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GitHub Desktop or Git CLI?

⁨490⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨hypnotic_nerd@programming.dev⁩ to ⁨programmer_humor@programming.dev⁩

https://programming.dev/pictrs/image/3afccf95-534c-49a1-b9a5-d02730f5da81.jpeg

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  • Shinji_Ikari@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I really never understood why one would need a GUI for git except for visualizing branches.

    I feel like I’m crazy seeing so many people using clicky buttons for tracking files. I need like 4 commands for 95% of what I do and the rest you look up.

    You’re already programming! Just learn the tool!

    And now there’s a github CLI tool? I hate to beat a dead horse but Microsoft pushing their extended version of an open source tool/protocol is literally the second step of their mantra.

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    • idiocracy@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      knowing how to program doesn’t mean u need to do things the hard way.

      heck the whole point of programming is to make things easier and faster.

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    • popcar2@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      FWIW not everyone using source control is a programmer. I’ve seen artists in game dev using GUI tools to pull new changes and push their assets.

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      • Shinji_Ikari@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        That’s fair, there’s plenty of uses for source control.

        I was speaking from a programming context though, as this is a programming community.

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    • firelizzard@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Do you use the command line for everything? Do you edit with vim, view diffs with git diff, browse the web with links or lynx?

      GUIs are useful tools. I’m happy with VSCode’s git integration. It’s just what I need for basic stuff like staging files and committing. I use the CLI whenever I want to do something like rebasing because I can type that command faster than I can figure out the GUI, but it would be stupid to artificially force myself to use the CLI for everything because of some kind of principal.

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      • Shinji_Ikari@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Yeah I actually just prefer the command line, I’ve never had to force myself to use it. I even tried using VSC for a bit recently but i couldn’t get myself to like it. I just use nvim with some plugins in a tmux session now and its productive as hell.

        Of course I don’t browse the web with the command line. For merging branches, I always merge main into the working branch first, check conflict files, and go through the file finding the diffs and resolving them. I’ve used merge tools before that were sorta nice but I had my own issues with them.

        Maybe it’s the type of programming I do. I don’t do any web stuff, so file count is down. For larger code bases I keep a non editor terminal up and will grep -re for word/phrase searching, find to look for specific files, etc. I’ll occasionally use an IDE, typically eclipse based because embedded, but I don’t find myself missing the features they add.

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    • OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I primarily use GitHub CLI to interact with the GitHub API, not Git. I don’t really see it as an extension of the Git CLI, which I use much more frequently. Everything you can do with it can also be done through their REST API.

      I use it for things that aren’t really git features, like:

      Syncing repository admin, pull request, and branch control settings across multiple repositories

      Checking the status of self-hosted actions runners

      Creating pull requests, auto-approving them

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      • Shinji_Ikari@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Thanks for the explanation, that does sound useful.

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    • coloredgrayscale@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Checking the diff before commit, solve merge conflicts

      Also if it’s well integrated into the IDE it feels less like using a separate tool. For 95% of what I do the ide/gui feels better (fetch, pull, push, commit, checkout, merge). Usually just 2-4 clicks and no need to type the branch name (ticket number and then some)

      For Reflog, reset I use the terminal.

      If I had to start github desktop or another seperate gui I would use the terminal that’s integrated into the IDE.

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    • hubobes@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Maybe not a GUI but using a TUI (lazygit) I am certain that I can do everything faster than you could ever do using the CLI. Tbf if a GUI Tool had the same shortcuts it would also be faster.

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    • sloppy_diffuser@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I use LazyGit on the CLI for a “GUI-like” experience. I find it helps me make smaller more meaningful commits. If I’m working on a feature that enhances or fixes other modules in my repo to support, its trivial when done to make multiple clean commits out of the one feature that isolates the changes in functionality to individual commits instead of one medium commit.

      On a large enough repo (e.g., monorepo), its a pain to do using git commands.

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  • backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I don’t understand either anyway

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    • traches@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Image

      Title text: If that doesn’t fix it, git.txt contains the phone number of a friend of mine who understands git. Just wait through a few minutes of ‘It’s really pretty simple, just think of branches as…’ and eventually you’ll learn the commands that will fix everything.

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      • popcar2@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        • git pull

        • git add *

        • git commit -m “Some stuff”

        • git push

        And occasionally when you mess up

        • git reflog

        • git reset HEAD@{n} (where n is where you wanna roll back to)

        And occasionally if you mess up so hard you give up

        • git reset --hard origin/main

        And there you go. You are now a master at using git. Try not to mess up.

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  • LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Who the fuck codes and is such a terrible coder they are using shitty GitHub desktop?

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    • Stumblinbear@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You can be a perfectly good dev and not enjoy working in the cli, especially when there are good enough alternatives

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    • calcopiritus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      GitHub desktop is the first thing I recommend whenever someone ducks up their local repo by using eclipse’s git integration.

      It’s so easy even an eclipse user can solve their issue by clicking a simple “sync” button. They don’t need to even know how git works.

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      • curiousaur@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        That’s literally the problem being talked about. You need to know how git works to avoid these kinds of problems.

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    • jbk@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Beginners, probably? I agree it sucks tho, bundling a whole ass browser just for some fancy semi-automated git executions

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      • Itd4n@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        ass browser

        hehe.

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    • hightrix@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Right here, brother.

      I use the right tool for the job, always. If all I need is to push a branch, then I’d rather use a UI that quickly shows me the changes in a nice diff layout. If I’m doing a pull request review and want to run it locally, I select the branch, pull, and go.

      That said, when there are conflicts or tricky merges, or I want to squash a bunch of commits, anything like that, I’ll use the CLI.

      It’s not about being above GitHub desktop or being an enlightened CLI user. It is about using the tool that is needed.

      I’ve only been writing and releasing software for 15 years, what do I know.

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    • Feathercrown@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Why you haff to be mad its only preference

      youtu.be/xzpndHtdl9A?si=TNH0CnrAXrrUM3ae

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  • derpgon@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    JetBrains IDEs, I don’t remember the last time I used the CLI.

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    • caseyweederman@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      you have forgotten the face of your father

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      • QuazarOmega@lemy.lol ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Linus Torvalds?

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    • expr@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Good luck doing anything remotely complicated/useful in git with an IDE. You get a small fraction of what git can do with a tool that allows absolutely 0 scripting and automation.

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      • calcopiritus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        IDE git is less powerful than CLI git. However I’m pretty confident that most people use more features of git by using a GUI.

        CLI feature discoverability is pretty awful, you have to go out of your way and type git help to learn new commands.

        With a GUI though, all the buttons are there, you just have to click a new button that you’ve been seeing for a while and the GUI will guide you how to use it.

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      • derpgon@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        It sounds like you don’t speak from experience. I have all the automation I need. It supports git hooks on top of IDE-only features like code checking.

        If I have to fire up my CLI for some mass history rewriting (like changing an author for every commit), or when the repo breaks - so be it. But by not using the CLI I save my fingers and sanity, because committing a bunch of files is several click away with little to no room for error.

        I can rebase, patch, drop, rename, merge, revert, cherry pick, and solve conflicts with a click of a button rather than remembering all the commands and whatnot.

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      • GBU_28@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I use the cli, but my main goal is to never have to do anything remotely complicated with git. Does it happen sometimes? Of course.

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      • muddi@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        There are automations. You can even add git hooks iirc. Mostly I find the lint and other code quality integrations nice to have in the IDE, since the inline results allow me to navigate directly to the code

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    • eluvatar@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      This is the way

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    • CodingCarpenter@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I was looking for this comment. PHP storm and git are like best friends. I very very rarely need to resort to the CLI and generally that’s for hard resetting after I screw something up

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  • criticalimpact@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    CLI Though I will admit it took me a while to get there git add -i is where the true magic begins

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    • stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      TIL!

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      • FiskFisk33@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        git log --graph --oneline --all

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    • hakunawazo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Also part of the Cli magic is a pretty git log tree like that:
      Image
      stackoverflow.com/questions/1838873/…/34467298#34…

      And a proper diff tool like vim:

      git config --global diff.tool vimdiff git config --global difftool.prompt false

      (Current diff could be closed with :qa. All diffs could be closed with :cq).

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  • art@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Learning git will give you the tools to work on projects on any git platform. It doesn’t matter if I’m in Forgejo, Gitlab, or Github.

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    • bellsDoSing@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      And it will find you the most answers online in case you have a git related question.

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  • hightrix@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    GitHub desktop Stan here. Been a software engineer for over a decade and still love my UI tools. GitHub desktop is good enough 99% of the time.

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  • pimeys@lemmy.nauk.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Magit

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    • RePierre@feddit.ro ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I was looking for someone to mention Magit. It just rocks!

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    • akkajdh999@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      fugitive

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    • h_a_r_u_k_i@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      This + org-mode are enough for me to switch to Emacs.

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  • cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Fork

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    • Aatube@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Any windows screenshots?

      (Fork is also an awful name in terms of searching for it btw)

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      • cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Image

        Image

        (there’s also a couple more here: git-fork.com)

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    • caseyweederman@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You have my attention

      Do they have a Linux client though?

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      • cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        sadly no and i don’t think it works through wine

        but technically they have a mac client which is basically an expensive version of linux

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      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I wish! The best Linux git gui I have found is SmartGit. I like it, but it’s just a little goofy and not free. Fork is better for its ability to very easily stage and/or stash a subset of the current changeset.

        Anyone got any suggestions? I tried git-cola and gitkraken. The former I found obtuse and limited, and the latter is not free in addition to somehow making git harder with a pretty gui.

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    • eluvatar@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Been using it for years it’s great

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    • BaardFigur@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Fork is simply the best. Git Extensions deserves a mention as well

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    • ramenshaman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I hate coding on Windows, maybe I’ll check that out. (My only option is Windows for my work laptop because I need to use a few Windows-only softwares and IT says I’m not allowed to dual boot)

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      • jadedwench@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Is running Linux off a USB drive possible? It isn’t ideal, but you can still have persistence if needed? There is also WSL, if you don’t need a GUI.

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  • JonsJava@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’d love to like the desktop app, but I just don’t understand what it’s doing under the hood when I click a button. When I click an icon, is it syncing my changes up as it pulls down, it just pulling down? I guess point and click is more scary to me when prod is on the line.

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    • Feathercrown@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Why are you syncing directly to prod

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      • JonsJava@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I’m not? I just don’t like UIs

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    • kuberoot@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      If I may shill for a moment, that’s something I like about sublime merge - the buttons mostly map to git commands, and it has a nice log showing the commands it ran and their output.

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    • Fades@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      How about you utilize proper CICD

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      • JonsJava@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I do. I just don’t like leaving the terminal

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  • muntedcrocodile@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Vscode plugins?

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  • vsh@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    GitHub desktop for life

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  • infinitepcg@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    GitKraken!

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  • akkajdh999@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    lazygit:

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  • Jesus_666@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Fork.

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  • Fades@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    CLI + IDE for git

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  • beefsquatch@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Sublime Merge, for most items in the UI it tells you the git command it will use

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  • BaardFigur@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Another gui client, such as Git Fork. Much easier to fine tune what I commit, and see commit history, with a gui client. Certain things are better to do in the command line, but I really don’t get why so many people hate gui clients

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  • lowleveldata@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Why am I not allowed to login to 2 GitHub remote at the same time? Answer me Microsoft

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  • amotio@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Sublime-Merge

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  • smeg@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I feel those captions are the wrong way round

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  • lseif@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    using LazyGit in tmux has changed my workflow.

    instead of: git add . git commit -m ‘foo’ fg

    i just: g ac foo q

    and it displays everything neatly

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  • Metype@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’d use Desktop if it worked, unfortunately recently it decided that I don’t have read/write access to a repo I’m working on. Works fine in git CLI so idk what the problem there is.

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  • TheFerrango@lemmy.basedcount.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Laughs in Sourcetree

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  • lordnikon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    SVN?

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  • CCF_100@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Well one runs on Linux and the other doesn’t so…

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  • Phoenix3875@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Why are they even on the same bus?

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  • Benaaasaaas@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Vim Fugitive

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  • pastelmind@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Fork is much better than GitHub Desktop, you can use it without paying indefinitely

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  • iAvicenna@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    CLI because linux

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