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I really never understood why one would need a GUI for git except for visualizing branches.
I feel like I’m crazy seeing so many people using clicky buttons for tracking files. I need like 4 commands for 95% of what I do and the rest you look up.
You’re already programming! Just learn the tool!
And now there’s a github CLI tool? I hate to beat a dead horse but Microsoft pushing their extended version of an open source tool/protocol is literally the second step of their mantra.
knowing how to program doesn’t mean u need to do things the hard way.
heck the whole point of programming is to make things easier and faster.
FWIW not everyone using source control is a programmer. I’ve seen artists in game dev using GUI tools to pull new changes and push their assets.
That’s fair, there’s plenty of uses for source control.
I was speaking from a programming context though, as this is a programming community.
I primarily use GitHub CLI to interact with the GitHub API, not Git. I don’t really see it as an extension of the Git CLI, which I use much more frequently. Everything you can do with it can also be done through their REST API.
I use it for things that aren’t really git features, like:
Syncing repository admin, pull request, and branch control settings across multiple repositories
Checking the status of self-hosted actions runners
Creating pull requests, auto-approving them
Thanks for the explanation, that does sound useful.
Do you use the command line for everything? Do you edit with vim, view diffs with git diff, browse the web with links or lynx?
GUIs are useful tools. I’m happy with VSCode’s git integration. It’s just what I need for basic stuff like staging files and committing. I use the CLI whenever I want to do something like rebasing because I can type that command faster than I can figure out the GUI, but it would be stupid to artificially force myself to use the CLI for everything because of some kind of principal.
Yeah I actually just prefer the command line, I’ve never had to force myself to use it. I even tried using VSC for a bit recently but i couldn’t get myself to like it. I just use nvim with some plugins in a tmux session now and its productive as hell.
Of course I don’t browse the web with the command line. For merging branches, I always merge main into the working branch first, check conflict files, and go through the file finding the diffs and resolving them. I’ve used merge tools before that were sorta nice but I had my own issues with them.
Maybe it’s the type of programming I do. I don’t do any web stuff, so file count is down. For larger code bases I keep a non editor terminal up and will
grep -refor word/phrase searching,findto look for specific files, etc. I’ll occasionally use an IDE, typically eclipse based because embedded, but I don’t find myself missing the features they add.Of course I don’t browse the web with the command line.
That’s my point. Browsing the web with a command line tool is obnoxious - you use a GUI for tasks that you find easier/more pleasant to do with a GUI. The difference is where that line is. When I’m reviewing what work I’ve done and checking through my code for debugging statements and other cruft I don’t want to push, I prefer to have a nice tree view of my change set where I can click on an item, see what I’ve changed, select lines and stage them, select other lines and revert them, etc. I could do all of that with command line tools (though not that many have mouse support) but I already know how to do exactly what I want with VSC so why would I use anything else?
You’re already programming! Just learn the tool!
If someone is incapable of learning the tool, that’s an issue if they’re a developer. But your statement implies that everyone should use the CLI for everything. My point is that it’s a matter of preference. The CLI is not superior and GUIs aren’t superior. They’re both just tools and if you can get your job done quickly and efficiently, that’s all that should matter.
The CLI is scriptable/automatable and unambiguous when sharing instructions with coworkers. Both of these things make it very useful to know the commands. I do agree that it helps in some situations to visualize what is going on with a GUI/TUI though (neogit for nvim or magit for emacs are great if anyone is wondering), it can make things clearer at a glance.
I agree that it is a very useful skill to know how to use the CLI. I agree that every senior developer should know how and every junior should be capable of learning. I vehemently disagree that developers should use the CLI as their regular means of interacting with Git if that is not their preference.
Checking the diff before commit, solve merge conflicts
Also if it’s well integrated into the IDE it feels less like using a separate tool. For 95% of what I do the ide/gui feels better (fetch, pull, push, commit, checkout, merge). Usually just 2-4 clicks and no need to type the branch name (ticket number and then some)
For Reflog, reset I use the terminal.
If I had to start github desktop or another seperate gui I would use the terminal that’s integrated into the IDE.
Maybe not a GUI but using a TUI (lazygit) I am certain that I can do everything faster than you could ever do using the CLI. Tbf if a GUI Tool had the same shortcuts it would also be faster.
I use LazyGit on the CLI for a “GUI-like” experience. I find it helps me make smaller more meaningful commits. If I’m working on a feature that enhances or fixes other modules in my repo to support, its trivial when done to make multiple clean commits out of the one feature that isolates the changes in functionality to individual commits instead of one medium commit.
On a large enough repo (e.g., monorepo), its a pain to do using git commands.
I don’t understand git anyway
Well, you learn four commands and hope for the best.
fetch, reset --hard, checkout -b and cherry-pick?
:-D
Nah,
rebase -i,squash,fsckandreflogMust be an interesting work if you never
add,commitorpush.Edit: How the hell did you get the repo without
clone?Pshaw, real programmers write out the contents of
.gitby hand.(Also, it was a joke, the last two commands I listed are ones you’ll ideally never need in your life)
I was scared of reflog too. Had to use it for the first time recently after I accidentally’d a branch that I hadn’t pushed to remote yet. I was so glad that I could recover it all in <5 commands.
reflog saved my life once after a stupid misshap.
All rebase are belong to us (onto, rebase, and ofc interactive) but what’s fsck (I don’t squash personally)?
Fsck is File System Check - realistically you should never need to use it.
More like clone, pull, commit, and push --force
>:-D
push origin head
^^
Title text: If that doesn’t fix it, git.txt contains the phone number of a friend of mine who understands git. Just wait through a few minutes of ‘It’s really pretty simple, just think of branches as…’ and eventually you’ll learn the commands that will fix everything.
-
git pull
-
git add *
-
git commit -m “Some stuff”
-
git push
And occasionally when you mess up
-
git reflog
-
git reset HEAD@{n} (where n is where you wanna roll back to)
And occasionally if you mess up so hard you give up
- git reset --hard origin/main
And there you go. You are now a master at using git. Try not to mess up.
-
CLI
Though I will admit it took me a while to get there
git add -i is where the true magic beginsTIL!
git log --graph --oneline --all
Also part of the Cli magic is a pretty git log tree like that:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1838873/visualizing-branch-topology-in-git/34467298#34467298And a proper diff tool like vim:
git config --global diff.tool vimdiff git config --global difftool.prompt false(Current diff could be closed with :qa. All diffs could be closed with :cq).
JetBrains IDEs, I don’t remember the last time I used the CLI.
you have forgotten the face of your father
Linus Torvalds?
This is the way
I was looking for this comment. PHP storm and git are like best friends. I very very rarely need to resort to the CLI and generally that’s for hard resetting after I screw something up
Good luck doing anything remotely complicated/useful in git with an IDE. You get a small fraction of what git can do with a tool that allows absolutely 0 scripting and automation.
IDE git is less powerful than CLI git. However I’m pretty confident that most people use more features of git by using a GUI.
CLI feature discoverability is pretty awful, you have to go out of your way and type
git helpto learn new commands.With a GUI though, all the buttons are there, you just have to click a new button that you’ve been seeing for a while and the GUI will guide you how to use it.
It sounds like you don’t speak from experience. I have all the automation I need. It supports git hooks on top of IDE-only features like code checking.
If I have to fire up my CLI for some mass history rewriting (like changing an author for every commit), or when the repo breaks - so be it. But by not using the CLI I save my fingers and sanity, because committing a bunch of files is several click away with little to no room for error.
I can rebase, patch, drop, rename, merge, revert, cherry pick, and solve conflicts with a click of a button rather than remembering all the commands and whatnot.
I use the cli, but my main goal is to never have to do anything remotely complicated with git. Does it happen sometimes? Of course.
There are automations. You can even add git hooks iirc. Mostly I find the lint and other code quality integrations nice to have in the IDE, since the inline results allow me to navigate directly to the code
Diffing is a lot easier too
Learning git will give you the tools to work on projects on any git platform. It doesn’t matter if I’m in Forgejo, Gitlab, or Github.
And it will find you the most answers online in case you have a git related question.
Magit
fugitive
I was looking for someone to mention Magit. It just rocks!
This + org-mode are enough for me to switch to Emacs.
GitHub desktop Stan here. Been a software engineer for over a decade and still love my UI tools. GitHub desktop is good enough 99% of the time.
Any windows screenshots?
(Fork is also an awful name in terms of searching for it btw)
You have my attention
Do they have a Linux client though?
sadly no and i don’t think it works through wine
but technically they have a mac client which is basically an expensive version of linux
Not really. It’s BSD, and even then the layout of the OS is quite far from BSD. Besides that you have a lot more technical stuff. Just use wine.
I wish! The best Linux git gui I have found is SmartGit. I like it, but it’s just a little goofy and not free. Fork is better for its ability to very easily stage and/or stash a subset of the current changeset.
Anyone got any suggestions? I tried git-cola and gitkraken. The former I found obtuse and limited, and the latter is not free in addition to somehow making git harder with a pretty gui.
Gitkraken is free as long as the repository is public, which seems like an alright compromise to me. The only problem I had with it was that it was electron. What did it make harder for you?
I just really detest the UI. And I have private repos I have to work with as well.
The best ones I have found for Linux are SmartGit and Sublime Merge, but neither are free in any sense. Sublime Merge is slightly cheaper. SmartGit offers a free “hobby license” but it limits which kinds of repos you can work with.
Gitkraken looks like it might be good but I haven’t used it.
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Right and that is how I currently use it
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I hate coding on Windows, maybe I’ll check that out. (My only option is Windows for my work laptop because I need to use a few Windows-only softwares and IT says I’m not allowed to dual boot)
Is running Linux off a USB drive possible? It isn’t ideal, but you can still have persistence if needed? There is also WSL, if you don’t need a GUI.
After the last windows update WSL gives me a BSoD every time 😭 Pretty sure IT wouldn’t appreciate me running Ubuntu off a USB drive but that’s a good idea.
Been using it for years it’s great
I’d love to like the desktop app, but I just don’t understand what it’s doing under the hood when I click a button. When I click an icon, is it syncing my changes up as it pulls down, it just pulling down? I guess point and click is more scary to me when prod is on the line.
Why are you syncing directly to prod
I’m not? I just don’t like UIs
Prod being on the line meant “I’m on main”.
Yeah, I set up branch protection, but I hate the fact that some UIs are all “I know you just want to pull, but let’s push while we’re at it”.
If I may shill for a moment, that’s something I like about sublime merge - the buttons mostly map to git commands, and it has a nice log showing the commands it ran and their output.
Vscode plugins?
lazygit:
Freaking love TUIs, it’s like they took the convenience of a GUI and the efficiency of the CLI and merged them. As a Neovim and Lazygit user myself it’s amazing what I can accomplish in but a few keypresses.
Fork.
Fork is great. I just wished there was a linux version
Fork is great!
TIL. Looking great but no Linux support 😐
All hail the fork!
GitKraken!
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I think for most people it’s whatever you got used to first. I agree the hatred the GUIs get is overblown. I would always recommend people learn the command line but if you want to use a GUI, go for it, doesn’t affect me unless your commits are bad, in which case the CLI wouldn’t have helped anyway.
This is what I currently use, although I don’t really like the branch name color in last few versions, so kinda keep using the old version
I’d use Desktop if it worked, unfortunately recently it decided that I don’t have read/write access to a repo I’m working on. Works fine in git CLI so idk what the problem there is.
