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 * [Keyboard shortcuts](https://git-cola.github.io/share/doc/git-cola/hotkeys.html)
18 * [HTML documentation](https://git-cola.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
20 * [Git Cola documentation](docs/git-cola.rst)
22 * [Git DAG documentation](docs/git-dag.rst)
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 PyQt6, PyQt5 and PySide2 by setting
42 the `QT_API` environment variable to `pyqt6`, `pyqt5` or `pyside2` as desired.
43 `qtpy` defaults to `pyqt6` and falls back to `pyqt6` and `pyside2` if `pyqt5`
46 Any of the following Python Qt libraries must be installed:
48 * [PyQt5 / PyQt6](https://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/download5)
49 5.6 or newer is required. Qt 6.0 is also supported via QtPy.
51 * [PySide2](https://github.com/PySide/PySide)
57 Git Cola enables additional features when the following
58 Python modules are installed.
60 [send2trash](https://github.com/hsoft/send2trash) enables cross-platform
61 "Send to Trash" functionality.
66 **IMPORTANT**: never run `pip install` or `make install` as root or outside of a
69 There are several ways to install Git Cola.
73 Linux is it! Your distro has probably already packaged `git-cola`.
74 If not, please file a bug against your distribution ;-)
78 Available in the [AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/git-cola/).
94 zypper install git-cola
98 Available in [SlackBuilds.org](http://slackbuilds.org/result/?search=git-cola).
102 [See here](https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=git-cola) for the
103 versions that are available in Ubuntu's repositories.
105 There was a [PPA by @pavreh](https://launchpad.net/~pavreh/+archive/ubuntu/git-cola)
106 but it has not been updated for a while.
111 # Install from official binary packages
112 pkg install -r FreeBSD devel/git-cola
115 cd /usr/ports/devel/git-cola && make clean install
118 ## Install into a Python Virtualenv from PyPI using pip
120 **IMPORTANT**: never run `pip install` or `make install` as root or outside of a
123 One way to install the latest released version is to use `venv` (virtualenv) and `pip`.
124 This installs [git-cola from pypi.org](https://pypi.org/project/git-cola/).
127 ./env3/bin/pip install git-cola
130 Add the `env3/bin` directory to your `$PATH`, or symlink to `bin/git-cola` from
131 somewhere in your `$PATH` such as `~/.local/bin/git-cola`, and you can launch
132 Git Cola like any other built-in `git` command:
138 ## Install into a Python Virtualenv from Source
140 If you don't have PyQt installed then the easiest way to get it is to use a Python
141 virtualenv and install Git Cola into it in "editable" mode. This install method
142 lets you upgrade Git Cola by running `git pull`.
144 # Create a virtualenv called "env3" and activate it.
146 source env3/bin/activate
148 # One-time setup: install optional requirements for development.
149 make requirements-dev requirements-optional
151 # Install git-cola in "editable" mode so that it uses the source tree.
154 # Run Git Cola via the "git-cola" Git subcommand.
158 If you add `env3/bin` (or symlink to `bin/git-cola` ) to your `$PATH` then you can
159 run `git cola` as if it were a builtin `git` command from outside of the virtualenv
160 (eg. after running "deactivate" or when opening a new shell).
163 ## Standalone Installation from Source
165 Running `make install prefix=$HOME/.local` will install Git Cola in your
166 `$HOME/.local` directory (`$HOME/.local/bin/git-cola`, `$HOME/.local/lib`, etc).
168 This installation method assumes that the `qtpy` and `PyQt*` dependencies have
171 The `Makefile` also supports `DESTDIR` to support creating packages for Linux package
174 make DESTDIR=/tmp/stage prefix=/usr/local install
179 For most end-users we recommend using either Homebrew or installing into
180 a Python virtualenv as described above.
182 You can install Git Cola from source using the same steps as above.
186 An easy way to install Git Cola is to use [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) .
187 Use Homebrew to install the git-cola recipe:
189 brew install git-cola
191 If you install using Homebrew you can stop at this step.
192 You don't need to clone the repo or anything.
196 If you have all of the dependencies installed, either via `pip` or `brew` then
197 you can build a shell `git-cola.app` app bundle wrapper for use in `/Applications`.
199 If you'd like to build a `git-cola.app` bundle for `/Applications` run this command:
203 You will need to periodically rebuild the app wrapper whenever Python is upgraded.
205 ### Updating macOS and Homebrew
207 Updating macOS can often break Homebrew-managed software.
209 If you upgrade your macOS version and Git Cola no longer runs then then it is
210 recommended that you re-install Git Cola's dependencies after upgrading.
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
242 IMPORTANT If you have a 64-bit machine, install the 64-bit versions only.
243 Do not mix 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
245 Download and install the following:
247 * [Git for Windows](https://git-for-windows.github.io/)
249 * [Git Cola](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola/releases)
251 Once these are installed you can run Git Cola from the Start menu.
253 See "Windows (Continued)" below for more details.
258 Git Cola ships with an interactive rebase editor called `git-cola-sequence-editor`.
259 `git-cola-sequence-editor` is used to reorder and choose commits when rebasing.
260 Start an interactive rebase through the "Rebase" menu, or through the
261 `git cola rebase` sub-command to use the `git-cola-sequence-editor`:
263 git cola rebase @{upstream}
265 `git-cola-sequence-editor` can be launched independently of git cola by telling
266 `git rebase` to use it as its editor through the `GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR`
267 environment variable:
269 export GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR="$HOME/git-cola/bin/git-cola-sequence-editor"
270 git rebase -i @{upstream}
273 # Git Cola Sub-commands
275 The `git-cola` command exposes various sub-commands that allow you to quickly
276 launch tools that are available from within the git-cola interface.
277 For example, `git cola find` launches the file finder,
278 and `git cola grep` launches the grep tool.
280 See `git cola --help-commands` for the full list of commands.
282 $ git cola --help-commands
285 {cola,am,archive,branch,browse,config,
286 dag,diff,fetch,find,grep,merge,pull,push,
287 rebase,remote,search,stash,tag,version}
291 {cola,am,archive,branch,browse,config,
292 dag,diff,fetch,find,grep,merge,pull,push,
293 rebase,remote,search,stash,tag,version}
296 am apply patches using "git am"
297 archive save an archive
298 branch create a branch
299 browse browse repository
300 config edit configuration
307 pull pull remote branches
308 push push remote branches
309 rebase interactive rebase
311 search search commits
312 stash stash and unstash changes
314 version print the version
318 If you already have Git Cola's dependencies installed then you can
319 start `cola` as a Python module if you have the source code available.
325 The following commands should be run during development:
330 # Run tests and longer-running pylint and flake8 checks
333 # Run tests against multiple python interpreters using tox
336 The test suite can be found in the [test](test) directory.
338 Commits and pull requests are automatically tested for code quality
339 using [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola/actions/workflows/main.yml).
341 Auto-format `cola/i18n/*.po` files before committing when updating translations:
345 When submitting patches, consult the
346 [contributing guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md).
351 Git Cola installs its modules into the default Python site-packages directory
352 (eg. `lib/python3.7/site-packages`) using setuptools.
354 While end-users can use `pip install git-cola` to install Git Cola, distribution
355 packagers should use the `make prefix=/usr` install process. Git Cola's `Makefile` wraps
356 `pip install --prefix=<prefix>` to provide a packaging-friendly `make install` target.
359 # Windows (Continued)
361 ## Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable
363 Earlier versions of Git Cola may have shipped without `vcruntime140.dll` and may
364 not run on machines that are missing this DLL.
366 To fix this, download the
367 [Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=52685)
370 Git Cola v4.0.0 and newer include this DLL and do not require this to be installed
375 In order to develop Git Cola on Windows you will need to install
376 Python3 and pip. Install PyQt5 using `pip install PyQt5`
377 to make the PyQt5 bindings available to Python.
379 Once these are installed you can use `python.exe` to run
380 directly from the source tree. For example, from a Git Bash terminal:
382 /c/Python36/python.exe ./bin/git-cola
384 ## Multiple Python versions
386 If you have multiple versions of Python installed, the `contrib/win32/cola`
387 launcher script might choose the newer version instead of the python
388 that has PyQt installed. In order to resolve this, you can set the
389 `cola.pythonlocation` git configuration variable to tell cola where to
390 find python. For example:
392 git config --global cola.pythonlocation /c/Python39
394 ## Building Windows Installers
396 Windows installers are built using
398 * [Pynsist](https://pynsist.readthedocs.io/en/latest/).
400 * [NSIS](http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page) is also needed.
402 To build the installer using Pynsist run:
404 ./contrib/win32/run-pynsist.sh
406 This will generate an installer in `build/nsis/`.
408 ## Windows "History Browser" Configuration Upgrade
410 You may need to configure your history browser if you are upgrading from an
411 older version of Git Cola on Windows.
413 `gitk` was originally the default history browser, but `gitk` cannot be
414 launched as-is on Windows because `gitk` is a shell script.
416 If you are configured to use `gitk`, then change your configuration to
417 go through Git's `sh.exe` on Windows. Similarly, we must go through
418 `python.exe` if we want to use `git-dag`.
420 If you want to use gitk as your history browser open the
421 Preferences screen and change the history browser command to:
423 "C:/Program Files/Git/bin/sh.exe" --login -i C:/Git/bin/gitk
425 `git-dag` became the default history browser on Windows in `v2.3`, so new
426 users do not need to configure anything.