#github for windows

GitHub Desktop is a seamless way to contribute to projects on GitHub and GitHub Enterprise. It allows developers to synchronize branches, clone repositories, and more. Pull requests, merge button, fork queue, issues, pages, wiki: all awesome features that make sharing easier. But those things are only great after you’ve pushed your code to the app.

You can also use the GitHub Desktop client to…

After years of waiting, developers on Windows can finally enjoy an easier GitHub experience. On May 18, the team behind GitHub released the first version of GitHub for Windows.

This release joins its counterpart on Mac OS as by far the simplest, easiest, most beautiful way to develop on GitHub. The flashy, Metro-inspired app brings (almost) all the features of the command-line Git program in GUI form, in an interface that is as easy to use as it is beautiful. 

Git was originally written for Linux, so using it on Windows has always been a bit of a pain. For a while, there have been working ports of Git on Windows, but they were either bound to the command line or to less than simple GUIs. Git isn't all that difficult to learn on the command line, but it's not the easiest thing to learn either. 

Git for Windows, however, ends all of that trouble. Installing is completely hands-off, and the only setup required is logging into your GitHub account. The program walks you through a one-step, painless process to properly configure your Git globalconfig, which automatically adds the proper SSL keys to your GitHub account. It's incredibly simple, especially compared to the existing alternatives. 

Inside the app, you get a nice display of all of your repositories, both online and local. Dive into any repo and you get a clear, detailed readout of any uncommitted changes, including deleted files (notoriously difficult to keep track of via a traditional Git command line). Committing is as simple as selecting the changes you want to commit, typing a name, and clicking a button. Then, pushing is another click away. The program also keeps track of your branches, which are easy to switch between. Browsing past commits is also very well designed, giving clear indications of exactly what was changed in each step, in trademark Git style. From this view, the user can roll back commits or delete changes entirely. It really is a joy to use, and makes programming with Git genuinely enjoyable.

The app automatically checks for updates and notifies you when they're ready. Once installed, a new "Clone in Windows" button appears on all repos on the GitHub website, allowing for extremely fast, one-click cloning. 

GitHub for Windows Client: For bitbucket

Below is my walkthrough guide, based on my notes as a Git and bitbucket beginner, for setting up bitbucket with SSH and using the newly released GitHub for Windows client with bitbucket (instead of GitHub). In order to avoid confusion, please note that "Git for Windows" and "GitHub for Windows" are not the same.

On May 21st, GitHub for Windows was released. Being a bitbucket user, I wanted to find a way to use GitHub for Windows with bitbucket.

Of course, I had to figure this out prior to Phil Haack's article on Using GitHub for Windows with non-GitHub repositories. Since my notes were specific to bitbucket I thought I would share.

Before starting, make sure to have a bitbucket and GitHub account created.

Install Git for Windows

Atlassian has a guide for setting up Git (and Mercurial, but that does not apply here).

Download and install "Full installer for official Git for Windows 1.7.10", use default settings

Open Git Bash and configure your username and email address:

git config --global user.name "FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME"

git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

Setup your Default Identity

This step involves creating and configuring an SSH identity. You will create a private and public key. The private key is stored on your local computer and your public key will be uploaded to your Git server (bitbucket). See Using the SSH protocol with bitbucket for detailed information.

Make sure to back these up. If you use a password manager such as KeePass, which I recommend, you can embed these files directly into the KeePass database.

Read Set up SSH for Git for more information on setting up your identity.

To setup your identity, do the following:

Launch Git Bash

Execute the command (empty password):

ssh-keygen

If you are planning to use GitHub for Windows you will need to generate your keys with an empty password

The following keys should now be generated:

Private Key: C:\Users\{user}\.ssh\id_rsa

Public Key: C:\Users\{user}\.ssh\id_rsa.pub

The next step is to create a config file. The indentation on the 2nd and 3rd lines are required!

Host bitbucket.org User {username} IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

   Update your .bashrc profile file

Create a .bashrc file in your home directory and set up your GitBash shell to automatically start the agent when launching the shell. Add the following script to your .bashrc file (script provided by GitHub via a post by Joseph M. Reagle Jr. from MIT on the cygwin list):

SSH_ENV="$HOME/.ssh/environment" # start the ssh-agent function start_agent { echo "Initializing new SSH agent..." # spawn ssh-agent ssh-agent | sed 's/^echo/#echo/' > "$SSH_ENV" echo succeeded chmod 600 "$SSH_ENV" . "$SSH_ENV" > /dev/null ssh-add } # test for identities function test_identities { # test whether standard identities have been added to the agent already ssh-add -l | grep "The agent has no identities" > /dev/null if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then ssh-add # $SSH_AUTH_SOCK broken so we start a new proper agent if [ $? -eq 2 ];then start_agent fi fi } # check for running ssh-agent with proper $SSH_AGENT_PID if [ -n "$SSH_AGENT_PID" ]; then ps -ef | grep "$SSH_AGENT_PID" | grep ssh-agent > /dev/null if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then test_identities fi # if $SSH_AGENT_PID is not properly set, we might be able to load one from # $SSH_ENV else if [ -f "$SSH_ENV" ]; then . "$SSH_ENV" > /dev/null fi ps -ef | grep "$SSH_AGENT_PID" | grep -v grep | grep ssh-agent > /dev/null if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then test_identities else start_agent fi fi

   See Step 5 of Set up SSH for Git for more details.

Add your public key to bitbucket

Account settings > SSH keys

Add a new key with the label: "Default Public Key (nopass)"

Copy the public key (~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) to bitbucket

Configure to use SSH

Find the clone repository URL's, use the one for SSH, run the following command, using your repository information:

git clone [email protected]:accountname/reponame.git

   Create a Local Repository

mkdir /d/Projects/Path cd /d/Projects/Path git init git remote add origin ssh://[email protected]:accountname/reponame.git echo "# This is my README" >> README.md git add README.md git commit -m "First Commit. Adding a README." git push -u origin master

   You now have a local git repository for bitbucket.

Setup GitHub for Windows

Download and install GitHub for Windows

Make a backup of the 'github_rsa.pub' SSH public key file. Copy the contents of C:\Users\{user}\.ssh\id_rsa.pub to this file and save it.

Visit the GitHub site and create an account if you don't already have one: https://github.com/settings/ssh

Account > Edit your profile > SSH keys

Add a new key with the label: "Default Public Key (nopass)"