A pretty and feature rich Git GUI for Linux [closed]

Asked 26/1, 2010 at 18:23 Answered 1/3, 2017 at 9:25

I was checking out for a rich GUI for Git on Linux. As of late, I have started using it a lot and find that even though command-line is very useful, I would still want a GUI at my disposal since I am not still very much aware with the advanced features.

I came across this question on Stack Overflow before, but I still have to ask this question again, as that question doesn't have my answer

I have used git-cola and gitk, but they look half-baked and gitk looks like I am working on some other desktop environment. All the features I require in gitGUI is not in either of them.
I tried giggle, but it is more useful for watching diffs
I tried QGit, but it is not fully complete.

Now let me tell how I want a foo-Git-GUI to look like:

You can have a look at Bzr Explorer. It is highly usable and has many more features than many of the above mentioned GUIs

Is there any Git GUI which looks like the above example I posted above?

Cravens answered 26/1, 2010 at 18:23 Comment(2)

The git homepage has a list: git-scm.com/download/gui/linux – Tenotomy 8/5, 2017 at 14:47

This question was asked in 2010, when this question was relevant – Cravens 9/1, 2023 at 18:49

I find myself using mainly gitg in combination with the command line for more complicated tasks.

Source repository: http://git.gnome.org/browse/gitg.

Recently, a new version 0.3.2 has been released, which is a rewrite using Vala. It's not yet feature-complete compared to the old 0.2 series, but the refactor is expected to speed up future development.

Also, there are normally PPAS on Launchpad which contain a more up-to-date version than the standard repository.

Enter image description here

Levelheaded answered 4/3, 2011 at 10:45 Comment(11)

although it looks good, unfortunately it does almost nothing. :-( – Longhand 22/6, 2011 at 13:2

I wouldn't exactly call staging, line-based staging, committing, branching, tagging, cherry-picking, patching, browsing, showing diffs, etc... "almost nothing". ;-) - At least for me, personally, it covers about 80% of what I typically do in a repo. – Levelheaded 22/6, 2011 at 14:14

fair enough... I rephrase... "it's useful for local work, but not for remote collaboration" – Longhand 22/6, 2011 at 18:57

Does this project have a website? Looks cool, but hard to find info. – Farrington 2/11, 2011 at 23:38

Hm, the homepage seems to be currently offline. I added a link to the source repository, the only meaningful page I could find (apart from an old github page) – Levelheaded 3/11, 2011 at 10:1

Gitg sure looks nice, but looks like it's a dead project. – Farrington 20/8, 2012 at 6:59

@Travis: Well there's not much public activity, but if you check the git log, there is still work happening: git.gnome.org/browse/gitg/log – Levelheaded 20/8, 2012 at 7:33

Ahh, good to know. Thanks @Levelheaded , just installed it with apt-get install gitg and trying it out. – Farrington 20/8, 2012 at 18:16

@TravisR: just FYI, there's PPAs on Launchpad with a more up-to-date version (2.5.0), e.g. launchpad.net/~weits666/+archive/ppa launchpad.net/~xperimental/+archive/ppa if you want to try that. – Levelheaded 21/8, 2012 at 6:54

Wow, nice. This looks like a port of GitX from OS X, my favourite Git frontend. Wish the font would be smaller. Aww, it doesn't support pipe like GItX (git diff | gitx) for a very nice readable diff. – Cleanshaven 20/11, 2012 at 15:47

TBH, for a GUI gitg leaves a lot to be desired .. the 80% Christoph mentions is really pushing it, and comes with bad functionality & user experience. Compared to Source Tree it's really not up to par... And yet I've found nothing on *nix based systems that is. – Cataclysmic 12/12, 2015 at 5:11

I doubt you're going to find what you want if you haven't already. Linux users tend to be quite happy using CLIs so there's not nearly so strong a drive for a huge GUI.

That said, you've somehow missed looking at git-gui. git-gui and gitk are the two that are actually part of the git suite, and they're designed to complement each other - gitk for looking at history and diffs, git-gui for making commits, merging, fetching, pushing...

Leggett answered 26/1, 2010 at 18:30 Comment(6)

Thanks Jefromi, I can understand that Linux users are happy with cli, but still I find that good GUIs are available for Bazaar but not for GIT. This is why I asked the question – Cravens 26/1, 2010 at 18:35

OTOH git-cola is just too confusing. It may be good, but just too complicated to use. Compare it against Bzr Explorer and see. – Cravens 26/1, 2010 at 18:39

I didn't say anything about git cola. – Leggett 26/1, 2010 at 18:45

I can't figure out how to launch git-gui. Not in Linux' menu, and terminal "git-gui" does nothing, and "whereis git-gui" shows me a location or two but no suggestions. – Graniela 7/4, 2012 at 18:18

@Graniela It's a git command: git gui – Leggett 7/4, 2012 at 19:24

Oh! Thanks! (A) how obvious. (B) Why don't they SAY so?! – Graniela 7/4, 2012 at 20:56

Smartgit seems to be pretty feature rich. It allows committing, rebasing, visualizing branch history, etc. It's not open source, but it is free to use for non-commercial projects.

I installed it by downloading from the site, untarring and running bin/smartgit.sh. There are also PPAs like this one that have it.

GitKraken, which is a Node.js/Electron based client has also entered into the foray with both .deb and stand-alone binaries. Here are screenshots from its announcement.

Selfdiscipline answered 24/5, 2012 at 16:7 Comment(4)

this is by far the most useful git gui i have ever found. thank you! – Comment 20/2, 2013 at 23:2

upvoted, I love this. Just that it's not open source, but who care, sublime is not open source either! I prefer CLI most of the time, just except for git/hg. And the GUI of company driven apps are usually better. – Maze 22/4, 2013 at 18:35

Holy crap! I never thought I'd see a Git GUI of this caliber on Linux! – Unaneled 14/8, 2015 at 16:4

I prefer Smartgit to GitKraken because GitKraken required me to do a login to either github or gitkraken. All I wanted was a pretty git-diff! – Injured 16/11, 2017 at 18:1

Check EGit, the Git plugin for Eclipse. It's out of incubation since June 2011. You can see how it looks in the user guide. Here are a few screenshots to wet your appetite:

New files:

New files to be added

Commit Window:

Commit window

History View:

History View

Earthshine answered 13/11, 2010 at 9:34 Comment(1)

The best option if you are using Eclipse IDE because all is integrated. Pretty and useful. – Xanthic 24/5, 2013 at 7:36

I just started running GitExtensions on Mono, and it seems to work pretty well so far (running Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) here).

I had to install some libraries to get the compiled ZIP package to run:

libmono-winforms2.0-cil for System.Windows.Forms
libmono-system-ldap2.0-cil for System.DirectoryServices

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a packaged version for Ubuntu.

Copeland answered 14/9, 2011 at 13:57 Comment(1)

github.com/gitextensions/gitextensions/wiki/… – Tenotomy 10/12, 2019 at 7:35

Git GUI is what I always use on Windows. It does just about everything I ever need to do in Git, and the graphical nature is invaluable for getting a good picture of what is going on.

I haven't tried it on Linux, but I doubt it is any worse there.

I think the reason there hasn't been a big push into alternative tools is that Git GUI is more than good enough for those who like to use GUIs.

Blindly answered 26/1, 2010 at 18:38 Comment(1)

I can understand that the graphical nature is invaluable, but still needed to lower the entry level barrier. – Cravens 26/1, 2010 at 18:41

GitKraken is highly recommended. It is a cross-platform, modern and beautiful GIT client.

Campanulate answered 1/3, 2017 at 9:25 Comment(1)

A free Git GUI for non-commercial use and discounted pricing for teams. gitkraken.com/pro – Quadrat 10/3, 2017 at 5:45

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