches.
next: the direct successor of the current branch in the branch layout file.
prev: the direct predecessor of the current branch in the branch layout file.
root: the root of the tree where the current branch is located. Note: this will typically be something like develop or master, since all branches are usually meant to be ultimately merged to one of those.
up: the direct parent/upstream branch of the current branch.

This is roughly equivalent to git checkout $(git machete show <direction>).

help#

Usage:

git machete help [<command>]

Print a summary of this tool, or a detailed info on a command if provided.

hooks#

As with the standard git hooks, git machete looks for its own specific hooks in $GIT_DIR/hooks/* (or $(git config core.hooksPath)/*, if set). All hooks are executed from the top-level folder of the repository (or top-level folder of worktree/submodule, if applicable).

Note: hooks is not a command as such, just a help topic (there is no git machete hooks command).

Hooks:

machete-post-slide-out <new-upstream> <lowest-slid-out-branch> [<new-downstreams>...]

The hook that is executed after a branch (or possibly multiple branches, in case of slide-out) is slid out by advance, slide-out or traverse.

At least two parameters (branch names) are passed to the hook:

<new-upstream> is the upstream of the branch that has been slid out, or in case of multiple branches being slid out — the upstream of the highest slid out branch. When sliding out a root branch (a branch without an upstream), this parameter is an empty string;
<lowest-slid-out-branch> is the branch that has been slid out, or in case of multiple branches being slid out — the lowest slid out branch;
<new-downstreams> are all the following (possibly zero) parameters, which correspond to all original downstreams of <lowest-slid-out-branch>, now reattached as the downstreams of <new-upstream> (or becoming new root branches if <new-upstream> is empty).

Note that <new-downstreams> may be zero, one, or multiple branches.

Note: the hook, if present, is executed:

zero or once during a advance execution (depending on whether the slide-out has been confirmed or not),
exactly once during a slide-out execution (even if multiple branches are slid out),
zero or more times during traverse (every time a slide-out operation is confirmed).

If the hook returns a non-zero exit code, then an error is raised and the execution of the command is aborted — slide-out won’t attempt rebase of the new downstream branches and traverse won’t continue the traversal. In case of advance there is no difference (other than exit code of the entire advance command being non-zero), since slide-out is the last operation that happens within advance.

Note that non-zero exit code of the hook doesn’t cancel the effects of slide-out itself, only the subsequent operations. The hook is executed only once the slide-out is complete and can in fact rely on .git/machete file being updated to the new branch layout.

machete-pre-rebase <new-base> <fork-point-hash> <branch-being-rebased>

The hook that is executed before rebase is run during reapply, slide-out, traverse and update. Note that it is not executed by squash (despite its similarity to reapply), since no rebase is involved in squash.

The parameters are exactly the three revisions that are passed to git rebase --onto:

what is going to be the new base for the rebased commits,
what is the fork point — the place where the rebased history diverges from the upstream history,
what branch is rebased.

If the hook returns a non-zero exit code, an error is raised and the entire rebase is aborted.

Note: this hook is independent from git’s standard pre-rebase hook. If machete-pre-rebase returns zero, the execution flow continues to git rebase, which may also run pre-rebase hook if present. machete-pre-rebase is thus always launched before pre-rebase.

machete-status-branch <branch-name>

The hook that is executed for each branch displayed during discover, status and traverse.

The standard output of this hook is displayed at the end of the line, after branch name, (optionally) custom annotation and (optionally) remote sync-ness status. Standard error is ignored. If the hook returns a non-zero exit code, both stdout and stderr are ignored, and printing the status continues as usual.

Note: the hook is always invoked with ASCII_ONLY variable passed into the environment. If status runs in ASCII-only mode (if --color=auto and stdout is not a terminal, or if --color=never), then ASCII_ONLY=true, otherwise ASCII_ONLY=false.

Please see hook_samples directory in git-machete project for examples. An example of using the standard git post-commit hook to git machete add branches automatically is also included.

is-managed#

Usage:

git machete is-managed [<branch>]

Return with zero exit code if the given branch (or current branch, if none specified) is managed by git machete (that is, listed in .git/machete).

Return with a non-zero exit code in case:

the <branch> is provided but isn’t managed (or doesn’t exist), or
the <branch> isn’t provided and the current branch isn’t managed, or
the <branch> isn’t provided and there’s no current branch (detached HEAD).

list#

Usage:

git machete list <category>

where <category> is one of: addable, childless, managed, slidable, slidable-after <branch>, unmanaged, with-overridden-fork-point.

List all branches that fall into one of the specified categories:

addable: all branches (local or remote) than can be added to the branch layout file,
childless: all managed branches that do not possess child branches,
managed: all branches that appear in the branch layout file,
slidable: branches that can be slid out with slide-out command; currently just equivalent to managed
slidable-after <branch>: the downstream branch of the <branch>, if it exists and is the only downstream of <branch> (and thus can be slid out immediately following <branch>),
unmanaged: all local branches that don’t appear in the branch layout file,
with-overridden-fork-point: all local branches that have a fork point override set up (even if this override does not affect the location of their fork point anymore)

This command is generally not meant for a day-to-day use, it’s mostly needed for the sake of branch name completion in shell.

log#

Usage:

git machete l[og] [<branch>] [-- <pass-through-arguments>]

Run git log for the range of commits from tip of the given branch (or current branch, if none specified) back to its fork point. See help for fork-point for more details on meaning of the fork point.

Note: the branch in question does not need to occur in the branch layout file.

Options:

– <pass-through-arguments> Arguments to pass directly to the underlying git log, for example git machete log -- --patch.

reapply#

Usage:

git machete reapply [-f|--fork-point=<fork-point-commit>]

Interactively rebase the current branch on the top of its computed fork point. The chunk of the history to be rebased starts at the automatically computed fork point of the current branch by default, but can also be set explicitly by --fork-point. See help for fork-point for more details on meaning of the fork point.

Note: the current reapplied branch does not need to occur in the branch layout file.

Tip: reapply can be used for squashing the commits on the current branch to make history more condensed before push to the remote, but there is also dedicated squash command that achieves the same goal without running git rebase.

Options:

-f, --fork-point=<fork-point-commit>: Specifies the alternative fork point commit after which the rebased part of history is meant to start.

Environment variables:

GIT_MACHETE_REBASE_OPTS: Extra options to pass to the underlying git rebase invocations, space-separated. Example: GIT_MACHETE_REBASE_OPTS="--keep-empty --rebase-merges" git machete <command>.

show#

Usage:

git machete show <direction> [<branch>]

where <direction> is one of: c[urrent], d[own], f[irst], l[ast], n[ext], p[rev], r[oot], u[p] displayed relative to given <branch>, or the current checked out branch if <branch> is unspecified.

Print name of the branch (or possibly multiple branches, in case of down) that is:

current: the current branch; exits with a non-zero status if none (detached HEAD)
down: the direct children/downstream branch of the given branch.
first: the first downstream of the root branch of the given branch (like root followed by next), or the root branch itself if the root has no downstream branches.
last: the last branch in the branch layout file that has the same root as the given branch; can be the root branch itself if the root has no downstream branches.
next: the direct successor of the given branch in the branch layout file.
prev: the direct predecessor of the given branch in the branch layout file.
root: the root of the tree where the given branch is located. Note: this will typically be something like develop or master, since all branches are usually meant to be ultimately merged to one of those.
up: the direct parent/upstream branch of the given branch.

slide-out#

Usage:

git machete slide-out --removed-from-remote [--delete]
git machete slide-out [-d|--down-fork-point=<down-fork-point-commit>] [--delete]
                      [-M|--merge] [-n|--no-edit-merge|--no-interactive-rebase]
                      [--no-rebase]
                      [<branch> [<branch> [<branch> ...]]]

Remove the given branch (or multiple branches) from the branch layout. If no branch has been specified, current branch is slid out. If --removed-from-remote is specified, all branches that have been removed from the remote and do not have a child branch are slid out instead.

Also, if the last branch in the specified chain of [<branch> [<branch>]] had any children, these children are synced to the parent of the first specified branch. Sync is performed either by rebase (default) or by merge (if --merge option passed).

For example, let’s assume the following dependency tree:

develop
    adjust-reads-prec
        block-cancel-order
            change-table
                drop-location-type
            add-notification

After running git machete slide-out adjust-reads-prec block-cancel-order the tree will be reduced to:

develop
    change-table
        drop-location-type
    add-notification

and change-table and add-notification will be rebased onto develop (fork point for this rebase is configurable, see -d option below).

The most common use is to slide out a single branch whose upstream was a develop/master branch and that has been recently merged.

The provided branches must form a chain — for i=1..N-1, (i+1)-th branch must be the only downstream (child) branch of the i-th branch.

Root branches (branches without an upstream) can also be slid out. When a root branch is slid out, its children become new root branches, and no rebase or merge is performed (since there is no upstream to rebase/merge onto).

Note: Unless --delete is passed, slide-out doesn’t delete any branches from git, just removes them from the tree of branch dependencies.

Note: if a child branch is annotated with rebase=no qualifier, the rebase is not performed. See help for traverse for more details on the qualifiers.

Options:

-d, --down-fork-point=<down-fork-point-commit>

If updating by rebase, specify the alternative fork point for downstream branches for the operation. git machete fork-point overrides for downstream branches are recommended over use of this option. See also doc for --fork-point option in git machete help reapply and git machete help update. Not allowed if updating by merge.

--delete

Delete the branches after sliding them out.

-M, --merge

Update the downstream branch by merge rather than by rebase.

-n

If updating by rebase, equivalent to --no-interactive-rebase. If updating by merge, equivalent to --no-edit-merge.

--no-edit-merge

If updating by merge, skip opening the editor for merge commit message while doing git merge (that is, pass --no-edit flag to the underlying git merge). Not allowed if updating by rebase.

--no-interactive-rebase

If updating by rebase, run git rebase in non-interactive mode (without -i/--interactive flag). Not allowed if updating by merge.

--no-rebase

Skip rebase/merge of downstream branches after sliding out. Only remove the branches from the branch layout without syncing their children to the new upstream.

--removed-from-remote

Slide out managed branches whose remote tracking branches have been deleted and that have no downstreams. In other words, this deletes all branches except:

those that are unmanaged,
those that have no remote tracking branch set (unpushed),
those whose remote tracking branches still exist (not deleted remotely),
those that have at least one downstream (child) branch.

Environment variables:

GIT_MACHETE_REBASE_OPTS: Extra options to pass to the underlying git rebase invocations, space-separated. Example: GIT_MACHETE_REBASE_OPTS="--keep-empty --rebase-merges" git machete <command>.

squash#

Usage:

git machete squash [-f|--fork-point=<fork-point-commit>]

Squash the commits belonging uniquely to the current branch into a single commit. The chunk of the history to be squashed starts at the automatically computed fork point of the current branch by default, but can also be set explicitly by --fork-point. See help for fork-point for more details on meaning of the fork point. The message for the resulting commit is taken from the earliest squashed commit (the commit directly following the fork point).

To simply squash the most recent N commits, use --fork-point=HEAD~<N>, for example git machete squash --fork-point=HEAD~3.

Note: squash does not run git rebase under the hood. For more complex scenarios that require rewriting the history of current branch, see reapply and update.

Options:

-f, --fork-point=<fork-point-commit>: Specify the alternative fork point commit after which the squashed part of history is meant to start.

status#

Usage:

git machete s[tatus] [--color=WHEN]
                     [-l|--list-commits] [-L|--list-commits-with-hashes]
                     [--squash-merge-detection=MODE]

Display a tree-shaped status of the branches listed in the branch layout file.

Apart from simply ASCII-formatting the branch layout file, this also:

colors the edges between upstream (parent) and downstream (children) branches:
- red edge means not in sync. The downstream branch is not a direct descendant of the upstream branch.
- yellow edge means in sync but fork point off. The downstream branch is a direct descendant of the upstream branch, but the fork point of the downstream branch is not equal to the upstream branch.
- green edge means in sync. The downstream branch is a direct descendant of the upstream branch and the fork point of the downstream branch is equal to the upstream branch.
- gray/dimmed edge means merged. The downstream branch has been merged to the upstream branch, detected by commit equivalency (default), or by strict detection of merge commits (if --no-detect-squash-merges passed).
prints (untracked/ahead of <remote>/behind <remote>/diverged from [& older than] <remote>) message if the branch is not in sync with its remote counterpart;
displays the custom annotations (see help for format and anno) next to each branch, if present. Annotations might contain underlined branch qualifiers (push=no, rebase=no, slide-out=no) that control rebase and push behavior of traverse (see help for traverse);
displays the output of machete-status-branch hook (see help for hooks), if present;
optionally lists commits introduced on each branch if -l/--list-commits or -L/--list-commits-with-hashes is supplied.

Name of the currently checked-out branch is underlined (or shown in blue on terminals that don’t support underline).

In case of yellow edge, use -l or -L flag to show the exact location of the inferred fork point (which indicates, among other things, what range of commits is going to be rebased when the branch is updated). The inferred fork point can be always overridden manually, see help for fork-point.

Gray/dimmed edge suggests that the downstream branch can be slid out (see help for slide-out and traverse).

Use of colors can be disabled with a --color flag set to never. With --color=always, git machete always emits colors. With --color=auto (the default), it emits colors only when standard output is connected to a terminal. When colors are disabled, relation between branches is represented in the following way (not including the hash-comments):

<branch0>
|
o-<branch1> *   # green (in sync with parent; asterisk for the current branch)
| |
| x-<branch2>   # red (not in sync with parent)
|   |
|   ?-<branch3> # yellow (in sync with parent, but parent is not the fork point)
|
m-<branch4>     # gray (merged to parent)

For example, by default the status is displayed as:

develop
│
├─feature_branch1
│
└─feature_branch2

With machete.status.extraSpaceBeforeBranchName config set to true:

develop
│
├─ feature_branch1
│
└─ feature_branch2

Options:

--color=WHEN: Colorize the output; WHEN can be always, auto (default: colorize only if stdout is a terminal), or never.
-l, --list-commits: Additionally list the commits introduced on each branch.
-L, --list-commits-with-hashes: Additionally list the short hashes and messages of commits introduced on each branch.
--no-detect-squash-merges: Deprecated, use --squash-merge-detection=none instead. Only consider strict (fast-forward or 2-parent) merges, rather than rebase/squash merges, when detecting if a branch is merged into its upstream (parent).
--squash-merge-detection=MODE: Specify the mode for detection of rebase/squash merges (gray edges). MODE can be none (fastest, no squash merges are detected), simple (default) or exact (slowest). See the below paragraph on machete.squashMergeDetection git config key for more details.

Git config keys:

machete.squashMergeDetection:

Select the algorithm used to detect squash merges. Possible values are:

none: Fastest mode, with no squash merge/rebase detection. Only strict (fast-forward or 2-parent) merges are detected.
simple (default): Compares the tree (files & directories in the commit) of the downstream branch with the trees of the upstream branch. This detects squash merges/rebases as long as there exists a squash/rebase commit in the upstream that has the identical tree to what’s in the downstream branch.
exact: Compares the patch (diff introduced by the commits) of the downstream branch with the patches of the upstream branch. This detects squash merges in more cases than simple mode. However, it might have a significant performance impact on large repositories as it requires computing patches for commits in the upstream branch.

This has an impact on:

whether a gray edge is displayed in status,
whether traverse suggests to slide out the branch.

machete.status.extraSpaceBeforeBranchName:

traverse#

Usage:

git machete t[raverse] [-F|--fetch] [-l|--list-commits] [-M|--merge]
                       [-n|--no-edit-merge|--no-interactive-rebase] [--[no-]push] [--[no-]push-untracked]
                       [--return-to=WHERE] [--squash-merge-detection=MODE] [--start-from=WHERE] [--stop-after=BRANCH]
                       [-H|--sync-github-prs|-L|--sync-gitlab-mrs]
                       [-w|--whole] [-W] [-y|--yes]

Walk the branches in the order as they occur in branch layout file. By default, traverse starts from the current branch. This behavior can, however, be customized using options: --start-from=..., --whole (-w) or -W.

For each branch, the command performs the following actions:

Sync to parent

detects if the branch is merged (gray edge) to its parent (aka upstream):
- if so, asks the user whether to slide out the branch from the dependency tree (typically branches are no longer needed after they’re merged);
otherwise, if the branch has a red or yellow edge to its parent/upstream (see help for status):
- asks the user whether to rebase (default) or merge (if --merge passed) the branch onto into its upstream branch — equivalent to git machete update;

Sync to remote

if the branch is not tracked on a remote, is ahead of its remote counterpart, or diverged from the counterpart & has newer head commit than the counterpart:
- asks the user whether to push the branch (possibly with --force-with-lease if the branches diverged);
otherwise, if the branch diverged from the remote counterpart & has older head commit than the counterpart:
- asks the user whether to reset (git reset --keep) the branch to its remote counterpart — note that rebase/merge isn’t suggested in that case;
otherwise, if the branch is behind its remote counterpart:
- asks the user whether to pull the branch — note that rebase/merge isn’t suggested in that case;

Sync to GitHub/GitLab

if -H/--sync-github-prs or -L/--sync-gitlab-mrs option is present:
- asks the user whether to create a PR/MR for the given branch if it doesn’t exist yet,
- asks the user whether to retarget the PR/MR if it exists for the given branch, and its base/target branch in GitHub/GitLab is different than the upstream in machete file (just as git machete github retarget-pr and git machete gitlab retarget-mr would do);

Status

finally, if any of the above operations has been successfully completed:
- prints the updated status.

If the traverse flow is stopped (typically due to merge/rebase conflicts), just run git machete traverse after the merge/rebase is finished. It will pick up the walk from the current branch. Unlike with git rebase or git cherry-pick, there is no special --continue flag, as traverse is stateless. traverse does not keep a state of its own like git rebase does in .git/rebase-apply/.

The rebase, push and slide-out behaviors of traverse can also be customized for each branch separately using branch qualifiers. There are push=no, rebase=no and slide-out=no qualifiers that can be used to opt out of default behavior (rebasing, pushing and sliding the branch out). The qualifier can appear anywhere in the annotation, but needs to be separated by a whitespace from any other character, as in: some_annotation_text rebase=no push=no slide-out=no. Qualifiers can only be overwritten by manually editing .git/machete file or modifying it with git machete e[dit], or by updating annotations with git machete anno. Example machete file with branch qualifiers:

master
  develop  rebase=no slide-out=no
    my-branch  PR #123
    someone-elses-branch  PR #124 rebase=no push=no
    branch-for-local-experiments  push=no

Operations like git machete github anno-prs (git machete gitlab anno-mrs) and git machete github checkout-prs (git machete gitlab checkout-mrs) add rebase=no push=no branch qualifiers when the current user is not the author of the PR/MR associated with that branch.

Note on git worktrees: if a branch is already checked out in another worktree, traverse will change directory to that worktree rather than failing. If a branch is not checked out in any worktree, by default traverse will change directory to the main worktree before checking out the branch. This behavior can be customized using machete.traverse.whenBranchNotCheckedOutInAnyWorktree git config key (see below).

Options:

-F, --fetch: Fetch the remotes of all managed branches at the beginning of traversal (no git pull involved, only git fetch).
-H, --sync-github-prs: Create a PR for each branch if it doesn’t exist yet. Retarget the PR if it exists and its base branch in GitHub is different than the upstream in machete file.
-L, --sync-gitlab-mrs: Create an MR for each branch if it doesn’t exist yet. Retarget the MR if it exists and its target branch in GitLab is different than the upstream in machete file.
-l, --list-commits: When printing the status, additionally list the messages of commits introduced on each branch.
-M, --merge: Update by merge rather than by rebase.
-n: If updating by rebase, equivalent to --no-interactive-rebase. If updating by merge, equivalent to --no-edit-merge.
--no-detect-squash-merges: Deprecated, use --squash-merge-detection=none instead. Only consider strict (fast-forward or 2-parent) merges, rather than rebase/squash merges, when detecting if a branch is merged into its upstream (parent).
--no-edit-merge: If updating by merge, skip opening the editor for merge commit message while doing git merge (that is, pass --no-edit flag to the underlying git merge). Not allowed if updating by rebase.
--no-interactive-rebase: If updating by rebase, run git rebase in non-interactive mode (without -i/--interactive flag). Not allowed if updating by merge.
--no-push: Do not push any (neither tracked nor untracked) branches to remote, re-enable via --push.
--no-push-untracked: Do not push untracked branches to remote, re-enable via --push-untracked.
--push: Push all (both tracked and untracked) branches to remote — default behavior. Default behavior can be changed by setting git configuration key git config machete.traverse.push false. Configuration key value can be overridden by the presence of the flag.
--push-untracked: Push untracked branches to remote.
--return-to=WHERE: Specify the branch to return after traversal is successfully completed; WHERE can be here (the current branch at the moment when traversal starts), nearest-remaining (nearest remaining branch in case the here branch has been slid out by the traversal) or stay (the default — just stay wherever the traversal stops). Values are case-insensitive. Note: when user quits by q/yq or when traversal is stopped because one of git actions fails, the behavior is always stay.
--squash-merge-detection=MODE: Specify the mode for detection of rebase/squash merges (gray edges). MODE can be none (fastest, no squash merges are detected), simple (default) or exact (slowest). See the below paragraph on machete.squashMergeDetection git config key for more details.
--start-from=WHERE: Specify the branch to start the traversal from; WHERE can be here (the default — current branch, must be managed by git machete), root (root branch of the current branch, as in git machete show root), first-root (first listed managed branch), or any branch name. Special values are case-insensitive. If a branch name conflicts with a special value (for example, a branch named root), the actual branch takes priority.
--stop-after=BRANCH: Stop the traversal after processing the specified branch. The traversal will perform all operations (rebase, push, PR/MR creation) for the specified branch and then stop, rather than continue to the subsequent branches.
-w, --whole: Equivalent to -n --start-from=first-root --return-to=nearest-remaining; useful for quickly traversing & syncing all branches (rather than doing more fine-grained operations on the local section of the branch tree).
-W: Equivalent to --fetch --whole; useful for even more automated traversal of all branches.
-y, --yes: Don’t ask for any interactive input, including confirmation of rebase/push/pull. Implies -n.

Git config keys:

machete.squashMergeDetection:

Select the algorithm used to detect squash merges. Possible values are:

none: Fastest mode, with no squash merge/rebase detection. Only strict (fast-forward or 2-parent) merges are detected.
simple (default): Compares the tree (files & directories in the commit) of the downstream branch with the trees of the upstream branch. This detects squash merges/rebases as long as there exists a squash/rebase commit in the upstream that has the identical tree to what’s in the downstream branch.
exact: Compares the patch (diff introduced by the commits) of the downstream branch with the patches of the upstream branch. This detects squash merges in more cases than simple mode. However, it might have a significant performance impact on large repositories as it requires computing patches for commits in the upstream branch.

This has an impact on:

whether a gray edge is displayed in status,
whether traverse suggests to slide out the branch.

machete.traverse.fetch.<remote>:

machete.traverse.push:

machete.traverse.whenBranchNotCheckedOutInAnyWorktree:

Controls the behavior of git machete traverse when it needs to act on a branch that is not currently checked out in any worktree.

Allowed values:

cd-into-main-worktree (default): change directory to the main worktree and check out the branch there.
stay-in-the-current-worktree: check out the branch in whichever worktree traverse is currently operating in, without changing directory. Note that this worktree might differ from the one where traverse originally started.
cd-into-temporary-worktree: create a new worktree in a temporary directory, check out the branch there, and remove this temporary worktree once traverse moves on to the next branch (or finishes). This ensures that no existing (non-temporary) worktree has its checked-out branch changed by traverse.

Environment variables:

GIT_MACHETE_REBASE_OPTS: Extra options to pass to the underlying git rebase invocations, space-separated. Example: GIT_MACHETE_REBASE_OPTS="--keep-empty --rebase-merges" git machete <command>.

update#

Usage:

git machete update [-f|--fork-point=<fork-point-commit>] [-M|--merge] [-n|--no-edit-merge|--no-interactive-rebase]

Synchronize the current branch with its upstream (parent) branch either by rebase (default) or by merge (if --merge option passed).

If updating by rebase, interactively rebases the current branch on the top of its upstream (parent) branch. The chunk of the history to be rebased starts at the fork point of the current branch, which by default is inferred automatically, but can also be set explicitly by --fork-point. See help for fork-point for more details.

If updating by merge, merges the upstream (parent) branch into the current branch.

Options:

-f, --fork-point=<fork-point-commit>: If updating by rebase, specifies the alternative fork point commit after which the rebased part of history is meant to start. Not allowed if updating by merge.
-M, --merge: Update by merge rather than by rebase.
-n: If updating by rebase, equivalent to --no-interactive-rebase. If updating by merge, equivalent to --no-edit-merge.
--no-edit-merge: If updating by merge, skip opening the editor for merge commit message while doing git merge (that is, pass --no-edit flag to underlying git merge). Not allowed if updating by rebase.
--no-interactive-rebase: If updating by rebase, run git rebase in non-interactive mode (without -i/--interactive flag). Not allowed if updating by merge.

Environment variables:

GIT_MACHETE_REBASE_OPTS: Extra options to pass to the underlying git rebase invocations, space-separated. Example: GIT_MACHETE_REBASE_OPTS="--keep-empty --rebase-merges" git machete <command>.

version#

Usage:

git machete version

Print the version and exit.

git-machete

Contents

git-machete#

Learning Materials#

General options#

Commands & help topics#

add#

advance#

anno#

config#

clean#

completion#

delete-unmanaged#

diff#

discover#

edit#

file#

fork-point#

format#

github#

gitlab#

go#

help#

hooks#

is-managed#

list#

log#

reapply#

show#

slide-out#

squash#

status#

traverse#

update#

version#