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