Git (on the Mac)

18 Apr, 2008

Git is the hype. I'm just starting to use it for a couple of projects, both directly, and as a local facade to Subversion.

Here are some suggestions on using git under Mac OS X.

Installation

Installation using MacPorts is pretty painless. Ensure you choose the "svn" variant if you want Git/Subversion integration.

sudo port install git +svn +doc

Another option is the native installer, available at http://code.google.com/p/git-osx-installer/

Textmate

If you use Textmate, the Git Textmate bundle is rather nice.

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles
git clone git://gitorious.org/git-tmbundle/mainline.git Git.tmbundle

Remember to set the TM_GIT variable (to "/opt/local/bin/git" or "/usr/local/bin/git", as the case may be), otherwise stuff won't work.

Shell completion

For command-line (bash) users, there's TAB-completion available, which is pretty handy. I'm using it directly from my local clone of the git source tree, like this:

# in .bashrc ...

git_completion_script=$HOME/OpenSource/kernel.org/git/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash
if test -f $git_completion_script; then
  source $git_completion_script
fi

GitNub for history browsing

GitNub is a sweet little UI for browsing history of git commits.

Using Git

So far, I haven't talked at all about how you actually USE the thing, and don't intend to, since there are already so many great resources out there on the subject. Some I've found useful are: