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   6         <title>Git - Fast Version Control System</title>
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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>
  33         </span>
  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>
  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>Strong support for non-linear development.</b>
 118 Git supports rapid and convenient branching and merging,
 119 and includes powerful tools for visualizing
 120 and navigating a non-linear development history.
 121 </li>
 122
 123 <li>
 124 <b>Distributed development.</b>
 125 Like most other modern version control systems, Git gives each developer
 126 a local copy of the entire development history,
 127 and changes are copied from one such repository to another.
 128 These changes are imported as additional development branches,
 129 and can be merged in the same way as a locally developed branch.
 130 Repositories can be easily accessed via the efficient Git protocol
 131 (optionally wrapped in ssh for authentication and security)
 132 or simply using HTTP - you can publish your repository anywhere
 133 without <em>any</em> special webserver configuration required.
 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 <table>
 214
 215 <tr valign="top">
 216 <td colspan="2">
 217 <h3>Development snapshots</h3>
 218
 219 <p>Daily snapshots of the main Git development branch are available at
 220 <a href="http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/projects/git-snapshots/git/"
 221 >http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/projects/git-snapshots/git/</a>
 222 (thanks to Dave Jones).</p>
 223 </td>
 224 </tr>
 225
 226 <tr valign="top">
 227 <td>
 228 <h3>Git by git</h3>
 229
 230 <p>If you already have Git installed, you can get the latest
 231 development version via Git itself:</p>
 232 <pre>git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git</pre>
 233
 234 <p>If you have problems connecting (Git uses port 9418),
 235 you can try to access the repository over the HTTP protocol:</p>
 236 <pre>git clone http://www.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git</pre>
 237 <p>(this method is considerably slower but works even behind
 238 firewalls and such).</p>
 239
 240 <p>You can also always browse the current contents
 241 of the git repository on web using the kernel.org
 242 <a href="http://kernel.org/git/?p=git/git.git;a=summary">gitweb interface</a>.</p>
 243 </td>
 244
 245 <td>
 246 <h3>Binaries</h3>
 247
 248 <p>For people who prefer precompiled packages, these are available:</p>
 249
 250 <table class="bugmail">
 251
 252 <tr>
 253 <td colspan="2">RPMs</td>
 254 <td><a href="http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/RPMS/">http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/RPMS/</a></td>
 255 </tr>
 256
 257 <tr class="odd">
 258 <td rowspan="3">Debs</td>
 259 <td>Stable</td>
 260 <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>
 261 </tr>
 262 <tr>
 263 <td>Testing</td>
 264 <td><a href="http://packages.debian.org/testing/devel/git-core">http://packages.debian.org/testing/devel/git-core</a></td>
 265 </tr>
 266 <tr class="odd">
 267 <td>Unstable</td>
 268 <td><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/git-core">http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/git-core</a></td>
 269 </tr>
 270
 271 <tr>
 272 <td rowspan="2">Win</td>
 273 <td><a href="http://www.cygwin.com/">Cygwin</a></td>
 274 <td><a href="http://www.cygwin.com/setup.exe">http://www.cygwin.com/setup.exe</a></td>
 275 </tr>
 276 <tr class="odd">
 277 <td><a href="http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/">msysGit</a></td>
 278 <td><a href="http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list">http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list</a></td>
 279 </tr>
 280
 281 <tr class="odd">
 282 <td rowspan="3">OS X</td>
 283 </tr>
 284 <tr>
 285 <td>Stable</td>
 286 <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>
 287 </tr>
 288
 289 </table>
 290 </td>
 291
 292 </tr></table>
 293
 294
 295 <hr />
 296
 297 <h2 id="tools">Related Tools</h2>
 298
 299 <p>Git is a true UNIX tool in the sense that it consists of many commands
 300 that do one thing well. It has been designed from the start to be easily
 301 wrapped in other tools and frontends. Currently, there are several
 302 interfaces offering more comfortable Git usage, and also graphical
 303 interfaces for browsing the history and more.</p>
 304
 305 <p>Traditionally, the low-level part of Git is called <em>plumbing</em>
 306 and the interfaces and frontends are called <em>porcelains</em>.
 307 Git itself comes with a default porcelain bundled and that is actually
 308 what you will normally mean when you say you use Git. However, there
 309 are several alternative porcelains which might offer considerably more
 310 user friendly interface or extend Git to perform some specialized tasks.</p>
 311
 312 <p>Below, the most widely used tools are listed. Please refer to
 313 <a href="http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/InterfacesFrontendsAndTools">the corresponding wiki page</a>
 314 for a full list.</p>
 315
 316 <table>
 317 <tr valign="top">
 318
 319 <td>
 320 <h3>User Interface Tools</h3>
 321
 322 <dl>
 323
 324 <dt id="qgit">qgit</dt>
 325 <dd><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/qgit">qgit</a> is a QT
 326 GUI for browsing history of Git repositories, similar to <em>gitk</em>
 327 but with more features.</dd>
 328
 329 <dt id="tig">Tig</dt>
 330 <dd><a href="http://jonas.nitro.dk/tig/">tig</a>
 331 is a text-mode interface for Git. It acts as a repository browser
 332 that can also act as a pager for various Git commands
 333 and manage your index (on diff chunk level).</dd>
 334
 335 </dl>
 336 </td>
 337
 338 <td>
 339 <h3>Tools Shipped with Git</h3>
 340
 341 <dl>
 342
 343 <dt id="gitk">gitk</dt>
 344 <dd><a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=gitk/gitk.git;a=summary">gitk</a>
 345 is the original TCL/TK GUI for browsing history of Git repositories.</dd>
 346
 347 <dt id="git-gui">Git-gui</dt>
 348 <dd><a href="http://www.spearce.org/category/projects/scm/git-gui/">git-gui</a>
 349 is a simple Tk based graphical interface for common Git
 350 operations.</dd>
 351
 352 <dt id="gitweb">gitweb</dt>
 353 <dd>gitweb provides a full-fledged <a href="http://git.kernel.org/">web interface</a>
 354 for Git repositories.</dd>
 355
 356 </dl>
 357 </td>
 358 </tr>
 359
 360 <tr valign="top">
 361 <td>
 362 <h3>Version Control Interface layers</h3>
 363
 364 <dl>
 365
 366 <dt id="stgit">StGIT</dt>
 367 <dd><a href="http://www.procode.org/stgit/">Stacked Git</a> provides
 368 a <em>Quilt</em>-like patch management functionality in the Git environment.
 369 You can easily manage your patches in the scope of Git until they get
 370 merged upstream.</dd>
 371
 372 <dt id="guilt">Guilt</dt>
 373 <dd><a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/jsipek/guilt/">Guilt</a>
 374 is another patch management tool, closer to the spirit of <em>Quilt</em>
 375 than StGIT.</dd>
 376
 377 <dt id="cogito">Cogito</dt>
 378 <dd><a href="http://git.or.cz/cogito/">Cogito</a>
 379 was a popular version control system on top of Git,
 380 aiming at seamless user interface and ease of use.
 381 It provided much better user interface in the past
 382 but later improvements of Git made it mostly obsolete
 383 and it is not maintained anymore.
 384 Please migrate to Git itself.</dd>
 385
 386 </dl>
 387 </td>
 388
 389 <td>
 390 <h3>Public Hosting</h3>
 391
 392 <p>Several public Git hosting sites are available and open for anyone
 393 to host their pet projects:</p>
 394
 395 <dl>
 396 <dt id="repo">repo.or.cz</dt>
 397 <dd><a href="http://repo.or.cz/">repo.or.cz</a> is the oldest hosting site,
 398 accomodating many hundreds of projects, with open-sourced infrastructure
 399 and aimed at open source software. It provides full push features as well
 400 as simple mirroring mode and gitweb interface with various enhancements.</dd>
 401
 402 <dt id="github">GitHub</dt>
 403 <dd><a href="http://github.com/">GitHub</a> provides both free hosting for
 404 smaller projects and paid options for private hosting and large-sized projects.
 405 It uses a custom web interface including a wiki hosting and puts emphasis
 406 on social networking of project developers.</dd>
 407
 408 <dt id="gitorious">Gitorious</dt>
 409 <dd><a href="http://gitorious.org/">Gitorious</a> is another free hosting
 410 site with a custom web interface, supporting multiple repositories per project,
 411 local installations and with open source code.</dd>
 412
 413 </dl>
 414 </td>
 415 </tr>
 416
 417 </table>
 418
 419
 420 <hr />
 421
 422 <h2 id="community">Community and Development</h2>
 423
 424 <p>Git was initially written by Linus Torvalds
 425 with help of a group of hackers 'round the net.
 426 It is currently maintained by
 427 Junio C Hamano.</p>
 428
 429 <p>The user discussion and development of Git and most tools related to Git
 430 takes place on the Git mailing list - everyone is welcome to post
 431 bug reports, feature requests, comments and
 432 <a href="http://repo.or.cz/w/git.git?a=blob_plain;f=Documentation/SubmittingPatches;hb=HEAD">patches</a>
 433 to <a href="mailto:git@vger.kernel.org">git@vger.kernel.org</a>.
 434 To <a href="mailto:majordomo@vger.kernel.org?body=subscribe%20git">subscribe</a>
 435 to the list, send an email with just "subscribe git" in the body to
 436 majordomo@vger.kernel.org.
 437 The mailing list archives are available at
 438 <a href="http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git">Gmane</a>
 439 and <a href="http://marc.info/?l=git">MARC</a>.</p>
 440
 441 <p>You can also visit the IRC channel dedicated to Git -
 442 meet us at <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#git">#git on FreeNode</a>.</p>
 443
 444 <p>This website itself is tracked in Git as well -
 445 you can
 446 <a href="http://repo.or.cz/w/git-homepage.git">browse its development history</a>
 447 or even clone it from http://repo.or.cz/r/git-homepage.git.
 448 The site is covered by GPLv2
 449 and maintained by <a href="mailto:pasky@suse.cz">Petr Baudis</a>
 450 who always takes patches eagerly. ;-)
 451 The web is based on a design by <a href="mailto:fonseca@diku.dk">Jonas Fonseca</a>
 452 for the <a href="http://elinks.cz">ELinks homepage</a>.</p>
 453
 454
 455 <hr />
 456
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 458         <span class="menu">
 459                 This page is maintained by Petr Baudis. Please email me
 460                 at <a href="mailto:pasky@suse.cz">pasky@suse.cz</a>
 461                 with patches, suggestions and comments.
 462         </span>
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