Hacker News Reader

Comment by TheAceOfHearts | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone here have suggestions for git GUI? I used SourceTree for a few years, but a while back they started adding a bunch of tracking scripts, which I'm uncomfortable with. I can generally get by fine with the CLI, but whenever I need to do anything even slightly unfamiliar, I like being able to put on training wheels and have a GUI guide the way.

I think git would benefit from a type of "training wheels" config, where no action is destructive or irreversible. I've had a few close calls where I almost lost some code due to a git screw-up. Luckily, my local Time Machine backups have always saved my ass.

View on HN

SourceTree doesn't track use/interaction information unless the setting is enabled. You can disable it via the "Help improve SourceTree by sending data about your usage" in the "General" tab in the options screen. If enabled, you can read about the exact data we send here: https://confluence.atlassian.com/sourcetreekb/sourcetree-ana...

I know it's not a GUI (you'd class it as a TUI, I guess), but Tig is fantastic. I use it in combination with the command line, mainly for quickly viewing recent commits, diffs and staging hunks.

https://github.com/jonas/tig

I love using tig, but never knew that it had the ability to stage files. Will definitely check that out. Thanks for the heads up!

Yep, just press 'u' when looking at staged/unstaged diffs

After trying many, my favourite is Git Extensions [0] (despite the name it's also a stand alone application) for Windows and Linux [1]

[0] https://github.com/gitextensions/gitextensions

[1] https://github.com/gitextensions/gitextensions/wiki/Git-Exte... (2.49, although I just tried 2.50.01 and it seems to work too)

edit: Linux version is a little bit glitchy with UI texts, when pushing to a repository that have commits ahead, the two invisible options are "pull with rebase" and "pull with merge" respectively.

I've been comparing a couple of Git Guis lately. Till now, the best one I've found is GitExtensions https://gitextensions.github.io/

The gui widgets look a little antiquated, but its greatest feature is that it helps you to "do the right thing". It is not just a bunch of features, they have well thought interactions. When something fails, it guides you to correct the problem.

It is quick, opensource, multiplaform, doesn't force you to have an account with online services, comes with the great Kdiff3 and integrates well with online tools and Windows Explorer.

There's quite an interesting GUI for the mac called 'GitUp' which draws a diagram of the structure of the repository (commits, branches) etc, and provides options to modify the repository. Good for helping to understand the structure of the repository.

    git gui
    gitk --all

Those are my two go-tos.

Git Tower is the best-designed git GUI for Mac. It's wonderful.

+1 for Tower (there's also a windows version).

It's the only git GUI that has made me consider switching from the CLI interface.

Not just for Mac, there's a Git Tower for Windows as well.

magit. Worth installing emacs just for that.

+1 this

Does more than putting buttons on existing commands

Improves discoverability of interesting combinations of commands and option flags to make higher order commands

agreed!

Tracking scripts? Can you expand on that? Legitimately curious as a user of SourceTree.

Atom recently added git support: http://blog.atom.io/2017/05/16/git-and-github-integration-co.... It works well for me and I use it as more a supplement to the CLI rather than a replacement, so it might work for you.

Elegit is a GUI designed to make it easier for people (students, normally) to learn how git works. The idea being that you'd start off with Elegit, figure out what the common commands are actually doing, then switch to the command line. http://elegit.org/

I'd love it if there were some screenshots on the website. I wonder if it's related to http://www.git-legit.org/

I like SourceTree, and use it full time, but man does it have some annoying limitations. Like selecting a number of branches from the sidebar and deleting all of them. Something where a GUI should clearly be superior. But SourceTree doesn't allow you to do it. Or customizable Toolbar buttons to launch scripts and automate tasks.

I'd love to see an opinionated git GUI that doesn't aim to replicate all the features of the command line, but instead focuses on streamlining the daily work of a software developer working on features and bugs.

I mostly use the CLI, but as a history browser, I like QGit very much (tip: invoke as "qgit --all"). Also, I sometimes use "git gui" to split messy diffs into separate commits.

Smartgit is a very nice. http://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/

Using it on Linux and is the best Git UI(not like we are spoiled by the amount of options on Ubuntu ...)

I'm using Visual Studio Code and gitg. The latter is only available for Linux and Windows though.

I use gitkraken, it's multiplatform, freemium and has a pretty nice interface.

GitEye is a good Git GUI (Eclipse like). You can keep track of all your commits in different branches, you can commit, etc. and it has i.a. a GitHub intigration.

I use gitk a lot, available on all platforms. I also use GitX to edit my commits, on macOS. Some people look very satisfied by the git GUI built-in in VSCode.

My favorite: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gitg/

or gitk...

Check fork out. I use it for quick overviews [MacOS only]: https://git-fork.com

> Luckily, my local Time Machine backups have always saved my ass.

So you do backups for something that already functions like a backup system. That's fascinating. Did you know that Git does not lose anything? You might find 'git reflog' useful if you happen to screw up frequently.

When git garbage collection runs, I do believe it collects dangling commits.

Doing a "git branch backup" before doing something stupid gives you a more convenient "undo".

Alternatively, just git clone to a new directory before attempting some insane rebase operation.

The CLI/curses option "tig" can be handy once a year or so.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com