What Are The Best Git Clients For Macos Mac SourceTree. Apr 11, 2018 4 Reasons Why You'll Love AOL Desktop 9.7 for PC: 1. You're connected - Get access to your online. Git is a distributed version-control system for tracking changes in source code during software development. It is designed for coordinating work among programmers, but it can be used to track changes in any set of files. The.easiest GIT client and most optimized for Mac OS X in my opinion is probably Tower. Its not the most powerful but the interface is the easiest to use. Another one i like is git-gui. Its by far the easiest to use. I think using Git through the terminal is by far the most powerful and has all the features you need.

-->
  • What is best Git client for Mac Os with my own server? Ask Question Asked 8 years, 6 months ago. Active 2 years, 10 months ago. Viewed 37k times 13.
  • SmartGit, Visual Studio Code, and Fork are probably your best bets out of the 24 options considered. 'Free for non-commercial use (with some restrictions)' is the primary reason people pick SmartGit over the competition. This page is powered by a knowledgeable community that helps you make an informed decision.

Caution

Clients

The preview TFVC extension for Visual Studio for Mac is no longer supported in Visual Studio 2019 for Mac.

Alternative Version Control options in Visual Studio for Mac

For the best version control experience on macOS, we recommend using Git instead of Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC).

Git is supported in Visual Studio for Mac and is the default option for repositories hosted in Team Foundation Server (TFS)/Azure DevOps. To learn more about using Git with TFS/Azure DevOps, see the Setting up a Git Repository guide.

Unsupported workarounds for TFVC

While Visual Studio for Mac doesn't officially support TFVC, the rest of this guide provides some workarounds to work with TFVC on macOS. If you're using TFVC for version control today, here are some solutions you can use to access your source code hosted in TFVC:

  • Option 1. Use Visual Studio Code and the Azure Repos extension, for a graphical UI
  • Option 2. Connect to your repo using the Team Explorer Everywhere Command Line Client (TEE-CLC)

Option 1. Use Visual Studio Code and the Azure Repos extension

If you like to work with a graphical interface to manage your files in version control, then the Azure Repos extension for Visual Studio Code provides a supported solution from Microsoft. To get started, download Visual Studio Code and then learn how to configure the Azure Repos extension.

Option 2. Connecting using the Team Explorer Everywhere Command Line Client

Important

As per the Team Explorer Everywhere README, this project is no longer being maintained.

If you're comfortable using the macOS Terminal, then the Team Explorer Everywhere Command Line Client (TEE-CLC) provides a supported way to connect to your source in TFVC.

You can follow the steps below to set up your connection to TFVC and commit changes.

Setting up the TEE-CLC

There are two ways to get setup with the TEE-CLC.

  • Use Homebrew to install the client, or
  • Download and manually install the client

The easiest solution is using HomeBrew, which is a package manager for macOS. To install using this method:

  1. Launch the macOS Terminal application.
  2. Install Homebrew using the Terminal and the instructions on the Homebrew home page.
  3. Once Homebrew is installed, run the following command from your Terminal: brew install tee-clc

To setup the TEE-CLC manually:

  1. Download the latest version of the tee-clc from the releases page of the Team Explorer Everywhere GitHub repo (e.g. tee-clc-14.134.0.zip at the time of this writing).
  2. Extract the content of the .zip to a folder on disk.
  3. Open the macOS Terminal app and use the cd command to switch to the folder you used in the previous step.
  4. From within the folder, run the command ./tf to test that the command line client can run, you may be prompted to install Java or other dependencies.

What Are The Best Git Clients For Macos Catalina

Once the TEE-CLC is installed, you can run the command tf eula to view and accept the license agreement for the client.

Finally, to authenticate with your TFS/Azure DevOps environment, you'll need to create a personal access token on the server. Learn more about authenticating with personal access tokens. When creating a personal access token to use with TFVC, be sure to provide Full Access when configuring the token.

Using the TEE-CLC to connect to your repo

To connect to your source code, you first need to create a workspace using the tf workspace command. For example, the following commands connect to an Organization in Azure DevOps Services called 'MyOrganization':

The TF_AUTO_SAVE_CREDENTIALS environment setting is used to save your credentials so you aren't prompted to enter them multiple times. When prompted for a user name, use the personal access token you created in the previous section and use a blank password.

To create a mapping of your source files to a local folder, you'll use the tf workfold command. The following example will map a folder named 'WebApp.Services' from the 'MyRepository' TFVC project and set it up to be copied into the local ~/Projects/ folder (i.e. a 'Projects' folder in the current users's home folder).

Finally, you use the following command to get the source files from the server and copy them locally:

Committing changes using the TEE-CLC

After you've made changes to your files in Visual Studio for Mac, you can switch back to the Terminal to check in your edits. The tf add command is used to add files to the list of pending changes to be checked-in and the tf checkin command performs the actual check-in to the server. The checkin command includes parameters to add a comment or associate a related work item. In the following code snippet, all files in a WebApp.Services folder are added, recursively, to the checkin. Then, the code is checked in with a comment and associated with a work item with the ID '42'.

To learn more about the commands mentioned here, or others, you can use the following command from the Terminal:

tf help

What Are The Best Git Clients For Macos High Sierra

See also

Installing and configuring Git on macOS can seem difficult if you’ve never used a command line before, but there are only a few things to learn to get started. This guide will take you through the steps to install and configure Git and connect it to remote repositories to clone, push, and pull.

Installing Git

Download the latest Git installer package, double click on the installer to start the installation wizard. You’ll be prompted for your system password in order for the installer to complete.

After you have successfully installed Git on Mac, you’ll need to provide secure communication with your Git repositories by creating and installing SSH keys.

Creating SSH keys on Mac

To communicate with the remote Git repository in your Beanstalk account from your Mac, you will need to generate an SSH key pair for that computer. This process requires only a few steps, and all of the tools necessary are included on your Mac.

Launching Terminal

Terminal is an application that comes with macOS and provides you with an interface to run text commands, switch through folders, and manage files. You can usually find it in your Applications Utilities folder.

Generating a key pair

Type these commands in your Terminal window and press Return. First make sure you are in your home directory:

and then generate the keypair with:

It will ask for location, just accept the default location (~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) by pressing Return. When it asks for a pass phrase, make sure to set a strong pass phrase for the key. We’ve included some additional information about SSH keys and how to manage strong pass phrases in our Tips for using SSH Keys guide.

Now that the keys are generated, copy it to your clipboard for the next step:

Your public key is now on your clipboard and you can easily add it to a version control hosting account like Beanstalk. When you paste it, your SSH public key should look something like this:

In your Beanstalk account, the added SSH key will look like this:

Checking your connection

Before trying to access your Git remote repository, check if the connection to your remote hosted Git repository works. Enter the following command in the Terminal, replacing “accountname” with your account name:

In this case, this is the URL to access Git on your Beanstalk account. If you are using another version control hosting service, the URL would be provided by them.

What Are The Best Git Clients For Macos Operating System

You’ll most likely encounter a message that looks like this:

You can type yes and press Enter, which will add your account’s hostname accountname.beanstalkapp.com to a known_hosts file. This step won’t need to be repeated unless your public key or your account names changes. Also, this must be done from the Terminal before using any GUI clients.

If you were authenticated correctly, you will see a message similar to this one:

You can now continue to configure your local Git profile.

Setting up your Git Profile

After you have authenticated correctly by installing Git and setting up SSH keys, before you start using your Git repositories, you should setup your Git profile by typing following after you run Git bash in command line:

In case you are using Beanstalk for version control, it would be best if your first name, last name and email address match to the ones you use in your account to avoid any conflicts.

Summary

In order to be able to use your repository you need to:

  • Install Git
  • Generate SSH keys with ssh-keygen
  • Check if the connection to the Git repository is working
  • Set up your Git profile

While getting started with Git, the most common mistakes include mismatched private and public SSH keys or the Beanstalk user not having permission to access the repository. Make sure to check these after you have finished setting up Git. If you run into issues, just contact us using one of the links below.

Now what?

Now that you have Git properly installed and configured, you can use a client of your choice. Whether you choose a terminal or a GUI, it is a good idea to learn the basic concepts and commands for versioning your files before. Here’s some recommended reading to get you started:

  • Git Immersion Tutorial – an excellent step-by-step tutorial to using Git
  • Pro Git E-book and Printed Edition
  • The Git Parable – understand the concepts behind Git with a simple story by Tom Preston-Werner