====================================== A Git command line interface to GitHub

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Description

git hub is a simple command line interface to GitHub_, enabling most useful GitHub_ tasks (like creating and listing pull request or issues) to be accessed directly through the Git_ command line.

Although probably the most outstanding feature (and the one that motivated the creation of this tool) is the pull rebase command, which is the rebasing version of the GitHub Merge (TM) button__. This enables an easy workflow that doesn't involve thousands of merges which makes the repository history unreadable.

__ https://github.com/blog/843-the-merge-button

Another unique feature is the ability to transform an issue into a pull request by attaching commits to it (this is something offered by the GitHub API__ but not by the web interface).

__ https://developer.github.com/

Usage

Here are some usage examples, for more information about all the supported command an options, please refer to the man page using git hub --help or looking at the online version__ (this is for the latest development snapshot though).

__ https://github.com/sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub/blob/master/man.rst

One time global setup to get the credentials

::

$ git hub setup --global --user octocat GitHub password (will not be stored):

You can revoke this credentials at any time in the GitHub Applications Settings page__.

__ https://github.com/settings/applications

Clone (and fork) a project

::

$ git hub clone -t sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub Forking sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub to octocat/git-hub Cloning [email protected]:sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub.git to git-hub Fetching from fork ([email protected]:octocat/git-hub.git)

The fork will happen only if you haven't fork the project before, of course. And we are using the triangular workflow option (-t / --triangular), so we can pull from the parent repo but push to our fork by default.

Using a pre-existing cloned repository

::

$ git config hub.upstream sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub

This sets the master GitHub_ project. It's where we query for issues and pull requests and where we create new pull requests, etc.

This is only necessary if you didn't clone your repository using git hub clone and is a one time only setup step.

List issues

::

$ git hub issue list [3] pull: Use the tracking branch as default base branch (leandro-lucarella-sociomantic) https://github.com/sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub/issues/3 [1] bash-completion: Complete with IDs only when is appropriate according to command line arguments (leandro-lucarella-sociomantic) https://github.com/sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub/issues/1

Update an issue

::

$ git hub issue update --label important --label question
-m 'New Title' --assign octocat --open --milestone v0.5 1 [1] New Title (leandro-lucarella-sociomantic) https://github.com/sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub/issues/1

Create a new pull request

::

$ git hub pull new -b experimental -c mypull Pushing master to mypull in myfork [4] Some pull request (octocat) https://github.com/sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub/pull/4

This creates a pull request against the upstream branch experimental using the current HEAD, but creating a new topic branch called mypull to store the actual pull request (assuming our HEAD is in the branch master).

Attach code to an existing issue

::

$ git hub pull attach -b experimental -c mypull 1 Pushing master to mypull in myfork [1] Some issue (octocat) https://github.com/sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub/pull/1

Same as before, but this time attach the commits to issue 2 (effectively converting the issue into a pull request).

Rebase a pull request

::

$ git hub pull rebase 4 Fetching mypull from [email protected]:octocat/git-hub.git Rebasing to master in [email protected]:sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub.git Pushing results to master in [email protected]:sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub.git [4] Some pull request (octocat) https://github.com/sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub/pull/4

If the rebase fails, you can use git hub pull rebase --continue as you would do with a normal rebase.

Download

You can get this tool from the GitHub project. If you want to grab a release, please remember to visit the Release section.

__ https://github.com/sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub __ https://github.com/sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub/releases

Installation

Dependencies

• Python_ 2.7 (3.x can be used too but you have to run the 2to3 tool to the script first)

• Git_ >= 1.7.7 (if you use Ubuntu_ you can easily get the latest Git version using the Git stable PPA__)

• Docutils_ (>= 0.8, although it might work with older versions too, only needed to build the man page)

• FPM_ (>= 1.0.1, although it might work with older versions too, only needed to build the Debian package)

__ https://launchpad.net/~git-core/+archive/ppa

Building

Only the man page and bash completion script need to be built. Type make to build them.

Alternatively, you can build a Debian_/Ubuntu_ package. Use make deb for that.

Installing

If you built the Debian_/Ubuntu_ package, you can just install the package (dpkg -i ../git-hub_VER_all.deb).

Otherwise you can type make install to install the tool, man page, bash completion and VIM_ ftdetect plugin (by default in /usr/local, but you can pick a different location by passing the prefix variable to make (for example make install prefix=/usr). To pick a location for the completion scripts (by default in /etc), use the sysconfdir variable.

If Docutils_ is installed using pip the environment variable RST2MAN should be set to rst2man.py.

The installation locations might be too specific for Debian_/Ubuntu_ though. Please report any failed installation attempts.

To enjoy the bash completion you need to re-login (or re-load the /etc/bash_completion script).

To have syntax highlight in VIM_ when editing git-hub messages, you need to activate the ftdetect plugin by copying or symbolic-linking it to ~/.vim/ftdetect/githubmsg.vim::

mkdir -p ~/.vim/ftdetect ln -s $(prefix)/share/vim/addons/githubmsg.vim ~/.vim/ftdetect/

or if you are copying from the sources:

ln -s ftdetect.vim ~/.vim/ftdetect/githubmsg.vim

Similar Projects

We explored other alternatives before starting this project, but none of these tools do (or are targeted) at what we needed. But here are the ones we found, in case they are a better fit for you:

• hub <https://hub.github.com/>_: Is the official tool, but it completely replaces the Git command, adding special syntax for official git commands. This is definitely something we didn't want. We don't want to mess with Git.

• ghi <https://github.com/stephencelis/ghi>_: This only handle issues. Not what we needed.

• git-spindle <https://github.com/seveas/git-spindle>_: This tool was discovered after we started and published this project. It covers similar ground, but doesn't offer rebase capabilities (this, of course, could have been implemented as an extension). Sadly, it also extends the Git command-line adding the hub command, which can introduce a lot of confusion to users. We might try to merge our code into that project eventually, if there is interest.

• gh <https://github.com/node-gh/gh>_: A command line tool based on NodeJS. It does offer the rebase capabilities we sought after, but the project was created after this project was started.

Contact

If you want to contact us, either because you are a user and have questions, or because you want to contribute to the project, you can subscribe to the mailing list.

Subscription happens automatically (after confirmation) the first time you write to: [email protected] (this first e-mail will be dropped).

You can always visit the mailing list archives__ to check if your questions were already answered in the past :)

__ http://librelist.com/browser/git.hub/

You can also use GMANE__ to get a better list archive__ (both threaded__ and blog-like__ interfaces available) or to read the list using NNTP__.

__ http://www.gmane.org/ __ http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git.git-hub __ http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git.git-hub __ http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git.git-hub __ nntp://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git.git-hub

If you want to report a bug, just create an issue__ please (if you use this tool I'm sure you already have a GitHub_ account ;).

__ https://github.com/sociomantic-tsunami/git-hub/issues/new

.. _Python: https://www.python.org/ .. _Docutils: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/ .. _Git: https://www.git-scm.com/ .. _GitHub: https://www.github.com/ .. _Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/ .. _Debian: https://www.debian.org/ .. _VIM: http://www.vim.org/ .. _FPM: https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm

.. vim: set et sw=2 tw=80 :