Hi programmers,

I work from two computers: a desktop and laptop. I often interrupt my work on one computer and continue on the other, where I don’t have access to uncommitted progress on the first computer. Frustrating!

Potential solution: using git to auto save progress.

I’m posting this to get feedback. Maybe I’m missing something and this is over complicated?

Here is how it could work:

Creating and managing the separate branch

Alias git commands (such as git checkout), such that I am always on a branch called “[branch]-autosave” where [branch] is the branch I intend to be on, and the autosave branch always branches from it. If the branch doesn’t exist, it is always created.

handling commits

Whenever I commit, the auto save branch would be squashed and merged with the underlying branch.

autosave functionality

I use neovim as my editor, but this could work for other editors.

I will write an editor hook that will always pull the latest from the autosave branch before opening a file.

Another hook will always commit and push to origin upon the file being saved from the editor.

This way, when I get on any of my devices, it will sync the changes pushed from the other device automatically.

Please share your thoughts.

  • actually@lemmy.world
    1·
    20 days ago

    I once used a virtual desktop in the cloud, and I could access that from anywhere. It was just a regular OS that had all my tools, and it was where my work was done changes. Ultimately, that remote desktop went away when I changed jobs. But, it would be something I would think about again for me.

    There is a danger of things going poof, or not being accessible. It cannot be helped at all. But a push to a backup repo during each commit, would allow an emergency restore. Doing a snapshot every few days of the machine, for example if its on AWS or other, helps lessen the loss when and if it goes poof.

    To solve the issue of the internet going out, have one of your local computers do a regular pull as a cron job of the backup repo