What Git clients do you use?
I'm wondering if you use any (graphical) clients to manage your Git, and if so, what client you use.
I myself have to use git professionally across all 3 major OS-es, and I currently use Sourcetree on Windows and macOS, and the Git tools built-in into IntelliJ on Linux.
Have given MaGit a try, but just couldn't get all the shortcuts to stick in my mind.
Interested to hear your experiences!
The cli because it is consistent everywhere and has all fearures
The only thing I'm missing in the CLI is easy picking and choosing which change to include in a commit on a more fine grained basis than files. I sometimes have a changed file and the changes fix different issues and thus should get separate commits but with the CLI I can't easily select the changes to be staged. At least not AFAIK.
Edit: Richards law of posting something wrong to get fast correct answers seems to stay true, even on lemmy. Thanks for teaching me something today <3
Uhhh,
git add -p?the best git command
Hard agree haha, use this one constantly.
You can via git add -i foo.bar
I believe the only issue with that is that it can only go by hunks. If your changes are sufficiently far away, you can select them separately. But if you change one function that should be in patch a, and another function 5 lines down that should be in patch b, I think you're screwed
That being said, this is all from memory, so don't quote me on it
In interactive add mode you can use
sto split a hunk, andeto edit it. That's usually enough for me to split things up.I usually use
git add -pto selectively stage hunks. But ingit add -iI think running thepatchcommand does the same thing to get into patch mode.If patch mode shows you a hunk, and you only want some of the lines you can press
sto split into smaller hunks. Then you'll be prompted whether to add each smaller hunk separately.If you want to stage a change that is on the same line as a change you don't want to stage, or on an adjacent line, then you need to use
eto edit the hunk. Git stages whatever changes are left when you're done editing. The file in the working tree on disk is unchanged.git gui is nice for this.
(or jj split).
Same, because its UX is actually really good. Years ago when I was new to git, I tried to use Sourcetree to revert a merge commit, and it would just fail. When I tried it in the CLI, it still failed, but it told me how to fix it. (I needed to specify which parent)
That, plus it’s scriptable, plus I’m in the terminal a lot anyway. I’ll also use the IDE git client sometimes if that’s where I am at the moment.
CLI first here too, for the same reason.
I'm not above using an editor plugin if it's simple and reliable and right there waiting, like VSCodium.
Jah, mein fearures
Lazygit.
It's what I use when I need a bit of a UI for some things. I use the terminal mostly but Lazygit is great.
It just works really well. I don't mind the terminal commands but lazygit makes using git just so much nicer
I mostly use
gitfrom the cli, but when I want to use a frontend, I uselazygit. (I just find it easier to use TUI for some things like only committing some of the changed files, squashing, or fixup commits.)It works great from neovim so I've been using it a lot more since.
Mostly Magit, some CLI
Magit is fantastic!!
Same. Magit 99% of the time and CLI for the one percent where I need to run an obscure command. Magit is genuinely one of the best things in Emacs besides org mode.
I mostly use git from the console.
Off topic: day-after-day with these kinds of posts and especially the replies, I need Reddit less and less. That's a very good thing.
Magit is what allowed me to finally commit to switching to Git full time.
It's such an excellent front-end for Git that I've known numerous workmates learn Emacs just to use Magit.
TortoiseGit.
Through settings, I move the Show Log to the top context menu level, and it's my entry point to every Git operation.
I see a history tree to see and immediately understand commit and branch relationships and states. I can commit, show changes, diff, rebase interactive or not, push, fetch, switch, create branches and tags, squash and split commits, commit chunk-wise through "restet after commit", … And everything from a repo overview.
/edit: To add; other clients I tried never reached what I want from a UI/GUI, never reached TortoiseGit. Including IDE integrations where I'm already in the IDE; I prefer the separate better TortoiseGit.
GitButler is interesting for it's different approach, but when I tried it out the git auth didn't remember my key password. (Since trying out jj I found out it may have been due to disabled OpenSSH Service.)
Seconded. I'm a .Net developer on Windows, I like the Explorer integration.
I have a love-hate relationship with it. Due to work reasons I'm more familiar than I want to be with tortoiseSVN, and the git version is similar enough to feel at home. But that's also it's biggest downfall: it does a lot of things the "SVN way" despite being a git client. The workflow can be kinda made to work, but it always feels like it's not a native git tool, because it isn't. I would go so far as to say that it encouragedrl bad habits on git, especially for those used to tortoiseSVN.
What do you mean in particular?
The only thing that comes to mind for me is the "restore after commit" being a different chunk-add workflow than
add --patch- but I don't think it's worse.Fork on windows, SourceGit on Linux, both have a similar UI layout to SourceTree, but are much faster/snappier.
I really like having a clear overview of the commit history, branches and current local state. I haven't figured out yet how to get such an "at a glance" overview in the CLI.
For advanced stuff the CLI is still very convenient.
I second Fork, been using it for years and it's fast, able to handle multiple actions at once. Can't recommend it enough!
Have to take a look at Fork (annoying name to Google I image). Sourcetree can be quite sluggish and downright annoying on macOS.
Ditto on the CLI having its pro's and cons
Fork is the best as far as GUI goes, but you can't use a search engine to find any support information.
I second sourcegit. When I need to I'll drop into the clu. But it's so much easier to just look at the branches in sourcegit.
It's like an open source gitkracken.
CLI with some aliases for viewing commit history and branching, or less frequently an IDE plugin
Lazygit. Used gitui for a long while but lazygit has vim key bindings which is much nicer and it also seems much more stable.
Fork !!!
It's hands down the best git client.
It's free as in: sublime text or winzip where they ask you once a month if you want to pay for it but you can just select: I'm still trying it out, and it gets out of your way.
And one killer feature that I haven't seen any other git clients handle: allowing me to stage only one side of the diff. As in: if I change a line (so it shows up as one removed line and one new line in git), I can decide to add the new line change while still keeping the old line.
So changing this:
into this:
Shows up in git as:
But if I still want to keep
doThing(1);, I don't have to go back into my code to retypedoThing(1);, or do any manual copy-pasting. I can just highlight and add onlydoThing(2);to the staging area and discard the change todoThing(1);.So now the code exists as:
Now with a one-liner example like this, we could always re-enter the code again. But for larger code changes? It's far easier to just highlight the code in the diff and say: yes to this and no to the other stuff.
And when you get used to it, it makes it really easy to split what would be large git commits into smaller related changes keeping your git history clean and easy to understand.
I love Fork, bought the license to support the developer.
The only thing I don’t like is that there is no Linux version, asked the dev and he told me that the issue with Linux is that there are different distros with different GUI libraries so it would require multiple versions for Linux.
A bit saddened it I completely understand.
I paid for it too!
It's the first piece of shareware I actually went out of my way to pay for because it was so good that I’d be genuinely pissed off if it died. I'd probably end up switching to pijul or something else for my projects if it ever did.
I've seen a bunch of people messing the windows version running in linux in the fork forums, so it may be coming in an unsupported capacity.
I’ll second Fork, it’s been my go to for years! Maybe I’ll pay for it one day
In case you're interested,
git add <files> -pallows you to do this on the command line. I use it daily.I still don't think it's nearly as convenient as being able to just see the changes side by side and click the one you want (or both). You can even easily modify the final outcome in the 3rd preview panel, in case you need to do a quick fix after a conflict resolution.
Yeah, I use it when ssh'd into a server, but it's just so awkward to use.
Sometimes it just really doesn't want to separate a hunk. Other times you want to stage all lines except one, and you have to do a million splits just to target the lines you want to keep.
It'd be far easier if you could just select the lines you want to affect. It's literally the first feature shown in lazygit's readme. I think half the reason that people use lazygit is that partial commits are so awkward to perform in most other clients.
Luckily Fork does it as well as lazygit
I used a lot of Magit at work (it's good), as well as jujutsu and command line. Also, gitk for browsing history.
Currently I use jujutsu at home for leisure stuff and command line + git gui at work. For some workplaces, more powerful tools are just overkill.
Is Vscode a git client?
No one take from me though idk what I'm doing when it comes to programming stuff.
It is. Not as advanced as others but it still is nonetheless!
I use plain old
gitfor the same reasons already mentioned, butmagitis the gold standard.Fugitive, the vim / neovim plugin. It does everything the CLI does, but uses vim interfaces very effectively to enhance the experience. For example it's quite good for selectively staging changes from a file. I also like the option to open a buffer with the version of a file from any specified commit.
I also tried neogit which aims to port magit to neovim. I didn't like it as much. Partly because as far as I could tell at the time it lacked features compared to fugitive. But also because it seemed to want me to do everything through UIs in its own custom windows. Fugitive is integrated more thoroughly into vim via command mode, and special buffers.
gitui and the plain old git cli
This is very satisfying to use and is a nice companion to the command line - I particularly use it to stage only certain lines and files from the changes.
I tried lazygit first, but there was a consistent lag that was probably only ¼ second but it ruined the experience for me.
I'm a big fan of
tigfor visualizing the graph and looking over history (then I don't need to leave the terminal, and it's snappier, in my experience, than most full-GUI programs like Sourcetree), but for actual Git commands, I like the CLIGitKraken ❤️
If not present, vscode + gitlens
Lazy git most of the time, sourcegit for heavy duty stuff.
I mostly use the cli, but also Sublime Merge. It makes some things really convenient (like committing only some lines in a changed file), and looking at diffs is snappy too.
Just fyi, you can add only a few lines of a changed file on the cli too using
git add -pcli and meld for mergetool
Yeah, meld is nice.
lazygit & gitsigns.nvim
Do Jujutsu & jjui count? The backend is still git.
CLI, gitui, SmartGit, various editor integrations when I’m there anyway (VS code, JetBrains)
The CLI is great because it works everywhere, but it’s not the best to review changes before I commit, or to inspect the log, plan merges etc. So I tend to go for more graphical tools for these tasks. Used SmartGit a lot at work. But recently learned about gitui and like its simplicity at times esp when I’m at the command line anyway.
The editor integrations I only really use to commit small changes or switch branches, see if I have changes etc.
sourcegit, fork
Vscode and gitlens for routine stuff, and then just CLI when push comes to shove and I need some more advanced feature.
Git Extensions.
It's what they used at my job when I started, it does the job, and I've gotten used to it. 🤷♂️
I personally prefer lazygit nowadays, but when it comes to GUI clients on Windows then Git Extensions is definitely a very good pick.
I particularly like that it doesn't hide that it's just executing git commands under the hood and its focus on the history graph. Those two things really helped understand how git actually works and why I'm still recommending it.
Yeah, maybe it's because I learned git from the graph, but I find it really helpful when figuring out why a certain piece of code ended up looking like it does (the ability to see the changes made in every commit and open versions of the files at any point in history without checking out the commit is also very useful).
And yeah, if you need or want the command line it always lets you open a git prompt for you to do whatever you want, which is nice.
Also, again maybe because it's what I've gotten used to, but I find the way it handles merge or rebase conflicts more useable (or rather less unusable) than any other I've tried...
I second this, although I'm mostly alone with git extensions in my workplace.
I migrated to from sourcetree some years ago. At the time we had some big generated API client classes (imagine ~60k lines of code). They needed to be regenerated whenever we made changes and the diff on sourcetree was shitting the bed every time I needed to stage the damn files. It was just way too lagy, so I got fed up and moved.
On my personal machine I prefer lazygit or just plain CLI.
Vscode with the Git Graph extension.
I use Sourcetree for routine stuff, though I occasionally have to hit the command line when shit gets real.
I use VSCode and SourceGit. SourceGit is similar to Fork (which I've used before), but it's FOSS and cross-platform (Windows/macOS/Linux).
Whatever's built into pycharm or vscode for looking at diffs. Command line for push pull squash etc
I use GitHub Desktop on Mac and PC. It works fine with local repos, too.
I'm an Emacs users, so unsurprisingly I use magit, but perhaps surprisingly I use it sparingly, using Emacs's VC most of the time.
i loved fork on windows but i'm too lazy to set up wine to try and get it to work now i just use git cola and the cli.
I use SourceGit as a Fork alternative on Linux, it's pretty similar
Mostly vscode, and GitHub desktop for projects that I don’t use vscode for. I want to learn how to use the CLI, I just didn’t get around to it yet.
I will install emacs on a machine just to use magit.
I have tortoise git on a windows machine and GitHub desktop on a Mac. I do some things from the command line when I'm not feeling lazy.
For professional use I’ve heard good things about SmartGit, unfortunately my work refused to buy me a license and the trial period wasn’t long enough for me to really form an opinion.
Work suggests to use SourceTree but it is way too sluggish.
These days I use git CLI for most things, and VSCode to review changes and submit PRs. Of course this also assumes you use a decent shell with git support, like Oh-My-Posh or similar, so it is always clear what you are working on.
Mainly the official git CLI for controlling branches and sub modules, and sometimes the GitHub CLI if quickly checking out a pull request from a forked repo.
Also use the source control tab in VSCode rather often, as it's really convenient to review and stage individual line changes from its diff view, and writing commit messages with a spell check extension.
If it's a big diff or merge conflict, I'll break out the big guns like Meld, which has better visualizations for comparing file trees and directories.
About a decade ago, I used to use SmartGit, then tried GitKraken when that came around, but never really use much of the bells and whistles and wasn't keen on subscription pricing. Especially as the UX for GitHub and other code hosting platforms online have matured.
CLI for me. I do use the GitLens plugin in vs code but only so I can see commit info inline. I never commit anything from vs code.
I like Kaleidoscope (v3) for diffs but not for merging. I could probably use any graphical difftool for this purpose but it’s what I’m used to.
FYI, VSCode can now natively show commit info inline, no GitLens extension required:
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/tips-and-tricks#_git-blame
Aah good to know, thanks! 🙏
CLI, nvimdiff 90% of the time. If I’m on a windows workstation, I might end up using git extensions GUI as it helps me visualize what’s happening a little better sometimes.
When I learned Git I think there were not decent tools, so I got used to the command line.
I occasionally use gitk for reviewing my commits- it's nicer to see the files modified and be able to jump back and forth, although I get I could use
git log -pinstead.I'm an Emacs user, but I don't use magit (!)
I like some of the graphical tools- some colleagues use Fork and I like it... but as I've already learned the CLI, I don't see the point for me.
I could use learning some jj because it automates some of the most tedious parts of my workflow, but I'm getting too old.
More options:
https://git-scm.com/downloads/guis
Git Graph VS Code extension
I’ve used source tree, gitkraken, etc. this simple extension is just as good. I spend most my day with it
Git Graph VS Code extension
I’ve used source tree, gitkraken, etc. this simple extension is just as good. I spend most my day with it
Tried idea community edition, honestly not bad, like vs code slightly more even tho with an extension or two you can make how they function very similar. Wanted to use idea because it matched the gtk theme, but if I was gonna use an extension for vs code like navigation might as well use vs code. Both easy to use with git as a dabbler.
vscode with edamagit and the cli
Github desktop, despite the name it's just a git client. Absolutely clownish that there's no official Linux support (there's a fork which works perfectly). I use it to interact with self-hosted gitea, codeberg and github, pretty happy with it, I'm Aldo testing git butler
I made some automation in python for common git tasks and use the cli otherwise. I tried a couple like sourcetree and the built in automation for VS but they're either slow or lack features i'd like.
LazyGit and GitKraken. I try to use LazyGit as much as possible, but a few things are easier for me in GitKraken (as I'm more used to it).
Lazygit and magit