GIT, Powershell, and Windows 8.1

This weekend I opted to upgrade(depending on your opinion) my laptop to Windows 8.1. Now that I have lost all credibility, I can move on to talk about my experience with using GIT on Windows 8.1, and the issue I had with my PowerShell profile script.

Like many users, I have a profile script set up in PowerShell so that when I open it, my main code directory is the working directory, and I also have a custom prompt set up to tell me the current folder’s GIT status. I wish I could give credit where it is due on this script, but unfortunately I don’t know who wrote the original, original version. It was passed to me by my coworkers and I’ve made some changes/fixes to it to fit my environment.

As you can see in the image on the left, my PowerShell prompt shows the current branch, master, the current directory, and the status of my local copy (c = created, u = updated, d = deleted). When I moved to Windows 8.1 (with PowerShell 4.0), the script naturally stopped working properly. So, as a help to anyone out there that also uses this type of script and is making the jump, here’s a working version for Windows 8.1, which also works on Windows 7 (PowerShell 2.0+). You have to place it in the following location and it should be named this way for it to work properly:

DRIVE:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\WindowsPowershell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

You can verify this location on your machine by typing “$profile” into PowerShell.

Here’s the script. Make sure you replace my working path with your own:

Set-Location D:\Development\Git\Private\RWPCode
	
function prompt {
    Write-Host("")
    $status_string = ""
    $symbolicref = git symbolic-ref HEAD
    if($symbolicref -ne $NULL) {
        $status_string += "GIT [" + $symbolicref.substring($symbolicref.LastIndexOf("/") +1) + "] "

        $differences = (git diff-index --name-status HEAD)
        $differences = if ($differences -eq $null) { "" } else { $differences }
				
        $git_update_count = 0
        $differences -match "M`t" | Out-Null
		
        if($matches -ne $null) {		
            $git_update_count = $matches.count
            $matches.clear()
        }
		
        $git_create_count = 0
        $differences -match "A`t" | Out-Null
		
        if($matches -ne $null) {
            $git_create_count = $matches.count
            $matches.clear()
        }
		
        $git_delete_count = 0
        $differences -match "D`t" | Out-Null
        if($matches -ne $null) {
            $git_delete_count = $matches.count
            $matches.clear()
        }

        $status_string += "(c:" + $git_create_count + " u:" + $git_update_count + " d:" + $git_delete_count + ") "
    }
    else {
        $status_string = "PS "
    }

    if ($status_string.StartsWith("GIT")) {
        Write-Host ($status_string + $(get-location) + ">") -nonewline -foregroundcolor yellow
    }
    else {
        Write-Host ($status_string + $(get-location) + ">") -nonewline -foregroundcolor white
    }
    return " "
 }

In order to run this, you must first run the following command in PowerShell as an administrator, which will allow you to run unsigned scripts:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

There’s more information about signed/unsigned PowerShell scripts here.

Any suggestions for improvement? Hit me up in the comments.