1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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2 <!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "../../dtd/dblite.dtd">
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3 <chapter id="tgit-introduction">
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4 <title>Introduction</title>
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5 <?dbhh topicname="HIDD_ABOUT"?>
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8 <primary>version control</primary>
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11 Version control is the art of managing changes to
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12 information. It has long been a critical tool for programmers,
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13 who typically spend their time making small changes to software
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14 and then undoing or checking some of those changes the next day.
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15 Imagine a team of such developers working concurrently - and perhaps even
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16 simultaneously on the very same files! - and you can see why
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17 a good system is needed to <emphasis>manage the potential chaos</emphasis>.
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20 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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21 <!-- ======================== SECTION 1 ============================== -->
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22 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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23 <sect1 id="tgit-intro-about">
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24 <title>What is TortoiseGit?</title>
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26 TortoiseGit is a free open-source client for the
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27 <firstterm>Git</firstterm> version control system.
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28 That is, TortoiseGit manages files over time.
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29 Files are stored in a local <firstterm>repository</firstterm>.
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30 The repository is much like an ordinary file server, except that it
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31 remembers every change ever made to your files and directories.
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32 This allows you to recover older versions of your files and examine
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33 the history of how and when your data changed, and who changed it.
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34 This is why many people think of Git and version control
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35 systems in general as a sort of <quote>time machine</quote>.
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38 Some version control systems are also software configuration
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39 management (SCM) systems. These systems are specifically
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40 tailored to manage trees of source code, and have many features
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41 that are specific to software development - such as natively
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42 understanding programming languages, or supplying tools for
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43 building software. Git, however, is not one of these
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44 systems; it is a general system that can be used to manage
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45 <emphasis>any</emphasis> collection of files, including
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49 Git is an <emphasis>open source, distributed version control system</emphasis>
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50 designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and
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51 efficiency. Every Git clone is a full-fledged repository with complete history
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52 and full revision tracking capabilities, not dependent on network access or
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53 a central server. Branching and merging are fast and easy to do.
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56 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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57 <!-- ======================== SECTION 2 ============================== -->
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58 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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59 <sect1 id="tgit-intro-history">
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60 <title>TortoiseGit's History</title>
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62 In 2008, Frank Li found that Git was a very good version
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63 control system, but it lacked a good GUI client. The idea for a
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64 Git client as a Windows shell integration was inspired by
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65 the similar client for SVN named TortoiseSVN.
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68 Frank studied the source code of TortoiseSVN and used it as a base for
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69 TortoiseGit. He then started the project, registered the project
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70 at code.google.com and put the source code online.
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73 At the end of 2010 Sven Strickroth joined the TortoiseGit project. Then, he became
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74 the current maintainer few years later.
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77 From August 2015, GoogleCode was shut down and the TortoiseGit project established their
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78 website tortoisegit.org and migrated the main repository and issue tracker to GitLab.
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81 As Git became more stable it attracted more and more users
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82 who also started using TortoiseGit as their Git client.
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85 For more information what changed over the releases check out the <ulink url="https://tortoisegit.org/releasenotes">latest release notes</ulink> or inspect our <ulink url="https://tortoisegit.org/sourcecode">git commit history</ulink>.
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88 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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89 <!-- ======================== SECTION 3 ============================== -->
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90 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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91 <sect1 id="tgit-intro-features">
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92 <title>TortoiseGit's Features</title>
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94 What makes TortoiseGit such a good Git client?
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95 Here's a short list of features.
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99 <term>Shell integration</term>
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102 <primary>Windows shell</primary>
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105 <primary>explorer</primary>
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108 TortoiseGit integrates seamlessly into the Windows shell
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109 (i.e. the explorer). This means you can keep working
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110 with the tools you're already familiar with. And you
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111 do not have to change into a different application
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112 each time you need functions of the version control!
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115 And you are not even forced to use the Windows Explorer.
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116 TortoiseGit's context menus work in many other file managers,
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117 and in the File/Open dialog which is common to most
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118 standard Windows applications.
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119 You should, however, bear in mind that TortoiseGit
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120 is intentionally developed as extension for the Windows
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121 Explorer. Thus it is possible that in other applications
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122 the integration is not as complete and e.g. the icon
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123 overlays may not be shown.
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128 <term>Icon overlays</term>
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131 The status of every versioned file and folder is
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132 indicated by small overlay icons. That way you can see
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133 right away what the status of your working tree is.
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136 The icon overlays are based on TortoiseOverlays (<ulink url="http://www.tortoisesvn.net/">http://www.tortoisesvn.net</ulink>)
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141 <term>Easy access to Git commands</term>
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144 All Git commands are available from the explorer
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145 context menu. TortoiseGit adds its own submenu there.
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151 Since TortoiseGit is a Git client, we would also like to show you
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152 some of the features of Git itself:
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156 <term>Distributed version control</term>
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159 Like most other modern version control systems, Git
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160 gives each developer a local copy of the entire development
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161 history, and changes are copied from one such repository
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162 to another. These changes are imported as additional
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163 development branches, and can be merged in the same way
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164 as a locally developed branch. Repositories can be easily
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165 accessed via the efficient Git protocol (optionally wrapped
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166 in ssh for authentication and security) or simply using
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167 HTTP - you can publish your repository anywhere without
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168 any special webserver configuration required.
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173 <term>Atomic commits</term>
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176 A commit either goes into the repository completely,
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182 <term>Strong support for non-linear development</term>
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185 Git supports rapid and convenient branching and merging,
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186 and includes powerful tools for visualizing and navigating
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187 a non-linear development history.
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192 <term>Efficient handling of large projects</term>
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195 Git is very fast and scales well even when working with
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196 large projects and long histories. It is commonly an order
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197 of magnitude faster than most other version control systems,
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198 and several orders of magnitude faster on some operations.
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199 It also uses an extremely efficient packed format for long-term
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200 revision storage that currently tops any other open source
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201 version control system.
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206 <term>Cryptographic authentication of history</term>
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209 The Git history is stored in such a way that the name of a
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210 particular revision (a "commit" in Git terms) depends upon
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211 the complete development history leading up to that commit.
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212 Once it is published, it is not possible to change the old
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213 versions without it being noticed. Also, tags can be
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214 cryptographically signed.
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219 <term>Efficient branching and tagging</term>
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222 The cost of branching and tagging need not be
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223 proportional to the project size. Branch is just head of commits.
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224 Tag is friend name of commit hash.
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229 <term>Toolkit design</term>
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232 Following the Unix tradition, Git is a collection of many small
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233 tools written in C, and a number of scripts that provide convenient
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234 wrappers. Git provides tools for both easy human usage and easy
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235 scripting to perform new clever operations.
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241 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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242 <!-- ======================== SECTION 4 ============================== -->
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243 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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244 <sect1 id="tgit-intro-install">
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245 <title>Installing TortoiseGit</title>
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247 <title>System requirements</title>
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249 TortoiseGit runs on Windows Vista or higher.
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250 Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT4, Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP3 are no longer supported.
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251 If you are running such an old system, you can still use older, however unsupported, releases of TortoiseGit.
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252 Those can be found on the <ulink url="https://download.tortoisegit.org/">download server</ulink> (TortoiseGit 1.7 dropped support for Windows 2000; TortoiseGit 1.9 dropped support for Windows XP).
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255 If you encounter any problems during or after installing
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256 TortoiseGit please refer to
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257 <xref linkend="tgit-faq"/>
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262 <title>Installation</title>
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264 <primary>install</primary>
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267 TortoiseGit comes with an easy to use installer. Double click on
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268 the installer file and follow the instructions. The installer
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269 will take care of the rest.
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273 You need Administrator privileges to install TortoiseGit.
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277 <sect2 id="tgit-intro-install-lang">
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278 <title>Language Packs</title>
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279 <?dbhh topicname="HIDD_FIRSTSTARTWIZARD_LANGUAGE"?>
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281 <primary>language packs</primary>
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284 <primary>translations</primary>
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287 The TortoiseGit user interface has been translated into many
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288 different languages, so you may be able to download a language
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289 pack to suit your needs.
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290 You can find the language packs on our
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291 <ulink url="https://tortoisegit.org/download">
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292 <citetitle>translation status page</citetitle>
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294 And if there is no language pack available yet, why not join
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295 the team and <ulink url="https://tortoisegit.org/translate">submit your own translation</ulink> ;-)
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298 Each language pack is packaged as a <literal>.msi</literal> installer.
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299 Just run the install program and follow the instructions.
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300 After the installation finishes, the translation will be available.
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303 <sect2 id="tgit-intro-instalsl-spell">
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304 <title>Spellchecker</title>
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306 <primary>spellchecker</primary>
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309 <primary>dictionary</primary>
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312 TortoiseGit includes a spell checker which allows you to check your
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313 commit log messages. This is especially useful if the project language
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314 is not your native language.
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315 The spell checker uses the same dictionary files as
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316 <ulink url="http://libreoffice.org">
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317 <citetitle>LibreOffice</citetitle>
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319 <ulink url="http://openoffice.org">
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320 <citetitle>OpenOffice</citetitle>
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323 <ulink url="http://mozilla.org">
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324 <citetitle>Mozilla</citetitle>
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328 The installer automatically adds the US English dictionary.
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329 If you want other languages, the easiest option is simply to
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330 install one of TortoiseGit's language packs. This will install
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331 the appropriate dictionary files as well as the TortoiseGit local
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333 After the installation finishes, the translation will be available.
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336 Or you can install the dictionaries yourself. If you have OpenOffice or
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337 Mozilla installed, you can copy those dictionaries, which are located
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338 in the installation folders for those applications.
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339 Otherwise, you need to download the required dictionary files from
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340 <ulink url="http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/dictionaries/">
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341 <citetitle>http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/dictionaries/</citetitle>
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344 <ulink url="http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Dictionaries">
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345 <citetitle>http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Dictionaries</citetitle>
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349 Once you have got the dictionary files, you
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350 probably need to rename them so that the filenames only have
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351 the locale chars in it.
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356 <filename>en_US.aff</filename>
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361 <filename>en_US.dic</filename>
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365 Then just copy them into the <filename>%APPDATA%\TortoiseGit\dic</filename> folder. If that folder isn't
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366 there, you have to create it first.
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367 TortoiseGit will also search the <filename>Languages</filename> sub-folder of
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368 the TortoiseGit installation folder (normally this will be <filename>C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\Languages</filename>);
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369 this is the place where the language packs put their files.
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370 However, the %APPDATA%-folder doesn't require administrator privileges and, thus, has higher priority.
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371 The next time you start TortoiseGit, the spell checker will be available.
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374 If you install multiple dictionaries, TortoiseGit uses these rules
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375 to select which one to use.
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379 Check the <literal>tgit.projectlanguage</literal> setting. This setting can be set using TortoiseGit Settings <guilabel>Dialogs 3</guilabel> page (<xref linkend="tgit-dug-settings-dialogs3"/>).
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380 Refer to <xref linkend="git-config(1)"/> for information
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381 about setting properties (use the <literal>LCID Dec</literal> value as <ulink url="http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/goglobal/bb964664.aspx">assigned by Microsoft</ulink>).
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386 If no project language is set, or that language is not
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387 installed, try the language corresponding to the Windows locale.
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392 If the exact Windows locale doesn't work, try the
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393 <quote>Base</quote> language, eg.
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394 <literal>de_CH</literal> (Swiss-German) falls back to
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395 <literal>de_DE</literal> (German).
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400 If none of the above works, then the default language
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401 is English, which is included with the standard installation.
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411 sgml-parent-document: ("book.xml" "chapter")
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