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1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\r
2 <!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "../../dtd/dblite.dtd">\r
3 <chapter id="tgit-introduction">\r
4 <title>Introduction</title>\r
5 <?dbhh topicname="HIDD_ABOUT"?>\r
6 <simplesect>\r
7 <indexterm>\r
8 <primary>version control</primary>\r
9 </indexterm>\r
10 <para>\r
11 Version control is the art of managing changes to\r
12 information. It has long been a critical tool for programmers,\r
13 who typically spend their time making small changes to software\r
14 and then undoing or checking some of those changes the next day.\r
15 Imagine a team of such developers working concurrently - and perhaps even\r
16 simultaneously on the very same files! - and you can see why\r
17 a good system is needed to <emphasis>manage the potential chaos</emphasis>.\r
18 </para>\r
19 </simplesect>\r
20 <!-- ================================================================= -->\r
21 <!-- ======================== SECTION 1 ============================== -->\r
22 <!-- ================================================================= -->\r
23 <sect1 id="tgit-intro-about">\r
24 <title>What is TortoiseGit?</title>\r
25 <para>\r
26 TortoiseGit is a free open-source client for the\r
27 <firstterm>Git</firstterm> version control system.\r
28 That is, TortoiseGit manages files over time.\r
29 Files are stored in a local <firstterm>repository</firstterm>.\r
30 The repository is much like an ordinary file server, except that it\r
31 remembers every change ever made to your files and directories.\r
32 This allows you to recover older versions of your files and examine\r
33 the history of how and when your data changed, and who changed it.\r
34 This is why many people think of Git and version control\r
35 systems in general as a sort of <quote>time machine</quote>.\r
36 </para>\r
37 <para>\r
38 Some version control systems are also software configuration\r
39 management (SCM) systems. These systems are specifically\r
40 tailored to manage trees of source code, and have many features\r
41 that are specific to software development - such as natively\r
42 understanding programming languages, or supplying tools for\r
43 building software. Git, however, is not one of these\r
44 systems; it is a general system that can be used to manage\r
45 <emphasis>any</emphasis> collection of files, including\r
46 source code.\r
47 </para>\r
48 <para>\r
49 Git is an <emphasis>open source, distributed version control system</emphasis>\r
50 designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and\r
51 efficiency. Every Git clone is a full-fledged repository with complete history\r
52 and full revision tracking capabilities, not dependent on network access or\r
53 a central server. Branching and merging are fast and easy to do.\r
54 </para>\r
55 </sect1>\r
56 <!-- ================================================================= -->\r
57 <!-- ======================== SECTION 2 ============================== -->\r
58 <!-- ================================================================= -->\r
59 <sect1 id="tgit-intro-history">\r
60 <title>TortoiseGit's History</title>\r
61 <para>\r
62 In 2008, Frank Li found that Git was a very good version\r
63 control system, but it lacked a good GUI client. The idea for a\r
64 Git client as a Windows shell integration was inspired by\r
65 the similar client for SVN named TortoiseSVN.\r
66 </para>\r
67 <para>\r
68 Frank studied the source code of TortoiseSVN and used it as a base for\r
69 TortoiseGit. He then started the project, registered the project\r
70 at code.google.com and put the source code online.\r
71 </para>\r
72 <para>\r
73 At the end of 2010 Sven Strickroth joined the TortoiseGit project. Then, he became\r
74 the current maintainer few years later.\r
75 </para>\r
76 <para>\r
77 From August 2015, GoogleCode was shut down and the TortoiseGit project established their\r
78 website TortoiseGit.org and migrated the main repository and issue tracker to GitLab.\r
79 </para>\r
80 <para>\r
81 As Git became more stable it attracted more and more users\r
82 who also started using TortoiseGit as their Git client.\r
83 </para>\r
84 <para>\r
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>.\r
86 </para>\r
87 </sect1>\r
88 <!-- ================================================================= -->\r
89 <!-- ======================== SECTION 3 ============================== -->\r
90 <!-- ================================================================= -->\r
91 <sect1 id="tgit-intro-features">\r
92 <title>TortoiseGit's Features</title>\r
93 <para>\r
94 What makes TortoiseGit such a good Git client?\r
95 Here's a short list of features.\r
96 </para>\r
97 <variablelist>\r
98 <varlistentry>\r
99 <term>Shell integration</term>\r
100 <listitem>\r
101 <indexterm>\r
102 <primary>Windows shell</primary>\r
103 </indexterm>\r
104 <indexterm>\r
105 <primary>explorer</primary>\r
106 </indexterm>\r
107 <para>\r
108 TortoiseGit integrates seamlessly into the Windows shell\r
109 (i.e. the explorer). This means you can keep working\r
110 with the tools you're already familiar with. And you\r
111 do not have to change into a different application\r
112 each time you need functions of the version control!\r
113 </para>\r
114 <para>\r
115 And you are not even forced to use the Windows Explorer.\r
116 TortoiseGit's context menus work in many other file managers,\r
117 and in the File/Open dialog which is common to most\r
118 standard Windows applications.\r
119 You should, however, bear in mind that TortoiseGit\r
120 is intentionally developed as extension for the Windows\r
121 Explorer. Thus it is possible that in other applications\r
122 the integration is not as complete and e.g. the icon\r
123 overlays may not be shown.\r
124 </para>\r
125 </listitem>\r
126 </varlistentry>\r
127 <varlistentry>\r
128 <term>Icon overlays</term>\r
129 <listitem>\r
130 <para>\r
131 The status of every versioned file and folder is\r
132 indicated by small overlay icons. That way you can see\r
133 right away what the status of your working tree is.\r
134 </para>\r
135 <para>\r
136 The icon overlays are based on TortoiseOverlays (<ulink url="https://tortoisesvn.net/">https://tortoisesvn.net</ulink>)\r
137 </para>\r
138 </listitem>\r
139 </varlistentry>\r
140 <varlistentry>\r
141 <term>Easy access to Git commands</term>\r
142 <listitem>\r
143 <para>\r
144 All Git commands are available from the explorer\r
145 context menu. TortoiseGit adds its own submenu there.\r
146 </para>\r
147 </listitem>\r
148 </varlistentry>\r
149 </variablelist>\r
150 <para>\r
151 Since TortoiseGit is a Git client, we would also like to show you\r
152 some of the features of Git itself:\r
153 </para>\r
154 <variablelist>\r
155 <varlistentry>\r
156 <term>Distributed version control</term>\r
157 <listitem>\r
158 <para>\r
159 Like most other modern version control systems, Git\r
160 gives each developer a local copy of the entire development\r
161 history, and changes are copied from one such repository\r
162 to another. These changes are imported as additional\r
163 development branches, and can be merged in the same way\r
164 as a locally developed branch. Repositories can be easily\r
165 accessed via the efficient Git protocol (optionally wrapped\r
166 in SSH for authentication and security) or simply using\r
167 HTTP - you can publish your repository anywhere without\r
168 any special web server configuration required.\r
169 </para>\r
170 </listitem>\r
171 </varlistentry>\r
172 <varlistentry>\r
173 <term>Atomic commits</term>\r
174 <listitem>\r
175 <para>\r
176 A commit either goes into the repository completely,\r
177 or not at all.\r
178 </para>\r
179 </listitem>\r
180 </varlistentry>\r
181 <varlistentry>\r
182 <term>Strong support for non-linear development</term>\r
183 <listitem>\r
184 <para>\r
185 Git supports rapid and convenient branching and merging,\r
186 and includes powerful tools for visualizing and navigating\r
187 a non-linear development history.\r
188 </para>\r
189 </listitem>\r
190 </varlistentry>\r
191 <varlistentry>\r
192 <term>Efficient handling of large projects</term>\r
193 <listitem>\r
194 <para>\r
195 Git is very fast and scales well even when working with\r
196 large projects and long histories. It is commonly an order\r
197 of magnitude faster than most other version control systems,\r
198 and several orders of magnitude faster on some operations.\r
199 It also uses an extremely efficient packed format for long-term\r
200 revision storage that currently tops any other open source\r
201 version control system.\r
202 </para>\r
203 </listitem>\r
204 </varlistentry>\r
205 <varlistentry>\r
206 <term>Cryptographic authentication of history</term>\r
207 <listitem>\r
208 <para>\r
209 The Git history is stored in such a way that the name of a\r
210 particular revision (a "commit" in Git terms) depends upon\r
211 the complete development history leading up to that commit.\r
212 Once it is published, it is not possible to change the old\r
213 versions without it being noticed. Also, tags can be\r
214 cryptographically signed.\r
215 </para>\r
216 </listitem>\r
217 </varlistentry>\r
218 <varlistentry>\r
219 <term>Efficient branching and tagging</term>\r
220 <listitem>\r
221 <para>\r
222 The cost of branching and tagging need not be\r
223 proportional to the project size. Branch is just head of commits.\r
224 Tag is friend name of commit hash.\r
225 </para>\r
226 </listitem>\r
227 </varlistentry>\r
228 <varlistentry>\r
229 <term>Toolkit design</term>\r
230 <listitem>\r
231 <para>\r
232 Following the Unix tradition, Git is a collection of many small\r
233 tools written in C, and a number of scripts that provide convenient\r
234 wrappers. Git provides tools for both easy human usage and easy\r
235 scripting to perform new clever operations.\r
236 </para>\r
237 </listitem>\r
238 </varlistentry>\r
239 </variablelist>\r
240 </sect1>\r
241 <!-- ================================================================= -->\r
242 <!-- ======================== SECTION 4 ============================== -->\r
243 <!-- ================================================================= -->\r
244 <sect1 id="tgit-intro-install">\r
245 <title>Installing TortoiseGit</title>\r
246 <sect2>\r
247 <title>System requirements</title>\r
248 <para>\r
249 TortoiseGit runs on Windows 7 or higher.\r
250 Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT4, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista are no longer supported.\r
251 If you are running such an old system, you can still use older, however unsupported, releases of TortoiseGit.\r
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, TortoiseGit 2.5 dropped support for Windows Vista).\r
253 </para>\r
254 <para>\r
255 If you encounter any problems during or after installing\r
256 TortoiseGit please refer to\r
257 <xref linkend="tgit-faq"/>\r
258 first.\r
259 </para>\r
260 </sect2>\r
261 <sect2>\r
262 <title>Installation</title>\r
263 <indexterm>\r
264 <primary>install</primary>\r
265 </indexterm>\r
266 <para>\r
267 TortoiseGit comes with an easy to use installer. Double click on\r
268 the installer file and follow the instructions. The installer\r
269 will take care of the rest.\r
270 </para>\r
271 <para>\r
272 One prerequisite of TortoiseGit is that it requires an already installed (command line) Git client which provides a <filename>git.exe</filename>.\r
273 <ulink url="https://git-for-windows.github.io/">Git for Windows</ulink> is recommended (Cygwin and MSYS2 Git also work, see <xref linkend="tgit-dug-settings-main"/> for configuration. Please note that Cygwin and MSYS2 Git are not officially supported by TortoiseGit as the developers only use Git for Windows. Bug reports, however, are welcome).\r
274 Installation of Git for Windows can be done with preselected options, however, no need to install the "Windows Explorer integration".\r
275 If you know about CRLF and LF line endings and you have editors coping with that, you should select "Checkout as-is, commit as-is" in order to prevent automatic translations.\r
276 </para>\r
277 <important>\r
278 <para>\r
279 You need Administrator privileges to install TortoiseGit.\r
280 </para>\r
281 </important>\r
282 </sect2>\r
283 <sect2 id="tgit-intro-install-lang">\r
284 <title>Language Packs</title>\r
285 <?dbhh topicname="HIDD_FIRSTSTARTWIZARD_LANGUAGE"?>\r
286 <indexterm>\r
287 <primary>language packs</primary>\r
288 </indexterm>\r
289 <indexterm>\r
290 <primary>translations</primary>\r
291 </indexterm>\r
292 <para>\r
293 The TortoiseGit user interface has been translated into many\r
294 different languages, so you may be able to download a language\r
295 pack to suit your needs.\r
296 You can find the language packs on our\r
297 <ulink url="https://tortoisegit.org/download">\r
298 <citetitle>translation status page</citetitle>\r
299 </ulink>.\r
300 And if there is no language pack available yet, why not join\r
301 the team and <ulink url="https://tortoisegit.org/translate">submit your own translation</ulink> ;-)\r
302 </para>\r
303 <para>\r
304 Each language pack is packaged as a <filename>.msi</filename> installer.\r
305 Just run the install program after the installation of the main TortoiseGit package and follow the instructions.\r
306 After the installation finishes, the translation will be available and can be selected in settings dialog (cf. <xref linkend="tgit-dug-settings-main"/>).\r
307 </para>\r
308 </sect2>\r
309 <sect2 id="tgit-intro-instalsl-spell">\r
310 <title>Spell checker</title>\r
311 <indexterm>\r
312 <primary>spell checker</primary>\r
313 </indexterm>\r
314 <indexterm>\r
315 <primary>dictionary</primary>\r
316 </indexterm>\r
317 <para>\r
318 TortoiseGit includes a spell checker which allows you to check your\r
319 commit log messages. This is especially useful if the project language\r
320 is not your native language.\r
321 By default the spell checker uses the same dictionary files as\r
322 <ulink url="https://www.libreoffice.org/">\r
323 <citetitle>LibreOffice</citetitle>\r
324 </ulink>,\r
325 <ulink url="https://www.openoffice.org/">\r
326 <citetitle>OpenOffice.org</citetitle>\r
327 </ulink>\r
328 and\r
329 <ulink url="https://mozilla.org">\r
330 <citetitle>Mozilla</citetitle>\r
331 </ulink>.\r
332 TortoiseGit can also use the spell checker shipped with Windows 8+. However, this needs to be enabled manually in advanced settings (key "Win8SpellChecker") at the moment.\r
333 </para>\r
334 <para>\r
335 The installer by default automatically adds the US English dictionary.\r
336 If you want other languages, the easiest option is simply to\r
337 install one of TortoiseGit's language packs (see <xref linkend="tgit-intro-install-lang"/>). This will install\r
338 the appropriate dictionary files as well as the TortoiseGit local\r
339 user interface.\r
340 After the installation finishes, the translation will be available.\r
341 When using the Windows spell checker, you need to install the dictionary in Windows first.\r
342 </para>\r
343 <para>\r
344 Or you can install the dictionaries yourself. If you have OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice or\r
345 Mozilla installed, you can copy those dictionaries, which are located\r
346 in the installation folders for those applications.\r
347 Otherwise, you need to download the required dictionary files from\r
348 <ulink url="https://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/dictionaries/">\r
349 <citetitle>https://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/dictionaries/</citetitle>\r
350 </ulink>\r
351 or\r
352 <ulink url="https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Dictionaries">\r
353 <citetitle>https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Dictionaries</citetitle>\r
354 </ulink>\r
355 </para>\r
356 <para>\r
357 Once you have got the dictionary files, you\r
358 probably need to rename them so that the filenames only have\r
359 the locale chars in it.\r
360 Example:\r
361 <itemizedlist>\r
362 <listitem>\r
363 <para>\r
364 <filename>en_US.aff</filename>\r
365 </para>\r
366 </listitem>\r
367 <listitem>\r
368 <para>\r
369 <filename>en_US.dic</filename>\r
370 </para>\r
371 </listitem>\r
372 </itemizedlist>\r
373 Then just copy them into the <filename>%APPDATA%\TortoiseGit\dic</filename> folder. If that folder isn't\r
374 there, you have to create it first.\r
375 TortoiseGit will also search the <filename>Languages</filename> sub-folder of\r
376 the TortoiseGit installation folder (normally this will be <filename>C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\Languages</filename>);\r
377 this is the place where the language packs put their files.\r
378 However, the <filename>%APPDATA%</filename>-folder doesn't require administrator privileges and, thus, has higher priority.\r
379 The next time you start TortoiseGit, the spell checker will be available.\r
380 </para>\r
381 <para>\r
382 If you install multiple dictionaries, TortoiseGit uses these rules\r
383 to select which one to use.\r
384 <orderedlist>\r
385 <listitem>\r
386 <para>\r
387 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"/>).\r
388 Refer to <xref linkend="git-config(1)"/> for information\r
389 about setting properties (use the <literal>LCID Dec</literal> value as <ulink url="https://docs.microsoft.com/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-lcid/a9eac961-e77d-41a6-90a5-ce1a8b0cdb9c">assigned by Microsoft</ulink>).\r
390 </para>\r
391 </listitem>\r
392 <listitem>\r
393 <para>\r
394 If no project language is set, or that language is not\r
395 installed, try the language corresponding to the Windows locale.\r
396 </para>\r
397 </listitem>\r
398 <listitem>\r
399 <para>\r
400 If the exact Windows locale doesn't work, try the\r
401 <quote>Base</quote> language, e.g.\r
402 <literal>de_CH</literal> (Swiss-German) falls back to\r
403 <literal>de_DE</literal> (German).\r
404 </para>\r
405 </listitem>\r
406 <listitem>\r
407 <para>\r
408 If none of the above works, then the default language\r
409 is English, which is included by default with the standard installation.\r
410 </para>\r
411 </listitem>\r
412 </orderedlist>\r
413 When using the Windows spell checker, this is tried first. If no Windows dictionary, based on these fallback-rules, could be found then the "old" spell checker is used as a fallback.\r
414 </para>\r
415 </sect2>\r
416 </sect1>\r
417 </chapter>\r
418 <!--\r
419 local variables:\r
420 sgml-parent-document: ("book.xml" "chapter")\r
421 end:\r
422 -->\r