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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 a popular version control system
  39 designed to handle very large projects with speed and efficiency;
  40 it is used mainly for various open source projects,
  41 most notably the Linux kernel.</p>
  42
  43 <p>Git falls in the category of distributed source code management tools,
  44 similar to e.g. GNU Arch or Monotone (or BitKeeper in the proprietary world).
  45 Every Git working directory is a full-fledged repository with full revision
  46 tracking capabilities, not dependent on network access or a central server.</p>
  47
  48 <p>Git is an <a href="http://www.opensource.org/">Open Source</a> project covered by
  49 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl2.txt">GNU General Public License v2</a>.
  50 It was originally written by Linus Torvalds and is currently maintained by
  51 Junio C Hamano.</p>
  52
  53
  54
  55
  56 <div style="float: right"><table class="releases">
  57         <tr class="odd" align="center"><td colspan="3"><b>Download GIT source package</b> <!--@DATE@-->[2008-03-09]</td></tr>
  58         <tr align="center"><td colspan="3">The latest stable Git release is <b><!--@VNUM@-->v1.5.4.4</b>:</td></tr>
  59         <tr align="center"><td colspan="3">
  60                 <table><tr><td>
  61                 <!--@TARLINK@--><a href="http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.5.4.4.tar.bz2">tar.bz2</a>
  62                 <!--@TARLINK@--><a href="http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.5.4.4.tar.bz2.sign">(sign)</a>
  63                 </td><td>
  64                 <!--@TARLINK@--><a href="http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.5.4.4.tar.gz">tar.gz</a>
  65                 <!--@TARLINK@--><a href="http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.5.4.4.tar.gz.sign">(sign)</a>
  66                 </td></tr></table>
  67         </td></tr>
  68         <tr class="odd" align="center">
  69                 <td><!--@NOTESLINK@--><a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/RelNotes-1.5.4.4.txt">Release notes</a></td>
  70                 <td><a href="http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/">More versions</a></td>
  71                 <td><a href="http://repo.or.cz/w/git.git/">Browse history/code</a></td>
  72         </tr>
  73 </table></div>
  74
  75
  76 <hr />
  77
  78 <ul>
  79         <li><a href="#about">About Git</a></li>
  80         <li><a href="#documentation">Git Documentation</a></li>
  81         <li><a href="#download">Getting Git</a></li>
  82         <li><a href="#tools">Related Tools</a></li>
  83         <li><a href="#community">Community and Development</a></li>
  84 </ul>
  85
  86
  87 <hr />
  88
  89 <h2 id="about">About Git</h2>
  90
  91 <div style="float: right">
  92 <table class="releases">
  93         <tr><th><a href="course/index.html">Git Crash Courses</a></th></tr>
  94         <tr><td align="center">
  95         <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/tutorial.html">Git for everyone</a>
  96         <!--
  97         <br /><a href="course/new.html">New to revision control?</a>
  98         -->
  99         <br /><a href="course/stgit.html">Maintaining external patches</a>
 100         <br /><a href="course/svn.html">Git for SVN users</a>
 101         <br /><em>More to come soon...</em>
 102         </td></tr>
 103 </table>
 104 </div>
 105
 106 <p>Git is distributed version control system focused on
 107 speed, effectivity and real-world usability on large projects.
 108 Its highlights include:</p>
 109
 110 <!-- Heavily inspired by Wikipedia -->
 111
 112 <ul>
 113
 114 <li>
 115 <b>Strong support for non-linear development.</b>
 116 Git supports rapid and convenient branching and merging,
 117 and includes powerful tools for visualizing
 118 and navigating a non-linear development history.
 119 </li>
 120
 121 <li>
 122 <b>Distributed development.</b>
 123 Like most other modern version control systems, Git gives each developer
 124 a local copy of the entire development history,
 125 and changes are copied from one such repository to another.
 126 These changes are imported as additional development branches,
 127 and can be merged in the same way as a locally developed branch.
 128 Repositories can be easily accessed via the efficient Git protocol
 129 (optionally wrapped in ssh) or simply using HTTP - you can publish
 130 your repository anywhere without <em>any</em> special webserver
 131 configuration required.
 132 </li>
 133
 134 <li>
 135 <b>Efficient handling of large projects.</b>
 136 Git is very fast and scales well
 137 even when working with large projects and long histories.
 138 It is commonly an order of magnitude faster
 139 than most other revision control systems,
 140 and several orders of magnitude faster on some operations.
 141 It also uses an extremely efficient packed format
 142 for long-term revision storage
 143 that currently tops any other open source version control system.
 144 </li>
 145
 146 <li>
 147 <b>Cryptographic authentication of history.</b>
 148 The Git history is stored in such a way
 149 that the name of a particular revision (a "commit" in Git terms)
 150 depends upon the complete development history leading up to that commit.
 151 Once it is published, it is not possible to change the old versions
 152 without it being noticed. Also, tags can be cryptographically signed.
 153 </li>
 154
 155 <li>
 156 <b>Toolkit design.</b>
 157 Following the Unix tradition,
 158 Git is a collection of many small tools written in C,
 159 and a number of scripts that provide convenient wrappers.
 160 It is easy to chain the components together to do other clever things.
 161 </li>
 162
 163 </ul>
 164
 165 <p>Besides providing a version control system,
 166 the Git project provides a generic low-level toolkit
 167 for tree history storage and directory content management.
 168 Traditionally, the toolkit is called the <em>plumbing</em>.
 169 Several other projects (so-called <em>porcelains</em>)
 170 offer compatible version control interfaces - see the
 171 <a href="#tools">related tools</a> list.</p>
 172
 173 <p>Some other projects have taken the concepts from the Git project
 174 and are either porting an existing toolset to use the Git tools,
 175 or reimplementing the concepts internally,
 176 to benefit from the performance improvements.
 177 This includes e.g.
 178 <a href="http://wiki.darcs.net/DarcsWiki/DarcsGit">Darcs-git</a>.</p>
 179
 180
 181 <hr />
 182
 183 <h2 id="documentation">Git Documentation</h2>
 184
 185 <p>You can find all the documentation bundled with the Git source code
 186 in the <code>Documentation/</code> subdirectory. In addition, you can
 187 also <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/">read the web version</a>
 188 (corresponding to the latest Git development version).</p>
 189
 190 <p>For a quick start, the
 191 <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/tutorial.html">tutorial</a>
 192 covers the basics. See the
 193 <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/everyday.html">Everyday Git</a>
 194 handbook for a useful minimum set of commands
 195 depending on your style of Git usage.
 196 Additionally, the
 197 <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html">Git User's Manual</a>
 198 may be useful. You can find more documents in
 199 <a href="http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitDocumentation">GitDocumentation</a>.</p>
 200
 201 <p>For a large and continuously growing resource of information
 202 about Git, you can refer to the <a href="http://git.or.cz/gitwiki">Git Wiki</a>
 203 - you are welcome to contribute!</p>
 204
 205
 206 <hr />
 207
 208 <h2 id="download">Getting Git</h2>
 209
 210 <p>The general download location for Git releases is
 211 <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/">http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/</a>.
 212 You can also use one of many <a href="http://www.kernel.org/mirrors/">kernel.org mirrors</a>.</p>
 213
 214 <h3>Binaries</h3>
 215
 216 <p>For people who prefer precompiled packages, these are available:</p>
 217
 218 <table class="bugmail">
 219
 220 <tr>
 221 <td colspan="2">RPMs</td>
 222 <td><a href="http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/RPMS/">http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/RPMS/</a></td>
 223 </tr>
 224
 225 <tr class="odd">
 226 <td rowspan="3">Debs</td>
 227 <td>Stable</td>
 228 <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>
 229 </tr>
 230 <tr>
 231 <td>Testing</td>
 232 <td><a href="http://packages.debian.org/testing/devel/git-core">http://packages.debian.org/testing/devel/git-core</a></td>
 233 </tr>
 234 <tr class="odd">
 235 <td>Unstable</td>
 236 <td><a href="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/git-core">http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/git-core</a></td>
 237 </tr>
 238
 239 <tr>
 240 <td rowspan="2">Win</td>
 241 <td><a href="http://www.cygwin.com/">Cygwin</a></td>
 242 <td><a href="http://www.cygwin.com/setup.exe">http://www.cygwin.com/setup.exe</a></td>
 243 </tr>
 244 <tr class="odd">
 245 <td><a href="http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/">msysGit</a></td>
 246 <td><a href="http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list">http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list</a></td>
 247 </tr>
 248
 249 </table>
 250
 251 <h3>Development snapshots</h3>
 252
 253 <p>Daily snapshots of the main Git development branch are available at
 254 <a href="http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/projects/git-snapshots/git/"
 255 >http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/projects/git-snapshots/git/</a>
 256 (thanks to Dave Jones).</p>
 257
 258 <h3>Git by git</h3>
 259
 260 <p>If you already have Git installed, you can get the latest
 261 development version via Git itself:</p>
 262 <pre>git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git</pre>
 263
 264 <p>If you have problems connecting (Git uses port 9418),
 265 you can try to access the repository over the HTTP protocol:</p>
 266 <pre>git clone http://www.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git</pre>
 267 <p>(this method is considerably slower but works even behind
 268 firewalls and such).</p>
 269
 270 <p>You can also always browse the current contents
 271 of the git repository on web using the kernel.org
 272 <a href="http://kernel.org/git/?p=git/git.git;a=summary">gitweb interface</a>.</p>
 273
 274
 275 <hr />
 276
 277 <h2 id="tools">Related Tools</h2>
 278
 279 <p>Git is a true UNIX tool in the sense that it consists of many commands
 280 that do one thing well. It has been designed from the start to be easily
 281 wrapped in other tools and frontends. Currently, there are several
 282 interfaces offering more comfortable Git usage, and also graphical
 283 interfaces for browsing the history and more.</p>
 284
 285 <p>Traditionally, the low-level part of Git is called <em>plumbing</em>
 286 and the interfaces and frontends are called <em>porcelains</em>.
 287 Git itself comes with a default porcelain bundled and that is actually
 288 what you will normally mean when you say you use Git. However, there
 289 are several alternative porcelains which might offer considerably more
 290 user friendly interface or extend Git to perform some specialized tasks.</p>
 291
 292 <p>There is a <strong>public Git hosting</strong> available for your
 293 pet project, either mirroring your project or letting you push, and providing
 294 a gitweb interface, at <a href="http://repo.or.cz/">http://repo.or.cz/</a>.</p>
 295
 296 <h3>Version Control Interface layers</h3>
 297
 298 <dl>
 299
 300 <dt id="stgit">StGIT</dt>
 301 <dd><a href="http://www.procode.org/stgit/">Stacked Git</a> provides
 302 a <em>Quilt</em>-like patch management functionality in the Git environment.
 303 You can easily manage your patches in the scope of Git until they get
 304 merged upstream.</dd>
 305
 306 <dt id="git-gui">Git-gui</dt>
 307 <dd><a href="http://www.spearce.org/category/projects/scm/git-gui/">git-gui</a>
 308 is a simple Tk based graphical interface for common Git
 309 operations. Git-gui is shipped with Git.
 310 </dd>
 311
 312 <dt id="tig">Tig</dt>
 313 <dd><a href="http://jonas.nitro.dk/tig/">tig</a>
 314 is a text-mode interface for Git. It acts as a repository browser
 315 that in addition can act as a pager for various Git commands
 316 and manage your index (on diff chunk level).
 317 </dd>
 318
 319 <dt id="cogito">Cogito</dt>
 320 <dd><a href="http://git.or.cz/cogito/">Cogito</a>
 321 was a popular version control system on top of Git, aiming
 322 at seamless user interface and ease of use. It provided much
 323 better user interface in the past days of Git but by now it is
 324 mostly obsolete and currently unmaintained.</dd>
 325
 326 </dl>
 327
 328 <h3>History Visualization</h3>
 329
 330 <dl>
 331
 332 <dt id="gitk">gitk</dt>
 333 <dd><a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=gitk/gitk.git;a=summary">gitk</a> is a TCL/TK
 334 GUI for browsing history of Git repositories. Developed separately but
 335 distributed with stock Git.</dd>
 336
 337 <dt id="qgit">qgit</dt>
 338 <dd><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/qgit">qgit</a> is a QT
 339 GUI for browsing history of Git repositories, similar to <em>gitk</em>
 340 but with more features.</dd>
 341
 342 <dt id="gitweb">gitweb</dt>
 343 <dd>gitweb provides full-fledged <a href="http://git.kernel.org/">web interface</a>
 344 for Git repositories. gitweb is now part of the core Git distribution.</dd>
 345
 346 </dl>
 347
 348
 349 <hr />
 350
 351 <h2 id="community">Community and Development</h2>
 352
 353 <p>Git was initially written by Linus Torvalds
 354 with help of a group of hackers 'round the net.
 355 It is currently maintained by
 356 Junio C Hamano.</p>
 357
 358 <p>The user discussion and development of Git and most tools related to Git
 359 takes place on the Git mailing list - everyone is welcome to post
 360 bug reports, feature requests, comments and
 361 <a href="http://repo.or.cz/w/git.git?a=blob_plain;f=Documentation/SubmittingPatches;hb=HEAD">patches</a>
 362 to <a href="mailto:git@vger.kernel.org">git@vger.kernel.org</a>.
 363 To <a href="mailto:majordomo@vger.kernel.org?body=subscribe%20git">subscribe</a>
 364 to the list, send an email with just "subscribe git" in the body to
 365 majordomo@vger.kernel.org.
 366 The mailing list archives are available at
 367 <a href="http://marc.info/?l=git">http://marc.info/?l=git</a>.</p>
 368
 369 <p>You can also visit the IRC channel dedicated to Git -
 370 meet us at <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#git">#git at FreeNode</a>.</p>
 371
 372 <p>This website itself is tracked in Git as well -
 373 you can
 374 <a href="http://repo.or.cz/w/git-homepage.git">browse its development history</a>
 375 or even clone it from http://repo.or.cz/r/git-homepage.git.
 376 The site is covered by GPLv2
 377 and maintained by <a href="mailto:pasky@suse.cz">Petr Baudis</a>
 378 who always takes patches eagerly. ;-)
 379 The web is based on a design by <a href="mailto:fonseca@diku.dk">Jonas Fonseca</a>
 380 for the <a href="http://elinks.cz">ELinks homepage</a>.</p>
 381
 382
 383 <hr />
 384
 385 <div class="footer">
 386         <span class="menu">
 387                 This page is maintained by Petr Baudis. Please email me
 388                 at <a href="mailto:pasky@suse.cz">pasky@suse.cz</a>
 389                 with patches, suggestions and comments.
 390         </span>
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