1 # git-cola: The highly caffeinated Git GUI
3 git-cola is a powerful Git GUI with a slick and intuitive user interface.
5 Copyright (C) 2007-2020, David Aguilar and contributors
7 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
8 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
9 the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or
10 (at your option) any later version.
12 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
13 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
14 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
15 GNU General Public License for more details.
17 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
18 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
22 Screenshots are available on the
23 [git-cola screenshots page](https://git-cola.github.io/screenshots.html).
29 New releases are available on the
30 [git-cola download page](https://git-cola.github.io/downloads.html).
34 git clone git://github.com/git-cola/git-cola.git
36 [![git-cola build status](https://api.travis-ci.org/git-cola/git-cola.svg?branch=main)](https://travis-ci.org/git-cola/git-cola)
38 [git-cola on github](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola)
40 [git-cola google group](https://groups.google.com/group/git-cola/)
47 * [git](https://git-scm.com/) 1.6.3 or newer.
49 * [Python](https://python.org/) 2.6 or newer (Python 2+3 compatible).
51 * [QtPy](https://github.com/spyder-ide/qtpy) 1.1.0 or newer.
53 * [argparse](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/argparse) 1.1 or newer.
54 argparse is part of the stdlib in Python 2.7; install argparse separately if
55 you are running on Python 2.6.
57 * [Sphinx](http://sphinx-doc.org/) for building the documentation.
59 git-cola uses QtPy, so you can choose between PyQt4, PyQt5, and
60 PySide by setting the `QT_API` environment variable to `pyqt4`, `pyqt5` or
61 `pyside` as desired. `qtpy` defaults to `pyqt5` and falls back to `pyqt4`
62 if `pyqt5` is not installed.
64 Any of the following Python Qt libraries must be installed:
66 * [PyQt4](https://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/download)
69 * [PyQt5](https://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/download5)
72 * [PySide](https://github.com/PySide/PySide)
75 Set `QT_API=pyqt4` in your environment if you have both
76 versions of PyQt installed and want to ensure that PyQt4 is used.
80 git-cola enables additional features when the following
81 Python modules are installed.
83 [send2trash](https://github.com/hsoft/send2trash) enables cross-platform
84 "Send to Trash" functionality.
86 # BREWING INSTRUCTIONS
90 You don't need to install git-cola to run it.
91 Running git-cola from its source tree is the easiest
92 way to try the latest version.
94 git clone git://github.com/git-cola/git-cola.git
99 You can also start `cola` as a Python module if Python can find it.
105 Having git-cola's `bin/` directory in your path allows you to run
106 `git cola` like a regular built-in Git command:
108 # Replace "$PWD/bin" with the path to git-cola's bin/ directory
109 PATH="$PWD/bin":"$PATH"
115 The instructions below assume that you have git-cola present in your
116 `$PATH`. Replace "git cola" with "./bin/git-cola" as needed if you'd like to
117 just run it in-place.
121 * [HTML documentation](https://git-cola.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
123 * [git-cola manual](share/doc/git-cola/git-cola.rst)
125 * [git-dag manual](share/doc/git-cola/git-dag.rst)
127 * [Keyboard shortcuts](https://git-cola.github.io/share/doc/git-cola/hotkeys.html)
129 * [Contributing guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md)
133 Normally you can just do "make install" to install git-cola
134 in your `$HOME` directory (`$HOME/bin`, `$HOME/share`, etc).
135 If you want to do a global install you can do
137 make prefix=/usr install
139 The platform-specific installation methods below use the native
140 package manager. You should use one of these so that all of git-cola's
141 dependencies are installed.
143 Distutils is used by the `Makefile` via `setup.py` to install git-cola and
144 its launcher scripts. distutils replaces the `#!/usr/bin/env python` lines in
145 scripts with the full path to python at build time, which can be undesirable
146 when the runtime python is not the same as the build-time python. To disable
147 the replacement of the `#!/usr/bin/env python` lines, pass `USE_ENV_PYTHON=1`
152 Linux is it! Your distro has probably already packaged git-cola.
153 If not, please file a bug against your distribution ;-)
157 Available in the [AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/git-cola/).
173 zypper install git-cola
177 Available in [SlackBuilds.org](http://slackbuilds.org/result/?search=git-cola).
181 # install from official binary packages
182 pkg install -r FreeBSD devel/git-cola
184 cd /usr/ports/devel/git-cola && make clean install
188 [See here](https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=git-cola) for the
189 versions that are available in Ubuntu's repositories.
191 There was a [PPA by @pavreh](https://launchpad.net/~pavreh/+archive/ubuntu/git-cola)
192 but it has not been updated for a while.
196 [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) is the easiest way to install
197 git-cola's Qt4 and PyQt4 dependencies. We will use Homebrew to install
198 the git-cola recipe, but build our own .app bundle from source.
200 [Sphinx](http://sphinx-doc.org/latest/install.html) is used to build the
203 brew install sphinx-doc
204 brew install git-cola
206 Once brew has installed git-cola you can:
210 `git clone git://github.com/git-cola/git-cola.git && cd git-cola`
212 2. Build the git-cola.app application bundle
216 PYTHON=$(brew --prefix python3)/bin/python3 \
217 PYTHON_CONFIG=$(brew --prefix python3)/bin/python3-config \
218 SPHINXBUILD=$(brew --prefix sphinx-doc)/bin/sphinx-build \
222 3. Copy it to /Applications
224 `rm -fr /Applications/git-cola.app && cp -r git-cola.app /Applications`
226 Newer versions of Homebrew install their own `python3` installation and
227 provide the `PyQt5` modules for `python3` only. You have to use
228 `python3 ./bin/git-cola` when running from the source tree.
230 ### UPGRADING USING HOMEBREW
232 If you upgrade using `brew` then it is recommended that you re-install
233 git-cola's dependencies when upgrading. Re-installing ensures that the
234 Python modules provided by Homebrew will be properly set up.
236 A quick fix when upgrading to newer versions of XCode or macOS is to
239 brew reinstall pyqt@5
241 You may also need to relink your pyqt installation:
245 This is required when upgrading to a modern (post-10.11 El Capitan) Mac OS X.
246 Homebrew now bundles its own Python3 installation instead of using the
247 system-provided default Python.
249 If the "brew reinstall" command above does not work then re-installing from
250 scratch using the instructions below should get things back in shape.
255 # uninstall git-cola and its dependencies
256 brew uninstall git-cola
260 # re-install git-cola and its dependencies
261 brew install git-cola
263 ## WINDOWS INSTALLATION
265 IMPORTANT If you have a 64-bit machine, install the 64-bit versions only.
266 Do not mix 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
268 Download and install the following:
270 * [Git for Windows](https://git-for-windows.github.io/)
272 * [Git Cola](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola/releases)
274 Once these are installed you can run Git Cola from the Start menu.
276 See "WINDOWS (continued)" below for more details.
280 git cola ships with an interactive rebase editor called `git-cola-sequence-editor`.
281 `git-cola-sequence-editor` is used to reorder and choose commits when rebasing.
282 Start an interactive rebase through the "Rebase" menu, or through the
283 `git cola rebase` sub-command to use the `git-cola-sequence-editor`:
285 git cola rebase origin/main
287 git-cola-sequence-editor can be launched independently of git cola by telling
288 `git rebase` to use it as its editor through the `GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR`
289 enviironment variable:
291 env GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR="$PWD/bin/git-cola-sequence-editor" \
292 git rebase -i origin/main
296 The git-cola command exposes various sub-commands that allow you to quickly
297 launch tools that are available from within the git-cola interface.
298 For example, `./bin/git-cola find` launches the file finder,
299 and `./bin/git-cola grep` launches the grep tool.
301 See `git cola --help-commands` for the full list of commands.
303 $ git cola --help-commands
306 {cola,am,archive,branch,browse,config,
307 dag,diff,fetch,find,grep,merge,pull,push,
308 rebase,remote,search,stash,tag,version}
312 {cola,am,archive,branch,browse,config,
313 dag,diff,fetch,find,grep,merge,pull,push,
314 rebase,remote,search,stash,tag,version}
317 am apply patches using "git am"
318 archive save an archive
319 branch create a branch
320 browse browse repository
321 config edit configuration
328 pull pull remote branches
329 push push remote branches
330 rebase interactive rebase
332 search search commits
333 stash stash and unstash changes
335 version print the version
339 The following commands should be run during development:
344 # Run tests and longer-running pylint and flake8 checks
347 # Run tests against multiple python interpreters using tox
350 The test suite can be found in the [test](test) directory.
352 The tests are set up to run automatically when code is pushed using
353 [Travis CI](https://travis-ci.org/git-cola/git-cola).
354 Checkout the [Travis config file](.travis.yml) for more details.
356 Auto-format `po/*.po` files before committing when updating translations:
360 When submitting patches, consult the
361 [contributing guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md).
365 For Linux/Unix-like environments with symlinks, an easy way to use the latest
366 `git cola` is to keep a clone of the repository and symlink it into your
367 `~/bin` directory. If `$HOME/bin` is not already in your `$PATH` you can
368 add these two lines to the bottom of your `~/.bashrc` to make the linked
371 PATH="$HOME/bin":"$PATH"
374 Then, install git-cola by linking it into your `~/bin`:
377 git clone git://github.com/git-cola/git-cola.git ~/src/git-cola
379 ln -s ../src/git-cola/bin/git-cola &&
380 ln -s ../src/git-cola/bin/git-dag)
382 You should then get the latest `git cola` in your shell.
387 Git Cola installs its modules into the default Python site-packages directory
388 (eg. `lib/python2.7/site-packages`), and in its own private `share/git-cola/lib`
389 area by default. The private modules are redundant and not needed when cola's modules
390 have been installed into the site-packages directory.
392 Git Cola will prefer its private modules when the `share/git-cola/lib` directory
393 exists, but they are not required to exist. This directory is optional, and can
394 be safely removed if the cola modules have been installed into site-pacakges
395 and are importable through the default `sys.path`.
397 To suppress the installation of the private (redundant) `share/git-cola/lib/cola`
398 package, specify `make NO_PRIVATE_LIBS=1 ...` when invoking `make`,
399 or export `GIT_COLA_NO_PRIVATE_LIBS=1` into the build enviornment.
401 make NO_PRIVATE_LIBS=1 ...
403 Git Cola installs a vendored copy of its QtPy dependency by default.
404 Git Cola provides a copy of the `qtpy` module in its private modules area
405 when installing Git Cola so that you are not required to install QtPy separately.
406 If you'd like to provide your own `qtpy` module, for example from the `python-qtpy`
407 Debian package, then specify `make NO_VENDOR_LIBS=1 ...` when invoking `make`,
408 or export `GIT_COLA_NO_VENDOR_LIBS=1` into the build environment.
410 make NO_VENDOR_LIBS=1 ...
412 Python3 users on debian will need to install `python3-distutils` in order
413 to run the Makefile's installation steps. `distutils` is a Python build
414 requirement, but not needed at runtime.
416 # WINDOWS (continued)
420 In order to develop Git Cola on Windows you will need to install
421 Python3 and pip. Install PyQt5 using `pip install PyQt5`
422 to make the PyQt5 bindings available to Python.
424 Once these are installed you can use `python.exe` to run
425 directly from the source tree. For example, from a Git Bash terminal:
427 /c/Python36/python.exe ./bin/git-cola
429 ## Multiple Python versions
431 If you have multiple versions of Python installed, the `contrib/win32/cola`
432 launcher script might choose the newer version instead of the python
433 that has PyQt installed. In order to resolve this, you can set the
434 `cola.pythonlocation` git configuration variable to tell cola where to
435 find python. For example:
437 git config --global cola.pythonlocation /c/Python36
439 ## BUILDING WINDOWS INSTALLERS
441 Windows installers are built using
443 * [Pynsist](https://pynsist.readthedocs.io/en/latest/).
445 * [NSIS](http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page) is also needed.
447 To build the installer using Pynsist run:
449 ./contrib/win32/run-pynsist.sh
451 This will generate an installer in `build/nsis/`.
453 ## WINDOWS HISTORY BROWSER CONFIGURATION UPGRADE
455 You may need to configure your history browser if you are upgrading from an
456 older version of Git Cola.
458 `gitk` was originally the default history browser, but `gitk` cannot be
459 launched as-is on Windows because `gitk` is a shell script.
461 If you are configured to use `gitk`, then change your configuration to
462 go through Git's `sh.exe` on Windows. Similarly, we must go through
463 `python.exe` if we want to use `git-dag`.
465 If you want to use gitk as your history browser open the
466 Preferences screen and change the history browser command to:
468 "C:/Program Files/Git/bin/sh.exe" --login -i C:/Git/bin/gitk
470 git-dag became the default history browser on Windows in `v2.3`, so new
471 users should not need to configure anything.