List only local branches when autocompleting git checkout (Zsh)

git-zsh-checkout-autocomplete-local-only.md

git config --global alias.checkoutr checkout
$EDITOR /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/git-completion.bash

...and then modify the file as follows...

-__gitcomp_nl "$(__git_refs '' $track)"
+if [ "$command" = "checkoutr" ]; then
+    __gitcomp_nl "$(__git_refs '' $track)"
+else
+    __gitcomp_nl "$(__git_heads '' $track)"
+fi

... and source your shell (source ~/.bashrc / source ~/.zshrc...).

Use git checkoutr for the default behavior and git checkout (or just gco) for browsing only local branches. Credits to http://cmetcalfe.ca/blog/git-checkout-autocomplete-local-branches-only.html.

You just saved me from hundreds of tiny frustrations :)

@aok1425 @mmrko thanks a million. Got here through Google.

yeah, this is great. i had to do additional machinery to store the original $command to get checkoutr to work; i think the git repo's source might necessitate that now.

/usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/git-completion.bash works for me.

macOS, zsh in brew + oh-my-zsh

---

update in M1

/opt/homebrew/share/zsh/site-functions/git-completion.bash

I'm encountering one issue, I can't make checkoutr working. For some reason when any alias is used for checkout the $command parameter is always checkout but not checkoutr or any other alias. I'm using bash on Windows. Did anybody encounter it? To test I'm using the same snippet with echos:

        if [ "$command" = "rcheckout" ]; then
            echo "rcheckout!"
            __git_complete_refs $track_opt            
        else
            echo "checkout!"
            __gitcomp_nl "$(__git_heads '' $track)"
        fi

@zihotki I just encountered the same issue. I'm just using normal Mac bash aliases and my solution was just to create a copy of _git_checkout that will be called from my remote checkout alias.

I've added the amended _git_checkout () function in my .zshrc file, but the function doesn't work unless I manually source for every new terminal session.

I assume this is because the git plugin is loaded after the redeclaration, is there a way around this? Currently, I've amended the git-completion.bash file manually.

In hopes that it could save another person some time debugging, I just wanted to say I found that I needed to install git from homebrew, and then the autocompletion worked perfectly out of the box with macos Mojave and oh-my-zsh. The system git that comes with developer tools had otherwise worked well for me, I never realized that I was even using it versus git from brew. But for the autocompletion of local branches only to work, I found I needed git from brew.

To get this working on zsh, you might need to get https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/contrib/completion/git-completion.zsh, follow the instructions in the comments to setup a link to git-completion.bash, then edit the latter file according to the instructions above

Note that the $track variable has now been renamed to $dwim

For new version of git(2.30.1):

1. modify file /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/git-completion.bash: copy shell function _git_checkout to _git_checkoutr, then change _git_checkout function below:

if [ -n "$(__git_find_on_cmdline "-b -B -d --detach --orphan")" ]; then
-			__git_complete_refs --mode="refs"
+			__git_complete_refs --mode="heads"
		elif [ -n "$(__git_find_on_cmdline "--track")" ]; then
			__git_complete_refs --mode="remote-heads"
		else
-			__git_complete_refs $dwim_opt --mode="refs"
+			__git_complete_refs $dwim_opt --mode="heads"
		fi

2. add GIT_COMPLETION_CHECKOUT_NO_GUESS=1 to .zshrc/.bash_profile
3. git config --global alias.checkoutr checkout

@luoluoluolin Any ideas how to get this to work for git 2.35? I am running in zsh, made these changes, and it is still pulling remote branches in autocomplete.

@luoluoluolin Any ideas how to get this to work for git 2.35? I am running in zsh, made these changes, and it is still pulling remote branches in autocomplete.

I've just followed the steps above and confirmed it works with git version 2.35.1

@anthonycvella you must have enabled plugin gitfast otherwise it doesn't work. It took me a while to figure it out.

@KarelCemus Hmm I don't have this plugin enabled.

I have the following enabled: plugins=(git keychain gpg-agent)

@anthonycvella I didn't have it enabled either. My point is when I did enable gitfast it magically started to work; although there is not much magic, I've read the scripts so IMO this plugin must be enabled in order to have this working. Can you try to enable gitfast and check if this gist works for you?

@luoluoluolin It not works for me in dwim mode. I think $dwim_opt is not necessary if only want to get local branches?

                else
-                       __git_complete_refs $dwim_opt --mode="refs"
+                       __git_complete_refs --mode="heads"
                fi

or run

git config --global --type=bool checkout.guess false

git config --global --type=bool checkout.guess false

That does the trick, thanks!

I finally figured this out for anyone wondering. I had to change the implementation defined within the gitfast plugin directory.

For me this was located here:
~/.oh-my-zsh/plugins/gitfast/git-completion.bash

Changes that work

The suggestion by @ekoneko to remove $dwim_opt

                else
-                       __git_complete_refs $dwim_opt --mode="refs"
+                       __git_complete_refs --mode="heads"
                fi

Changes that do not work

Note you do NOT need to set checkout.guess = false in your .gitconfig. I found by doing so, it actually broke the ability to use git checkout for local search and git checkoutr for remote search.