In Project Dispatch Menu with Org Mode Metadata, Denote, and Transient I wrote about using my Denote 📖 notes, written in Org-Mode 📖, to house metadata related to my project.
The tools been working quite well. I now have a means of grouping like paths, either Uniform Resource Locators (URLs 📖) or local file paths. And in that grouping file, I can add additional metadata. In essence, I have built up a rich bookmark system that overlays my note taking ecosystem.
The dynamism is useful because I also segment my notes. On my work machine I have one set of notes. On my personal machine I have another. But both machines use the same Emacs 📖 configuration.
, I decided to build on this ecosystem to dynamically populate the magit-repository-directories variable.
The magit-repository-directories Variable
The magit-repository-directories variable provides the list of directories to show in the magit-list-repositories buffer.
See the Repository List (Magit User Manual).
In brief, the magit-list-repositories shows an overview of the Git 📖 metadata for each of the repositories in the magit-repository-directories list. The metadata, which is customizable, includes the following:
- Version (e.g. Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA 📖) or tag)
- Summary of working directory’s status
- Current branch
- Number of commits behind the remote branch
- Number of commits ahead of the remote branch
From that overview, I can open the magit-status buffer to work on that repository.
What I like about the magit-list-repositories function is that it gives me an overview of what all I might be working on. And a convenient means of quickly moving through those projects.
Dynamically Populating magit-list-repositories
(defvar jf/git-project-paths
'(("~/git/takeonrules.source/" . 1)
("~/git/burning_wheel_lifepaths/" . 1)
("~/git/dotzshrc/" . 1)
("~/git/dotemacs/" . 1)
("~/git/emacs-bookmarks/" . 1)
("~/git/org" . 1)
("~/git/takeonrules.source/themes/hugo-tufte" . 1))
"A list of `con' cells where the `car' is the name of a directory
and the `cdr' is a ranking. I have pre-populated this list with
repositories that are generally available on both machines.")
(defun jf/git-project-paths/dynamic ()
"Return a list of code repository paths."
(split-string-and-unquote
(s-trim-right
(shell-command-to-string
(concat
"rg \"^#\\+PROJECT_PATHS: +[^\\.]+\\. +\\\"(~/git/[^/]+/)\\\"\\)\" "
"~/git/org --no-ignore-vcs --replace='$1' "
"--only-matching --no-filename")))
"\n"))
(dolist (path (jf/git-project-paths/dynamic))
(add-to-list 'jf/git-project-paths (cons path 1)))
(setq magit-repository-directories jf/git-project-paths)
With the above Emacs Lisp (elisp 📖), I add the repositories that I consider part of my machine’s various project work-spaces. And from there, I can easily get a summary overview of my code.