Using Git with Visual Studio

Question

As a long-time Visual SourceSafe user  and hater  I was discussing switching to SVN with a colleague  he suggested using Git instead  Since  apparently  it can be used as peer-to-peer without a central server  we are a 3-developer team     I have not been able to find anything about tools that integrate Git with Visual Studio  though - does such a thing exist    What are the technologies available for using Git with Visual Studio  And what do I need to know about how they differ before I begin

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Visual Studio 2013 natively supports Git   See the official announcement

User · Answer

In Jan 2013  Microsoft announced that they are adding full Git support into all their ALM products  They have published a plugin for Visual Studio 2012 that adds Git source control integration   Alternatively  there is a project called Git Extensions that includes add-ins for Visual Studio 2005  2008  2010 and 2012  as well as Windows Explorer integration  It s regularly updated and having used it on a couple of projects  I ve found it very useful   Another option is Git Source Control Provider

User · Answer

I ve looked into this a bit at work  both with Subversion and Git   Visual Studio actually has a source control integration API to allow you to integrate third-party source control solutions into Visual Studio  However  most folks don t bother with it for a couple of reasons   The first is that the API pretty much assumes you are using a locked-checkout workflow  There are a lot of hooks in it that are either way expensive to implement  or just flat out make no sense when you are using the more modern edit-merge workflow   The second  which is related  is that when you are using the edit-merge workflow that both Subversion and Git encourage  you don t really need Visual Studio integration  The main killer thing about SourceSafe s integration with Visual Studio is that you  and the editor  can tell at a glance which files you own  which must be checked out before you can edit  and which you cannot check out even if you want to  Then it can help you do whatever revision-control voodoo you need to do when you want to edit a file  None of that is even part of a typical Git workflow    When you are using Git  or SVN typically   your revision-control interactions all take place either before your development session  or after it  once you have everything working and tested   At that point it really isn t too much of a pain to use a different tool  You aren t constantly having to switch back and forth

User · Answer

I use Git with Visual Studio for my port of Protocol Buffers to C   I don t use the GUI - I just keep a command line open as well as Visual Studio   For the most part it s fine - the only problem is when you want to rename a file  Both Git and Visual Studio would rather that they were the one to rename it  I think that renaming it in Visual Studio is the way to go though - just be careful what you do at the Git side afterwards  Although this has been a bit of a pain in the past  I ve heard that it actually should be pretty seamless on the Git side  because it can notice that the contents will be mostly the same   Not entirely the same  usually - you tend to rename a file when you re renaming the class  IME    But basically - yes  it works fine  I m a Git newbie  but I can get it to do everything I need it to  Make sure you have a git ignore file for bin and obj  and   user

User · Answer

I find that Git  working on whole trees as it does  benefits less from IDE integration than source control tools that are either file based or follow a checkout-edit-commit pattern  Of course there are instances when it can be nice to click on a button to do some history examination  but I don t miss that very much   The real must-do is to get your  gitignore file full of the things that shouldn t be in a shared repository  Mine generally contain  amongst other stuff  the following     vcproj   user   ncb   aps   suo   but this is heavily C   biased with little or no use of any class wizard style functionality   My usage pattern is something like the following    Code  code  code in Visual Studio  When happy  sensible intermediate point to commit code  switch to Git  stage changes and review diffs  If anything s obviously wrong switch back to Visual Studio and fix  otherwise commit    Any merge  branch  rebase or other fancy SCM stuff is easy to do in Git from the command prompt  Visual Studio is normally fairly happy with things changing under it  although it can sometimes need to reload some projects if you ve altered the project files significantly   I find that the usefulness of Git outweighs any minor inconvenience of not having full IDE integration but it is  to some extent  a matter of taste

User · Answer

There s a Visual Studio Tools for Git by Microsoft  It only supports Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2012  update 2  though

User · Answer

The newest release of Git Extensions supports Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2010 now  along with Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2008 and Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2005    I found it to be fairly easy to use with Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2008 and the interface seems to be the same in Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2010

User · Answer

Visual Studio 2013 natively supports Git   See the official announcement

User · Answer

Microsoft announced Git for Visual studio 2012  update 2  recently  I have not played around with it yet  but this video looks promising   Here is a quick tutorial on how to use Git from Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2012

User · Answer

I use Git with Visual Studio for my port of Protocol Buffers to C   I don t use the GUI - I just keep a command line open as well as Visual Studio   For the most part it s fine - the only problem is when you want to rename a file  Both Git and Visual Studio would rather that they were the one to rename it  I think that renaming it in Visual Studio is the way to go though - just be careful what you do at the Git side afterwards  Although this has been a bit of a pain in the past  I ve heard that it actually should be pretty seamless on the Git side  because it can notice that the contents will be mostly the same   Not entirely the same  usually - you tend to rename a file when you re renaming the class  IME    But basically - yes  it works fine  I m a Git newbie  but I can get it to do everything I need it to  Make sure you have a git ignore file for bin and obj  and   user

User · Answer

The simplest solution that actually works quite well is to add the TortoiseGit commands as external tools    Solution to adding a Git  TortoiseGit  toolbar to Visual Studio

User · Answer

Git Source Control Provider is new plug-in that integrates Git with Visual Studio

User · Answer

As of 2013-02-11  the Microsoft Git plugin for Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2012 should work with the Express version as well

User · Answer

Also don t miss TortoiseGit       https   tortoisegit org

User · Answer

In Jan 2013  Microsoft announced that they are adding full Git support into all their ALM products  They have published a plugin for Visual Studio 2012 that adds Git source control integration   Alternatively  there is a project called Git Extensions that includes add-ins for Visual Studio 2005  2008  2010 and 2012  as well as Windows Explorer integration  It s regularly updated and having used it on a couple of projects  I ve found it very useful   Another option is Git Source Control Provider

User · Answer

As mantioned by Jon Rimmer  you can use GitExtensions  GitExtensions does work in Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008  it also does work in Visual Studio 2010 if you manually copy and config the  Addin file

User · Answer

I find that Git  working on whole trees as it does  benefits less from IDE integration than source control tools that are either file based or follow a checkout-edit-commit pattern  Of course there are instances when it can be nice to click on a button to do some history examination  but I don t miss that very much   The real must-do is to get your  gitignore file full of the things that shouldn t be in a shared repository  Mine generally contain  amongst other stuff  the following     vcproj   user   ncb   aps   suo   but this is heavily C   biased with little or no use of any class wizard style functionality   My usage pattern is something like the following    Code  code  code in Visual Studio  When happy  sensible intermediate point to commit code  switch to Git  stage changes and review diffs  If anything s obviously wrong switch back to Visual Studio and fix  otherwise commit    Any merge  branch  rebase or other fancy SCM stuff is easy to do in Git from the command prompt  Visual Studio is normally fairly happy with things changing under it  although it can sometimes need to reload some projects if you ve altered the project files significantly   I find that the usefulness of Git outweighs any minor inconvenience of not having full IDE integration but it is  to some extent  a matter of taste

User · Answer

I find that Git  working on whole trees as it does  benefits less from IDE integration than source control tools that are either file based or follow a checkout-edit-commit pattern  Of course there are instances when it can be nice to click on a button to do some history examination  but I don t miss that very much   The real must-do is to get your  gitignore file full of the things that shouldn t be in a shared repository  Mine generally contain  amongst other stuff  the following     vcproj   user   ncb   aps   suo   but this is heavily C   biased with little or no use of any class wizard style functionality   My usage pattern is something like the following    Code  code  code in Visual Studio  When happy  sensible intermediate point to commit code  switch to Git  stage changes and review diffs  If anything s obviously wrong switch back to Visual Studio and fix  otherwise commit    Any merge  branch  rebase or other fancy SCM stuff is easy to do in Git from the command prompt  Visual Studio is normally fairly happy with things changing under it  although it can sometimes need to reload some projects if you ve altered the project files significantly   I find that the usefulness of Git outweighs any minor inconvenience of not having full IDE integration but it is  to some extent  a matter of taste

User · Answer

I use Git with Visual Studio for my port of Protocol Buffers to C   I don t use the GUI - I just keep a command line open as well as Visual Studio   For the most part it s fine - the only problem is when you want to rename a file  Both Git and Visual Studio would rather that they were the one to rename it  I think that renaming it in Visual Studio is the way to go though - just be careful what you do at the Git side afterwards  Although this has been a bit of a pain in the past  I ve heard that it actually should be pretty seamless on the Git side  because it can notice that the contents will be mostly the same   Not entirely the same  usually - you tend to rename a file when you re renaming the class  IME    But basically - yes  it works fine  I m a Git newbie  but I can get it to do everything I need it to  Make sure you have a git ignore file for bin and obj  and   user

User · Answer

There s a Visual Studio Tools for Git by Microsoft  It only supports Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2012  update 2  though

User · Answer

TortoiseGit has matured and I recommend it especially if you have used TortoiseSVN

User · Answer

Microsoft announced Git for Visual studio 2012  update 2  recently  I have not played around with it yet  but this video looks promising   Here is a quick tutorial on how to use Git from Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2012

User · Answer

The Git support done by Microsoft in Visual Studio is just good enough for basic work  commit fetch merge and push   My advice is just to avoid it     I highly prefer GitExtensions  or in less proportion SourceTree   Because seeing the DAG is for me really important to understand how Git works  And you are a lot more aware of what the other contributors to your project have done   In Visual Studio  you can t quickly see the diff between files or commit  nor  add to the index  and commit only part of modifications  Browse your history is not good either    All that ending in a painful experience   And  for example  GitExtensions is bundled with interesting plugins  background fetch  GitFlow     and now  continuous integration   For the users of Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2015  Git is taking shape if you install the GitHub extension  But an external tool is still better  -

User · Answer

The newest release of Git Extensions supports Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2010 now  along with Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2008 and Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2005    I found it to be fairly easy to use with Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2008 and the interface seems to be the same in Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2010

User · Answer

The simplest solution that actually works quite well is to add the TortoiseGit commands as external tools    Solution to adding a Git  TortoiseGit  toolbar to Visual Studio

User · Answer

In Jan 2013  Microsoft announced that they are adding full Git support into all their ALM products  They have published a plugin for Visual Studio 2012 that adds Git source control integration   Alternatively  there is a project called Git Extensions that includes add-ins for Visual Studio 2005  2008  2010 and 2012  as well as Windows Explorer integration  It s regularly updated and having used it on a couple of projects  I ve found it very useful   Another option is Git Source Control Provider

User · Answer

I find that Git  working on whole trees as it does  benefits less from IDE integration than source control tools that are either file based or follow a checkout-edit-commit pattern  Of course there are instances when it can be nice to click on a button to do some history examination  but I don t miss that very much   The real must-do is to get your  gitignore file full of the things that shouldn t be in a shared repository  Mine generally contain  amongst other stuff  the following     vcproj   user   ncb   aps   suo   but this is heavily C   biased with little or no use of any class wizard style functionality   My usage pattern is something like the following    Code  code  code in Visual Studio  When happy  sensible intermediate point to commit code  switch to Git  stage changes and review diffs  If anything s obviously wrong switch back to Visual Studio and fix  otherwise commit    Any merge  branch  rebase or other fancy SCM stuff is easy to do in Git from the command prompt  Visual Studio is normally fairly happy with things changing under it  although it can sometimes need to reload some projects if you ve altered the project files significantly   I find that the usefulness of Git outweighs any minor inconvenience of not having full IDE integration but it is  to some extent  a matter of taste

User · Answer

Currently there are 2 options for Git Source Control in Visual Studio  2010 and 12     Git Source Control Provider  Microsoft Git Provider   I have tried both and have found 1st one to be more mature  and has more features  For instance it plays nicely with both tortoise git and git extensions  and even exposed their features   Note  Whichever extension you use  make sure that you enable it from Tools - gt  Options - gt  Source control - gt  Plugin Selection for it to work

User · Answer

In Jan 2013  Microsoft announced that they are adding full Git support into all their ALM products  They have published a plugin for Visual Studio 2012 that adds Git source control integration   Alternatively  there is a project called Git Extensions that includes add-ins for Visual Studio 2005  2008  2010 and 2012  as well as Windows Explorer integration  It s regularly updated and having used it on a couple of projects  I ve found it very useful   Another option is Git Source Control Provider

User · Answer

Git Source Control Provider is new plug-in that integrates Git with Visual Studio

User · Answer

I ve looked into this a bit at work  both with Subversion and Git   Visual Studio actually has a source control integration API to allow you to integrate third-party source control solutions into Visual Studio  However  most folks don t bother with it for a couple of reasons   The first is that the API pretty much assumes you are using a locked-checkout workflow  There are a lot of hooks in it that are either way expensive to implement  or just flat out make no sense when you are using the more modern edit-merge workflow   The second  which is related  is that when you are using the edit-merge workflow that both Subversion and Git encourage  you don t really need Visual Studio integration  The main killer thing about SourceSafe s integration with Visual Studio is that you  and the editor  can tell at a glance which files you own  which must be checked out before you can edit  and which you cannot check out even if you want to  Then it can help you do whatever revision-control voodoo you need to do when you want to edit a file  None of that is even part of a typical Git workflow    When you are using Git  or SVN typically   your revision-control interactions all take place either before your development session  or after it  once you have everything working and tested   At that point it really isn t too much of a pain to use a different tool  You aren t constantly having to switch back and forth

User · Answer

TortoiseGit has matured and I recommend it especially if you have used TortoiseSVN

User · Answer

As mantioned by Jon Rimmer  you can use GitExtensions  GitExtensions does work in Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008  it also does work in Visual Studio 2010 if you manually copy and config the  Addin file

User · Answer

Also don t miss TortoiseGit       https   tortoisegit org

User · Answer

Currently there are 2 options for Git Source Control in Visual Studio  2010 and 12     Git Source Control Provider  Microsoft Git Provider   I have tried both and have found 1st one to be more mature  and has more features  For instance it plays nicely with both tortoise git and git extensions  and even exposed their features   Note  Whichever extension you use  make sure that you enable it from Tools - gt  Options - gt  Source control - gt  Plugin Selection for it to work

User · Answer

I ve looked into this a bit at work  both with Subversion and Git   Visual Studio actually has a source control integration API to allow you to integrate third-party source control solutions into Visual Studio  However  most folks don t bother with it for a couple of reasons   The first is that the API pretty much assumes you are using a locked-checkout workflow  There are a lot of hooks in it that are either way expensive to implement  or just flat out make no sense when you are using the more modern edit-merge workflow   The second  which is related  is that when you are using the edit-merge workflow that both Subversion and Git encourage  you don t really need Visual Studio integration  The main killer thing about SourceSafe s integration with Visual Studio is that you  and the editor  can tell at a glance which files you own  which must be checked out before you can edit  and which you cannot check out even if you want to  Then it can help you do whatever revision-control voodoo you need to do when you want to edit a file  None of that is even part of a typical Git workflow    When you are using Git  or SVN typically   your revision-control interactions all take place either before your development session  or after it  once you have everything working and tested   At that point it really isn t too much of a pain to use a different tool  You aren t constantly having to switch back and forth

User · Answer

I ve looked into this a bit at work  both with Subversion and Git   Visual Studio actually has a source control integration API to allow you to integrate third-party source control solutions into Visual Studio  However  most folks don t bother with it for a couple of reasons   The first is that the API pretty much assumes you are using a locked-checkout workflow  There are a lot of hooks in it that are either way expensive to implement  or just flat out make no sense when you are using the more modern edit-merge workflow   The second  which is related  is that when you are using the edit-merge workflow that both Subversion and Git encourage  you don t really need Visual Studio integration  The main killer thing about SourceSafe s integration with Visual Studio is that you  and the editor  can tell at a glance which files you own  which must be checked out before you can edit  and which you cannot check out even if you want to  Then it can help you do whatever revision-control voodoo you need to do when you want to edit a file  None of that is even part of a typical Git workflow    When you are using Git  or SVN typically   your revision-control interactions all take place either before your development session  or after it  once you have everything working and tested   At that point it really isn t too much of a pain to use a different tool  You aren t constantly having to switch back and forth

User · Answer

I use Git with Visual Studio for my port of Protocol Buffers to C   I don t use the GUI - I just keep a command line open as well as Visual Studio   For the most part it s fine - the only problem is when you want to rename a file  Both Git and Visual Studio would rather that they were the one to rename it  I think that renaming it in Visual Studio is the way to go though - just be careful what you do at the Git side afterwards  Although this has been a bit of a pain in the past  I ve heard that it actually should be pretty seamless on the Git side  because it can notice that the contents will be mostly the same   Not entirely the same  usually - you tend to rename a file when you re renaming the class  IME    But basically - yes  it works fine  I m a Git newbie  but I can get it to do everything I need it to  Make sure you have a git ignore file for bin and obj  and   user

User · Answer

The Git support done by Microsoft in Visual Studio is just good enough for basic work  commit fetch merge and push   My advice is just to avoid it     I highly prefer GitExtensions  or in less proportion SourceTree   Because seeing the DAG is for me really important to understand how Git works  And you are a lot more aware of what the other contributors to your project have done   In Visual Studio  you can t quickly see the diff between files or commit  nor  add to the index  and commit only part of modifications  Browse your history is not good either    All that ending in a painful experience   And  for example  GitExtensions is bundled with interesting plugins  background fetch  GitFlow     and now  continuous integration   For the users of Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2015  Git is taking shape if you install the GitHub extension  But an external tool is still better  -

User · Answer

As of 2013-02-11  the Microsoft Git plugin for Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2012 should work with the Express version as well

[visual-studio] Using Git with Visual Studio

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