Madza

Posted on Sep 30, 2020

What GIT GUI client do you use?

#webdev #discuss #git #productivity

I used GitHub Desktop at first, tho moved away as I wanted some integrated solution. So I went with VS Code extension GitLens and I find version control much easier now.

I've heard of other solutions like GitKraken, SourceTree and Smart Git.
There are lots of GIT extensions, as well.

What GIT GUI client do you use and why?

Top comments (88)

ecyrbe • Sep 30 '20 • Edited

I don't use a git gui, i'm far faster with command line.

It take a while to know the commands and options, but once you learn them you become much more productive.

It allows you to use git on any computer, help others fix their git mistakes.

Jacob B. • Oct 2 '20

Having GUI doesn't disallow you from using CLI commands but does help with rendering the tree. The tree rendered in terminal looks awful and not very helpful.

Also, I find some actions to be faster and easier using GUI - for example reviewing and staging the changes.

So, I personally use both GUI (Fork) and git CLI.

I also use KDiff3 for resolving conflicts. Looks dated but works really well.

Fernando B 🚀 • Oct 1 '20

Add that cli feedback is a whole lot better than a gui client.

Louis Low • Sep 30 '20

Terminal only

Madza • Sep 30 '20 • Edited

Do you use any aliases to be more productive with git? 🤔

Louis Low • Sep 30 '20 • Edited

Oh yes, I created a few most frequently used Git commands with aliases in my .bashrc file. Usually, the shorthand commands not more than 6 letters.

# @file: .bashrc
alias gprn='du -hs $PWD/.git; git status; git pull; git gc --aggressive --prune=all; du -hs $PWD/.git'
alias gprna='find . -name .git -type d -execdir git gc --prune=all ";"'
alias gs='git status'
alias gpsh='du -hs $PWD/.git; git gc --aggressive --prune=all; du -hs $PWD/.git; git status; git push'
alias gcomp='du -hs $PWD/.git; git gc --aggressive --prune=all; du -hs $PWD/.git; git add .; git commit -m'
alias gclone='git clone'
alias gc='git checkout'
alias gcm='git commit -m'
alias gs='git status'
alias ga='git add --all'
alias gp='git pull --rebase'
alias gb='git branch -vv'
alias gr='git remote -v'
alias grt='git reset --hard'
alias gpub='git push origin publish'
alias grp='git rebase publish'
alias gdev='git push origin dev'
alias gd='git branch -D'
alias gm='git merge'
alias gh='git push'
alias gda='git branch | grep -v "develop" | grep -v "release" | xargs git branch -D'
alias gf='git fetch'
alias gl='git log -3'

Madza • Sep 30 '20

Nice list 🔥🔥🔥 Thanks for sharing with us ❤

dondappr33 • Sep 30 '20

Hey ! Do you know ZSH has its own aliases for Git in CLI ?
github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/wiki/Ch...

Louis Low • Sep 30 '20

Yea, I know. But I am kinda married to Bash like forever (16 years). I don't think I would find any other partner.

dondappr33 • Sep 30 '20

Weddings are increasingly rare so congratulations lol

Louis Low • Sep 30 '20

Everything is weird these days.

Fernando B 🚀 • Sep 30 '20

These are my abbreviations in fish.

github.com/kodaman2/kubuntu-dotfil...

KAIDI • Sep 30 '20

I use Fork , let's say it's very powerful and easy to use.
I tested gitkraken before, it's slow comparing with fork

Daniel Castillejo • Sep 30 '20 • Edited

I use Gitlens + Git Graph on VS Code.

I've also used SourceTree as a standalone git client in the past but a few months back I've switched to Fork and I'm pretty happy with it.

ramyaDhanush • Oct 3 '20

How Git Graph works?

Justin Ho • Sep 30 '20

I use git in the terminal but added forgit which has syntax highlighting for diffs and log views

Kalle Fagerberg • Oct 1 '20 • Edited

Yea forgit is a blessing. I enjoy using the terminal as-is but forgit's staging view is a huge blessing for me

Justin Ho • Oct 1 '20

Damn that's a clean setup!
I never even got around to customizing my tmux tabs or the forgit colors haha

Kalle Fagerberg • Oct 1 '20

Haha not gonna lie, I just pulled the screenshot off github.com/wfxr/forgit#readme. Probably should've added a "credits to wfxr for image".

I'm actually not a user of tmux. But hey this actually gives me some energy to look into it :)

Justin Ho • Oct 1 '20

Ah I see, you should definitely check out tmux or any of its cousins.

I run a tmux session (instance) of it on my workstation and move around the house on my laptop ssh-ed and using the same tmux so I never lose what I was doing in multiple consoles.

Kalle Fagerberg • Oct 1 '20

Oh boy that sounds like a swell setup, thanks for sharing :)

E. Choroba • Sep 30 '20

I use the command line in a terminal and magit in Emacs.

Pierre Le Gall • Oct 2 '20

If magit is the best Git GUI for many people today, we have to precise it is the best Git GUI for Emacs users only ;p

And, as an Emacs plugin (I should say Emacs package), note it is a Git pseudo-GUI because it is keyboard oriented. From my point of view, it is very nice compromise between power of a CLI and ergonomy of a GUI.

Martin Frost • Oct 1 '20

Same here. I've tried to use VS Code a bit, and in VS Code I've tried the edamagit plugin, which aims to be a magit version for VS Code. It seems promising.

Guillaume Esquevin • Sep 30 '20

I use git from terminal if I'm within one or gitlens if I'm on vscode.

But I've unlocked much more power from git through Gitup gitup.co which allow me to entirely rewrite a branch history and split commits in a better way, extracting exactly the lines I want in a given commit, and making my PR much easier to review for my colleagues.
I don't even wanna try to do this from command line. There are use case when a GUI is superior.

Chris Justesen • Oct 2 '20

I do this in the cli,

However I agree, with large amounts of files I will select vscode which also allows for partial staging of files.

But git add -i is a blessing in my day-to-day operations

André • Sep 30 '20

I'm using a plugin called vim-fugitive since it allows me to stay in my when writing commits or staging parts of a file.

For other things (e.g., pushing, rebasing, bisecting), I'm using the terminal. It takes some time to learn all the commands, but after that, it's worked out well for me. 😄

Michael Currin • Sep 30 '20 • Edited

I started off learning git on the command-line so mostly fall back to that.

In VS Code and PyCharm, I'll use the GUI to change branches and commit. But for other stuff like viewing logs, doing a rebase, reset, push, etc. I use the command-line.

I do enjoy the IDEs I mention when it comes to resolving merge conflicts. PyCharm let's you see 3 views side by side and VS Code shows you a smart interactive layer on top of the plain text code which has <<< and >>> etc.

I haven't had a reason to download something else dedicated to Git / GitHub handling.

My git aliases for interest! :)

Pablo Herrero • Sep 30 '20 • Edited

I prefer the terminal + aliases, but I have GitKraken for when “I don't see it". Why? I find it very intuitive to use and very clear, it can also be linked to various services. GitHub Desktop seems tedious to me. Gitlens is fine too.

Thomas Broyer • Oct 1 '20

Because I use both VS Code and IntelliJ IDEA (and even Eclipse sometimes, and of course Vim for some quick changes), I don't use integrated solutions (years ago, I used both Eclipse for Java projects and Visual Studio for C#, at the time I was on Windows and using Subversion, so TortoiseSVN was my go-to; then switched to Git, then to Linux as I no longer needed to do C#, and then to IntelliJ IDEA, and VS Code as I do more and more JS).
I never had to re-learn how to use Git when changing OS, editor, etc.

I use git-gui (most of the time in its git citool form) to stage changes and commit them, gitk for browsing history, and the command line for everything else (pull, push, rebase, switch branch; and occasionally git add -p for its edit mode).
git-gui is ugly, and it crashes if you use some emojis (in commit messages or code), but it does the job well and is very lightweight; and "builtin/official".

Vale • Oct 1 '20 • Edited

I mostly use Gitkraken, but I'm also building my own alternative in my free time. Gitkraken is pretty and easy to use, but it's slow and often has trouble with bigger repos.

Neel • Oct 3 '20

Funny thing is that I actually made my own (😜). I was using GitKraken back in 2019 and it is honestly great. Greater than github desktop tbh.

Then I got comfortable with bash and started using that actively. Along with the js based projects I maintain, I also have a bunch of bash scripts on my digitalocean droplet which I constantly modify. So I needed a git UI client to track what has actually changed in the scripts. Git diff is good but visualizing things on the shell is not the same as viewing it from a UI layer. So I made a web based UI client crafted with React and Node JS. The web based UI client was originally developed for Linux and Mac alone, later it was made compatible with windows.

It's available as an npm package, so I just run it from the command line and open it in the browser to use it on the go. Using git from terminal is fine for me but this platform makes a few things better such as commit log tracking and intuitive source code diff.

github.com/neel1996/gitconvex