Enhancing the Git Command Prompt on Mac

When you check out a branch in a terminal while working on the Git command line, the default command prompt will only display the current working directory information:

1. You can enhance the Git command prompt to display the current branch name and modifications to a branch (indicated by a trailing plus +), by following these steps.

2. Download the following scripts from the Git source code repository located at: https://github.com/git/git/tree/master/contrib/completion

   • git-completion script specific to your terminal. Most users will select git-completion.bash

   • git-prompt.sh

3. Place both of the downloaded files into the root of your home directory. On my Mac, that is /Users/maryadmin

4. Copy the following commands into your ~/.bash_profile file (NOTE: replace /home/USERNAME with /Users/<yourusername>)

   # Define a variable for the script file
   export GIT_COMPLETION_PATH="/home/USER_NAME/git-completion.bash"
   # Display the current branch in the prompt and mark with an '*' if files have been modified since the _checkout_ command.
   
   source ~/git-prompt.sh
   
   if [ -f "$GIT_COMPLETION_PATH" ]; then
     GIT_PS1_SHOWDIRTYSTATE=true
     . "$GIT_COMPLETION_PATH"
     ADD_PS1='$(__git_ps1)'
   fi
   if [[ ${EUID} == 0 ]] ; then
     PS1="\[\033[01;31m\]\h\[\033[01;34m\] \w\[\033[33m\]$ADD_PS1\[\033[34m\] \$\[\033[00m\] "
   else
     PS1="\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[01;34m\] \w\[\033[33m\]$ADD_PS1\[\033[34m\] \$\[\033[00m\] "
   fi

5. When you navigate to the repository on your file system, your prompt should now contain the branch name in parenthesis along with a plus symbol to indicate if any files have changed: