Relentless Simplicity :: The Bonanzle Tech Blog

Since moving to Linux, I’ve also moved to Git (from SVN) and have found it to be a reliable friend that, as a technology, is a significant step up from SVN. But, as a usable productivity tool, I definitely felt the sting of Git’s “hardcore h4×0r” roots in its lack of a GUI that is in the same league as Tortoise SVN.

But there is hope. And it comes from the unlikeliest of sources: my IDE, Rubymine.

Rubymine’s Git integration is superb. It supports hierarchical browsing of your current branch, in exactly the manner of Tortoise. It also offers:

• Directory-based, graphical means to be able to revert changed files or directories
• Ability to see a history of changes to a file (and return to an older specific version, if desired) along with one-click access to visual diff
• Ability to mass merge files in different branches by batch selecting them and choosing a merge method (i.e., “Use branch A version” or “Use branch B version”… it also supports manual merging via a graphical merge tool)
• One click comparison of your current file to the current repository file

In a nutshell, nearly all of the efficiencies that TortoiseSVN provided as a graphical source control tool for Subversion, Rubymine provides for Git.  With one exception — that I have implored the creators of Rubymine to consider adding — the ability to see the history for a directory (rather than a file) within your project.  Knowing the crack team of Rubymine developers, the feature will probably be on the way soon, but even before its arrival, they’ve still managed to build the best pound-for-pound Git graphical interface I’ve been able to uncover.

Bill Git

Rubymine’s stellar Git integration means that I seldom have to tinker with Git on the command line, but an exception to this is when I switch branches and forget to switch back before making my next commit. D’oh!

The answer is git cherry-pick.

The syntax is simple:

git cherry-pick [commit ID]

You can run “git log” to get the ID of your commit. You can also use a graphical tool like Giggle, which lets you see all commits to all branches.

If you had the misfortune of your checkin not being on any given branch, you can run “git reflog” to see all checkins to all branches, and merge your master branch with the fake branch that your checkin went to. See Stack Overflow for more details on what to do in this scenario.

Bill Git