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  22 <table border="1" summary="Navigation links" class="header" width="100%"><tr><td>
  23         <a href="index.html" id="top"><img src="git-logo.png" width="72" height="27" alt="Git"
  24                 style="border-width:0px;"/></a>
  25         <span class="hide">:</span>
  26         <span class="menu">
  27                 <a href="index.html">Home</a> |
  28                 <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/">Documentation</a> |
  29                 <a href="http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitFaq">FAQ</a> |
  30                 <a href="http://git.or.cz/gitwiki">Wiki</a> |
  31                 <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/">Download Site</a> |
  32                 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/git/?p=git/git.git;a=summary">Git's Gitweb</a>
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  34 </td></tr></table>
  35
  36 <h1>Git - Fast Version Control System</h1>
  37
  38 <p>Git is an open source version control system
  39 designed to handle very large projects with speed and efficiency;
  40 it is especially popular in the open source community,
  41 serving as a development platform for projects like
  42 the Linux Kernel, WINE or X.org.</p>
  43
  44 <p>Git falls in the category of distributed source code management tools,
  45 similar to e.g. Mercurial or Bazaar.
  46 Every Git working directory is a full-fledged repository with complete history
  47 and full revision tracking capabilities, not dependent on network access
  48 or a central server. Still, Git stays extremely fast and space efficient.</p>
  49
  50 <p>Git is an <a href="http://www.opensource.org/">Open Source</a> project covered by
  51 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl2.txt">GNU General Public License v2</a>.
  52 It was originally written by Linus Torvalds and is currently maintained by
  53 Junio C Hamano.</p>
  54
  55
  56
  57
  58 <div style="float: right"><table class="releases">
  59         <tr class="odd" align="center"><td colspan="3"><b>Download GIT source package</b> <!--@DATE@-->[2008-04-08]</td></tr>
  60         <tr align="center"><td colspan="3">The latest stable Git release is <b><!--@VNUM@-->v1.5.5</b>:</td></tr>
  61         <tr align="center"><td colspan="3">
  62                 <table><tr><td>
  63                 <!--@TARLINK@--><a href="http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.5.5.tar.bz2">tar.bz2</a>
  64                 <!--@TARLINK@--><a href="http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.5.5.tar.bz2.sign">(sign)</a>
  65                 </td><td>
  66                 <!--@TARLINK@--><a href="http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.5.5.tar.gz">tar.gz</a>
  67                 <!--@TARLINK@--><a href="http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.5.5.tar.gz.sign">(sign)</a>
  68                 </td></tr></table>
  69         </td></tr>
  70         <tr class="odd" align="center">
  71                 <td><!--@NOTESLINK@--><a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/RelNotes-1.5.5.txt">Release notes</a></td>
  72                 <td><a href="http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/">More versions</a></td>
  73                 <td><a href="http://repo.or.cz/w/git.git/">Browse history/code</a></td>
  74         </tr>
  75 </table></div>
  76
  77
  78 <hr />
  79
  80 <ul class="toc">
  81         <li><a href="#about">About Git</a></li>
  82         <li><a href="#documentation">Git Documentation</a></li>
  83         <li><a href="#download">Getting Git</a></li>
  84         <li><a href="#tools">Related Tools</a></li>
  85         <li><a href="#community">Community and Development</a></li>
  86 </ul>
  87
  88
  89 <hr />
  90
  91 <h2 id="about">About Git</h2>
  92
  93 <div style="float: right">
  94 <table class="releases">
  95         <tr><th><a href="course/index.html">Git Crash Courses</a></th></tr>
  96         <tr><td align="center">
  97         <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/tutorial.html">Git for everyone</a>
  98         <!--
  99         <br /><a href="course/new.html">New to revision control?</a>
 100         -->
 101         <br /><a href="course/stgit.html">Maintaining external patches</a>
 102         <br /><a href="course/svn.html">Git for SVN users</a>
 103         <!-- <br /><em>More to come soon...</em> -->
 104         </td></tr>
 105 </table>
 106 </div>
 107
 108 <p>Git is distributed version control system focused on
 109 speed, effectivity and real-world usability on large projects.
 110 Its highlights include:</p>
 111
 112 <!-- Heavily inspired by Wikipedia -->
 113
 114 <ul>
 115
 116 <li>
 117 <b>Distributed development.</b>
 118 Like most other modern version control systems, Git gives each developer
 119 a local copy of the entire development history,
 120 and changes are copied from one such repository to another.
 121 These changes are imported as additional development branches,
 122 and can be merged in the same way as a locally developed branch.
 123 Repositories can be easily accessed via the efficient Git protocol
 124 (optionally wrapped in ssh for authentication and security)
 125 or simply using HTTP - you can publish your repository anywhere
 126 without <em>any</em> special webserver configuration required.
 127 </li>
 128
 129 <li>
 130 <b>Strong support for non-linear development.</b>
 131 Git supports rapid and convenient branching and merging,
 132 and includes powerful tools for visualizing
 133 and navigating a non-linear development history.
 134 </li>
 135
 136 <li>
 137 <b>Efficient handling of large projects.</b>
 138 Git is very fast and scales well
 139 even when working with large projects and long histories.
 140 It is commonly an order of magnitude faster
 141 than most other version control systems,
 142 and several orders of magnitude faster on some operations.
 143 It also uses an extremely efficient packed format
 144 for long-term revision storage
 145 that currently tops any other open source version control system.
 146 </li>
 147
 148 <li>
 149 <b>Cryptographic authentication of history.</b>
 150 The Git history is stored in such a way
 151 that the name of a particular revision (a "commit" in Git terms)
 152 depends upon the complete development history leading up to that commit.
 153 Once it is published, it is not possible to change the old versions
 154 without it being noticed. Also, tags can be cryptographically signed.
 155 </li>
 156
 157 <li>
 158 <b>Toolkit design.</b>
 159 Following the Unix tradition,
 160 Git is a collection of many small tools written in C,
 161 and a number of scripts that provide convenient wrappers.
 162 Git provides tools for both convenient human usage and easy
 163 scripting to perform new clever operations.
 164 </li>
 165
 166 </ul>
 167
 168 <p>Besides providing a version control system,
 169 the Git project provides a generic low-level toolkit
 170 for tree history storage and directory content management.
 171 Traditionally, the toolkit is called the <em>plumbing</em>.
 172 Aside the user interface coming with Git itself,
 173 several other projects (so-called <em>porcelains</em>)
 174 offer compatible version control interfaces - see the
 175 <a href="#tools">related tools</a> list.</p>
 176
 177 <p>Some other projects have taken the concepts from the Git project
 178 and are either porting an existing toolset to use the Git tools,
 179 or reimplementing the concepts internally,
 180 to benefit from the performance improvements.
 181 This includes e.g.
 182 <a href="http://wiki.darcs.net/DarcsWiki/DarcsGit">Darcs-git</a>.</p>
 183
 184
 185 <hr />
 186
 187 <h2 id="documentation">Git Documentation</h2>
 188
 189 <p>You can find all the documentation bundled with the Git source code
 190 in the <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/"><code>Documentation/</code></a> subdirectory
 191 (the web version corresponds to the latest Git development version).</p>
 192
 193 <p>See <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/tutorial.html">the tutorial</a> to get started,
 194 then see <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/everyday.html">Everyday Git</a> for a useful minimum set of commands.
 195 Especially users migrating from other systems might appreciate the <a href="course/">Crash Courses</a>.
 196 See <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html">Git User's Manual</a> for a more in-depth introduction.
 197 You can find links to more useful documentation at the
 198 <a href="http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitDocumentation">GitDocumentation</a> wiki page.</p>
 199
 200 <p>For a large and continuously growing resource of information
 201 about Git, you can refer to the <a href="http://git.or.cz/gitwiki">Git Wiki</a>
 202 - you are welcome to contribute!</p>
 203
 204
 205 <hr />
 206
 207 <h2 id="download">Getting Git</h2>
 208
 209 <p>The general download location for Git releases is
 210 <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/">http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/</a>.
 211 You can also use one of many <a href="http://www.kernel.org/mirrors/">kernel.org mirrors</a>.</p>
 212
 213 <h3>Git by Git</h3>
 214
 215 <p>If you already have Git installed, you can get the latest
 216 development version via Git itself:</p>
 217 <pre>git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git</pre>
 218
 219 <p>If you have problems connecting (Git uses port 9418),
 220 you can try to access the repository over the HTTP protocol:</p>
 221 <pre>git clone http://www.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git</pre>
 222 <p>(this method is considerably slower but works even behind
 223 firewalls and such).</p>
 224
 225 <p>You can also always browse the current contents
 226 of the git repository on web using the kernel.org
 227 <a href="http://kernel.org/git/?p=git/git.git;a=summary">gitweb interface</a>.</p>
 228
 229 <h3>Binaries</h3>
 230
 231 <p>For people who prefer precompiled packages, these are available:</p>
 232
 233 <table class="bugmail">
 234
 235 <tr>
 236 <td colspan="2">RPMs</td>
 237 <td><a href="http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/RPMS/">http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/RPMS/</a></td>
 238 </tr>
 239
 240 <tr class="odd">
 241 <td rowspan="3">Debs</td>
 242 <td>Stable</td>
 243 <td><a href="http://www.backports.org/debian/pool/main/g/git-core/">http://www.backports.org/debian/pool/main/g/git-core/</a></td>
 244 </tr>
 245 <tr>
 246 <td>Testing</td>
 247 <td><a href="http://packages.debian.org/testing/devel/git-core">http://packages.debian.org/testing/devel/git-core</a></td>
 248 </tr>
 249 <tr class="odd">
 250 <td>Unstable</td>
 251 <td><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/git-core">http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/git-core</a></td>
 252 </tr>
 253
 254 <tr>
 255 <td rowspan="2">Win</td>
 256 <td><a href="http://www.cygwin.com/">Cygwin</a></td>
 257 <td><a href="http://www.cygwin.com/setup.exe">http://www.cygwin.com/setup.exe</a></td>
 258 </tr>
 259 <tr class="odd">
 260 <td><a href="http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/">msysGit</a></td>
 261 <td><a href="http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list">http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list</a></td>
 262 </tr>
 263
 264 <tr class="odd">
 265 <td rowspan="3">OS X</td>
 266 </tr>
 267 <tr>
 268 <td>Stable</td>
 269 <td><a href="http://code.google.com/p/git-osx-installer/downloads/list?can=3">http://code.google.com/p/git-osx-installer/downloads/list?can=3</a></td>
 270 </tr>
 271
 272 </table>
 273
 274 <h3>Development snapshots</h3>
 275
 276 <p>Daily snapshots of the main Git development branch are available at
 277 <a href="http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/projects/git-snapshots/git/"
 278 >http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/projects/git-snapshots/git/</a>
 279 (thanks to Dave Jones).</p>
 280
 281
 282
 283 <hr />
 284
 285 <h2 id="tools">Related Tools</h2>
 286
 287 <p>Git is a true UNIX tool in the sense that it consists of many commands
 288 that do one thing well. It has been designed from the start to be easily
 289 wrapped in other tools and frontends. Currently, there are several
 290 interfaces offering more comfortable Git usage, and also graphical
 291 interfaces for browsing the history and more.</p>
 292
 293 <p>Traditionally, the low-level part of Git is called <em>plumbing</em>
 294 and the interfaces and frontends are called <em>porcelains</em>.
 295 Git itself comes with a default porcelain bundled and that is actually
 296 what you will normally mean when you say you use Git. However, there
 297 are several alternative porcelains which might offer considerably more
 298 user friendly interface or extend Git to perform some specialized tasks.</p>
 299
 300 <p>Below, the most widely used tools are listed. Please refer to
 301 <a href="http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/InterfacesFrontendsAndTools">the corresponding wiki page</a>
 302 for a full list.</p>
 303
 304 <table>
 305 <tr valign="top">
 306
 307 <td>
 308 <h3>User Interface Tools</h3>
 309
 310 <dl>
 311
 312 <dt id="qgit">qgit</dt>
 313 <dd><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/qgit">qgit</a> is a QT
 314 GUI for browsing history of Git repositories, similar to <em>gitk</em>
 315 but with more features.</dd>
 316
 317 <dt id="tig">Tig</dt>
 318 <dd><a href="http://jonas.nitro.dk/tig/">tig</a>
 319 is a text-mode interface for Git. It acts as a repository browser
 320 that can also act as a pager for various Git commands
 321 and manage your index (on diff chunk level).</dd>
 322
 323 </dl>
 324 </td>
 325
 326 <td>
 327 <h3>Tools Shipped with Git</h3>
 328
 329 <dl>
 330
 331 <dt id="gitk">gitk</dt>
 332 <dd><a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=gitk/gitk.git;a=summary">gitk</a>
 333 is the original TCL/TK GUI for browsing history of Git repositories.</dd>
 334
 335 <dt id="git-gui">Git-gui</dt>
 336 <dd><a href="http://www.spearce.org/category/projects/scm/git-gui/">git-gui</a>
 337 is a simple Tk based graphical interface for common Git
 338 operations.</dd>
 339
 340 <dt id="gitweb">gitweb</dt>
 341 <dd>gitweb provides a full-fledged <a href="http://git.kernel.org/">web interface</a>
 342 for Git repositories.</dd>
 343
 344 </dl>
 345 </td>
 346 </tr>
 347
 348 <tr valign="top">
 349 <td>
 350 <h3>Version Control Interface layers</h3>
 351
 352 <dl>
 353
 354 <dt id="stgit">StGIT</dt>
 355 <dd><a href="http://www.procode.org/stgit/">Stacked Git</a> provides
 356 a <em>Quilt</em>-like patch management functionality in the Git environment.
 357 You can easily manage your patches in the scope of Git until they get
 358 merged upstream.</dd>
 359
 360 <dt id="guilt">Guilt</dt>
 361 <dd><a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/jsipek/guilt/">Guilt</a>
 362 is another patch management tool, closer to the spirit of <em>Quilt</em>
 363 than StGIT.</dd>
 364
 365 <dt id="cogito">Cogito</dt>
 366 <dd><a href="http://git.or.cz/cogito/">Cogito</a>
 367 was a popular version control system on top of Git,
 368 aiming at seamless user interface and ease of use.
 369 It provided much better user interface in the past
 370 but later improvements of Git made it mostly obsolete
 371 and it is not maintained anymore.
 372 Please migrate to Git itself.</dd>
 373
 374 </dl>
 375 </td>
 376
 377 <td>
 378 <h3>Public Hosting</h3>
 379
 380 <p>Several public Git hosting sites are available and open for anyone
 381 to host their pet projects:</p>
 382
 383 <dl>
 384 <dt id="repo">repo.or.cz</dt>
 385 <dd><a href="http://repo.or.cz/">repo.or.cz</a> is the oldest hosting site,
 386 accomodating many hundreds of projects, with open-sourced infrastructure
 387 and aimed at open source software. It provides full push features as well
 388 as simple mirroring mode and gitweb interface with various enhancements.</dd>
 389
 390 <dt id="github">GitHub</dt>
 391 <dd><a href="http://github.com/">GitHub</a> provides both free hosting for
 392 smaller projects and paid options for private hosting and large-sized projects.
 393 It uses a custom web interface including a wiki hosting and puts emphasis
 394 on social networking of project developers.</dd>
 395
 396 <dt id="gitorious">Gitorious</dt>
 397 <dd><a href="http://gitorious.org/">Gitorious</a> is another free hosting
 398 site with a custom web interface, supporting multiple repositories per project,
 399 local installations and with open source code.</dd>
 400
 401 </dl>
 402 </td>
 403 </tr>
 404
 405 </table>
 406
 407
 408 <hr />
 409
 410 <h2 id="community">Community and Development</h2>
 411
 412 <p>Git was initially written by Linus Torvalds
 413 with help of a group of hackers 'round the net.
 414 It is currently maintained by
 415 Junio C Hamano.</p>
 416
 417 <p>The user discussion and development of Git and most tools related to Git
 418 takes place on the Git mailing list - everyone is welcome to post
 419 bug reports, feature requests, comments and
 420 <a href="http://repo.or.cz/w/git.git?a=blob_plain;f=Documentation/SubmittingPatches;hb=HEAD">patches</a>
 421 to <a href="mailto:git@vger.kernel.org">git@vger.kernel.org</a>.
 422 To <a href="mailto:majordomo@vger.kernel.org?body=subscribe%20git">subscribe</a>
 423 to the list, send an email with just "subscribe git" in the body to
 424 majordomo@vger.kernel.org.
 425 The mailing list archives are available at
 426 <a href="http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git">Gmane</a>
 427 and <a href="http://marc.info/?l=git">MARC</a>.</p>
 428
 429 <p>You can also visit the IRC channel dedicated to Git -
 430 meet us at <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#git">#git on FreeNode</a>.</p>
 431
 432 <p>This website itself is tracked in Git as well -
 433 you can
 434 <a href="http://repo.or.cz/w/git-homepage.git">browse its development history</a>
 435 or even clone it from http://repo.or.cz/r/git-homepage.git.
 436 The site is covered by GPLv2
 437 and maintained by <a href="mailto:pasky@suse.cz">Petr Baudis</a>
 438 who always takes patches eagerly. ;-)
 439 The web is based on a design by <a href="mailto:fonseca@diku.dk">Jonas Fonseca</a>
 440 for the <a href="http://elinks.cz">ELinks homepage</a>.</p>
 441
 442
 443 <hr />
 444
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 446         <span class="menu">
 447                 This page is maintained by Petr Baudis. Please email me
 448                 at <a href="mailto:pasky@suse.cz">pasky@suse.cz</a>
 449                 with patches, suggestions and comments.
 450         </span>
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