Last Updated: October 25, 2017

Git branch fuzzy search checkout

If you have a ton of ongoing branches, it can be nice to have a fuzzy search to assist you when you are switching branches.

I have extended an example from the phenomenal fzf project that strips the remote/origin part from the branch name, so you may checkout new, local branches.

Install fzf (brew install fzf on mac, if you have homebrew)
Add this function to your shell, e.g. in .bash_profile:

fbr() {
 git fetch
 local branches branch
 branches=$(git branch -a) &&
 branch=$(echo "$branches" | fzf +s +m -e) &&
 git checkout $(echo "$branch" | sed "s:.* remotes/origin/::" | sed "s:.* ::")
}

You can of course name it anything, I chose fbr for "fuzzy branch".

Demo

Picture

#shell

#utility

#git