Git Tools and Hacks

Windows checkout issue

As of Git 1.6.5.1 there is a special new feature for windows users.

• Thanks to Johan ‘t Hart, files and directories starting with a single dot (such as ’.git’) will now be marked hidden (you can disable this setting with core.hideDotFiles=false in your config) (Issue 288).

Which means if you have this version of git or newer when you checkout, all of the Eclipse project files will be marked as hidden on Windows. This makes them ’’’unwritable’’’ and causes problems.

Solutions

• Set the hideDotFiles property in your global git config before you checkout the project. Inside your .gitconfig file should be these lines:

    [core]
          hideDotFiles = false

• Change the clone process so you init a local repo, change the property in just that repository, and then add a remote and pull.

Eclipse integration

The Eclipse Git plugin is yet in an alpha-phase. It is still useful to install so that the current branch’s name is displayed in the project navigator.
I will try the other functionality, but for a start I will use the command-line and/or TortoiseGit to interact with Git and I recommed that everybody does so.

Shell Prompt

See this guide to make git repo information show in your shell prompt.