README.md

   1 libgit2 - the Git linkable library
   2 ==================================
   3
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   7
   8 `libgit2` is a portable, pure C implementation of the Git core methods
   9 provided as a re-entrant linkable library with a solid API, allowing you to
  10 write native speed custom Git applications in any language with bindings.
  11
  12 `libgit2` is licensed under a **very permissive license** (GPLv2 with a special
  13 Linking Exception).  This basically means that you can link it (unmodified)
  14 with any kind of software without having to release its source code.
  15 Additionally, the example code has been released to the public domain (see the
  16 [separate license](examples/COPYING) for more information).
  17
  18 * Website: [libgit2.github.com](http://libgit2.github.com)
  19 * StackOverflow Tag: [libgit2](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/libgit2)
  20 * Issues: [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/issues) (Right here!)
  21 * API documentation: <http://libgit2.github.com/libgit2>
  22 * IRC: [#libgit2](irc://irc.freenode.net/libgit2) on irc.freenode.net.
  23 * Mailing list: The libgit2 mailing list was
  24     traditionally hosted in Librelist but has been deprecated. We encourage you to
  25     [use StackOverflow](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/libgit2) instead for any questions regarding
  26     the library, or [open an issue](https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/issues)
  27     on GitHub for bug reports.  The mailing list archives are still available at
  28     <http://librelist.com/browser/libgit2/>.
  29
  30
  31 What It Can Do
  32 ==============
  33
  34 `libgit2` is already very usable and is being used in production for many
  35 applications including the GitHub.com site, in Plastic SCM and also powering
  36 Microsoft's Visual Studio tools for Git.  The library provides:
  37
  38 * SHA conversions, formatting and shortening
  39 * abstracted ODB backend system
  40 * commit, tag, tree and blob parsing, editing, and write-back
  41 * tree traversal
  42 * revision walking
  43 * index file (staging area) manipulation
  44 * reference management (including packed references)
  45 * config file management
  46 * high level repository management
  47 * thread safety and reentrancy
  48 * descriptive and detailed error messages
  49 * ...and more (over 175 different API calls)
  50
  51 Optional dependencies
  52 =====================
  53
  54 While the library provides git functionality without the need for
  55 dependencies, it can make use of a few libraries to add to it:
  56
  57 - pthreads (non-Windows) to enable threadsafe access as well as multi-threaded pack generation
  58 - OpenSSL (non-Windows) to talk over HTTPS and provide the SHA-1 functions
  59 - LibSSH2 to enable the SSH transport
  60 - iconv (OSX) to handle the HFS+ path encoding peculiarities
  61
  62 Initialization
  63 ===============
  64
  65 The library needs to keep track of some global state. Call
  66
  67     git_libgit2_init();
  68
  69 before calling any other libgit2 functions. You can call this function many times. A matching number of calls to
  70
  71     git_libgit2_shutdown();
  72
  73 will free the resources.
  74
  75 Threading
  76 =========
  77
  78 See [THREADING](THREADING.md) for information
  79
  80 Building libgit2 - Using CMake
  81 ==============================
  82
  83 `libgit2` builds cleanly on most platforms without any external dependencies.
  84 Under Unix-like systems, like Linux, \*BSD and Mac OS X, libgit2 expects `pthreads` to be available;
  85 they should be installed by default on all systems. Under Windows, libgit2 uses the native Windows API
  86 for threading.
  87
  88 The `libgit2` library is built using [CMake](<http://www.cmake.org>) (version 2.6 or newer) on all platforms.
  89
  90 On most systems you can build the library using the following commands
  91
  92         $ mkdir build && cd build
  93         $ cmake ..
  94         $ cmake --build .
  95
  96 Alternatively you can point the CMake GUI tool to the CMakeLists.txt file and generate platform specific build project or IDE workspace.
  97
  98 To install the library you can specify the install prefix by setting:
  99
 100         $ cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/install/prefix
 101         $ cmake --build . --target install
 102
 103 For more advanced use or questions about CMake please read <http://www.cmake.org/Wiki/CMake_FAQ>.
 104
 105 The following CMake variables are declared:
 106
 107 - `BIN_INSTALL_DIR`: Where to install binaries to.
 108 - `LIB_INSTALL_DIR`: Where to install libraries to.
 109 - `INCLUDE_INSTALL_DIR`: Where to install headers to.
 110 - `BUILD_SHARED_LIBS`: Build libgit2 as a Shared Library (defaults to ON)
 111 - `BUILD_CLAR`: Build [Clar](https://github.com/vmg/clar)-based test suite (defaults to ON)
 112 - `THREADSAFE`: Build libgit2 with threading support (defaults to ON)
 113 - `STDCALL`: Build libgit2 as `stdcall`. Turn off for `cdecl` (Windows; defaults to ON)
 114
 115 Compiler and linker options
 116 ---------------------------
 117
 118 CMake lets you specify a few variables to control the behavior of the
 119 compiler and linker. These flags are rarely used but can be useful for
 120 64-bit to 32-bit cross-compilation.
 121
 122 - `CMAKE_C_FLAGS`: Set your own compiler flags
 123 - `CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH`: Override the search path for libraries
 124 - `ZLIB_LIBRARY`, `OPENSSL_SSL_LIBRARY` AND `OPENSSL_CRYPTO_LIBRARY`:
 125 Tell CMake where to find those specific libraries
 126
 127 MacOS X
 128 -------
 129
 130 If you want to build a universal binary for Mac OS X, CMake sets it
 131 all up for you if you use `-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES="i386;x86_64"`
 132 when configuring.
 133
 134 Windows
 135 -------
 136
 137 You need to run the CMake commands from the Visual Studio command
 138 prompt, not the regular or Windows SDK one. Select the right generator
 139 for your version with the `-G "Visual Studio X" option.
 140
 141 See [the website](https://libgit2.github.com/docs/guides/build-and-link)
 142 for more detailed instructions.
 143
 144 Android
 145 -------
 146
 147 Extract toolchain from NDK using, `make-standalone-toolchain.sh` script.
 148 Optionally, crosscompile and install OpenSSL inside of it. Then create CMake
 149 toolchain file that configures paths to your crosscompiler (substitute `{PATH}`
 150 with full path to the toolchain):
 151
 152         SET(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME Linux)
 153         SET(CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION Android)
 154
 155         SET(CMAKE_C_COMPILER   {PATH}/bin/arm-linux-androideabi-gcc)
 156         SET(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER {PATH}/bin/arm-linux-androideabi-g++)
 157         SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH {PATH}/sysroot/)
 158
 159         SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PROGRAM NEVER)
 160         SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_LIBRARY ONLY)
 161         SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE ONLY)
 162
 163 Add `-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE={pathToToolchainFile} -DANDROID=1` to cmake command
 164 when configuring.
 165
 166 Language Bindings
 167 ==================================
 168
 169 Here are the bindings to libgit2 that are currently available:
 170
 171 * C++
 172     * libqgit2, Qt bindings <https://projects.kde.org/projects/playground/libs/libqgit2/>
 173 * Chicken Scheme
 174     * chicken-git <https://wiki.call-cc.org/egg/git>
 175 * D
 176     * dlibgit <https://github.com/AndrejMitrovic/dlibgit>
 177 * Delphi
 178     * GitForDelphi <https://github.com/libgit2/GitForDelphi>
 179 * Erlang
 180     * Geef <https://github.com/carlosmn/geef>
 181 * Go
 182     * git2go <https://github.com/libgit2/git2go>
 183 * GObject
 184     * libgit2-glib <https://live.gnome.org/Libgit2-glib>
 185 * Haskell
 186     * hgit2 <https://github.com/fpco/gitlib>
 187 * Java
 188     * Jagged <https://github.com/ethomson/jagged>
 189 * Julia
 190     * LibGit2.jl <https://github.com/jakebolewski/LibGit2.jl>
 191 * Lua
 192     * luagit2 <https://github.com/libgit2/luagit2>
 193 * .NET
 194     * libgit2sharp <https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2sharp>
 195 * Node.js
 196     * node-gitteh <https://github.com/libgit2/node-gitteh>
 197     * nodegit <https://github.com/tbranyen/nodegit>
 198 * Objective-C
 199     * objective-git <https://github.com/libgit2/objective-git>
 200 * OCaml
 201     * libgit2-ocaml <https://github.com/burdges/libgit2-ocaml>
 202 * Parrot Virtual Machine
 203     * parrot-libgit2 <https://github.com/letolabs/parrot-libgit2>
 204 * Perl
 205     * Git-Raw <https://github.com/jacquesg/p5-Git-Raw>
 206 * PHP
 207     * php-git <https://github.com/libgit2/php-git>
 208 * PowerShell
 209     * GitPowerShell <https://github.com/ethomson/gitpowershell>
 210 * Python
 211     * pygit2 <https://github.com/libgit2/pygit2>
 212 * R
 213     * git2r <https://github.com/ropensci/git2r>
 214 * Ruby
 215     * Rugged <https://github.com/libgit2/rugged>
 216 * Rust
 217     * git2-rs <https://github.com/alexcrichton/git2-rs>
 218 * Swift
 219     * Gift <https://github.com/modocache/Gift>
 220 * Vala
 221     * libgit2.vapi <https://github.com/apmasell/vapis/blob/master/libgit2.vapi>
 222
 223 If you start another language binding to libgit2, please let us know so
 224 we can add it to the list.
 225
 226 How Can I Contribute?
 227 ==================================
 228
 229 Check the [contribution guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md) to understand our
 230 workflow, the libgit2 [coding conventions](CONVENTIONS.md), and out list of
 231 [good starting projects](PROJECTS.md).
 232
 233 License
 234 ==================================
 235
 236 `libgit2` is under GPL2 **with linking exception**. This means you can link to
 237 and use the library from any program, proprietary or open source; paid or
 238 gratis.  However, you cannot modify libgit2 and distribute it without
 239 supplying the source.
 240
 241 See the [COPYING file](COPYING) for the full license text.