Even better (IMHO!) is `git config branch.sort -committerdate` (note the `-`). This will sort newest committer date first.

  ```
  [rebase]
      instructionFormat = %s%nexec GIT_COMMITTER_DATE=\"%cI\" GIT_COMMITTER_NAME=\"%cN\" GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL=\"%cE\" git commit --amend --no-edit%n
      committerDateIsAuthorDate = true
  ```

FYI/fwiw Fish shell autocompletes branches sorted by last commit date when writing out git commands. It also provides completions for commitish objects grouped by class, giving precedence to the usual targets first, with each group sorted by its own sort key. Handy!

Huge fan of `git recent` [0] for this purpose.

[0] - https://github.com/paulirish/git-recent

The best upgrade to these kinds of git branch scripts is piping them to fzf. I’ve been using this fbr one from the fzf repo. https://github.com/jbranchaud/dotfiles/blob/main/zshrc.local...

I have been using the `git lb` alias suggested by https://ses4j.github.io/2020/04/01/git-alias-recent-branches... (post written April 1st but not a joke) and quite enjoying it. Shows me the last 10 branches I worked on (very easy to edit the alias definition to get more or fewer than 10), sorted by date, most recent first. It's been handy in all sorts of situations, especially because one of our internal libraries needs a bugfix or a new feature every 3 months or so. So every time I cd into that repo, I have no clue what I did last, but `git lb` tells me right away.

Our team's `git branch` output is a graveyard. Sorting by last commit would be a godsend for quickly identifying active work and stale branches.

There's a bunch of these good ideas here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43169435

I rarely care about the date of the commit on the branch to determine recency, I care about when I last switched to the branch.

This comment gets it correct https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49504860

I wrote my own version to do this nearly 10 years ago: https://github.com/amarshall/git-recent-branches

I have been using something like this for 10+ years by this point - still wonder why it is not default or easier to do than a custom gitconfig/alias hack. :P

I love this little fzf bash function that I wrote a few years ago: https://gist.github.com/thomasaarholt/141df779f3f16b641701b4...

It opens a fuzzy finder window showing the branches you have in the repo, sorted by recency. Also shows the latest committer and the date. Hit enter on the one you want to swap to it.

I wonder about the "modern" git part. Here is how to do it in 2013: https://stackoverflow.com/a/10693888/2361979

I made a lovely little TUI for this, with Charm (https://charm.sh)

https://github.com/tyre/recent-branches

Enjoy!

    gi() {
        git branch --sort=-committerdate |\
         grep -v '^\*' | cut -d' ' -f3 | fzf |\
         xargs git checkout
    }

How many branches would you need to have to make this worthwhile?

Sometimes I’m amazed anyone is willing to live without a git ui. The graph structure git uses is just such a natural fit for visual processing, plus the default git ux is borderline user-hostile until you master it.

What’s also funny is that early in my career I could tell other engineers looked down on me for using a git UI, perhaps assuming I was too stupid to use the terminal. I suspect that this mindset propagates git use to the next generation.

When I get worried about my skill set or career going away from LLMs, I get hit with a post like this with huge traction describing something I’ve already found and solved for myself. It makes me realize: I’m probably ok for a while because of all these experiences and knowledge, and I’m quite shit at communicating something that’s obviously valuable to others.

This was one of the better usability changes I made to git, yes you should probably set it for yourself

Such a small quality of life improvement. My `git branch` output is a graveyard sometimes, this would be handy.

TIL Git can do this without a shell script. I’ve been manually sorting through branches like an idiot

I have to make a confession. I've been using different version control system for the last 25 years, but everytime I'm doing anything more complicated than basic commit/push I feel absolutely overwhelmed and terrified that I'm about to break something.

Nice. Will help solve some mysteries on older projects.

yep, i have a little helper in my zshrc for this sort of thing:

alias git-hot-refs="git branch --sort=committerdate | tail"

nice. I made myself pretty much the same command couple years ago but called it 'latestbranches'.

Another useful one if you have a large number of tags and want to see the most recently created ones first:

    git config --global tag.sort -creatordate

(`-creatordate` reverses the sort so that the newest come first.)

Let's sort git branches by quality, better branches towards the top, slop at the bottom.