Git is an open source distributed version control system which was originally designed by Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, in 2005 for Linux kernel development. This control system is widely used by the open source community, handling small to extremely large projects with an emphasis on speed and efficiency, but maintaining flexibility, scalability, and guaranteeing data integrity.
Git is one of a number of open source revision control systems available for Linux. Other popular tools in this field include Subversion, Bazaar, Mercurial, Monotone, CVS, and SVN. However, Git is frequently regarded by many developers to be the finest version control tool available.
There’s a school of thought that considers the command line to be arcane and obsolete. Many users prefer graphical interfaces. And for non-technical people and beginners, few dispute good graphical user interfaces make life easier. But who doesn’t want the best of both worlds?
The power of the command line can be accessed on the desktop by using a terminal emulator. The terminal window allows the user to access a console and all its applications such as command line interfaces (CLI) and text user interface software. Even with the sophistication of modern desktop environments packed with administrative tools, other utilities, and productivity software all sporting attractive graphical user interfaces, it remains the case that some tasks are still best undertaken with the command line.
Here’s a legendary LinuxLinks-style ratings chart capturing our recommendations. We only feature free and open source software here.
A special mention goes to hub. It’s a command line tool that extends git with features and commands.
Click the links in the table below to learn more about each client.
| Text-Based Git Clients | |
|---|---|
| lazygit | Simple yet hugely popular terminal UI for git commands, written in Go |
| GitUI | Offers the comfort of a GUI git client but right in your terminal |
| Fugitive | Vim plugin for Git |
| Magit | Inspect and modify your Git repositories with Emacs |
| tig | ncurses-based Git repository browser |
| Neogit | Git interface plugin for Neovim inspired by Magit |
| forgit | Utility for using git interactively |
| Gitu | TUI Git client inspired by Magit |
| ggc | Go Git CLI |
| bit | Experimental modernized git CLI |
| pygitzen | Python-native terminal-based Git client |
| gitin | Commit, branch, status explorer for Git |
| Froggit | Modern, minimalist Git TUI |
| Gitwig | Keyboard-driven terminal interface for managing Git repositories |
This article has been updated to reflect the changes outlined in our recent announcement.
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