The `git` Gem

The git Gem provides an API that can be used to create, read, and manipulate Git repositories by wrapping system calls to the git binary. The API can be used for working with Git in complex interactions including branching and merging, object inspection and manipulation, history, patch generation and more.

Basic Usage

Get started by obtaining a repository object by:

Opening an existing working copy with Git.open
Initializing a new repository with Git.init
Cloning a repository with Git.clone

Methods that can be called on a repository object are documented in Git::Base

Install

You can install the git gem with the following command:

gem install git

Deprecation Warnings

Deprecation warnings are managed with the Git.deprecation attribute.

Use this object to define deprecations in the source code:

Git.deprecation.deprecate_methods(Git::Branch, stashes: 'use Git::Base#stash_list instead')

The default action when using deprecated items (methods, classes, etc.) is to output a DEPRECATION WARNING to $stderr like the following:

DEPRECATION WARNING: stashes is deprecated and will be removed from git 2.0.0 (use Git::Base.stash_list instead)

The action taken when a deprecated item is used is defined by setting the behavior on the deprecation object:

# Log all deprecation warnings to $stderr (the default)
Git.deprecation = :stderr

# Raise an ActiveSupport::DeprecationException
Git.deprecation = :raise

# Do nothing
Git.deprecation = :silence

See ActiveSupport::Deprecation for more details on how to use deprecations.

Major Objects

Git::Base - The object returned from a Git.open or Git.clone. Most major actions are called from this object.

Git::Object - The base object for your tree, blob and commit objects, returned from @git.gtree or @git.object calls. the Git::AbstractObject will have most of the calls in common for all those objects.

Git::Diff - returns from a @git.diff command. It is an Enumerable that returns Git::Diff:DiffFile objects from which you can get per file patches and insertion/deletion statistics. You can also get total statistics from the Git::Diff object directly.

Git::Status - returns from a @git.status command. It is an Enumerable that returns Git:Status::StatusFile objects for each object in git, which includes files in the working directory, in the index and in the repository. Similar to running 'git status' on the command line to determine untracked and changed files.

Git::Branches - Enumerable object that holds Git::Branch objects. You can call .local or .remote on it to filter to just your local or remote branches.

Git::Remote- A reference to a remote repository that is tracked by this repository.

Git::Log - An Enumerable object that references all the Git::Object::Commit objects that encompass your log query, which can be constructed through methods on the Git::Log object, like:

@git.log(20).object("some_file").since("2 weeks ago").between('v2.6', 'v2.7').each { |commit| [block] }

Pass the --all option to git log as follows:

@git.log.all.each { |commit| [block] }

Git::Worktrees - Enumerable object that holds Git::Worktree objects.

Examples

Here are a bunch of examples of how to use the Ruby/Git package.

Ruby < 1.9 will require rubygems to be loaded.

require 'rubygems'

Require the 'git' gem.

require 'git'

Git env config

Git.configure do |config|
  # If you want to use a custom git binary
  config.binary_path = '/git/bin/path'

  # If you need to use a custom SSH script
  config.git_ssh = '/path/to/ssh/script'
end

NOTE: Another way to specify where is the git binary is through the environment variable GIT_PATH

Here are the operations that need read permission only.

g = Git.open(working_dir, :log => Logger.new(STDOUT))

g.index
g.index.readable?
g.index.writable?
g.repo
g.dir

g.log   # returns a Git::Log object, which is an Enumerator of Git::Commit objects
g.log.since('2 weeks ago')
g.log.between('v2.5', 'v2.6')
g.log.each {|l| puts l.sha }
g.gblob('v2.5:Makefile').log.since('2 weeks ago')

g.object('HEAD^').to_s  # git show / git rev-parse
g.object('HEAD^').contents
g.object('v2.5:Makefile').size
g.object('v2.5:Makefile').sha

g.gtree(treeish)
g.gblob(treeish)
g.gcommit(treeish)


commit = g.gcommit('1cc8667014381')

commit.gtree
commit.parent.sha
commit.parents.size
commit.author.name
commit.author.email
commit.author.date.strftime("%m-%d-%y")
commit.committer.name
commit.date.strftime("%m-%d-%y")
commit.message

tree = g.gtree("HEAD^{tree}")

tree.blobs
tree.subtrees
tree.children # blobs and subtrees

g.revparse('v2.5:Makefile')

g.branches # returns Git::Branch objects
g.branches.local
g.current_branch
g.branches.remote
g.branches[:master].gcommit
g.branches['origin/master'].gcommit

g.grep('hello')  # implies HEAD
g.blob('v2.5:Makefile').grep('hello')
g.tag('v2.5').grep('hello', 'docs/')
g.describe()
g.describe('0djf2aa')
g.describe('HEAD', {:all => true, :tags => true})

g.diff(commit1, commit2).size
g.diff(commit1, commit2).stats
g.diff(commit1, commit2).name_status
g.gtree('v2.5').diff('v2.6').insertions
g.diff('gitsearch1', 'v2.5').path('lib/')
g.diff('gitsearch1', @git.gtree('v2.5'))
g.diff('gitsearch1', 'v2.5').path('docs/').patch
g.gtree('v2.5').diff('v2.6').patch

g.gtree('v2.5').diff('v2.6').each do |file_diff|
  puts file_diff.path
  puts file_diff.patch
  puts file_diff.blob(:src).contents
end

g.worktrees # returns Git::Worktree objects
g.worktrees.count
g.worktrees.each do |worktree|
  worktree.dir
  worktree.gcommit
  worktree.to_s
end

g.config('user.name')  # returns 'Scott Chacon'
g.config # returns whole config hash

g.tags # returns array of Git::Tag objects

g.show()
g.show('HEAD')
g.show('v2.8', 'README.md')

Git.ls_remote('https://github.com/ruby-git/ruby-git.git') # returns a hash containing the available references of the repo.
Git.ls_remote('/path/to/local/repo')
Git.ls_remote() # same as Git.ls_remote('.')

Git.default_branch('https://github.com/ruby-git/ruby-git') #=> 'master'

And here are the operations that will need to write to your git repository.

g = Git.init
  Git.init('project')
  Git.init('/home/schacon/proj',
  { :repository => '/opt/git/proj.git',
      :index => '/tmp/index'} )

# Clone from a git url
git_url = 'https://github.com/ruby-git/ruby-git.git'
# Clone into the ruby-git directory
g = Git.clone(git_url)

# Clone into /tmp/clone/ruby-git-clean
name = 'ruby-git-clean'
path = '/tmp/clone'
g = Git.clone(git_url, name, :path => path)
g.dir #=> /tmp/clone/ruby-git-clean

g.config('user.name', 'Scott Chacon')
g.config('user.email', '[email protected]')

# Clone can take an optional logger
logger = Logger.new
g = Git.clone(git_url, NAME, :log => logger)

g.add                                   # git add -- "."
g.add(:all=>true)                       # git add --all -- "."
g.add('file_path')                      # git add -- "file_path"
g.add(['file_path_1', 'file_path_2'])   # git add -- "file_path_1" "file_path_2"

g.remove()                                  # git rm -f -- "."
g.remove('file.txt')                        # git rm -f -- "file.txt"
g.remove(['file.txt', 'file2.txt'])     # git rm -f -- "file.txt" "file2.txt"
g.remove('file.txt', :recursive => true)    # git rm -f -r -- "file.txt"
g.remove('file.txt', :cached => true)       # git rm -f --cached -- "file.txt"

g.commit('message')
g.commit_all('message')

# Sign a commit using the gpg key configured in the user.signingkey config setting
g.config('user.signingkey', '0A46826A')
g.commit('message', gpg_sign: true)

# Sign a commit using a specified gpg key
key_id = '0A46826A'
g.commit('message', gpg_sign: key_id)

# Skip signing a commit (overriding any global gpgsign setting)
g.commit('message', no_gpg_sign: true)

g = Git.clone(repo, 'myrepo')
g.chdir do
new_file('test-file', 'blahblahblah')
g.status.changed.each do |file|
  puts file.blob(:index).contents
end
end

g.reset # defaults to HEAD
g.reset_hard(Git::Commit)

g.branch('new_branch') # creates new or fetches existing
g.branch('new_branch').checkout
g.branch('new_branch').delete
g.branch('existing_branch').checkout
g.branch('master').contains?('existing_branch')

g.checkout('new_branch')
g.checkout('new_branch', new_branch: true, start_point: 'master')
g.checkout(g.branch('new_branch'))

g.branch(name).merge(branch2)
g.branch(branch2).merge  # merges HEAD with branch2

g.branch(name).in_branch(message) { # add files }  # auto-commits
g.merge('new_branch')
g.merge('new_branch', 'merge commit message', no_ff: true)
g.merge('origin/remote_branch')
g.merge(g.branch('master'))
g.merge([branch1, branch2])

g.merge_base('branch1', 'branch2')

r = g.add_remote(name, uri)  # Git::Remote
r = g.add_remote(name, Git::Base)  # Git::Remote

g.remotes  # array of Git::Remotes
g.remote(name).fetch
g.remote(name).remove
g.remote(name).merge
g.remote(name).merge(branch)

g.fetch
g.fetch(g.remotes.first)
g.fetch('origin', {:ref => 'some/ref/head'} )
g.fetch(all: true, force: true, depth: 2)

g.pull
g.pull(Git::Repo, Git::Branch) # fetch and a merge

g.add_tag('tag_name') # returns Git::Tag
g.add_tag('tag_name', 'object_reference')
g.add_tag('tag_name', 'object_reference', {:options => 'here'})
g.add_tag('tag_name', {:options => 'here'})

Options:
  :a | :annotate
  :d
  :f
  :m | :message
  :s

g.delete_tag('tag_name')

g.repack

g.push
g.push(g.remote('name'))

g.worktree('/tmp/new_worktree').add
g.worktree('/tmp/new_worktree', 'branch1').add
g.worktree('/tmp/new_worktree').remove
g.worktrees.prune

Some examples of more low-level index and tree operations

g.with_temp_index do

  g.read_tree(tree3) # calls self.index.read_tree
  g.read_tree(tree1, :prefix => 'hi/')

  c = g.commit_tree('message')
  # or #
  t = g.write_tree
  c = g.commit_tree(t, :message => 'message', :parents => [sha1, sha2])

  g.branch('branch_name').update_ref(c)
  g.update_ref(branch, c)

  g.with_temp_working do # new blank working directory
    g.checkout
    g.checkout(another_index)
    g.commit # commits to temp_index
  end
end

g.set_index('/path/to/index')


g.with_index(path) do
  # calls set_index, then switches back after
end

g.with_working(dir) do
# calls set_working, then switches back after
end

g.with_temp_working(dir) do
  g.checkout_index(:prefix => dir, :path_limiter => path)
  # do file work
  g.commit # commits to index
end