Beyond Git aliases: git clone + cd

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When a Git alias doesn’t provide enough scripting powers, here’s a clean way to go beyond them.

This is a little technique I cobbled together trying to clone a GitHub repo and cd into the created directory in a single go, but couldn’t find an easy way using a Git alias alone.

The first step is optional. For a clean approach, create an alias to hook into later. In your global Git config:

[alias]
  c = clone

To cd into the latest modified directory we’ll create a little function. This is useful on its own so let’s store it separately:

Terminal window
cdl() {
  cd "$(ls -dt */ | head -n 1)"
}

Now to bring it all together, add this function somewhere in the .bash_profile (or what have you):

Terminal window
function git() {
  if [ $1 = "c" ];
  then
    local url="$2";
    [[ "$url" =~ ^[^:]+/.+$ ]] && url="[email protected]:${url}.git"
    command git clone "$url" "${@:3}" && cdl
  else
    command git $@
  fi
}

This only affects git c and leaves everything else alone, including git clone.

From now on, git c webpro/venz will clone the repository and cd into it right away. Any valid Git URL will still work as expected.