A pretty and feature rich Git GUI for Linux

Question

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?

The git homepage has a list: https://git-scm.com/download/gui/linux — matth, May 08 '17 at 14:47
This question was asked in 2010, when this question was relevant — Manish Sinha, Jan 09 '23 at 18:49

score 64 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 18 '21 at 15:03

64

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.

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edited Aug 18 '21 at 15:03

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 04 '11 at 10:45

Christoph

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although it looks good, unfortunately it does almost nothing. :-( – andyczerwonka Jun 22 '11 at 13:02
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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. – Christoph Jun 22 '11 at 14:14
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fair enough... I rephrase... "it's useful for local work, but not for remote collaboration" – andyczerwonka Jun 22 '11 at 18:57
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Does this project have a website? Looks cool, but hard to find info. – Travis Reeder Nov 02 '11 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) – Christoph Nov 03 '11 at 10:01
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Gitg sure looks nice, but looks like it's a dead project. – Travis Reeder Aug 20 '12 at 06:59
@Travis: Well there's not much public activity, but if you check the git log, there is still work happening: http://git.gnome.org/browse/gitg/log/ – Christoph Aug 20 '12 at 07:33
Ahh, good to know. Thanks @Christoph , just installed it with apt-get install gitg and trying it out. – Travis Reeder Aug 20 '12 at 18:16
@TravisR: just FYI, there's PPAs on Launchpad with a more up-to-date version (2.5.0), e.g. https://launchpad.net/~weits666/+archive/ppa https://launchpad.net/~xperimental/+archive/ppa if you want to try that. – Christoph Aug 21 '12 at 06:54
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. – Nov 20 '12 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. – 1nfiniti Dec 12 '15 at 05:11

score 21 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 18 '21 at 15:20

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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.

edited Aug 18 '21 at 15:20

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 24 '12 at 16:07

yuvilio

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this is by far the most useful git gui i have ever found. thank you! – Alp Feb 20 '13 at 23:02
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. – boh Apr 22 '13 at 18:35
Holy crap! I never thought I'd see a Git GUI of this caliber on Linux! – Hubro Aug 14 '15 at 16:04
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! – Efreeto Nov 16 '17 at 18:01

score 20 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 26 '10 at 18:30

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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...

answered Jan 26 '10 at 18:30

Cascabel

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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 – Manish Sinha Jan 26 '10 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. – Manish Sinha Jan 26 '10 at 18:39
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I didn't say anything about git cola. – Cascabel Jan 26 '10 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. – Smandoli Apr 07 '12 at 18:18
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@Smandoli It's a git command: `git gui` – Cascabel Apr 07 '12 at 19:24
Oh! Thanks! (A) how obvious. (B) Why don't they SAY so?! – Smandoli Apr 07 '12 at 20:56

score 11 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 18 '21 at 15:11

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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

edited Aug 18 '21 at 15:11

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 13 '10 at 09:34

Hosam Aly

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The best option if you are using Eclipse IDE because all is integrated. Pretty and useful. – caligari May 24 '13 at 07:36

score 6 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 18 '21 at 15:15

6

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.

edited Aug 18 '21 at 15:15

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 14 '11 at 13:57

black_puppydog

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https://github.com/gitextensions/gitextensions/wiki/How-To:-run-Git-Extensions-on-Linux – matth Dec 10 '19 at 07:35

score 5 · Answer 6 · edited Aug 18 '21 at 15:10

5

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.

edited Aug 18 '21 at 15:10

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jan 26 '10 at 18:38

T.E.D.

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I can understand that the graphical nature is invaluable, but still needed to lower the entry level barrier. – Manish Sinha Jan 26 '10 at 18:41

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 01 '17 at 09:25

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

answered Mar 01 '17 at 09:25

Frode Lillerud

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A free Git GUI for non-commercial use and discounted pricing for teams. https://www.gitkraken.com/pro – Jonathan Hult Mar 10 '17 at 05:45

A pretty and feature rich Git GUI for Linux

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