Most guides about Git state that Git clients on Windows are less polished than SVN ones: I believe that's an outdated statement. If you're used to TortoiseSVN<\/a>, you'll quickly feel home with TortoiseGit<\/a>.<\/p>\n This said, I also believe that you should not overlook making yourself comfortable with the command line shell, for 2 reasons:<\/p>\n A quick personal note about the Github client<\/a>: I find it very limited. It's sexy, it's appealing, but its most useful feature is the "Open command line shell here" button. Do yourself a favor, save some time and skip it.<\/p>\n TL;DR<\/strong><\/span>: Default options FTW, except "Cheetah"<\/strong><\/p>\n First, you have to install Git for Windows<\/a>, aka<\/em> msysgit<\/tt>. I don't have much to say here, just click "Next" when asked for some option, except on that one screen: when prompted for Windows Explorer integration, be sure to select and check<\/strong> "Context menu entries" and not<\/strong> the "cheetah" extension.<\/p>\n The reason is simple: those context menu entries are settings in the registry, and we'll hack and enhance them a lot later.<\/p>\n Next, install TortoiseGit<\/a>, which is the GUI wrapper around Git. I don't remember doing anything that wasn't default during the setup so I won't elaborate further.<\/p>\n In the rest of this guide I'll assume all install paths are default. You may have to adjust accordingly to your config, in particular regarding the location of the "Program Files" folder which differs from 32 to 64 bits setups.<\/p>\n One thing to be aware of, if you are already a TortoiseSVN user: both "Tortoise" will share the same icon overlay. Unfortunately, it's impossible to visually differentiate the type of repository ; that would have been very neat but it's a Windows limitation and won't change soon.<\/p>\n TL;DR<\/span>: cmd.exe sucks. But cmd + Console2 with tweaked settings rocks.<\/strong><\/p>\n Think what you will about Microsoft, but there's one thing they've mastered to an unmatched level: sticking with the same patheticly crappy command shell (aka cmd.exe<\/tt>) since 1914. Recentish versions of Windows ship with Powershell, but that's not better.<\/p>\n Installing msysgit and the Windows port of many Linux utilies will provide several enhancements to the command line shell already (tab completion on commands, aliases for example) but we want more.<\/p>\n Console2<\/a> is shell wrapper (not a replacement to the good ol' cmd.exe) that adds what's missing: mouse support to select, copy and paste, a tabbed interface, customizable shortcuts and more. You'll love it.<\/p>\n Console2 is pretty cool but, probably because it didn't want to ashame cmd.exe too hard, it comes with really stupid default settings that need urgent tweaking. The following will make Console2 behave the same as your favorite Putty shell console:<\/p>\n For the lazy here is my whole console.xml<\/a> setting file (ie default settings plus tweaks described here). Drop this file in Console2's directory.<\/p>\n The original Console2 project hasn't been updated for month, but the package you'll get from Sourceforge works fine on Win7. This said, I've found that someone has forked the project and provides a newer version<\/a> with a few additions.<\/p>\n TL;DR<\/span>: a quick .reg hack will give lasers to your right click, pew pew<\/strong><\/p>\n Now you have a fine tuned Console2, let's improve the right click context menus msysgit has installed. The default context menus pop up when you right click a folder icon and start Git's bash in cmd.exe<\/tt>, but with the help of Regedit we'll make that waaaaay better:<\/p>\n First, dig in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\Directory\\shell\\git_shell<\/tt>. The trick is to replace the default Git bash command with a shortcut to the Git tab in Console2: C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Console2\\Console.exe -t \"Git\" -d \"%1\"<\/tt><\/p>\n The second trick is to create a Regedit entry to take care of your right-clicking in the background area of a folder: create a new key named git in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\Directory\\Background\\shell<\/tt> with an empty string named NoWorkingDirectory<\/tt> and, in the Console2 command line, replace the directory argument %1<\/tt> with %V<\/tt> (go figure).<\/p>\n Copy that into a raw text file named blah.reg<\/tt> on your desktop, edit if needed (make sure the paths match, mine here are defaults (keep the double backslash mayhem intact)) and execute the reg file to merge into your registry.<\/p>\n TL;DR<\/span>: smart prompt and dynamic MOTD for the win.<\/strong><\/p>\n You're almost there! Now that you have a cool shell that'll work just the same way as when you're using Putty or a Unix shell, let's leverage what bash has to offer.<\/p>\n First, a nicer and smarter prompt<\/strong>. Mine shows current path and current branch if applicable. Also, since I don't work in what Windows considers my home directory (ie C:\\Users\\Ozh<\/tt>) but in D:\\home\\planetozh<\/tt>, the $(pwd | sed)<\/tt> trick here shortens the displayed path to saves a few chars.<\/p>\n Add this to C:\\Users\\Bobby\\.bash_profile<\/tt> (hint: how to create dot files<\/a> in Windows if you're having trouble with this)<\/p>\n Next, a useful dynamic MOTD<\/strong>.<\/p>\n When you launch a new shell, you're shown the content of the default MOTD (located in C:\\Program Files\\Git\\etc\\motd<\/tt>) which just contains a completely useless reminder about git --help<\/tt>.<\/p>\n Upon launch, my shell checks if we're in a git project (ie if git rev-parse --git-dir<\/tt> triggers an error or returns something) and, if so, calls git branch<\/tt> to list existing branches and git status<\/tt>, which is a really handy command that suggests hints on what to do next as well as a few quick sanity checks and reminders (untracked files you've forgotten to git add for instance)<\/p>\n Add the following code to your .bash_profile<\/tt>:<\/p>\n Screenshot of smart prompt and dynamic MOTD, pew pew :<\/p>\n TL;DR<\/span>: not a Linux bearded geek, right? Hate vi<\/tt>, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n I'm going to lose a lot of internet geek points here but I'll say it anyway: I've always considered Vi (or Vim), which is the default editor on many setups, as the most efficient user repellent ever. Whenever I log on a new shell, the first thing I check is if nano<\/tt> or pico<\/tt> are available (for the clueless: intuitive and simple text editors where you don't need insane key combo such as !:qomg<\/tt> to execute a simple command). The default console text editor in msysgit is, guess what, vi, so we'll simplify things ASAP.<\/p>\n First, download Nano<\/a>, yes there are Windows ports, and drop the files in C:\\Program Files\\Git\\bin<\/tt>. Next, launch your shiny Git console and type the following:<\/p>\n Now, interactive commands such as git commit<\/tt> will send you into nano<\/tt>. I thought it made sense to keep things in the console when you work from the console, but if you want to open your regular text editor instead, say, Notepad++, that's not a problem:<\/p>\n TL;DR<\/span>: C:\\Users\\Bob\\_netrc<\/strong><\/p>\n By default TortoiseGit doesn't store any password, as TortoiseSVN does (or I'm too dumb to find where this is stored). There are two ways to circumvent this.<\/p>\n First option<\/strong>: you can generate SSH keys (on Github<\/a> for instance) and save them in Tortoise, but I've heard<\/a> that it's not obviously obvious.<\/p>\n I don't know what loops Otto had to go through, but in case you want to investigate that solution, this post on SO<\/a> has what seems like good pointers.<\/p>\n Second option<\/strong>, what I've done: simply save your login and password in a file named _netrc<\/tt> that you'll create in your User directory (eg %USERPROFILE%<\/tt> eg C:\\Users\\Bob<\/tt>).<\/p>\n The syntax is simply: machine blah.com login bob password zomgp4ssw0rd<\/tt> with one line per machine<\/p>\n If you frequently work with multiple repositories and different logins, here is a simple .bat<\/tt> file that prompts you for the needed info (host, login, password) and stores everything in the adequate file.<\/p>\n\n
Installing msysgit then TortoiseGit<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/planetozh.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/msysgit1.png\" "\\"msysgit\\"")
<\/p>\nShell enhancement: Console2 to the rescue<\/h2>\n
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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/planetozh.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/console2.png\" "\\"console2\\"")
<\/p>\nRegedit wizardry: ultimate context menus<\/h2>\n
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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/planetozh.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/pewpew.png\" "\\"pewpew\\"")
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\n\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\tSpicing it all: .bash_profile hints<\/h2>\n
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\n\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t![\"\"](\"http:\/\/planetozh.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/motd.png\" "\\"motd\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nBonus trick 1 : get rid of vi<\/h2>\n
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\n\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\tBonus trick 2 : make TortoiseGit remember your passwords<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/planetozh.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/sshkeys.png\" "\\"sshkeys\\"")
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