Better Git Branch output

better-git-branch.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Colors
RED='\033[0;31m'
GREEN='\033[0;32m'
NO_COLOR='\033[0m'
BLUE='\033[0;34m'
YELLOW='\033[0;33m'
NO_COLOR='\033[0m'

width1=5
width2=6
width3=30
width4=20
width5=40

# Function to count commits
count_commits() {
    local branch="$1"
    local base_branch="$2"
    local ahead_behind

    ahead_behind=$(git rev-list --left-right --count "$base_branch"..."$branch")
    echo "$ahead_behind"
}

# Main script
main_branch=$(git rev-parse HEAD)

printf "${GREEN}%-${width1}s ${RED}%-${width2}s ${BLUE}%-${width3}s ${YELLOW}%-${width4}s ${NO_COLOR}%-${width5}s\n" "Ahead" "Behind" "Branch" "Last Commit"  " "

# Separator line for clarity
printf "${GREEN}%-${width1}s ${RED}%-${width2}s ${BLUE}%-${width3}s ${YELLOW}%-${width4}s ${NO_COLOR}%-${width5}s\n" "-----" "------" "------------------------------" "-------------------" " "


format_string="%(objectname:short)@%(refname:short)@%(committerdate:relative)"
IFS=$'\n'

for branchdata in $(git for-each-ref --sort=-authordate --format="$format_string" refs/heads/ --no-merged); do
    sha=$(echo "$branchdata" | cut -d '@' -f1)
    branch=$(echo "$branchdata" | cut -d '@' -f2)
    time=$(echo "$branchdata" | cut -d '@' -f3)
    if [ "$branch" != "$main_branch" ]; then
            # Get branch description
            description=$(git config branch."$branch".description)
            
            # Count commits ahead and behind
            ahead_behind=$(count_commits "$sha" "$main_branch")
            ahead=$(echo "$ahead_behind" | cut -f2)
            behind=$(echo "$ahead_behind" | cut -f1)
            
            # Display branch info
	    printf "${GREEN}%-${width1}s ${RED}%-${width2}s ${BLUE}%-${width3}s ${YELLOW}%-${width4}s ${NO_COLOR}%-${width5}s\n" $ahead $behind $branch "$time" "$description"
    fi
done

One liner that works with git version 2.34.1 on Linux (bash, zsh), MacOS (bash, zsh), Windows (git bash, powershell inside of Windows Terminal):

git for-each-ref --color --sort=-committerdate --format='%(color: bold magenta)%(align:60,left)%(refname:short)%(color:bold red) %(upstream:track,nobracket)%(end)%(color:nobold yellow)%(align:58,left)%(committerdate:format:%Y-%d-%m %H:%M) (%(committerdate:relative), %(committerdate:format:%A %d))%(end)%(color:green)%(align:24,left)%(authorname)%(end)%(color:green)%(align:64,left)%(contents:lines=1)%(end)' refs/heads/ --count 16

It looks a little different. It shows your current branch too and sorts by most recent commit first:

It also prints gone near branch when upstream branch is unknown/gone. On Windows may output strange characters and random guids, in current shell session type powershell/bash again and all should be fine. If you modify it and wonder why alignment seems smaller than numbers say, try piping to | cat -v and you will see ANSI color escape sequences, they count too.

Adjust --count 16 to print more/less branches.