Gitoxide: A peek into the future…

I started working on GitPython in 2009, back in the days when Python was 'my thing' and I had great plans with it. Of course, back in the days, I didn't really know what I was doing and this shows in many places. Somewhat similar to Python this happens to be 'good enough', but at the same time is deeply flawed and broken beyond repair.

By now, GitPython is widely used and I am sure there is a good reason for that, it's something to be proud of and happy about. The community is maintaining the software and is keeping it relevant for which I am absolutely grateful. For the time to come I am happy to continue maintaining GitPython, remaining hopeful that one day it won't be needed anymore.

More than 15 years after my first meeting with 'git' I am still in excited about it, and am happy to finally have the tools and probably the skills to scratch that itch of mine: implement git in a way that makes tool creation a piece of cake for most.

If you like the idea and want to learn more, please head over to gitoxide, an implementation of 'git' in Rust.

GitPython

GitPython is a python library used to interact with git repositories, high-level like git-porcelain, or low-level like git-plumbing.

It provides abstractions of git objects for easy access of repository data, and additionally allows you to access the git repository more directly using either a pure python implementation, or the faster, but more resource intensive git command implementation.

The object database implementation is optimized for handling large quantities of objects and large datasets, which is achieved by using low-level structures and data streaming.

REQUIREMENTS

GitPython needs the git executable to be installed on the system and available in your PATH for most operations. If it is not in your PATH, you can help GitPython find it by setting the GIT_PYTHON_GIT_EXECUTABLE=<path/to/git> environment variable.

• Git (1.7.x or newer)
• Python >= 3.4

The list of dependencies are listed in ./requirements.txt and ./test-requirements.txt. The installer takes care of installing them for you.

INSTALL

If you have downloaded the source code:

python setup.py install

or if you want to obtain a copy from the Pypi repository:

pip install GitPython

Both commands will install the required package dependencies.

A distribution package can be obtained for manual installation at:

http://pypi.python.org/pypi/GitPython

If you like to clone from source, you can do it like so:

git clone https://github.com/gitpython-developers/GitPython
git submodule update --init --recursive
./init-tests-after-clone.sh

Limitations

Leakage of System Resources

GitPython is not suited for long-running processes (like daemons) as it tends to leak system resources. It was written in a time where destructors (as implemented in the __del__ method) still ran deterministically.

In case you still want to use it in such a context, you will want to search the codebase for __del__ implementations and call these yourself when you see fit.

Another way assure proper cleanup of resources is to factor out GitPython into a separate process which can be dropped periodically.

Windows support

See Issue #525.

RUNNING TESTS

Important: Right after cloning this repository, please be sure to have executed the ./init-tests-after-clone.sh script in the repository root. Otherwise you will encounter test failures.

On Windows, make sure you have git-daemon in your PATH. For MINGW-git, the git-daemon.exe exists in Git\mingw64\libexec\git-core\; CYGWIN has no daemon, but should get along fine with MINGW's.

The easiest way to run tests is by using tox a wrapper around virtualenv. It will take care of setting up environments with the proper dependencies installed and execute test commands. To install it simply:

pip install tox

Then run:

tox

For more fine-grained control, you can use unittest.

Contributions

Please have a look at the contributions file.

INFRASTRUCTURE

• User Documentation
• Questions and Answers
• Please post on stackoverflow and use the gitpython tag
• Issue Tracker
  • Post reproducible bugs and feature requests as a new issue. Please be sure to provide the following information if posting bugs:
    • GitPython version (e.g. import git; git.__version__)
    • Python version (e.g. python --version)
    • The encountered stack-trace, if applicable
    • Enough information to allow reproducing the issue

How to make a new release

• Update/verify the version in the VERSION file
• Update/verify that the doc/source/changes.rst changelog file was updated
• Commit everything
• Run git tag -s <version> to tag the version in Git
• Run make release
• Close the milestone mentioned in the changelog and create a new one. Do not reuse milestones by renaming them.
• set the upcoming version in the VERSION file, usually be incrementing the patch level, and possibly by appending -dev. Probably you want to git push once more.

How to verify a release

Please only use releases from pypi as you can verify the respective source tarballs.

This script shows how to verify the tarball was indeed created by the authors of this project:

curl https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/09/bc/ae32e07e89cc25b9e5c793d19a1e5454d30a8e37d95040991160f942519e/GitPython-3.1.8-py3-none-any.whl > gitpython.whl
curl https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/09/bc/ae32e07e89cc25b9e5c793d19a1e5454d30a8e37d95040991160f942519e/GitPython-3.1.8-py3-none-any.whl.asc >  gitpython-signature.asc
gpg --verify gitpython-signature.asc gitpython.whl

which outputs

gpg: Signature made Fr  4 Sep 10:04:50 2020 CST
gpg:                using RSA key 27C50E7F590947D7273A741E85194C08421980C9
gpg: Good signature from "Sebastian Thiel (YubiKey USB-C) <byronimo@gmail.com>" [ultimate]
gpg:                 aka "Sebastian Thiel (In Rust I trust) <sebastian.thiel@icloud.com>" [ultimate]

You can verify that the keyid indeed matches the release-signature key provided in this repository by looking at the keys details:

gpg --list-packets ./release-verification-key.asc

You can verify that the commit adding it was also signed by it using:

git show --show-signature  ./release-verification-key.asc

If you would like to trust it permanently, you can import and sign it:

gpg --import ./release-verification-key.asc
gpg --edit-key 4C08421980C9

> sign
> save

Projects using GitPython

• PyDriller
• Kivy Designer
• Prowl
• Python Taint
• Buster
• git-ftp
• Git-Pandas
• PyGitUp
• PyJFuzz
• Loki
• Omniwallet
• GitViper
• Git Gud

LICENSE

New BSD License. See the LICENSE file.

DEVELOPMENT STATUS

This project is in maintenance mode, which means that

• …there will be no feature development, unless these are contributed
• …there will be no bug fixes, unless they are relevant to the safety of users, or contributed
• …issues will be responded to with waiting times of up to a month

The project is open to contributions of all kinds, as well as new maintainers.