Created by: gwideman, Dec 1, 2011 6:42 pm
Revised by: gwideman, Jan 15, 2015 12:20 am (18 revisions)

Overview

Notes on installing Git, Git-related tools, pointers to docs and tutorials, and who knows what else.

Git clients for Windows

• Smart Git: http://syntevo.com/smartgit/index.html
  • Used to rely on command-line git, now (2014-11) claims to be all inclusive?
• Tortoise Git https://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/
  • Relies on command-line git, with recommended one being msysgit...
• Git for Windows: msysgit: http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/
  • This installs Git Bash and Git GUI, and seems to be a sort of default vanilla way to go.
• Ah-HAH -- now there's a "GitHub for Windows": http://windows.github.com/
  • And at the moment (June 2012, and still Aug 2013), their website is pretty much inscrutable (and the main page is virtually unreadable). You pretty much have to know how to use github already before anything there makes sense. Sigh. OK, here are some docs by other people:
    • https://github.com/blog/1127-github-for-windows
    • http://haacked.com/archive/2012/05/21/introducing-github-for-windows.aspx
    • Posh-Git

SSH on Windows

• See C:\Users\[user]\.ssh directory for public and private keys
• https://help.github.com/articles/generating-ssh-keys/
• How do I tell Git for Windows where to find my private RSA key? http://serverfault.com/questions/194567/how-do-i-tell-git-for-windows-where-to-find-my-private-rsa-key

Git for Windows, initial config

• Apparently used to be msysgit.
• Installs "Git Bash", a bash shell console configured for use with Git.

ESCAPING FROM VIM

• Shift-Z Z.

First time setup; Git config file

• First time setup, oversimplified: http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-First-Time-Git-Setup
  • Completely useless instructions regarding setting up editor, which is crucial if you don't want to get trapped in VIM. Arrrrg.
  • So, might need: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10564/how-can-i-set-up-an-editor-to-work-with-git-on-windows
    • And further illumination in: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2114111/where-does-git-config-global-get-written-to
      • Which leads to necessity to reverse engineer how Git bash maps unix paths to Windows. Sigh. See below.
  • /usr/etc/profile = C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\etc\profile This is bash profile file, and sets some environment variables pertinent to git.
  • /usr/etc/gitconfig Some system-wide git config
  • ~/.gitconfig = c:\Users\[user]\.gitconfig Might contain user-level "global" config?
  • 
    

Git Bash PATH

Git bash starts with PATH set to existing user's Windows PATH, with a few additional unixy entries prepended that are mapped to not-obvious actual directories:

in Git bash	In PATH?	Actual path	Comment
/c/Users/[user]/bin	Yes	C:\Users\[user]\bin	Didn't exist on install. Not sure why it's in the PATH.
/usr	No	C:\Program Files (x86)\Git
/usr/local	No	Doesn't exist	C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\local?
/usr/local/bin	Yes	Doesn't exist	This is a puzzle. So what's the point of adding it to the path?
/mingw/bin	Yes	Doesn't exist	Also a puzzle.
/bin	Yes	C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin	Path to all git and mingw (I assume) executables.

My editor setting

In C:\Users\[user]\bin add file editor.sh, containing:

#!/bin/sh
"C:/Program Files/JustGreatSoftware/EditPadPro7/EditPadPro7.exe"  //newinstance "$*"

Then in C:\Users\[me]\.gitconfig:

[core]
    editor = editor.sh

... which reaches editor.sh since the latter is on the PATH.

Explanatory Videos and Tutorials

• Getting started with Git and GitHub on Windows http://kylecordes.com/2008/git-windows-go
• Pro Git book (online and paper): http://progit.org/book/
  • Git SCM book : http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2
  • Download as PDF
• SmartGit docs: http://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/documentation/6/show
• Think Like a Git: http://think-like-a-git.net/epic.html Way too vague -- attempts to explain most aspects of Git by explaining some other topic, and doesn't actually explain Git per se.
• Visualizing git branches
  • http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1838873/visualizing-branch-topology-in-git
  • http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21116069/decent-git-branch-visualization-tool
  • http://www.gitguys.com/topics/branches-visualizing/
• A successful Git branching model: http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/

MsysGit notes

(2011)

• Installs supposedly minimal version of msys etc.
• Git bash provides a shell environment, sh.exe, which looks suspiciously like cmd.exe in terms of settings, but defaults to hideous font.
  • To modify settings and get them to persist: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2621281/unable-to-modify-git-bash-windows-shortcut

GitHub for Windows notes

(2011)
Once installed, I could find no evident way to proceed to clone a repo from github. There's supposed to be a "Clone in Windows" button somewhere, but I couldn't find it, and there's no menu (due to the Metro look), so WTF?
Looked at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ynUCjlhdXY
OK, it appears that the "Clone in Windows" button is not a feature of the GitHub for Windows app. Instead, this refers to a button that appears on github.com repo web pages, and it's actually called "Clone in Desktop". The button automatically calls GitHub for Windows app with instructions to clone the repo from that page. GitHub for Windows will start performing the clone, so it's necessary to already have the local repos directory setting pointing to the desired location.

Other version control systems notes

• Comparison of Subversion clients: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Subversion_clients
• Apache Subversion: http://subversion.apache.org/
•