INSTALL

   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 all doc info ;# as yourself
   9         # make prefix=/usr install install-doc install-html install-info ;# as root
  10
  11 (or prefix=/usr/local, of course).  Just like any program suite
  12 that uses $prefix, the built results have some paths encoded,
  13 which are derived from $prefix, so "make all; make prefix=/usr
  14 install" would not work.
  15
  16 The beginning of the Makefile documents many variables that affect the way
  17 git is built.  You can override them either from the command line, or in a
  18 config.mak file.
  19
  20 Alternatively you can use autoconf generated ./configure script to
  21 set up install paths (via config.mak.autogen), so you can write instead
  22
  23         $ make configure ;# as yourself
  24         $ ./configure --prefix=/usr ;# as yourself
  25         $ make all doc ;# as yourself
  26         # make install install-doc install-html;# as root
  27
  28
  29 Issues of note:
  30
  31  - Ancient versions of GNU Interactive Tools (pre-4.9.2) installed a
  32    program "git", whose name conflicts with this program.  But with
  33    version 4.9.2, after long hiatus without active maintenance (since
  34    around 1997), it changed its name to gnuit and the name conflict is no
  35    longer a problem.
  36
  37    NOTE: When compiled with backward compatibility option, the GNU
  38    Interactive Tools package still can install "git", but you can build it
  39    with --disable-transition option to avoid this.
  40
  41  - You can use git after building but without installing if you
  42    wanted to.  Various git commands need to find other git
  43    commands and scripts to do their work, so you would need to
  44    arrange a few environment variables to tell them that their
  45    friends will be found in your built source area instead of at
  46    their standard installation area.  Something like this works
  47    for me:
  48
  49         GIT_EXEC_PATH=`pwd`
  50         PATH=`pwd`:$PATH
  51         GITPERLLIB=`pwd`/perl/blib/lib
  52         export GIT_EXEC_PATH PATH GITPERLLIB
  53
  54  - Git is reasonably self-sufficient, but does depend on a few external
  55    programs and libraries.  Git can be used without most of them by adding
  56    the approriate "NO_<LIBRARY>=YesPlease" to the make command line or
  57    config.mak file.
  58
  59         - "zlib", the compression library. Git won't build without it.
  60
  61         - "ssh" is used to push and pull over the net.
  62
  63         - A POSIX-compliant shell is required to run many scripts needed
  64           for everyday use (e.g. "bisect", "pull").
  65
  66         - "Perl" is needed to use some of the features (e.g. preparing a
  67           partial commit using "git add -i/-p", interacting with svn
  68           repositories with "git svn").  If you can live without these, use
  69           NO_PERL.
  70
  71         - "openssl" library is used by git-imap-send to use IMAP over SSL.
  72           If you don't need it, use NO_OPENSSL.
  73
  74           By default, git uses OpenSSL for SHA1 but it will use it's own
  75           library (inspired by Mozilla's) with either NO_OPENSSL or
  76           BLK_SHA1.  Also included is a version optimized for PowerPC
  77           (PPC_SHA1).
  78
  79         - "libcurl" library is used by git-http-fetch and git-fetch.  You
  80           might also want the "curl" executable for debugging purposes.
  81           If you do not use http:// or https:// repositories, you do not
  82           have to have them (use NO_CURL).
  83
  84         - "expat" library; git-http-push uses it for remote lock
  85           management over DAV.  Similar to "curl" above, this is optional
  86           (with NO_EXPAT).
  87
  88         - "wish", the Tcl/Tk windowing shell is used in gitk to show the
  89           history graphically, and in git-gui.  If you don't want gitk or
  90           git-gui, you can use NO_TCLTK.
  91
  92  - Some platform specific issues are dealt with Makefile rules,
  93    but depending on your specific installation, you may not
  94    have all the libraries/tools needed, or you may have
  95    necessary libraries at unusual locations.  Please look at the
  96    top of the Makefile to see what can be adjusted for your needs.
  97    You can place local settings in config.mak and the Makefile
  98    will include them.  Note that config.mak is not distributed;
  99    the name is reserved for local settings.
 100
 101  - To build and install documentation suite, you need to have
 102    the asciidoc/xmlto toolchain.  Because not many people are
 103    inclined to install the tools, the default build target
 104    ("make all") does _not_ build them.
 105
 106    "make doc" builds documentation in man and html formats; there are
 107    also "make man", "make html" and "make info". Note that "make html"
 108    requires asciidoc, but not xmlto. "make man" (and thus make doc)
 109    requires both.
 110
 111    "make install-doc" installs documentation in man format only; there
 112    are also "make install-man", "make install-html" and "make
 113    install-info".
 114
 115    Building and installing the info file additionally requires
 116    makeinfo and docbook2X.  Version 0.8.3 is known to work.
 117
 118    Building and installing the pdf file additionally requires
 119    dblatex.  Version 0.2.7 with asciidoc >= 8.2.7 is known to work.
 120
 121    The documentation is written for AsciiDoc 7, but "make
 122    ASCIIDOC8=YesPlease doc" will let you format with AsciiDoc 8.
 123
 124    Alternatively, pre-formatted documentation is available in
 125    "html" and "man" branches of the git repository itself.  For
 126    example, you could:
 127
 128         $ mkdir manual && cd manual
 129         $ git init
 130         $ git fetch-pack git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git man html |
 131           while read a b
 132           do
 133             echo $a >.git/$b
 134           done
 135         $ cp .git/refs/heads/man .git/refs/heads/master
 136         $ git checkout
 137
 138    to checkout the pre-built man pages.  Also in this repository:
 139
 140         $ git checkout html
 141
 142    would instead give you a copy of what you see at:
 143
 144         http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/
 145
 146    There are also "make quick-install-doc", "make quick-install-man"
 147    and "make quick-install-html" which install preformatted man pages
 148    and html documentation.
 149    This does not require asciidoc/xmlto, but it only works from within
 150    a cloned checkout of git.git with these two extra branches, and will
 151    not work for the maintainer for obvious chicken-and-egg reasons.
 152
 153    It has been reported that docbook-xsl version 1.72 and 1.73 are
 154    buggy; 1.72 misformats manual pages for callouts, and 1.73 needs
 155    the patch in contrib/patches/docbook-xsl-manpages-charmap.patch