1 libgit2 - the Git linkable library
2 ==================================
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11 `libgit2` is a portable, pure C implementation of the Git core methods
12 provided as a linkable library with a solid API, allowing to build Git
13 functionality into your application. Language bindings like
14 [Rugged](https://github.com/libgit2/rugged) (Ruby),
15 [LibGit2Sharp](https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2sharp) (.NET),
16 [pygit2](http://www.pygit2.org/) (Python) and
17 [NodeGit](http://nodegit.org) (Node) allow you to build Git tooling
18 in your favorite language.
20 `libgit2` is used to power Git GUI clients like
21 [GitKraken](https://gitkraken.com/) and [gmaster](https://gmaster.io/)
22 and on Git hosting providers like [GitHub](https://github.com/),
23 [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/) and
24 [Azure DevOps](https://azure.com/devops).
25 We perform the merge every time you click "merge pull request".
27 `libgit2` is licensed under a **very permissive license** (GPLv2 with a special
28 Linking Exception). This basically means that you can link it (unmodified)
29 with any kind of software without having to release its source code.
30 Additionally, the example code has been released to the public domain (see the
31 [separate license](examples/COPYING) for more information).
36 * [Quick Start](#quick-start)
37 * [Getting Help](#getting-help)
38 * [What It Can Do](#what-it-can-do)
39 * [Optional dependencies](#optional-dependencies)
40 * [Initialization](#initialization)
41 * [Threading](#threading)
42 * [Conventions](#conventions)
43 * [Building libgit2 - Using CMake](#building-libgit2---using-cmake)
44 * [Building](#building)
45 * [Installation](#installation)
46 * [Advanced Usage](#advanced-usage)
47 * [Compiler and linker options](#compiler-and-linker-options)
50 * [Language Bindings](#language-bindings)
51 * [How Can I Contribute?](#how-can-i-contribute)
57 **Prerequisites** for building libgit2:
59 1. [CMake](https://cmake.org/), and is recommended to be installed into
61 2. [Python](https://www.python.org) is used by our test framework, and
62 should be installed into your `PATH`.
63 3. C compiler: libgit2 is C90 and should compile on most compilers.
64 * Windows: Visual Studio is recommended
65 * Mac: Xcode is recommended
66 * Unix: gcc or clang is recommended.
70 1. Create a build directory beneath the libgit2 source directory, and change
71 into it: `mkdir build && cd build`
72 2. Create the cmake build environment: `cmake ..`
73 3. Build libgit2: `cmake --build .`
75 Trouble with these steps? Read our [troubleshooting guide](docs/troubleshooting.md).
76 More detailed build guidance is available below.
83 - via IRC: join [#libgit2](https://webchat.freenode.net/#libgit2) on Freenode
84 - via Slack: visit [slack.libgit2.org](http://slack.libgit2.org/) to sign up,
85 then join us in `#libgit2`
89 If you have questions about the library, please be sure to check out the
90 [API documentation](http://libgit2.github.com/libgit2/). If you still have
91 questions, reach out to us on Slack or post a question on
92 [StackOverflow](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/libgit2) (with the `libgit2` tag).
96 Please open a [GitHub Issue](https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/issues) and
97 include as much information as possible. If possible, provide sample code
98 that illustrates the problem you're seeing. If you're seeing a bug only
99 on a specific repository, please provide a link to it if possible.
101 We ask that you not open a GitHub Issue for help, only for bug reports.
103 **Reporting Security Issues**
105 Please have a look at SECURITY.md.
110 libgit2 provides you with the ability to manage Git repositories in the
111 programming language of your choice. It's used in production to power many
112 applications including GitHub.com, Plastic SCM and Azure DevOps.
114 It does not aim to replace the git tool or its user-facing commands. Some APIs
115 resemble the plumbing commands as those align closely with the concepts of the
116 Git system, but most commands a user would type are out of scope for this
117 library to implement directly.
119 The library provides:
121 * SHA conversions, formatting and shortening
122 * abstracted ODB backend system
123 * commit, tag, tree and blob parsing, editing, and write-back
126 * index file (staging area) manipulation
127 * reference management (including packed references)
128 * config file management
129 * high level repository management
130 * thread safety and reentrancy
131 * descriptive and detailed error messages
132 * ...and more (over 175 different API calls)
134 As libgit2 is purely a consumer of the Git system, we have to
135 adjust to changes made upstream. This has two major consequences:
137 * Some changes may require us to change provided interfaces. While we try to
138 implement functions in a generic way so that no future changes are required,
139 we cannot promise a completely stable API.
140 * As we have to keep up with changes in behavior made upstream, we may lag
141 behind in some areas. We usually to document these incompatibilities in our
142 issue tracker with the label "git change".
144 Optional dependencies
145 =====================
147 While the library provides git functionality without the need for
148 dependencies, it can make use of a few libraries to add to it:
150 - pthreads (non-Windows) to enable threadsafe access as well as multi-threaded pack generation
151 - OpenSSL (non-Windows) to talk over HTTPS and provide the SHA-1 functions
152 - LibSSH2 to enable the SSH transport
153 - iconv (OSX) to handle the HFS+ path encoding peculiarities
158 The library needs to keep track of some global state. Call
162 before calling any other libgit2 functions. You can call this function many times. A matching number of calls to
164 git_libgit2_shutdown();
166 will free the resources. Note that if you have worker threads, you should
167 call `git_libgit2_shutdown` *after* those threads have exited. If you
168 require assistance coordinating this, simply have the worker threads call
169 `git_libgit2_init` at startup and `git_libgit2_shutdown` at shutdown.
174 See [threading](docs/threading.md) for information
179 See [conventions](docs/conventions.md) for an overview of the external
180 and internal API/coding conventions we use.
182 Building libgit2 - Using CMake
183 ==============================
188 `libgit2` builds cleanly on most platforms without any external dependencies.
189 Under Unix-like systems, like Linux, \*BSD and Mac OS X, libgit2 expects `pthreads` to be available;
190 they should be installed by default on all systems. Under Windows, libgit2 uses the native Windows API
193 The `libgit2` library is built using [CMake](<https://cmake.org/>) (version 2.8 or newer) on all platforms.
195 On most systems you can build the library using the following commands
197 $ mkdir build && cd build
201 Alternatively you can point the CMake GUI tool to the CMakeLists.txt file and generate platform specific build project or IDE workspace.
206 Once built, you can run the tests from the `build` directory with the command
210 Alternatively you can run the test suite directly using,
214 Invoking the test suite directly is useful because it allows you to execute
215 individual tests, or groups of tests using the `-s` flag. For example, to
218 $ ./libgit2_clar -sindex
220 To run a single test named `index::racy::diff`, which corresponds to the test
221 function [`test_index_racy__diff`](https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/blob/master/tests/index/racy.c#L23):
223 $ ./libgit2_clar -sindex::racy::diff
225 The test suite will print a `.` for every passing test, and an `F` for any
226 failing test. An `S` indicates that a test was skipped because it is not
227 applicable to your platform or is particularly expensive.
229 **Note:** There should be _no_ failing tests when you build an unmodified
230 source tree from a [release](https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/releases),
231 or from the [master branch](https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/tree/master).
232 Please contact us or [open an issue](https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/issues)
233 if you see test failures.
238 To install the library you can specify the install prefix by setting:
240 $ cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/install/prefix
241 $ cmake --build . --target install
246 For more advanced use or questions about CMake please read <https://cmake.org/Wiki/CMake_FAQ>.
248 The following CMake variables are declared:
250 - `CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR`: Where to install binaries to.
251 - `CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR`: Where to install libraries to.
252 - `CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR`: Where to install headers to.
253 - `BUILD_SHARED_LIBS`: Build libgit2 as a Shared Library (defaults to ON)
254 - `BUILD_CLAR`: Build [Clar](https://github.com/vmg/clar)-based test suite (defaults to ON)
255 - `THREADSAFE`: Build libgit2 with threading support (defaults to ON)
257 To list all build options and their current value, you can do the
260 # Create and set up a build directory
263 # List all build options and their values
266 Compiler and linker options
267 ---------------------------
269 CMake lets you specify a few variables to control the behavior of the
270 compiler and linker. These flags are rarely used but can be useful for
271 64-bit to 32-bit cross-compilation.
273 - `CMAKE_C_FLAGS`: Set your own compiler flags
274 - `CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH`: Override the search path for libraries
275 - `ZLIB_LIBRARY`, `OPENSSL_SSL_LIBRARY` AND `OPENSSL_CRYPTO_LIBRARY`:
276 Tell CMake where to find those specific libraries
281 If you want to build a universal binary for Mac OS X, CMake sets it
282 all up for you if you use `-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES="i386;x86_64"`
288 Extract toolchain from NDK using, `make-standalone-toolchain.sh` script.
289 Optionally, crosscompile and install OpenSSL inside of it. Then create CMake
290 toolchain file that configures paths to your crosscompiler (substitute `{PATH}`
291 with full path to the toolchain):
293 SET(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME Linux)
294 SET(CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION Android)
296 SET(CMAKE_C_COMPILER {PATH}/bin/arm-linux-androideabi-gcc)
297 SET(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER {PATH}/bin/arm-linux-androideabi-g++)
298 SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH {PATH}/sysroot/)
300 SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PROGRAM NEVER)
301 SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_LIBRARY ONLY)
302 SET(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE ONLY)
304 Add `-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE={pathToToolchainFile}` to cmake command
308 ==================================
310 Here are the bindings to libgit2 that are currently available:
313 * libqgit2, Qt bindings <https://projects.kde.org/projects/playground/libs/libqgit2/repository/>
315 * chicken-git <https://wiki.call-cc.org/egg/git>
317 * dlibgit <https://github.com/s-ludwig/dlibgit>
319 * GitForDelphi <https://github.com/libgit2/GitForDelphi>
321 * Geef <https://github.com/carlosmn/geef>
323 * git2go <https://github.com/libgit2/git2go>
325 * libgit2-glib <https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Libgit2-glib>
327 * Guile-Git <https://gitlab.com/guile-git/guile-git>
329 * hgit2 <https://github.com/jwiegley/gitlib>
331 * Jagged <https://github.com/ethomson/jagged>
332 * Javascript / WebAssembly ( browser and nodejs )
333 * WASM-git <https://github.com/petersalomonsen/wasm-git>
335 * LibGit2.jl <https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/tree/master/stdlib/LibGit2>
337 * luagit2 <https://github.com/libgit2/luagit2>
339 * libgit2sharp <https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2sharp>
341 * nodegit <https://github.com/nodegit/nodegit>
343 * objective-git <https://github.com/libgit2/objective-git>
345 * ocaml-libgit2 <https://github.com/fxfactorial/ocaml-libgit2>
346 * Parrot Virtual Machine
347 * parrot-libgit2 <https://github.com/letolabs/parrot-libgit2>
349 * Git-Raw <https://github.com/jacquesg/p5-Git-Raw>
351 * php-git <https://github.com/libgit2/php-git>
353 * PSGit <https://github.com/PoshCode/PSGit>
355 * pygit2 <https://github.com/libgit2/pygit2>
357 * git2r <https://github.com/ropensci/git2r>
359 * Rugged <https://github.com/libgit2/rugged>
361 * git2-rs <https://github.com/rust-lang/git2-rs>
363 * SwiftGit2 <https://github.com/SwiftGit2/SwiftGit2>
365 * libgit2.vapi <https://github.com/apmasell/vapis/blob/master/libgit2.vapi>
367 If you start another language binding to libgit2, please let us know so
368 we can add it to the list.
370 How Can I Contribute?
371 ==================================
373 We welcome new contributors! We have a number of issues marked as
374 ["up for grabs"](https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22up+for+grabs%22)
376 ["easy fix"](https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/issues?utf8=✓&q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22easy+fix%22)
377 that are good places to jump in and get started. There's much more detailed
378 information in our list of [outstanding projects](docs/projects.md).
380 Please be sure to check the [contribution guidelines](docs/contributing.md) to
381 understand our workflow, and the libgit2 [coding conventions](docs/conventions.md).
384 ==================================
386 `libgit2` is under GPL2 **with linking exception**. This means you can link to
387 and use the library from any program, proprietary or open source; paid or
388 gratis. However, if you modify libgit2 itself, you must distribute the
389 source to your modified version of libgit2.
391 See the [COPYING file](COPYING) for the full license text.