Several companies are using Github as a source repository solution. Many teams have adopted a great workflow that involves opening a pull request when a feature is complete. Using Github to code review a new feature or fix is awesome . Anything that promotes more communication and review of ones code is awesome.

The process goes something like this:

• Start a new feature branch
• Implement feature within the branch
• Push the branch to Github
• View completed branch within Github
• Open pull request for new branch

Reviewing the steps I noted the primary tools used to accomplish them:

• (terminal,git) - Start a new feature branch
• (terminal,editor) - Implement feature within the branch
• (terminal,git) - Push the branch to Github
• (browser) - View completed branch within Github
• (browser) - Open pull request for new branch

What stood out to me was how the final stages of this process stood out. It was then that I sought to remedy that.

With the help of the hub and a little bash I created a single command to allow me to perform a pull request from the command-line.

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function pull-request {
  hub pull-request -h $(__github_remote_origin):$(__github_current_branch)
}

function __github_current_branch {
  echo "$1`git branch --no-color 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/\1/'`"
}

function __github_remote_origin {
  echo "$1`git remote -v | grep "(push)" | sed "s#origin.*:\([^/]*\).*push.*#\1#"`"
}

Hub’s pull-request command by itself was great when I was working within my own projects but failed to generate the correct pull request targets when I was working on a project that belonged to an organization.

This small change allows me to combine the last two steps of the workflow into a single step as well as bring it more in-line with the other tools in the entire process.

Installation

Install hub from brew.

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brew install hub

Open your .bash_profile or .bashrc and add the following lines:

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function pull-request {
  hub pull-request -h $(__github_remote_origin):$(__github_current_branch)
}

function __github_current_branch {
  echo "$1`git branch --no-color 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/\1/'`"
}

function __github_remote_origin {
  echo "$1`git remote -v | grep "(push)" | sed "s#origin.*:\([^/]*\).*push.*#\1#"`"
}

Save and exit. Run the source command to use your updated bash commands.

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source

Running the pull-request command should launch your GIT_EDITOR or EDITOR to compose the pull request message.