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.git
7 [![License](https://img.shields.io/:license-GPL-green.svg)](LICENSE)
8 [![Build status](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg?event=push)](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola/actions/workflows/main.yml)
9 [![OpenSSF Best Practices](https://bestpractices.coreinfrastructure.org/projects/251/badge)](https://bestpractices.coreinfrastructure.org/projects/251)
10 [![pre-commit.ci](https://results.pre-commit.ci/badge/github/git-cola/git-cola/main.svg)](https://results.pre-commit.ci/latest/github/git-cola/git-cola/main)
12 * [Screenshots](https://git-cola.github.io/screenshots.html)
14 * [Downloads](https://git-cola.github.io/downloads.html)
19 * [Keyboard shortcuts](https://git-cola.github.io/share/doc/git-cola/hotkeys.html)
21 * [HTML documentation](https://git-cola.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
23 * [Git Cola documentation](docs/git-cola.rst)
25 * [Git DAG documentation](docs/git-dag.rst)
27 * [Contributing guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md)
34 * [Sphinx](http://sphinx-doc.org/) is used to generate the documentation.
38 * [Git](https://git-scm.com/) 2.2.0 or newer.
40 * [Python](https://python.org/) 3.6 or newer.
42 * [QtPy](https://github.com/spyder-ide/qtpy) 2.0.0 or newer.
44 Git Cola uses QtPy, so you can choose between PyQt6, PyQt5 and PySide2 by setting
45 the `QT_API` environment variable to `pyqt6`, `pyqt5` or `pyside2` as desired.
46 `qtpy` defaults to `pyqt5` and falls back to `pyqt6` and `pyside2` if `pyqt5`
49 Any of the following Python Qt libraries must be installed:
51 * [PyQt5 / PyQt6](https://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/download5)
52 5.9 or newer is required. Qt 6.2 or newer is also supported via QtPy.
54 * [PySide2](https://github.com/PySide/PySide)
60 Git Cola enables additional features when the following
61 Python modules are installed.
63 [Send2Trash](https://pypi.org/project/Send2Trash/)
64 enables cross-platform "Send to Trash" functionality.
65 ([source](https://github.com/hsoft/send2trash))
67 [pyobjc](https://pypi.org/project/pyobjc/)
68 enables macOS-specific application themes on macOS.
69 ([source](https://github.com/ronaldoussoren/pyobjc))
74 There are several ways to install Git Cola but you do not need to "install" Git Cola
77 Git Cola is designed to run directly from its source tree. Installation is optional.
82 The recommended approach for running the latest Git Cola version is to install its
83 PyQt dependencies using your distribution's package manager and then run
84 `./bin/git-cola` directly from source.
87 ## Installing PyQt dependencies on Debian / Ubuntu systems
89 Git Cola works with either PyQt5 or PyQt6 because it uses the
90 [qtpy](https://github.com/spyder-ide/qtpy) library for PyQt compatibility.
94 Users on newer Debian/Ubuntu version can install a single package to run from source.
97 sudo apt install python3-qtpy
100 If you are on an older version that does not have `python3-qtpy` available then you can
101 install the following packages directly.
104 sudo apt install python3-pyqt5 python3-pyqt5.qtopengl python3-pyqt5.qtwebengine python3-pyqt5.qtsvg
109 If you'd like to use Git Cola with the newer PyQt6 ecosystem then you can install these
110 packages instead of PyQt5.
113 sudo apt install python3-pyqt6 python3-pyqt6.qtsvg python3-pyqt6.qtwebengine
116 At this point you should be able to launch `./bin/git-cola` from the source tree and
117 there is nothing more to do.
119 The further instructions below detail how to install Git Cola from PyPI or how to
120 install it into a location separate from the source tree.
125 Linux is it! Your distro has probably already packaged `git-cola`.
126 If not, please file a bug against your distribution ;-)
130 Available in the [AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/git-cola/).
146 zypper install git-cola
150 Available in [SlackBuilds.org](http://slackbuilds.org/result/?search=git-cola).
154 [See here](https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=git-cola) for the
155 versions that are available in Ubuntu's repositories.
159 # Install from official binary packages
160 pkg install -r FreeBSD devel/git-cola
163 cd /usr/ports/devel/git-cola && make clean install
165 ## Install into a Python Virtualenv from PyPI using pip
167 **IMPORTANT**: never run `pip install` or `garden install` outside of a
168 Python virtualenv or as root!
170 **IMPORTANT**: if you are on Linux distributions where PyQt6 or PyQt5 are available from
171 your package manager then it is highly recommended to install those dependencies using
172 your system's package manager. See the section above for details.
174 One way to install the latest released version is to use `venv` (virtualenv) and `pip`.
175 This installs [git-cola from pypi.org](https://pypi.org/project/git-cola/).
177 python3 -m venv --system-site-packages env3
178 ./env3/bin/pip install git-cola
181 Add the `env3/bin` directory to your `PATH` or symlink to `bin/git-cola` from
182 somewhere in your `PATH` such as `~/.local/bin/git-cola`, and you can launch
183 Git Cola like any other built-in `git` command:
189 ## Install into a Python Virtualenv from Source
191 If you don't have PyQt installed then the easiest way to get it is to use a Python
192 virtualenv and install Git Cola into it in "editable" mode.
194 This install method lets you upgrade Git Cola by running `git pull`.
196 # Create a virtualenv called "env3" and activate it.
197 python3 -m venv --system-site-packages env3
199 # Install PyQt and (optional) extra packages to enable all features.
200 ./env3/bin/pip install --editable '.[extras,pyqt6]'
202 # Run Git Cola via the "git-cola" Git subcommand.
203 source env3/bin/activate
206 If you add `env3/bin` (or symlink to `env3/bin/git-cola` ) somewhere in your `$PATH` then you can
207 run `git cola` as if it were a builtin `git` command from outside of the virtualenv
208 (e.g. after running "deactivate" or when opening a new shell).
211 ## Standalone Installation from Source
213 Running `garden -D prefix=$HOME/.local install` will install Git Cola in your
214 `$HOME/.local` directory (`$HOME/.local/bin/git-cola`, `$HOME/.local/lib`, etc).
216 This installation method assumes that the `qtpy` and `PyQt*` dependencies have
219 The Garden recipe also supports `DESTDIR` to support creating packages for Linux package
222 garden -D DESTDIR=/tmp/stage -D prefix=/usr/local install
224 If you do not have `garden` available then `make` can be used instead.
225 The `Makefile` supports staged installs using the conventional
226 [DESTDIR](https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/DESTDIR.html) and
227 [prefix](https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/Directory-Variables.html)
230 make DESTDIR=/tmp/stage prefix=/usr/local install
235 For most end-users we recommend using either Homebrew or installing into
236 a Python virtualenv as described above.
238 You can install Git Cola from source using the same steps as above.
242 An easy way to install Git Cola is to use [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) .
243 Use Homebrew to install the git-cola recipe:
245 brew install git-cola
247 If you install using Homebrew you can stop at this step.
248 You don't need to clone the repo or anything.
252 If you have all of the dependencies installed, either via `pip` or `brew` then
253 you can build a shell `git-cola.app` app bundle wrapper for use in `/Applications`.
255 If you'd like to build a `git-cola.app` bundle for `/Applications` run this command:
259 You will need to periodically rebuild the app wrapper whenever Python is upgraded.
261 ### Updating macOS and Homebrew
263 Updating macOS can often break Homebrew-managed software.
265 If you update macOS and Git Cola stops working then then you probably need to re-install
266 Git Cola's dependencies.
268 Re-installing from scratch using the instructions below can get things back in shape.
272 brew uninstall git-cola
274 brew uninstall pyqt@5
277 brew install git-cola
282 IMPORTANT If you have a 64-bit machine, install the 64-bit versions only.
283 Do not mix 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
285 Download and install the following:
287 * [Git for Windows](https://git-for-windows.github.io/)
289 * [Git Cola](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola/releases)
291 Once these are installed you can run Git Cola from the Start menu.
293 See "Windows (Continued)" below for more details.
295 If you'd like to install Git Cola with
296 [winget](https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli) run the following command:
298 winget install git-cola.git-cola
300 As there is no dependency resolution yet you have to install Git as well with:
302 winget install Git.Git
306 Git Cola ships with an interactive rebase editor called `git-cola-sequence-editor`.
307 `git-cola-sequence-editor` is used to reorder and choose commits when rebasing.
308 Start an interactive rebase through the "Rebase" menu, or through the
309 `git cola rebase` sub-command to use the `git-cola-sequence-editor`:
311 git cola rebase @{upstream}
313 `git-cola-sequence-editor` can be launched independently of git cola by telling
314 `git rebase` to use it as its editor through the `GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR`
315 environment variable:
317 export GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR="$HOME/git-cola/bin/git-cola-sequence-editor"
318 git rebase -i @{upstream}
322 Shell completion scripts are available for bash and zsh.
323 Each script contains instructions on how to install and activate the completions.
325 * [bash completion script](contrib/git-cola-completion.bash)
327 * [zsh completion script](contrib/_git-cola)
330 # Git Cola Sub-commands
332 The `git-cola` command exposes various sub-commands that allow you to quickly
333 launch tools that are available from within the git-cola interface.
334 For example, `git cola find` launches the file finder,
335 and `git cola grep` launches the grep tool.
337 See `git cola --help-commands` for the full list of commands.
339 $ git cola --help-commands
342 {cola,am,archive,branch,browse,config,
343 dag,diff,fetch,find,grep,merge,pull,push,
344 rebase,remote,search,stash,tag,version}
348 {cola,am,archive,branch,browse,config,
349 dag,diff,fetch,find,grep,merge,pull,push,
350 rebase,remote,search,stash,tag,version}
353 am apply patches using "git am"
354 archive save an archive
355 branch create a branch
356 browse browse repository
357 config edit configuration
364 pull pull remote branches
365 push push remote branches
366 rebase interactive rebase
368 search search commits
369 stash stash and unstash changes
371 version print the version
375 If you already have Git Cola's dependencies installed then you can
376 start `cola` as a Python module if you have the source code available.
382 The following commands should be run during development:
387 # Run tests and doc checks
390 # Run tests against multiple python interpreters using tox
393 The test suite can be found in the [test](test) directory.
395 Commits and pull requests are automatically tested for code quality
396 using [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola/actions/workflows/main.yml).
398 Auto-format `cola/i18n/*.po` files before committing when updating translations:
402 When submitting patches, consult the
403 [contributing guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md).
408 Git Cola installs its modules into the default Python site-packages directory
409 (e.g. `lib/python3.7/site-packages`) using setuptools.
411 While end-users can use `pip install git-cola` to install Git Cola, distribution
412 packagers should use the `garden -D prefix=/usr install` process. Git Cola's Garden
413 recipe wraps `pip install --prefix=<prefix>` to provide a packaging-friendly
414 `garden install` target.
417 # Windows (Continued)
419 ## Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable
421 Earlier versions of Git Cola may have shipped without `vcruntime140.dll` and may
422 not run on machines that are missing this DLL.
424 To fix this, download the
425 [Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=52685)
428 Git Cola v4.0.0 and newer include this DLL and do not require this to be installed
433 In order to develop Git Cola on Windows you will need to install
434 Python3 and pip. Install PyQt5 using `pip install PyQt5`
435 to make the PyQt5 bindings available to Python.
437 Once these are installed you can use `python.exe` to run
438 directly from the source tree. For example, from a Git Bash terminal:
440 /c/Python39/python.exe ./bin/git-cola
442 ## Multiple Python versions
444 If you have multiple versions of Python installed, the `contrib/win32/cola`
445 launcher script might choose the newer version instead of the python
446 that has PyQt installed. In order to resolve this, you can set the
447 `cola.pythonlocation` git configuration variable to tell cola where to
448 find python. For example:
450 git config --global cola.pythonlocation /c/Python39
452 ## Building Windows Installers
454 Windows installers are built using
456 * [Pynsist](https://pynsist.readthedocs.io/en/latest/).
458 * [NSIS](http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page) is also needed.
460 To build the installer using Pynsist run:
462 ./contrib/win32/run-pynsist.sh
464 This will generate an installer in `build/nsis/`.
466 ## Windows "History Browser" Configuration Upgrade
468 You may need to configure your history browser if you are upgrading from an
469 older version of Git Cola on Windows.
471 `gitk` was originally the default history browser, but `gitk` cannot be
472 launched as-is on Windows because `gitk` is a shell script.
474 If you are configured to use `gitk`, then change your configuration to
475 go through Git's `sh.exe` on Windows. Similarly, we must go through
476 `python.exe` if we want to use `git-dag`.
478 If you want to use gitk as your history browser open the
479 Preferences screen and change the history browser command to:
481 "C:/Program Files/Git/bin/sh.exe" --login -i C:/Git/bin/gitk
483 `git-dag` became the default history browser on Windows in `v2.3`, so new
484 users do not need to configure anything.