1 # git-cola: The highly caffeinated Git GUI
3 Git Cola is a powerful Git GUI with a slick and intuitive user interface.
5 git clone https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola
7 [![Build status](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola/actions/workflows/main.yml/badge.svg?branch=main&event=push)](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola/actions/workflows/main.yml)
9 * [Screenshots](https://git-cola.github.io/screenshots.html)
11 * [Downloads](https://git-cola.github.io/downloads.html)
16 * [HTML documentation](https://git-cola.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
18 * [Git Cola documentation](share/doc/git-cola/git-cola.rst)
20 * [Git DAG documentation](share/doc/git-cola/git-dag.rst)
22 * [Keyboard shortcuts](https://git-cola.github.io/share/doc/git-cola/hotkeys.html)
24 * [Contributing guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md)
31 * [Sphinx](http://sphinx-doc.org/) is used to generate the documentation.
35 * [Git](https://git-scm.com/) 2.2.0 or newer.
37 * [Python](https://python.org/) 3.6 or newer.
39 * [QtPy](https://github.com/spyder-ide/qtpy) 1.1.0 or newer.
41 Git Cola uses QtPy, so you can choose between PyQt5 and PySide2 by setting
42 the `QT_API` environment variable to `pyqt5` or `pyside2` as desired.
43 `qtpy` defaults to `pyqt5` and falls back to `pyside2` if `pyqt5` is not installed.
45 Any of the following Python Qt libraries must be installed:
47 * [PyQt5](https://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/download5)
50 * [PySide2](https://github.com/PySide/PySide)
53 Set `QT_API=pyqt4` in your environment if you have both
54 versions of PyQt installed and want to ensure that PyQt4 is used.
58 Git Cola enables additional features when the following
59 Python modules are installed.
61 [send2trash](https://github.com/hsoft/send2trash) enables cross-platform
62 "Send to Trash" functionality.
65 # How to Install Git Cola
69 You can run Git Cola directly from its source tree and try the latest version
70 without needing to `make install` it.
72 git clone https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola
77 You can also start `cola` as a Python module if Python can find it.
83 Having git-cola's `bin/` directory in your path allows you to run
84 `git cola` like a regular built-in Git command:
86 # Replace "$HOME/git-cola/bin" with the path to git-cola's bin/ directory
87 PATH="$HOME/git-cola/bin":"$PATH"
93 The instructions below assume that you have git-cola present in your
94 `$PATH`. Replace `git cola` with `./bin/git-cola` to run it in-place.
96 ## Python Virtual Environments
98 If you don't have PyQt installed then the easiest way to get it is to use a Python
99 virtualenv and install PyQt5 inside of it.
102 ./env3/bin/pip install -r requirements/requirements.txt
104 You can then run Git Cola using the `env3` virtualenv.
106 ./env3/bin/python ./bin/git-cola
108 ## Standalone Installation
110 Running `make install` will install Git Cola in your `$HOME` directory
111 (`$HOME/bin/git-cola`, `$HOME/share/git-cola`, etc).
113 If you want to do a global install you can do
115 make prefix=/usr install
117 Distutils is used by the `Makefile` via `setup.py` to install git-cola and
118 its launcher scripts. distutils replaces the `#!/usr/bin/env python` lines in
119 scripts with the full path to python at build time, which can be undesirable
120 when the runtime python is not the same as the build-time python.
122 To disable the replacement of the `#!/usr/bin/env python` lines, pass `USE_ENV_PYTHON=1`
127 Linux is it! Your distro has probably already packaged git-cola.
128 If not, please file a bug against your distribution ;-)
132 Available in the [AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/git-cola/).
148 zypper install git-cola
152 Available in [SlackBuilds.org](http://slackbuilds.org/result/?search=git-cola).
156 [See here](https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=git-cola) for the
157 versions that are available in Ubuntu's repositories.
159 There was a [PPA by @pavreh](https://launchpad.net/~pavreh/+archive/ubuntu/git-cola)
160 but it has not been updated for a while.
165 # install from official binary packages
166 pkg install -r FreeBSD devel/git-cola
169 cd /usr/ports/devel/git-cola && make clean install
173 [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) is the easiest way to install
174 Git Cola's PyQt5 dependencies. We will use Homebrew to install
175 the git-cola recipe, but build our own .app bundle from source.
177 [Sphinx](http://sphinx-doc.org/latest/install.html) is used to build the
180 brew install sphinx-doc
181 brew install git-cola
183 Once brew has installed `git-cola` you can:
185 1. Clone the git-cola repositroy
187 git clone https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola
190 2. Build the git-cola.app application bundle
193 PYTHON=$(brew --prefix python3)/bin/python3 \
194 PYTHON_CONFIG=$(brew --prefix python3)/bin/python3-config \
195 SPHINXBUILD=$(brew --prefix sphinx-doc)/bin/sphinx-build \
198 3. Copy it to /Applications
200 rsync -ar --delete git-cola.app/ /Applications/git-cola.app/
202 Newer versions of Homebrew install their own `python3` installation and
203 provide the `PyQt5` modules for `python3` only. You have to use
204 `python3 ./bin/git-cola` when running from the source tree.
206 ### Upgrading using Homebrew
208 If you upgrade using `brew` then it is recommended that you re-install
209 Git Colaa's dependencies when upgrading. Re-installing ensures that the
210 Python modules provided by Homebrew will be properly set up.
212 A quick fix when upgrading to newer versions of XCode or macOS is to
215 brew reinstall pyqt@5
217 You may also need to relink your pyqt installation:
221 This is required when upgrading to a modern (post-10.11 El Capitan) Mac OS X.
222 Homebrew now bundles its own Python3 installation instead of using the
223 system-provided default Python.
225 If the "brew reinstall" command above does not work then re-installing from
226 scratch using the instructions below should get things back in shape.
231 # uninstall git-cola and its dependencies
232 brew uninstall git-cola
236 # re-install git-cola and its dependencies
237 brew install git-cola
241 IMPORTANT If you have a 64-bit machine, install the 64-bit versions only.
242 Do not mix 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
244 Download and install the following:
246 * [Git for Windows](https://git-for-windows.github.io/)
248 * [Git Cola](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola/releases)
250 Once these are installed you can run Git Cola from the Start menu.
252 See "Windows (Continued)" below for more details.
257 Git Cola ships with an interactive rebase editor called `git-cola-sequence-editor`.
258 `git-cola-sequence-editor` is used to reorder and choose commits when rebasing.
259 Start an interactive rebase through the "Rebase" menu, or through the
260 `git cola rebase` sub-command to use the `git-cola-sequence-editor`:
262 git cola rebase @{upstream}
264 `git-cola-sequence-editor` can be launched independently of git cola by telling
265 `git rebase` to use it as its editor through the `GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR`
266 environment variable:
268 export GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR="$HOME/git-cola/bin/git-cola-sequence-editor"
269 git rebase -i @{upstream}
272 # Git Cola Sub-commands
274 The `git-cola` command exposes various sub-commands that allow you to quickly
275 launch tools that are available from within the git-cola interface.
276 For example, `git cola find` launches the file finder,
277 and `git cola grep` launches the grep tool.
279 See `git cola --help-commands` for the full list of commands.
281 $ git cola --help-commands
284 {cola,am,archive,branch,browse,config,
285 dag,diff,fetch,find,grep,merge,pull,push,
286 rebase,remote,search,stash,tag,version}
290 {cola,am,archive,branch,browse,config,
291 dag,diff,fetch,find,grep,merge,pull,push,
292 rebase,remote,search,stash,tag,version}
295 am apply patches using "git am"
296 archive save an archive
297 branch create a branch
298 browse browse repository
299 config edit configuration
306 pull pull remote branches
307 push push remote branches
308 rebase interactive rebase
310 search search commits
311 stash stash and unstash changes
313 version print the version
317 The following commands should be run during development:
322 # Run tests and longer-running pylint and flake8 checks
325 # Run tests against multiple python interpreters using tox
328 The test suite can be found in the [test](test) directory.
330 Commits and pull requests are automatically tested for code quality
331 using [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola/actions/workflows/main.yml).
333 Auto-format `po/*.po` files before committing when updating translations:
337 When submitting patches, consult the
338 [contributing guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md).
343 Git Cola installs its modules into the default Python site-packages directory
344 (eg. `lib/python3.7/site-packages`), and in its own private `share/git-cola/lib`
345 area by default. The private modules are redundant and not needed when cola's modules
346 have been installed into the site-packages directory.
348 Git Cola will prefer its private modules when the `share/git-cola/lib` directory
349 exists, but they are not required to exist. This directory is optional, and can
350 be safely removed if the cola modules have been installed into site-packages
351 and are importable through the default `sys.path`.
353 To suppress the installation of the private (redundant) `share/git-cola/lib/cola`
354 package, specify `make NO_PRIVATE_LIBS=1 ...` when invoking `make`,
355 or export `GIT_COLA_NO_PRIVATE_LIBS=1` into the build environment.
357 make NO_PRIVATE_LIBS=1 ...
359 Git Cola installs a vendored copy of its QtPy dependency by default.
360 Git Cola provides a copy of the `qtpy` module in its private modules area
361 when installing Git Cola so that you are not required to install QtPy separately.
362 If you'd like to provide your own `qtpy` module, for example from the `python-qtpy`
363 Debian package, then specify `make NO_VENDOR_LIBS=1 ...` when invoking `make`,
364 or export `GIT_COLA_NO_VENDOR_LIBS=1` into the build environment.
366 make NO_VENDOR_LIBS=1 ...
368 Python3 users on debian will need to install `python3-distutils` in order
369 to run the Makefile's installation steps. `distutils` is a Python build
370 requirement, but not needed at runtime.
372 # Windows (Continued)
376 In order to develop Git Cola on Windows you will need to install
377 Python3 and pip. Install PyQt5 using `pip install PyQt5`
378 to make the PyQt5 bindings available to Python.
380 Once these are installed you can use `python.exe` to run
381 directly from the source tree. For example, from a Git Bash terminal:
383 /c/Python36/python.exe ./bin/git-cola
385 ## Multiple Python versions
387 If you have multiple versions of Python installed, the `contrib/win32/cola`
388 launcher script might choose the newer version instead of the python
389 that has PyQt installed. In order to resolve this, you can set the
390 `cola.pythonlocation` git configuration variable to tell cola where to
391 find python. For example:
393 git config --global cola.pythonlocation /c/Python36
395 ## Building Windows Installers
397 Windows installers are built using
399 * [Pynsist](https://pynsist.readthedocs.io/en/latest/).
401 * [NSIS](http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page) is also needed.
403 To build the installer using Pynsist run:
405 ./contrib/win32/run-pynsist.sh
407 This will generate an installer in `build/nsis/`.
409 ## Windows "History Browser" Configuration Upgrade
411 You may need to configure your history browser if you are upgrading from an
412 older version of Git Cola on Windows.
414 `gitk` was originally the default history browser, but `gitk` cannot be
415 launched as-is on Windows because `gitk` is a shell script.
417 If you are configured to use `gitk`, then change your configuration to
418 go through Git's `sh.exe` on Windows. Similarly, we must go through
419 `python.exe` if we want to use `git-dag`.
421 If you want to use gitk as your history browser open the
422 Preferences screen and change the history browser command to:
424 "C:/Program Files/Git/bin/sh.exe" --login -i C:/Git/bin/gitk
426 `git-dag` became the default history browser on Windows in `v2.3`, so new
427 users do not need to configure anything.