Is there lightweight git client for Windows?

Question

Is there lightweight git client for Windows ?

I installed TortoiseGit which has dependency on msysgit. msysgit installation is ~1.6GB which totaly blows my mind. I thought only Oracle can bloat software like that :)

Thanks!

msysgit is 80 MB on my system. what version did you download? — CharlesB, Jun 01 '12 at 10:09

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 01 '12 at 10:17

Latest Git for Windows 1.7.10.x occupies 208M on my hard drive. The problem you're observing is that the software you're using to check the installed size does not honor NTFS hardlinks. For instance, if you would look at the libexec subdirectory using a recent version of FAR in its "File links" mode (Ctrl-9), you'll see most binaries there have 107 links as they all really link to one executable file.

The other problem is that this is Windows, and some bits of Git are implemented as Unix shell scripts or in Perl and its two standard GUI front-ends (git gui and gitk) are implemented in Tcl/Tk; in a typical GNU/Linux (or *BSD or whatever) system you'd have these dependent runtimes installed system-wide but Git for Windows is condemned to carry them with itself as there's no sane packaging system which it could rely upon.

There are attempts to do clear-room reimplementations such as libgit2 which could supposedly be used to implement a light-weight Git client, but all these attempts are seriously lacking in features compared with full-blown Git and will probably continue to do so because Git itself is evolving as well.

In short: I would just relax and proceed with Git for Windows. ;-)

A similar issue has recently been discussed in the msysgit bug tracker; the reporter stored his Git installation on a FAT32-formatted flash drive (so no support for hard links), and [he has been advised to simply delete all those `git-*.exe` files](https://github.com/msysgit/msysgit/issues/58#issuecomment-7928140) as they're only maintained for backward compatibility (`git-add` vs `git add`). — kostix, Sep 13 '12 at 11:27

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 01 '12 at 08:27

3

Try the GitHub for Windows client. Even though it has some github-specific functions you do not need the repos to be in github.

If you dislike the metro style you won't like it though.

answered Jun 01 '12 at 08:27

ThiefMaster

310,957
84
592
636

2

isn't this client only for github? – laurent Jun 01 '12 at 08:28
3

Nope, it also works fine with non-github repositories. – ThiefMaster Jun 01 '12 at 08:29

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 01 '12 at 08:28

3

Check out GitExtensions:

http://code.google.com/p/gitextensions/

answered Jun 01 '12 at 08:28

Sarfraz

377,238
77
533
578

Thanks. 219MB is better than 1.6GB :) – expert Jun 01 '12 at 08:42
It should be noted that Git Extensions either packages Git for Windows with itself (the so called "full version") or uses its existing installation, so using Git Extensions is not the way to combat disk space issues. – kostix Sep 13 '12 at 11:30

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

0

How do you get the 1.6GB for msysgit?

My C:/Program Files/Git directory containing msysgit is 'only' 222MB.

If you want to save space: drop Tortoise, use the git console, which (in not only my opinion) is the right way to unleash the full power of Git.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

Community

1
1

answered Jun 01 '12 at 09:59

eckes

64,417
29
168
201

Is there lightweight git client for Windows?

4 Answers4