Lazygit: A simple terminal UI for Git commands

One of the largest pieces of feedback I've had is around displaying the actual git commands that lazygit runs so now there's a new panel that does exactly that, displayed by default. I find that works well for demystifying what's going on and can actually help educate on which commands can satisfy which use cases. It's also kept me accountable in that if I try to satisfy some use case in a sneaky, smart way, it results in a scary looking series of git commands, so I've scaled back some of the 'magical' stuff that was going on for the sake of user confidence.

I may be in between the GUI and CLI camps. I actually use git via a TUI (text user interface) by using vim to either read from or write to git commands.

I can stage hunks by yanking the diff header (excluding the line that starts with @@) and pasting it above the hunk I want to stage and then filtering the hunk through:

    :' !git apply --cached -

If I want to unstage it, I can press u to restore the hunk I just filtered and then run

    :' !git apply -R --cached -

I can commit from within vim by reading the verbose status output by running:

    :r !git status -v

typing my commit message at the top and filtering it through

    :' !git commit -F -

> Does any GUI offer `-p` in `git commit` and `git stash`? I literally use it 10s times per day, can't live without it once I started using it.

In addition to what I wrote above using git apply --cached, I can actually edit hunks from within vim and then filter the hunk (with the diff header) through the recountdiff utility that comes with patchutils. That basically updates the numbers in the line that starts with @@ to account for the changes in the number of added and removed lines introduced by the edit. This way, I can stage my changes and still exclude extraneous changes or debug statements I've added to the code.

I've actually found this to be a better experience compared to using the -p option.

I've been a huge fan of lazygit. You can even do side-by-side diffing if you combine it with the "delta" pager.

For me, it feels really similar to "gitx", which was mac only and stopped being maintained. Having it just be in my terminal is a bonus.

I tried (just like I tried a whole bunch of other things). I get this both in `cmd` and in `ConEmu` on Windows 10 Pro-64 bit (Version 10.0.19043.1387). After the crash, all the enhanced console functionality is gone.

    panic: '%' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

    goroutine 39 [running]:
    github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/commands.(*BranchListBuilder).obtainBranches(0xc00039bef0, 0x1367340, 0x10000, 0x0)
    /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/pkg/commands/loading_branches.go:43 +0x693
    github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/commands.(*BranchListBuilder).Build(0xc0000dbef0, 0x11315f7, 0xc0000a4690, 0x1326e87)
    /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/pkg/commands/loading_branches.go:103 +0x52
    github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/gui.(*Gui).refreshBranches(0xc0000b8000)
    /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/pkg/gui/branches_panel.go:69 +0xc6
    github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/gui.(*Gui).refreshReflogCommitsConsideringStartup.func1()
    /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/pkg/gui/commits_panel.go:69 +0x45
    github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/utils.Safe.func1(0xb35af5, 0xc000055da0)
    /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/pkg/utils/utils.go:95 +0x2b
    github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/utils.SafeWithError(0xc00039bfb8, 0x0, 0x0)
    /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/pkg/utils/utils.go:106 +0x67
    github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/utils.Safe(0xc00008aa40)
    /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/pkg/utils/utils.go:95 +0x50
    created by github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/gui.(*Gui).refreshReflogCommitsConsideringStartup
    /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/pkg/gui/commits_panel.go:67 +0xa9

Before the crash, the UI is drawn reaaaaallyyy slowly (my cmd window is 170 characters wide -- maybe that's why)

In any case, I prefer to stick with the command-line.

I use both, though I only use fugitive for "git blame" and I use Lazygit for log browsing and partial staging. With me, it's just what tool will stick, fugitive might be great but I just don't stick with it.

Same with editors, I really want to like VS Code but in the end I just open vim by default again.