gitShowBranchParser

Parse output of git show-branch command into JS object.

Show-branch prints a unique tabular format that indicates which recent are present in all of your branches. This output has been optimized for reading on the command line, and does not adapt well if you want to display this information on a web page, or use it in an application. git-show-branch-parser will parse the output into a more usable javascript object.

Usage

Install

npm install git-show-branch-parser

Require

var showBranchParser = require('git-show-branch-parser');

Parse!

showBranchParser('path/to/show-branch/output.txt', function (err, obj) {
    console.log(JSON.stringify(obj, null, 4));
});

Or use promises:

This function returns an RSVP promise.

var sbpPromise = showBranchParser('path/to/show-branch/output.txt');
sbpPromise.then(function (obj) {
    console.log(JSON.stringify(obj, null, 4));
}).catch(function (err) {
    console.assert(false, err);
});

Object Structure:

The git show-branch output is parsed into an object of the following form:

{
    branches: [
        {
            label: '...',
            latestCommit: '...'
        },
        ...
    ],
    commits: [
        {
            label: '...',
            commitMessage: '...',
            branches: // order mimics that of the branches array above
                [
                    boolean, // true if commit is in corresponding branch
                    boolean, // true if commit is in corresponding branch
                    ...
                ]
        },
        ...
    ]
}

Details

For details about how to use git show-branch, refer to the documentation: https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-show-branch.html

Suppose that we have three branches used in our build/release cycle: master, release, and develop. Before creating a release, it would be useful to see which commits are in develop, but not in the release branch. Similarly, before pushing the release to master, it would be useful to document which commits are going to me merged from master into release.

The command git show-branch is very useful for this. By running git show-branch origin/master, origin/release, origin/develop, we will get the following example output:

! [origin/master] update calendars on MICIS > REPORTS tab so that the sql queries will include the day specified.  This updates Billing Reports, Subject Enrollment, URSI Stats
 ! [origin/release] update asmt ref to develop from autoq
  ! [origin/develop] update asmt ref to develop from autoq
---
  + [12679ba] update asmt ref to develop from autoq
  - [36eb3f4] Merge pull request #90 from MRN-Code/auto_queue
 ++ [caf7e93] update asmt checksum.  Also, ORDER study list by study names, update wording in a message to user for readability, and remove extra onPageLoad function that was not being called, but if so, would create errors
 ++ [e5073e4] update error message function names
 ++ [cf62f75] added check for loginid on subj details
--- [fc5b144] Merge branch 'auto_queue' of github.com:MRN-Code/micis into auto_queue

The above output indicates that the first two commits are only present in origin/develop. The next three commits are present in both origin/develop, and orign/release, and the last commit is present in all three branches.

By writing the output from git show-branch, we can later parse it into a JavaScript object using this utility:

var showBranchParser = require('git-show-branch-parser');
showBranchParser('path/to/show-branch/output.txt', function (err, obj) {
    console.log(JSON.stringify(obj, null, 4));
});

The above code will print the following:

{
    "branches": [
        {
            "label": "origin/master",
            "latestCommit": "update calendars on MICIS > REPORTS tab so that the sql queries will include the day specified.  This updates Billing Reports, Subject Enrollment, URSI Stats"
        },
        {
            "label": "origin/release",
            "latestCommit": "update asmt ref to develop from autoq"
        },
        {
            "label": "origin/develop",
            "latestCommit": "update asmt ref to develop from autoq"
        }
    ],
    "commits": [
        {
            "label": "12679ba",
            "commitMessage": "update asmt ref to develop from autoq",
            "branches": [
                false,
                true,
                true
            ]
        },
        {
            "label": "36eb3f4",
            "commitMessage": "Merge pull request #90 from MRN-Code/auto_queue",
            "branches": [
                false,
                true,
                true
            ]
        },
        {
            "label": "caf7e93",
            "commitMessage": "update asmt checksum.  Also, ORDER study list by study names, update wording in a message to user for readability, and remove extra onPageLoad function that was not being called, but if so, would create errors",
            "branches": [
                false,
                true,
                true
            ]
        },
        {
            "label": "e5073e4",
            "commitMessage": "update error message function names",
            "branches": [
                false,
                true,
                true
            ]
        },
        {
            "label": "cf62f75",
            "commitMessage": "added check for loginid on subj details",
            "branches": [
                false,
                true,
                true
            ]
        },
        {
            "label": "fc5b144",
            "commitMessage": "Merge branch 'auto_queue' of github.com:MRN-Code/micis into auto_queue",
            "branches": [
                false,
                true,
                true
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Contributing

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint your code using Grunt.

TODO

1. Add unit testing
2. Differentiate between merge and normal commits