Is there a way to have a commit per day and per file automatically in git?

Question

I use git-auto-commit-mode (https://github.com/ryuslash/git-auto-commit-mode) in Emacs to preserve my files automatically sync with my repo.

However, I got a massive list of commits per day (the package makes a commit in every save). At the end of the day I finish with something like this

Sat Feb 4 12:57:14 2023 fileA.txt
Sat Feb 4 12:56:52 2023 fileA.txt
Sat Feb 4 12:55:57 2023 fileA.txt
--------- Different file --------
Sat Feb 4 12:54:47 2023 fileB.txt
Sat Feb 4 12:45:04 2023 fileB.txt
Sat Feb 4 12:45:04 2023 fileB.txt
Sat Feb 4 12:44:51 2023 fileB.txt
--------- Different day ---------
Fri Feb 3 14:44:27 2023 fileA.txt
Fri Feb 3 14:44:05 2023 fileA.txt
Fri Feb 3 14:41:35 2023 fileA.txt
--------- Different file --------
Fri Feb 3 14:40:54 2023 fileB.txt
Fri Feb 3 14:40:17 2023 fileB.txt
Fri Feb 3 14:39:14 2023 fileB.txt

I would like to have a cleaner history like this

Sat Feb 4 12:57:14 2023 fileA.txt
Sat Feb 4 12:54:47 2023 fileB.txt
Fri Feb 3 14:44:27 2023 fileA.txt
Fri Feb 3 14:40:54 2023 fileB.txt

Where I preserve the last commit day per day and per file.

I can do this using git rebase manually, but I couldn't figure it out how to do it automatically for the whole history, taking account deletions and renames.

Thanks for any help.

Automating this might be slightly harder if it's possible for multiple files to be edited in a single commit. — TTT, Feb 05 '23 at 01:13

Maikol Solís · Answer 1 · 2023-02-13T22:13:15.157

Thanks to VonC (https://stackoverflow.com/a/75349092/7529776) I have a partial solution to the problem

After loading git-auto-commit-mode you can do this

(defun my-commit-message (file)
  (interactive)
  (let ((current-day (format-time-string "%Y-%m-%d"))
        (previous-day (file-name-nondirectory (shell-command-to-string "git log -n 1 --pretty=format:'%as' HEAD")))
        (current-file (file-name-nondirectory file))
        (previous-file (file-name-nondirectory (shell-command-to-string "git log -n 1 --pretty=format:'%s' HEAD"))))
    (if (and (string= current-file previous-file)
             (string= current-day previous-day))
        (concat "squash! "  (gac-relative-file-name file))
      (gac-relative-file-name file))))

(setq gac-default-message #'my-commit-message)

and then you can run

git -c sequence.editor=: rebase --autosquash --interactive origin/main

Or use magit's rebase with the autosquash flag.

The problem remaining is this method only modifies the history from the present, but not in the past.

Edit: I added a new version of my-commit-message where it checks if the day also has changed.

Great, well done! Adding `squash!` should help indeed. – VonC Feb 10 '23 at 18:26 — VonC, Feb 10 '23 at 18:26

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 04 '23 at 23:33

If you can add a prefix to the commit messages of git-auto-commit-mode, then you can get:

squash!Sat Feb 4 12:57:14 2023 fileA.txt
squash!Sat Feb 4 12:56:52 2023 fileA.txt
Sat Feb 4 12:55:57 2023 fileA.txt
--------- Different file --------
squash!Sat Feb 4 12:54:47 2023 fileB.txt
squash!Sat Feb 4 12:45:04 2023 fileB.txt
squash!Sat Feb 4 12:45:04 2023 fileB.txt
Sat Feb 4 12:44:51 2023 fileB.txt

That means your defun my-commit-message must check if the commit right before the new one is:

for the same file (add a squash! prefix) or
for a different file (don't add the prefix)

Then a git -c sequence.editor=: rebase --autosquash --interactive origin/main would be enough to automatically squash your history as you want it.

Thanks. I could craft a partial solution to the problem. I'll write it as a possible answer. — Maikol Solís, Feb 10 '23 at 18:18

Is there a way to have a commit per day and per file automatically in git?

2 Answers2