Git functionality

[cool-RR]

I never knew about the Git functionality. How does one use it? I searched in gCtrl+H, gzCtrl+H, I tried -f git, I tried vd my_repo and nothing worked.

[saulpw]

It's in a separate app now, vgit: /~https://github.com/saulpw/visidata/tree/develop/visidata/apps/vgit

[cool-RR]

Oh, should I install it like it says in the readme? pip3 install git+git://github.com/visidata/vdplus/vgit@develop

[saulpw]

Yeah, but I see now that's very old. If you have a git clone of the visidata repo, pip3 install -e visidata/apps/vgit.

[cool-RR]

I installed it with your command now. It seems to be successfully installed, but it's not clear how to use it. The readme says "vgit [<working_dir>] automatically opens a git status sheet if the directory has a .git subdirectory." However, when I run vgit it seems to act as a pass-through to git:

➜  /herring vgit nichos
git: 'nichos' is not a git command. See 'git --help'.
➜

Am I missing some information source that shows how to use vgit?

Also, how do you intend real users to install vgit?

[saulpw]

I thought I had written up more about how to use it when I reworked it earlier this year while importing it into the main VisiData repo, but I can't find it. Yes, it's like a git passthrough, which co-opts some subset of commands for a visual interface. Try vgit log or vgit branch or vgit status. Some of these interfaces are more useful than others. I tried setting alias git=vgit for awhile myself but got annoyed with it. Now I use it in limited circumstances when I want a data-oriented view of some git repo.

I think there might still be some value there, but it needs "more" time and attention (always more), and it's not worth it for me to invest more into it, other than keeping it running as an interesting example of the diversity of realms VisiData can provide an interface for. I enjoy making things like this but there's only so many hours in a day and months in a lifetime, and vgit has quite a limited audience.

So if you're interested in playing with it and putting together a guide of sorts, I can give you a tour and point you in the right direction and hunt around for those docs I thought I wrote. It'd be easier than it seems; I have put a few months of work into it, and it's actually reasonably put together. But if you want it to be a polished product like VisiData, it's going to be disappointing, and you should just install tig or lazygit.

[cool-RR]

I see. I tried it now and it's pretty cool. (It didn't work for me before because I use l as an alias for log which vgit doesn't catch.) But yeah, like you I don't want to invest time in it.