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) 1.1.0 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 5.6 or newer is required. Qt 6.0 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 **IMPORTANT**: never run `pip install` or `garden install` outside of a
75 Python virtualenv or as root!
77 There are several ways to install Git Cola.
81 Linux is it! Your distro has probably already packaged `git-cola`.
82 If not, please file a bug against your distribution ;-)
86 Available in the [AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/git-cola/).
102 zypper install git-cola
106 Available in [SlackBuilds.org](http://slackbuilds.org/result/?search=git-cola).
110 [See here](https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=git-cola) for the
111 versions that are available in Ubuntu's repositories.
113 There was a [PPA by @pavreh](https://launchpad.net/~pavreh/+archive/ubuntu/git-cola)
114 but it has not been updated for a while.
119 # Install from official binary packages
120 pkg install -r FreeBSD devel/git-cola
123 cd /usr/ports/devel/git-cola && make clean install
126 ## Install into a Python Virtualenv from PyPI using pip
128 **IMPORTANT**: never run `pip install` or `garden install` outside of a
129 Python virtualenv or as root!
131 One way to install the latest released version is to use `venv` (virtualenv) and `pip`.
132 This installs [git-cola from pypi.org](https://pypi.org/project/git-cola/).
134 If you already have `PyQt5` installed from your distribution's package manager
135 then you should skip the `pip install PyQt` steps.
137 If you already have the `qt5-devel` package installed then you can lookup its version so
138 that your virtualenv can install a compatible version of PyQt using `qmake`:
140 QT_VERSION=$(qmake -query QT_VERSION)
141 QT_VERSION_MAJOR=$(qmake -query QT_VERSION | head -c 1)
142 echo PyQt${QT_VERSION_MAJOR}==${QT_VERSION}
144 Take note of the `PyQtX==A.B.C` value so that you can specify it when installing
145 PyQt below if, and only if, you have `qmake` installed and want to interoperate
146 with its corresponding Qt installation.
148 python3 -m venv --system-site-packages env3
150 # Skip this command if you already have PyQt installed or if you do not have qmake
151 ./env3/bin/pip install PyQt${QT_VERSION_MAJOR}==${QT_VERSION}
153 ./env3/bin/pip install git-cola
156 Add the `env3/bin` directory to your `PATH` or symlink to `bin/git-cola` from
157 somewhere in your `PATH` such as `~/.local/bin/git-cola`, and you can launch
158 Git Cola like any other built-in `git` command:
164 ## Install into a Python Virtualenv from Source
166 If you don't have PyQt installed then the easiest way to get it is to use a Python
167 virtualenv and install Git Cola into it in "editable" mode. This install method
168 lets you upgrade Git Cola by running `git pull`.
170 # Create a virtualenv called "env3" and activate it.
171 python3 -m venv --system-site-packages env3
172 source env3/bin/activate
174 # One-time setup: install dev and optional runtime requirements
175 garden requirements/dev
176 garden requirements/opt
178 # Install git-cola in "editable" mode so that it uses the source tree.
181 # Run Git Cola via the "git-cola" Git subcommand.
185 If you add `env3/bin` (or symlink to `bin/git-cola` ) to your `$PATH` then you can
186 run `git cola` as if it were a builtin `git` command from outside of the virtualenv
187 (eg. after running "deactivate" or when opening a new shell).
190 ## Standalone Installation from Source
192 Running `garden -D prefix=$HOME/.local install` will install Git Cola in your
193 `$HOME/.local` directory (`$HOME/.local/bin/git-cola`, `$HOME/.local/lib`, etc).
195 This installation method assumes that the `qtpy` and `PyQt*` dependencies have
198 The Garden recipe also supports `DESTDIR` to support creating packages for Linux package
201 garden -D DESTDIR=/tmp/stage -D prefix=/usr/local install
203 If you do not have `garden` available then `make` can be used instead.
204 The `Makefile` supports staged installs using the conventional
205 [prefix and DESTDIR variables](https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/DESTDIR.html).
207 make DESTDIR=/tmp/stage prefix=/usr/local install
212 For most end-users we recommend using either Homebrew or installing into
213 a Python virtualenv as described above.
215 You can install Git Cola from source using the same steps as above.
219 An easy way to install Git Cola is to use [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) .
220 Use Homebrew to install the git-cola recipe:
222 brew install git-cola
224 If you install using Homebrew you can stop at this step.
225 You don't need to clone the repo or anything.
229 If you have all of the dependencies installed, either via `pip` or `brew` then
230 you can build a shell `git-cola.app` app bundle wrapper for use in `/Applications`.
232 If you'd like to build a `git-cola.app` bundle for `/Applications` run this command:
236 You will need to periodically rebuild the app wrapper whenever Python is upgraded.
238 ### Updating macOS and Homebrew
240 Updating macOS can often break Homebrew-managed software.
242 If you upgrade your macOS version and Git Cola no longer runs then then it is
243 recommended that you re-install Git Cola's dependencies after upgrading.
245 A quick fix when upgrading to newer versions of XCode or macOS is to
248 brew reinstall pyqt@5
250 You may also need to relink your pyqt installation:
254 This is required when upgrading to a modern (post-10.11 El Capitan) Mac OS X.
255 Homebrew now bundles its own Python3 installation instead of using the
256 system-provided default Python.
258 If the "brew reinstall" command above does not work then re-installing from
259 scratch using the instructions below should get things back in shape.
264 # uninstall git-cola and its dependencies
265 brew uninstall git-cola
269 # re-install git-cola and its dependencies
270 brew install git-cola
275 IMPORTANT If you have a 64-bit machine, install the 64-bit versions only.
276 Do not mix 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
278 Download and install the following:
280 * [Git for Windows](https://git-for-windows.github.io/)
282 * [Git Cola](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola/releases)
284 Once these are installed you can run Git Cola from the Start menu.
286 See "Windows (Continued)" below for more details.
288 If you'd like to install Git Cola with
289 [winget](https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli) run the following command:
291 winget install git-cola.git-cola
293 As there is no dependency resolution yet you have to install Git as well with:
295 winget install Git.Git
299 Git Cola ships with an interactive rebase editor called `git-cola-sequence-editor`.
300 `git-cola-sequence-editor` is used to reorder and choose commits when rebasing.
301 Start an interactive rebase through the "Rebase" menu, or through the
302 `git cola rebase` sub-command to use the `git-cola-sequence-editor`:
304 git cola rebase @{upstream}
306 `git-cola-sequence-editor` can be launched independently of git cola by telling
307 `git rebase` to use it as its editor through the `GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR`
308 environment variable:
310 export GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR="$HOME/git-cola/bin/git-cola-sequence-editor"
311 git rebase -i @{upstream}
315 Shell completion scripts are available for bash and zsh.
316 Each script contains instructions on how to install and activate the completions.
318 * [bash completion script](contrib/git-cola-completion.bash)
320 * [zsh completion script](contrib/_git-cola)
323 # Git Cola Sub-commands
325 The `git-cola` command exposes various sub-commands that allow you to quickly
326 launch tools that are available from within the git-cola interface.
327 For example, `git cola find` launches the file finder,
328 and `git cola grep` launches the grep tool.
330 See `git cola --help-commands` for the full list of commands.
332 $ git cola --help-commands
335 {cola,am,archive,branch,browse,config,
336 dag,diff,fetch,find,grep,merge,pull,push,
337 rebase,remote,search,stash,tag,version}
341 {cola,am,archive,branch,browse,config,
342 dag,diff,fetch,find,grep,merge,pull,push,
343 rebase,remote,search,stash,tag,version}
346 am apply patches using "git am"
347 archive save an archive
348 branch create a branch
349 browse browse repository
350 config edit configuration
357 pull pull remote branches
358 push push remote branches
359 rebase interactive rebase
361 search search commits
362 stash stash and unstash changes
364 version print the version
368 If you already have Git Cola's dependencies installed then you can
369 start `cola` as a Python module if you have the source code available.
375 The following commands should be run during development:
380 # Run tests and longer-running pylint checks
383 # Run tests against multiple python interpreters using tox
386 The test suite can be found in the [test](test) directory.
388 Commits and pull requests are automatically tested for code quality
389 using [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/git-cola/git-cola/actions/workflows/main.yml).
391 Auto-format `cola/i18n/*.po` files before committing when updating translations:
395 When submitting patches, consult the
396 [contributing guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md).
401 Git Cola installs its modules into the default Python site-packages directory
402 (eg. `lib/python3.7/site-packages`) using setuptools.
404 While end-users can use `pip install git-cola` to install Git Cola, distribution
405 packagers should use the `garden -D prefix=/usr install` process. Git Cola's Garden
406 recipe wraps `pip install --prefix=<prefix>` to provide a packaging-friendly
407 `garden install` target.
410 # Windows (Continued)
412 ## Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable
414 Earlier versions of Git Cola may have shipped without `vcruntime140.dll` and may
415 not run on machines that are missing this DLL.
417 To fix this, download the
418 [Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=52685)
421 Git Cola v4.0.0 and newer include this DLL and do not require this to be installed
426 In order to develop Git Cola on Windows you will need to install
427 Python3 and pip. Install PyQt5 using `pip install PyQt5`
428 to make the PyQt5 bindings available to Python.
430 Once these are installed you can use `python.exe` to run
431 directly from the source tree. For example, from a Git Bash terminal:
433 /c/Python39/python.exe ./bin/git-cola
435 ## Multiple Python versions
437 If you have multiple versions of Python installed, the `contrib/win32/cola`
438 launcher script might choose the newer version instead of the python
439 that has PyQt installed. In order to resolve this, you can set the
440 `cola.pythonlocation` git configuration variable to tell cola where to
441 find python. For example:
443 git config --global cola.pythonlocation /c/Python39
445 ## Building Windows Installers
447 Windows installers are built using
449 * [Pynsist](https://pynsist.readthedocs.io/en/latest/).
451 * [NSIS](http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page) is also needed.
453 To build the installer using Pynsist run:
455 ./contrib/win32/run-pynsist.sh
457 This will generate an installer in `build/nsis/`.
459 ## Windows "History Browser" Configuration Upgrade
461 You may need to configure your history browser if you are upgrading from an
462 older version of Git Cola on Windows.
464 `gitk` was originally the default history browser, but `gitk` cannot be
465 launched as-is on Windows because `gitk` is a shell script.
467 If you are configured to use `gitk`, then change your configuration to
468 go through Git's `sh.exe` on Windows. Similarly, we must go through
469 `python.exe` if we want to use `git-dag`.
471 If you want to use gitk as your history browser open the
472 Preferences screen and change the history browser command to:
474 "C:/Program Files/Git/bin/sh.exe" --login -i C:/Git/bin/gitk
476 `git-dag` became the default history browser on Windows in `v2.3`, so new
477 users do not need to configure anything.