[thirdparty/git.git] / INSTALL


		Git installation

Normally you can just do "make" followed by "make install", and that
will install the git programs in your own ~/bin/ directory.  If you want
to do a global install, you can do

	make prefix=/usr install

(or prefix=/usr/local, of course).  Some day somebody may send me a RPM
spec file or something, and you can do "make rpm" or whatever.

Issues of note:

 - git normally installs a helper script wrapper called "git", which
   conflicts with a similarly named "GNU interactive tools" program.

   Tough.  Either don't use the wrapper script, or delete the old GNU
   interactive tools.  None of the core git stuff needs the wrapper,
   it's just a convenient shorthand and while it is documented in some
   places, you can always replace "git commit" with "git-commit-script"
   instead. 

   But let's face it, most of us don't have GNU interactive tools, and
   even if we had it, we wouldn't know what it does.  I don't think it
   has been actively developed since 1997, and people have moved over to
   graphical file managers.

 - Git is reasonably self-sufficient, but does depend on a few external
   programs and libraries:

	- "zlib", the compression library. Git won't build without it.

	- "openssl".  The git-rev-list program uses bignum support from
	  openssl, and unless you specify otherwise, you'll also get the
	  SHA1 library from here.

	  If you don't have openssl, you can use one of the SHA1 libraries
	  that come with git (git includes the one from Mozilla, and has
	  its own PowerPC-optimized one too - see the Makefile), and you
	  can avoid the bignum support by excising git-rev-list support
	  for "--merge-order" (by hand).

	- "libcurl".  git-http-pull uses this.  You can disable building of
	  that program if you just want to get started. 

	- "GNU patch" to generate patches.  Of course, you don't _have_ to
	  generate patches if you don't want to, but let's face it, you'll
	  be wanting to. Or why did you get git in the first place?

	  Non-GNU versions of the patch program don't generally support
	  the unified patch format (which is the one git uses), so you
	  really do want to get the GNU one.  Trust me, you will want to
	  do that even if it wasn't for git.  There's no point in living
	  in the dark ages any more. 

	- "merge", the standard UNIX three-way merge program.  It usually
	  comes with the "rcs" package on most Linux distributions, so if
	  you have a developer install you probably have it already, but a
	  "graphical user desktop" install might have left it out.

	  You'll only need the merge program if you do development using
	  git, and if you only use git to track other peoples work you'll
	  never notice the lack of it.
Commit	Line	Data
c538d2d3 LT	1
	2	Git installation
	3
	4	Normally you can just do "make" followed by "make install", and that
	5	will install the git programs in your own ~/bin/ directory. If you want
	6	to do a global install, you can do
	7
	8	make prefix=/usr install
	9
	10	(or prefix=/usr/local, of course). Some day somebody may send me a RPM
	11	spec file or something, and you can do "make rpm" or whatever.
	12
	13	Issues of note:
	14
	15	- git normally installs a helper script wrapper called "git", which
	16	conflicts with a similarly named "GNU interactive tools" program.
	17
	18	Tough. Either don't use the wrapper script, or delete the old GNU
	19	interactive tools. None of the core git stuff needs the wrapper,
	20	it's just a convenient shorthand and while it is documented in some
	21	places, you can always replace "git commit" with "git-commit-script"
	22	instead.
	23
	24	But let's face it, most of us don't have GNU interactive tools, and
	25	even if we had it, we wouldn't know what it does. I don't think it
	26	has been actively developed since 1997, and people have moved over to
	27	graphical file managers.
	28
	29	- Git is reasonably self-sufficient, but does depend on a few external
	30	programs and libraries:
	31
	32	- "zlib", the compression library. Git won't build without it.
	33
	34	- "openssl". The git-rev-list program uses bignum support from
	35	openssl, and unless you specify otherwise, you'll also get the
	36	SHA1 library from here.
	37
	38	If you don't have openssl, you can use one of the SHA1 libraries
	39	that come with git (git includes the one from Mozilla, and has
	40	its own PowerPC-optimized one too - see the Makefile), and you
	41	can avoid the bignum support by excising git-rev-list support
	42	for "--merge-order" (by hand).
	43
	44	- "libcurl". git-http-pull uses this. You can disable building of
	45	that program if you just want to get started.
	46
	47	- "GNU patch" to generate patches. Of course, you don't _have_ to
	48	generate patches if you don't want to, but let's face it, you'll
	49	be wanting to. Or why did you get git in the first place?
	50
	51	Non-GNU versions of the patch program don't generally support
	52	the unified patch format (which is the one git uses), so you
	53	really do want to get the GNU one. Trust me, you will want to
	54	do that even if it wasn't for git. There's no point in living
	55	in the dark ages any more.
	56
	57	- "merge", the standard UNIX three-way merge program. It usually
	58	comes with the "rcs" package on most Linux distributions, so if
	59	you have a developer install you probably have it already, but a
	60	"graphical user desktop" install might have left it out.
	61
	62	You'll only need the merge program if you do development using
	63	git, and if you only use git to track other peoples work you'll
	64	never notice the lack of it.