Problems with using git

Hello all,

I'm a physics PhD student, not much experienced in serious software writing, but I've got to the point where I felt learning to use a version control system would be worthwhile. I decided to go for git rather than CVS or Subversion because I felt a distributed VCS would have more potential for future projects.

However, I've been experiencing some difficulties with using git, with the results of commands not always being what the tutorial
<http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/tutorial.html> says it should be. So, I'm hoping someone here can advise me!

I'm using openSUSE 10.0 and the package installed is git-core version 0.99.3git20050905-2.

The problem is to do with branches. Wanting to make some trial revisions, I typed,

git branch trial

to create an appropriate branch. However, typing "git branch" afterwards results in an error message: "git branch: I want a branch name". No list of branches as the tutorial suggests!

However, I can use git checkout trial, make edits, and then go back to git checkout master, and switch between the two, with the revisions in one but not in the other. So the branches do seem to exist, and I can modify them separately as one should be able to.

Now, having played around with the changes and found that they really work very well, I'd like to merge the changes in the trial branch back into the master. So, as per the tutorial, I type, git pull trial; and am told, "No such remote branch: trial". I've also tried, git pull . trial, which has the result, "No such remote branch: .".

I also note that when I'm in the master branch, having used git checkout master, if I go into gitk, it does not show the existence of the trial
branch: but if I go into git checkout trial, it does. But the two appear to be shown as completely separate entities.

Just as a test, I tried creating a throwaway branch,

git branch silly

which I then tried to delete with git branch -D silly. However, this didn't delete the silly branch: it created a new one called -D (and both of these *did* show up in gitk under the master branch). Using git-branch instead of git branch results in an error message: "bash:
git-branch: command not found".

The result is that I'm kind of confused. I'd like to understand why the commands I've tried from the tutorial haven't produced the results the tutorial claims they will; but I'd also like to solve the original
problem: how just to merge the stuff in my trial branch back into the master.

I suspect this might be simply that the SUSE package has some problems. For example, it doesn't appear to have any man pages included. :-(

Thanks for any advice,

Best wishes,

        -- Joe

I think your problems are just related to the fact that the tutorial is newer than your git version.

Just fetch a newer version of git first (0.99.3 should be new enough to happily fetch a newer version using git itself, but it might be easier to just get a tar-ball), and you'll have an easier time at it.

Linus

... and the way to fetch and install that repo with your current git is:

	$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git git
	$ cd git && make all strip install

There are 2215 commits since 0.99.3, so I think you'll find much has changed since then.

Andreas Ericsson                   [email protected]
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

Thanks very much to all who offered advice on this. :-)

Unfortunately openSUSE is somewhat out of sync not just with git but in libraries necessary to install the latest version (libcrypto.so.4, libssl.so.4). The openssl (0.9.7g-2.4) and openssl-devel (0.9.7g-2) packages don't contain these but rather contain libcrypto.so.0.9.7 and libssl.0.9.7. Just in case it's important to future git development.

Best wishes & thanks again,

          -- Joe

If you use the latest openSUSE betas or the FACTORY tree, git 1.1.3 is available there.

10.0 was released six months or so ago, so that is why it contains an older version of git.

thanks,

greg k-h

It might be useful for the openSuSE developers, but for git this is totally irrelevant. If you build from sources yourself they will be linked to whatever libraries you have installed.

Andreas Ericsson                   [email protected]
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

True, but I had an impression that we had active developers in git community who are close to Suse, and I wonder why this hadn't come up earlier. Maybe our userbase and Suse's userbase do not overlap much?

Yes, some of us are quite close to SuSE :)

Anyway, the issue is that 10.0 was released about 6 months ago, and contains the version of git at that time. The latest development tree, and the latest public betas contain 1.1.3. If you think this should be newer, I can easily go poke the proper people...

thanks,

greg k-h

Given that there's a security issue which got fixed in 1.1.5, I think this is really a bit poor.

I notice, by contrast, that Debian had managed to repackage and release a new GIT the day after Junio fixed the bug in the first place. That was more than a month ago.

-- [mdw]

Fair enough, I'll go poke the proper people now...

thanks,

greg k-h

They jumped and the cogito and git should be updated to the latest version in the next update.

thanks,

greg k-h