path: root/doc/qtcreator/src/vcs/creator-vcs-git.qdoc

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/*!
    \page creator-vcs-git.html
    \if defined(qtdesignstudio)
    \previouspage studio-projects.html
    \nextpage studio-importing-designs.html
    \else
    \previouspage creator-vcs-cvs.html
    \nextpage creator-vcs-mercurial.html
    \endif

    \title Using Git

    \l{http://git-scm.com/}{Git} is a fast decentralized version control system.
    Git is available for Windows, Linux, and \macos.

    You can use the \l{http://code.google.com/p/gerrit/}{Gerrit} code review
    tool for projects that use Git.

    \if defined(qtdesignstudio)
    \include creator-vcs-options.qdocinc vcs options
    \endif

    \section1 Using Git for Windows

    If you configure Git for use with \c {git bash}, only, and use SSH
    authorization, Git looks for the SSH keys in the directory where the
    \c HOME environment points to. The variable is always set by \c {git bash}.

    However, the variable is typically not set in a Windows command prompt. When
    you run Git from a Windows command prompt, it looks for the SSH keys in its
    installation directory, and therefore, the authorization fails.

    You can set the \c HOME environment variable from \QC. Select
    \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Options > \uicontrol {Version Control} >
    \uicontrol Git, and then select the
    \uicontrol {Set "HOME" environment variable} check box. \c HOME is
    set to \c %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% when the Git executable is run and
    authorization works as it would with \c {git bash}.

    \section1 Working with the Current File

    To work with the current file, select the commands in \uicontrol Tools >
    \uicontrol Git > \uicontrol {Current File}. Some of the commands are also
    available for the project or local repository that contains the file.

    \section2 Viewing Git Diff

    You can \e{diff} the current file or project to compare it with the latest
    version stored in the repository and to display the differences. To display
    the diff in a read-only editor, select \uicontrol {Diff of}. If the file is
    accessible, you can double-click on a selected diff chunk and \QC opens an
    editor displaying the file, scrolled to the line in question.

    \image qtcreator-vcs-diff.png

    The diff is displayed side-by-side in a \l{Comparing Files}{diff editor}
    by default. To use the unified diff view instead, select the
    \uicontrol {Switch to Unified Diff Editor} (1) option from the toolbar.
    In both views, you can use context menu commands to apply, revert, stage,
    and unstage chunks or selected lines, as well as send chunks to a code
    pasting service.

    \section2 Viewing Git Log

    To display the versioning history of a file, select \uicontrol{Log of}.
    The log output contains the date, the commit message, and a commit
    identifier. Click on the commit identifier to view commit details.

    \image qtcreator-git-log.png "Commit details in Git log"

    Right-clicking on a commit identifier brings up a context menu that lets
    you apply actions on the commit, such as view annotations or cherry-pick
    or revert a commit. For more information, see \l{Working with Branches}.

    To toggle the diff view, select \uicontrol Diff. To use the patience
    algorithm for calculating the differences, select \uicontrol Patience.
    To only show text changes, select \uicontrol {Ignore Whitespace}.

    To filter log entries by the text in the commit message or by strings that
    were added or removed, select \uicontrol Filter.

    To follow only the first parent on merge commits, select
    \uicontrol {First Parent}.

    To toggle between textual and visual representation of the log, select
    \uicontrol Graph.

    To show log also for previous names of the file, select \uicontrol Follow.

    Select \inlineimage reload_gray.png
    (\uicontrol Reload) to rescan the files.

    To display a description of the change including the diff in the
    \uicontrol {Git Show} view, select \uicontrol {Describe Change} in the
    context menu.

    \image qtcreator-vcs-show.png "Commit description in Git show"

    \section2 Viewing Annotations

    To view annotations, select \uicontrol{Blame}. The view displays the lines
    of the file prepended by the commit identifier they originate from. Clicking
    on the commit identifier shows a detailed description of the change.

    To show the annotation of a previous version, right-click on the commit
    identifier and select \uicontrol {Blame Parent Revision}. This allows you
    to navigate through the history of the file and obtain previous versions
    of it.

    The other actions in the context-menu enable you to apply actions to the
    commit, such as cherry-pick, checkout, or revert it.

    To rescan the files, click \inlineimage reload_gray.png
    (\uicontrol Reload).

    \section2 Staging Changes

    To mark a new or modified file for committing it to the repository,
    select \uicontrol {Stage File for Commit}. To undo this function,
    select \uicontrol {Unstage File from Commit}.

    \section2 Resetting Changes

    Git has an index that is used to stage changes. The index is committed on
    the next commit. Git allows you to revert back to the state of the last
    commit as well as to the state staged in the index.

    To revert all changes and reset the current file to the state of the index,
    select \uicontrol{Undo Unstaged Changes}.

    To return the current file to the state it was in right after the last
    commit, select \uicontrol {Undo Uncommitted Changes}. This reverts all
    changes, discarding the index.

    \section1 Working with the Current Project

    To work with the current project, select the commands in \uicontrol Tools >
    \uicontrol Git > \uicontrol {Current Project}. The \uicontrol {Diff Project}
    and \uicontrol {Log Project} commands, which are also available for the
    current file, are described above.

    \section2 Cleaning Projects

    To clean the working directory, select \uicontrol {Clean Project}.
    All files that are not under version control are displayed in
    the \uicontrol {Clean Repository} dialog. Ignored files are
    deselected by default. Select the files to delete and click
    \uicontrol Delete.

    \section1 Working with Local Repositories

    To work with the local repository, select the commands in \uicontrol Tools >
    \uicontrol Git > \uicontrol {Local Repository}. The commands that are also
    available for the current file or project are described above.

    \section2 Viewing Reference Log

    Reference logs record when the tips of branches and other references were
    updated in the local repository. To view the reference log, select
    \uicontrol Reflog.

    \section2 Viewing Git Status

    To view the status of the repository in the \uicontrol {Version Control}
    output pane, select \uicontrol Status. The context menu contains additional
    actions, such as selecting and clearing all entries in the pane, copying
    text, and opening files.

    \section2 Committing Changes to Git

    To submit your changes to Git, select \uicontrol Commit. \QC displays a
    commit page containing a text editor where you can enter your commit
    message and a checkable list of modified files to be included.

    \image qtcreator-vcs-commit.png

    When you have finished filling out the commit page information, click on
    \uicontrol Commit to start committing.

    The \uicontrol {Diff Selected Files} button opens a \l{Viewing Git Diff}
    {diff view} of the files selected in the file list. Select
    \uicontrol {Stage Chunk} in the context menu to stage a chunk or
    \uicontrol {Stage Selection} to stage the selected lines.

    To unstage chunks or selected lines, select \uicontrol {Unstage Chunk} or
    \uicontrol {Unstage Selection} in the context menu. To revert the changes
    in a chunk, select \uicontrol {Revert Chunk}.

    The commit page is just another editor, and therefore you return to it when
    you close the diff view. You can also switch to an open diff view by
    selecting it in the \uicontrol {Open Documents} view in the sidebar.

    \section2 Amending Commits

    To apply latest changes to the last commit, select
    \uicontrol {Amend Last Commit}. You can also edit the commit message.

    To amend an earlier comment in a series of related commits, select
    \uicontrol {Fixup Previous Commit}. This operation is done using interactive
    rebase. In case of conflicts, a merge tool is suggested.

    \section2 Resetting Local Repository

    To reset changes, select \uicontrol Reset. This opens a dialog where you
    can select the commit to reset the working directory to. This is useful
    after applying patches for review, for example. You can choose between a
    \uicontrol Soft reset that does not touch the index file nor the working
    tree at all, a \uicontrol Hard reset that discards all changes to tracked
    files in the working tree, and a \uicontrol Mixed reset that resets HEAD
    and the index (nothing remains staged) without touching the working
    directory.

    To recover removed files, select \uicontrol {Recover Deleted Files}.

    To change a series of commits in the local repository, select
    \uicontrol {Interactive Rebase}. You can reorder or discard commits, squash
    them into a single commit, or edit the commit messages.

    If you already pushed the local changes to a remote, \QC refuses
    the interactive rebase because the local commits are missing. To
    start the interactive rebase from the change log, select
    \uicontrol Branches > \uicontrol Log. Select the change, and then
    select > \uicontrol {Interactive Rebase from Change} in the context
    menu.

    \section2 Working with Branches

    To work with Git branches, select \uicontrol {Branches}. The checked out
    branch is shown in bold and underlined in the list of branches in the
    \uicontrol {Git Branches} sidebar view.

    \image qtcreator-vcs-gitbranch.png "Git Branches sidebar view"

    Old entries and tags are filtered out of the list of branches
    by default. To include them, select \inlineimage filtericon.png
    (\uicontrol {Filter Tree}), and then select
    \uicontrol {Include Old Entries} and \uicontrol {Include Tags}.

    To add a tag to a change in the change log, select \uicontrol Branches >
    \uicontrol Log. Select the change, and then select > \uicontrol {Add Tag
    for Change} in the context menu.

    If you checked out a specific commit, the list of branches displays a
    \e {Detached HEAD} entry.

    For local and remote branches, the changes log can be shown by double
    clicking on the branch name.

    To refresh the list of branches, click \inlineimage reload_gray.png
    (\uicontrol Refresh).

    The following operations are supported in the context-menu for a branch:

    \table
        \header
            \li Menu Item
            \li Description
        \row
            \li \uicontrol{Add}
            \li Create new tracking and non-tracking branches.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol{Remove}
            \li Remove a local branch. You cannot delete remote branches.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol Rename
            \li Rename a local branch or a tag. You cannot rename remote
                branches.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol{Checkout}
            \li Check out the selected branch and make it current. You can stash
                changes you have made to tracked files.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol{Diff}
            \li Show the differences between the selected and the current
                branch.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol{Log}
            \li Show the changes in a branch.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol Reset
            \li Reset the active branch to the selected branch. You
                can choose between a \uicontrol Hard, \uicontrol Mixed,
                and \uicontrol Soft reset. For more information, see
                \l{Resetting Local Repository}.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol Merge
            \li Join the development histories in two branches together.

                If the commit you are merging can be reached by following the
                first commit's history, there is no divergent work to merge
                together. To allow Git to move the branch pointer forward,
                select \uicontrol {Merge (Fast-Forward)}. If you do not want to
                fast-forward the branch, select
                \uicontrol {Merge (No Fast-Forward)}.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol Rebase
            \li Copy local commits to the updated upstream head.

        \row
            \li \uicontrol {Cherry Pick}
            \li Cherry pick the top commit from the selected branch.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol Track
            \li Set the current branch to track the selected one.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol Push
            \li Push the committed changes to the selected remote branch.
    \endtable

    The following additional context-menu operations are available for
    \uicontrol{Remote Branches}. The context-menu can be opened on
    \uicontrol{Remote Branches} or on a specific remote repository.

    \table
        \header
            \li Menu Item
            \li Description
        \row
            \li \uicontrol{Fetch}
            \li Fetch all the branches and changes information from a
                specific remote repository, or from all remotes if applied
                to \uicontrol {Remote Branches}.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol{Manage Remotes}
            \li Open the \uicontrol Remotes dialog.
    \endtable

    \section3 Configuring Merge Tools

    Only graphical merge tools are supported. You can configure the
    merge tool to use on the command line. For example, to use the
    \l{http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/}{KDiff3} merge tool, enter the
    following command:

    \badcode
    git config --global merge.tool kdiff3
    \endcode

    \section2 Applying Patches

    Patches are rewriting instructions that can be applied to a set of files.
    To apply a patch file that is open in \QC, select \uicontrol Patch >
    \uicontrol {Apply from Editor}.

    To select the patch file to apply from the file system, select
    \uicontrol {Apply from File}.

    \section2 Using Stashes

    With Git, you can put your current set of changes onto a virtual shelf
    called a \e stash. Stashes are useful, for example, to put aside a set of
    changes to work on higher priority tasks or to pull in new chages from
    another repository.

    To stash all local changes, select \uicontrol Stash > \uicontrol Stash. The
    working copy is reset to the state it had after the last commit. To save the
    current state of your unstaged files and reset the repository to its staged
    state, select \uicontrol {Stash Unstaged Files}.

    To display a dialog that shows all known stashes with options to restore,
    display or delete them, select \uicontrol Stashes.

    To save a snapshot of your current work under a name for later reference,
    select \uicontrol {Take Snapshot}. The working copy is unchanged. For
    example, if you want to try something and find out later that it does not
    work, you can discard the changes and return to the state of the snapshot.

    To remove a single stashed state from the stash list and apply it on top of
    the current working tree state, select \uicontrol {Stash Pop}.

    \section1 Applying Actions to Commits

    To browse a directory or the commit history and to apply actions on the
    commits, select \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Git >
    \uicontrol {Actions on Commits}.

    \image creator-git-commit-actions.png "Select a Git Commit dialog"

    You can apply the following actions on commits:

    \table
        \header
            \li Menu Item
            \li Description
        \row
            \li \uicontrol Archive
            \li Package the commit as a ZIP or tarball.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol Checkout
            \li Check out the change in a headless state.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol {Cherry Pick}
            \li Cherry-pick the selected change to the local repository.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol Revert
            \li Revert back to the state of the last commit.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol Show
            \li Show the commit in the diff editor.
    \endtable

    \section1 Initializing Git Repositories

    To start controlling a project directory that is currently not under
    version control, select \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Git >
    \uicontrol {Create Repository}. \QC creates a new subdirectory named .git
    that contains all the necessary repository files. However, nothing in the
    project is tracked yet, so you will need to create an initial commit to
    start tracking the project files.

    \section1 Working with Remote Repositories

    To work with remote repositories, select the commands in \uicontrol Tools >
    \uicontrol Git > \uicontrol {Remote Repository}.

    To fetch all the branches and change information from a remote repository,
    select \uicontrol Fetch.

    To pull changes from the remote repository, select \uicontrol Pull. If there
    are locally modified files, you are prompted to stash the changes. Select
    \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Options > \uicontrol {Version Control} >
    \uicontrol Git and then select the \uicontrol {Pull with rebase} check box
    to perform a rebase operation while pulling.

    To push committed changes to the remote repository, select \uicontrol Push.
    If the local branch does not have an upstream branch in the remote
    repository, \QC prompts you to create it and set it as upstream.

    \section2 Managing Remote Repositories

    To manage remote repositories available in Git, select \uicontrol Tools >
    \uicontrol Git > \uicontrol {Remote Repository} >
    \uicontrol{Manage Remotes}. Double-click the names and URLs of the remote
    repositories to edit them.

    The following operations are supported:

    \table
        \header
            \li Menu Item
            \li Description
        \row
            \li \uicontrol{Refresh}
            \li Refresh the list of remote repositories.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol{Add}
            \li Add a new remote repository.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol{Fetch}
            \li Fetch all the branches and change information from a remote
                repository.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol Push
            \li Push committed changes to the remote repository.
        \row
            \li \uicontrol{Remove}
            \li Remove a remote repository.

    \endtable

    \section2 Using Git with Subversion

    You can use Git as a client for a Subversion server. To fetch changes from a
    Subversion repository to a Git repository, select \uicontrol Tools >
    \uicontrol Git > \uicontrol {Remote Repository} > \uicontrol Subversion >
    \uicontrol Fetch.

    To view the Git Subversion log, select \uicontrol Log.

    To publish the commits from the current branch to the Subversion server,
    select \uicontrol DCommit. This will create a revision in Subversion for
    every local Git commit. Afterwards, the branch is rebased or reset
    (depending on whether or not there is a diff between Subversion and head).

    \section2 Reviewing Code with Gerrit

    If your Git project uses Gerrit for code reviews, you can view your changes
    in \QC.

    To push committed changes to Gerrit, select \uicontrol Tools >
    \uicontrol Git > \uicontrol {Remote Repository} >
    \uicontrol {Push to Gerrit}.

    \image qtcreator-gerrit-push.png

    Select the \uicontrol {Draft/private} check box to push changes that are
    only visible to you and the reviewers. If you are using Gerrit 2.15 or
    later, you can select the \uicontrol {Work-in-progress} check box to push
    changes that do not generate email notifications.

    To view the same information about each change as in the Gerrit
    web interface, select \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Git >
    \uicontrol {Remote Repository} > \uicontrol Gerrit.

    \image qtcreator-gerrit.png

    To view details of the selected change, select \uicontrol Show.

    To cherry-pick the selected change to the local repository, select
    \uicontrol {Cherry Pick}. To remove the change after testing it, select
    \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Git > \uicontrol {Local Repository} >
    \uicontrol Reset. In the \uicontrol {Undo Changes to} dialog, select the
    state to reset the working directory to, and then select \uicontrol OK.

    To check out the change in a headless state, select \uicontrol Checkout.

    To refresh the list of changes, select \uicontrol Refresh.

    The \uicontrol Remote field lists the remotes of the current repository that
    are detected as Gerrit servers. Select \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Options
    > \uicontrol {Version Control} > \uicontrol Gerrit to specify a fallback
    connection to a Gerrit server over SSH. The Gerrit REST interface and the
    \l{https://curl.haxx.se/}{curl} tool are used for HTTP connections.

    Select the \uicontrol HTTPS check box to prepend \c https to the Gerrit URL
    if Gerrit does not provide it.

    \image qtcreator-gerrit-options.png

    \section1 Working with Git Tools

    To start a graphical interface to Git, select \uicontrol Tools >
    \uicontrol Git > \uicontrol {Git Tools} > \uicontrol {Git Gui}.

    \note On \macos, the default Git installation does not contain Git Gui. To
    use Git Gui, install it separately. To start Git Gui from \QC, select
    \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol {Version Control} > \uicontrol Git, and
    set the path to the environment that contains Git Gui in the
    \uicontrol {Prepend to PATH} field.

    To start the commit viewer for Git, select \uicontrol Tools >
    \uicontrol Git > \uicontrol {Git Tools} > \uicontrol Gitk. You can also
    start the tool to view commits in the current document or in the folder that
    contains the current document. To specify arguments for running Gitk, select
    \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Options > \uicontrol {Version Control} >
    \uicontrol Git.

    To use some other application for viewing Git history, such as GitX or
    QGit viewer, select \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Options >
    \uicontrol {Version Control} > \uicontrol Git and specify the path to the
    application executable in the \uicontrol {Command} field. To start the
    application, select \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Git
    > \uicontrol {Git Tools} > \uicontrol {Repository Browser}.

    To resolve merge conflicts, select \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Git >
    \uicontrol {Git Tools} > \uicontrol {Merge Tool}.
*/