Asterisk in zsh Git info

Question

I use my terminal to run stuff like npm run start while I use the terminal in VSCode for git commands. On my laptop, this worked perfectly, however after setting up zsh on my other device, there's something I've never noticed:

On my terminal: ~/Desktop/... | master *1 On VSCode's terminal: ~/Desktop/... | master *2

What do the numbers after master mean? This has caused me to pointlessly debug for 1 hour after releasing, if I do npm run start on my terminal, any changes on VSCode does not hot reload and apply the change. On the other hand, if I run npm run start in VSCode, it works normally.

It seems as though each shell is working on a different version of the current branch. Any idea what the asterisks mean? Thanks!

Selfgratification

Answer 1

Depending on your prompt theme (I use powerlevel10k), this could indicate how many slots you have used in the stash. You can check this with:

git stash list

and if necessary remove them with

git stash clear

Horseshoe

The stash is usually represented by $. – Glasgo

It depends on your terminal, I use powerlevel10x which represents stash as * this may be useful for others. – Horseshoe

P10k is not a terminal. It's a prompt theme for your shell. – Glasgo

I'm leaving this answer here as it may help others, if you disagree please vote to close it – Horseshoe

My last comment was not about disagreeing, but about your incorrect usage of terminology. You are right that the symbols mean something different in Powerlevel10k. I've now added a note about that to my answer. – Glasgo

As for me I'm expecting stashed when I see asterisks (I do not know why. Someone trained me). But I know If something is stashed, then a '$' will be shown next to the branch name. Also sometimes git stash list returns nothing for powerlevel but git stash clear cleans asterisks from the prompt. – Micromho

@MarlonRichert yes that's a fair point, noted for future ref. – Horseshoe

Thank you so much, Neil! Those asterisks with numbers have been driving me INSANE! – Moratorium

Answer 2

I came across this exact same issue, *1 in my case was "stashed" changes I kept. Removing the using GitKraken delete stash, worked.

Centralia