Creating Local Repositories with Linear History - Git Recipes - page 66

Type the contents of Listing 3-4 at the end of the [alias] section in your .git-
config file, save the file, and close the editor.
Listing 3-4. Alias git snapshot
[alias]
snapshot = "!snapshot() {
COMMENT=wip;
if [ \"$*\" ]; then
COMMENT=\"$*\";
fi;
git add -A;
git commit -m \"$COMMENT\";
}; snapshot"
How It Works
Similar to Recipe 2-10, the alias was split with newlines. Remember that newlines are
here only to make the alias easier to read—you must type the alias as one long line in
your .gitconfig file.
The alias uses the shell function snapshot that after parsing of .gitconfig be-
comes:
snapshot() {
COMMENT=wip;
if [ "$*" ]; then
COMMENT="$*";
fi;
git add -A;
git commit -m "$COMMENT";
}
The instruction:
COMMENT=wip;