I ask because I like console, but at the same time have difficulties remembering all the commands. I’d like to try a GUI that is comfortable to use with only a keyboard.
[edit]
My inbox got fediversized, fantastic feeling.
It’s a paid app only available for Windows and Mac at the moment, but Fork may be worth a look: https://git-fork.com
I am using it too and I love it. I only know source tree as a competitor and in comparision it sucks…
You dont have to pay for it, even when using it comercially (unpess they changed that)
It has a “free evaluation” that I think can be as long as you want it to be / honor system.
Its been worth it to me to pick up a license and support the development though. Its reasonably priced (for a dev tool) / no subscription and definitely beats the free clients I was using before (Sourcetree/GithubDesktop).
Came here to recommend it too, really neat and practical tool and I haven’t found a better alternative yet. Honestly I don’t know why are people so against GUI git tools, it makes visualizing branches and commits so much more easier. I don’t think you can use it only with your keyboard as OP asked though, dunno how important that is to them.
Magit with emacs (doom emacs to be fully honest). More a TUI, but definitely fully keyboard driven :)
Magit on Spacemacs for me. Absolutely brilliant tool. https://magit.vc/
Yeah this is THE best interface for git. Worth getting into Emacs just to use it id say.
Same here. I don’t even use emacs for development anymore (I use IntelliJ since all my work is on the JVM and Typescript) but I still have an emacs running in the background for magit and org-mode. Magit is insanely effective for performing complex rebasing and cherry-picking tasks.
TortoiseGIT
It doesn’t get enough love.
GittyUp! https://murmele.github.io/Gittyup
I previously used GitKraken but was looking for an open source alternative that works in a similar fashion and has a Flatpak.
I use it as well! Not sure if it’s a flatpak thing, but for some reason I need to re-enter credentials for my git remotes for each push. What’s your experience?
No problems here but I only use SSH keys which are configured on my ~/.ssh directory.
I assume you can use ssh-agent somehow to save your credentials.
Sublime Merge has been wonderful to work with
I also love how fast Sublime Merge is. The built in merge tool is great too. I’m a sucker for apps with a command palette for easy access to every command.
Definitely can recommend Sublime Merge as well!
It is one of the few tools that doesn’t misrepresent the core git paradigm.
These days I can run everything I need to with the git cli. I use the JetBrains visual merge tool to resolve conflicts, because doing that by hand is so awfully error prone, it very very intuitively maps to a visual process
when I absolutely need to… git-gui.
Live by the console, die by the console.
(I should change things up and try to make my life easier – vim for life) 🙃
No, I find typing faster than clicking and I’ve been using git for so long the commands are second nature to me.
What I prefer most about an UI is the better sense of overview over the repository and it’s branches.
I find, when compared to people I’ve worked with that prefer plain git, that I’m much quicker at finding certain changes or seeing what is in which branch with GitExtensions.
I use Lazygit, which is a TUI. It is entirely controlled by keyboard shortcuts and has a lot of quick ways to do tedious things.
+1 for Lazygit. It doesn’t cover all of my needs so I have to use the CLI for a few small things, but for 99% of your typical git usage this tool is such a gift.
I’m curious: what’s missing for you?
I needed a few smaller features (like rebasing onto any commit, not just HEAD) and found the code quite easy to adapt to my needs (had to take half a day to learn Go first though).
A proper gerrit integration would be awesome though.
What’s lacking for you and where did you end up tool-wise?
The number of Git front ends with proprietary licenses is too damn high.
TortoiseGit user here. Love that it integrates with Windows Explorer so I don’t have to constantly be opening an app first to fire off some Git commands.
Gitkraken is the powerhouse, but i only use it for difficult commands
I used to swear by the git CLI. After using GitKraken for a few days, I shelled out the $95 for an annual license. It’s really good.
Gitkraken is great. Git is one of the few things I don’t like to CLI (largely because I hate git; hg for life) and Gitkraken is the most usable Linux GUIs I’ve tried. The big problem is the restriction on private repos they added a few versions back. I gave in and paid but I can see a lot of people not being willing to.
I use Gitkraken too and am very satisfied with it
I use GK for everything and usually only use CLI when there’s something a little exotic. I like seeing it update in real time on another screen and I like the diff engine for quickly assessing changes and making sure everything I expected was altered and nothing I didn’t. I know there are other tools but GitKraken is the fastest for me.
Also have found it a good tool for teaching other engineers (usually older) how Git works. We tried out Sourcetree but it was super clunky at the time.
If I had to find a tool between pure CLI and pure GUI I’d probably recommend Emacs Magit porcelain. Works quite well.
VS 2022 is finally somewhat usable for Git using the git Changes pane. The whole team uses it this way, and for many of them it’s a first for git as well.
I use the VS Code built-in git support for making commits, and fall back to the CLI for anything else.
You won’t have trouble remembering commands once you use them often enough. And you don’t need to know all of them, just the ones your workflow uses. My toolbox is commit, checkout, status, reset, rebase -i, merge, bisect. That’s all I need day-to-day.
I’ve tried a lot and settled with vim-fugitive. If you know and like Vim-keybindings it’s probably the best choice out there.
You made me curious, I’ll have to try it
Sad that I had to scroll so far to see Fugitive mentioned. It is so good it should be illegal. But seriously, if you’re a vim user you really should give it a shot. It’s a perfect blend of vim and shell. Also it’s developed by the legendary tpope, that oughta be enough of an argument to try it out.
