Visual Studio Code Git

Posted By admin On 01.05.21

Using Git With Vs Code
Visual Studio Code Git Diff
Visual Studio Code Git Ssh Key

-->

Git is now the default version control experience in Visual Studio 2019. Since version 16.6, we've worked on building out the feature set and iterating on it based on your feedback. The new Git experience is turned on by default for everyone with the release of version 16.8.

Open Visual Studio Code Go to Top Menu - Files - Open Folder. Select the folder you would like to download the cloned project Go to Top Menu - View - Integrated Terminal Execute 'git clone' command with the path to the repository you would like to clone in the integrated terminal.
Browse other questions tagged git visual-studio-code or ask your own question. The Overflow Blog Podcast 332: Non-fungible Talking. The Loop: Our Community & Public Platform Roadmap for Q2 2021. Featured on Meta Stack Overflow for Teams is now free for up to 50 users, forever.

Quickly opening changes files. The package comes which pops up a list of all the untracked and modified files in the project. These will be the same files that you would see on the command line if you ran git status. This is similar to the command of cmd+shift+b in Atom. Quick-open-git-status.open; Keymaps.

Tip

Git is the most widely used modern version control system, so whether you’re a professional developer or if you’re learning how to code, Git can be very useful to you. If you are new to Git, the https://git-scm.com/ website is a good place to start. There, you’ll find cheat sheets, a popular online book, and Git Basics videos.

How to use Git in Visual Studio

We'll walk you through how to use the new Git experience in Visual Studio 2019, but if you'd like to take a quick tour first, check out the following video:
Video length: 5.27 minutes

There are three ways to start using Git with Visual Studio to be more productive:

Open an existing Git repository. If your code is already on your machine, you can open it by using File > Open > Project/Solution (or Folder) and Visual Studio automatically detects if it has an initialized Git repository.
Create a new Git repository. If your code is not associated with Git, you can create a new Git repository.
Clone an existing Git repository. If the code that you would like to work on is not on your machine, you can clone any existing remote repositories.

Note

Starting also with version 16.8, Visual Studio 2019 includes a fully integrated GitHub account experience. You can now add both GitHub and GitHub Enterprise accounts to your keychain. You’ll be able to add and leverage them just as you do with Microsoft accounts, which means that you’ll have an easier time accessing your GitHub resources across Visual Studio. For more information, see the Work with GitHub accounts in Visual Studio page.

Create a new Git repository

If your code is not associated with Git, you can start by creating a new Git repository. To do so, select Git > Create Git Repository from the menu bar. Then, in the Create a Git repository dialog box, enter your information.

The Create a Git repository dialog box makes it easy to push your new repository to GitHub. By default, your new repository is private, which means that you are the only one who can access it. If you uncheck the box, your repository will be public, which means that anyone on GitHub can view it.

Tip

Whether your repository is public or private, it's best to have a remote backup of your code stored securely on GitHub even if you are not working with a team. This also makes your code available to you no matter what computer you're using.

You can choose to create a local-only Git repository by using the Local only option. Or, you can link your local project with an existing empty remote repository on Azure DevOps or any other Git provider by using the Existing Remote option.

Clone an existing Git repository

Visual Studio includes a straightforward clone experience. If you know the URL of the repository that you would like to clone, you can paste the URL in the Repository location section and then choose the disk location you would like Visual Studio to clone to.

If you don’t know the repository URL, Visual Studio makes it easy to browse to and then clone your existing GitHub or Azure DevOps repository.

Using Git With Vs Code

Open an existing local repository

After you’ve cloned a repository or created one, Visual Studio detects the Git repository and adds it to your list of Local Repositories in the Git menu. From here, you can quickly access and switch between your Git repositories.

View files in Solution Explorer

When you clone a repository or open a local repository, Visual Studio switches you into that Git context by saving and closing any previously open solutions and projects. Solution Explorer loads the folder at the root of the Git repository and scans the directory tree for any View files. These include files such as CMakeLists.txt or those with the .sln file extension.

Visual Studio adjusts its View based on which View file you load in Solution Explorer:

If you clone a repository that contains a single .sln file, then Solution Explorer directly loads that solution for you.
If Solution Explorer doesn’t detect any .sln files in your repository, then by default it loads Folder View.
If your repository has more than one .sln file, then Solution Explorer shows you the list of available Views for you to choose from.

You can toggle between the currently open View and the list of Views by using the Switch Views button in the Solution Explorer toolbar.

Git Changes window

Git tracks file changes in your repo as you work, and separates the files in your repo into three categories. These changes are equivalent to what you would see when you enter the git status command in the command line:

Unmodified files: These files haven't changed since your last commit.
Modified files: These files have changes since your last commit, but you haven't yet staged them for the next commit.
Staged files: These files have changes that will be added to the next commit.

As you do your work, Visual Studio keeps track of the file changes to your project in the Changes section of the Git Changes window.

When you are ready to stage changes, click the + (plus) button on each file you want to stage, or right-click a file and then select Stage. You can also stage all your modified files with one click by using the stage all + (plus) button at the top of the Changes section.

When you stage a change, Visual Studio creates a Staged Changes section. Only changes in the Staged Changes section are added to the next commit, which you can do by selecting Commit Staged. The equivalent command for this action is git commit -m 'Your commit message'. Changes can also be unstaged by clicking the – (minus) button. The equivalent command for this action is git reset <file_path> to unstage a single file or git reset <directory_path> to unstage all the files in a directory.

You can also choose not to stage your modified files by skipping the staging area. In this case, Visual Studio allows you to commit your changes directly without having to stage them. Just enter your commit message and then select Commit All. The equivalent command for this action is git commit -a.

Visual Studio also makes it easy to commit and sync with one click by using the Commit All and Push and Commit All and Sync shortcuts. When you double-click any file in the Changes and the Staged changes sections, you can see a line-by-line comparison with the unmodified version of the file.

Tip

You can associate an Azure DevOps work item with a commit by using the '#' character if you are connected to the Azure DevOps repository. You can connect your Azure DevOps repository through Team Explorer > Manage Connections.

Select an existing branch

Visual Studio displays the current branch in the selector at the top of the Git Changes window.

The current branch is also available in the status bar on the bottom-right corner of the Visual Studio IDE.

From both locations, you can switch between existing branches.

Create a new branch

You can also create a new branch. The equivalent command for this action is git checkout -b <branchname>.

Creating a new branch is as simple as entering the branch name and basing it off an existing branch.

You can choose an existing local or remote branch as the base. The Checkout branch checkbox automatically switches you to the newly created branch. The equivalent command for this action is git checkout -b <new-branch><existing-branch>.

Git Repository window

Visual Studio has a new Git Repository window, which is a consolidated view of all the details in your repository, including all of the branches, remotes, and commit histories. You can access this window directly from either Git or View on the menu bar or from the status bar.

Manage branches

When you select Manage Branches from the Git menu, you’ll see the branches tree-view in the Git Repository window. From the left pane, you can use the right-click context menu to checkout branches, create new branches, merge, rebase, cherry-pick, and more. When you click the branch, you can see a preview of its commit history in the right pane.

Incoming and outgoing commits

When you fetch a branch, the Git Changes window has an indicator under the branch drop-down, which displays the number of unpulled commits from the remote branch. This indicator also shows you the number of unpushed local commits.

The indicator also functions as a link to take you to the commit history of that branch in the Git Repository window. The top of the history now displays the details of these incoming and outgoing commits. From here, you can also decide to Pull or Push the commits.

Commit Details

When you double-click a Commit, Visual Studio opens its details in a separate tool window. From here you can revert the commit, reset the commit, amend the commit message, or create a tag on the commit. When you click a changed file in the commit, Visual Studio opens the side-by-side Diff view of the commit and its parent.

Handle merge conflicts

Conflicts can occur during a merge if two developers modify the same lines in a file and Git doesn’t automatically know which is correct. Git halts the merge and informs you that you are in a conflicted state.

Visual Studio makes it easy to identify and resolve a merge conflict. First, the Git Repository window shows a gold info bar at the top of the window.

The Git Changes window also displays a ‘Merge is in progress with conflicts’ message, with the unmerged files in their separate section below it.

But if you have neither of these windows open, and instead you go to the file that has merge conflicts, you won’t have to search for the following text:

Instead, Visual Studio displays a gold info bar on the top of the page that indicates that the opened file has conflicts. Then, you can click the link to open the Merge Editor.

The Merge Editor

The Merge Editor in Visual Studio is a three-way merge tool that displays the incoming changes, your current changes, and the result of the merge. You can use the tool bar at the top level of the Merge Editor to navigate between conflicts and auto-merged differences in the file.

You can also use the toggles to show/hide differences, show/hide word differences, and customize the layout. There are checkboxes on the top of each side that you can use to take all the changes from one side or the other. But to take individual changes, you can click the checkboxes to the left of the conflicting lines on either side. Finally, when you finish resolving the conflicts, you can select the Accept Merge button in the Merge Editor. You then write a commit message and commit the changes to complete the resolution.

Personalize your Git settings

To personalize and customize your Git settings at a repository level as well as at a global level, go to either Git > Settings on the menu bar, or to Tools > Options > Source Control on the menu bar. Then, choose the options you want.

How to use the full Team Explorer experience in Visual Studio

The new Git experience is the default version control system in Visual Studio 2019 from version 16.8 onwards. However, if you want to turn it off, you can. Go to Tools > Options > Environment > Preview Features and then toggle the New Git user experience checkbox, which will switch you back to Team Explorer for Git.

What's next

While the new Git experience is now on by default in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.8, we continue to add new features to enhance the experience. If you'd like to check out new updates to the Git experience in a Preview release, you can download and install it from the Visual Studio Preview page.

Important

If you have a suggestion for us, please let us know! We appreciate the opportunity to engage with you on design decisions via the Developer Community portal.

Video Overview

If there's a merge conflict between a commit you haven't pushed yet and a commit you're merging or pulling, resolve those conflicts before you finish updating your code.

Download changes with fetch

You download changes to your local branch from the remote through fetch. Fetch asks the remote repo for all commits and new branches that others have pushed but you don't have and downloads them into your repo, creating local branches as needed.

Visual Studio Code Git Diff

Fetch doesn't merge any changes into your local branches. It only downloads the new commits for your review.

Tip

To help keep your branches list clean and up to date, configure Git to prune remote branches during fetch. You can configure this setting from the command line or from within Visual Studio.

Note

Visual Studio 2019 now includes a new Git tool that provides an improved experience when connecting to a Git repository. When you enable this tool, the Team Explorer tool is effectively disabled when connected to a Git repository. You can acquire the new tool by downloading Visual Studio 2019 version 16.6. To enable and use the new tool, see Git experience in Visual Studio (Preview).

Visual Studio uses the Sync view in Team Explorer to fetch changes.Changes downloaded by fetch aren't applied until you Pull or Sync the changes.

In Team Explorer, select the Home button and choose Sync.
In Synchronization, select Fetch to update the incoming commits list.
There are two Fetch links, one near the top and one in the Incoming Commits section. You can use either one.
Review the results of the fetch operation in under Incoming Commits.

Run the git fetch command from the command line to download changes to your local branch.

After you run git fetch, you'll see results similar to the following example: Raid 1 for mac.

Update branches with merge

Apply changes downloaded through fetch using the merge command. Merge takes the commits retrieved from fetch and tries to add them to your local branch.The merge keeps the commit history of your local changes. When you share your branch with push, Git knows how others should merge your changes.

The challenge with merge is when a commit taken from fetch conflicts with an existing unpushed commit on your branch.Git is generally very smart about resolving merge conflicts automatically, but sometimes you must resolve merge conflicts manually and complete the merge with a new merge commit.

Note

Team Explorer merges when you do a Pull or a Sync from the Changes view.

Sync is a combined operation of pulling remote changes and then pushing local ones. This operation synchronizes the commits on the local and remote branch.

In Team Explorer, select the Home button and choose Sync.
In Synchronization, select Sync.
Review the confirmation message when the sync operation completes.

Running merge without any flags or parameters adds the commits downloaded from fetch into the local branch.Git adds a merge commit if you have any conflicts. This merge commit has two parent commits, one for each branch, and contains the changes committed to resolve the conflicts between branches.

Specify the --no-commit parameter to merge without committing. The command attempts to merge but not commit the final changes. This parameter gives you a chance to inspect the changed files before finalizing the merge with a commit.

Fetch and merge with pull

Pull does a fetch and then a merge to download the commits and update your local branch in one command instead of two.Use pull to make your branch current with the remote when you aren't worried about reviewing the changes before merging them into your own branch.

Note

Open the Team Explorer and open the Sync view. Then click the Pull link under Incoming Commits to pull remote changes and merge them into your local branch. Pullingupdates files in your open project, so make sure to commit your changes before pulling.

In Team Explorer, select the Home button and choose Sync.
In Synchronization, choose Pull to fetch remote changes and merge them into your local branch.
There are two Pull links, one near the top and one in the Incoming Commits section. You can use either one.
Review the confirmation message when the pull operation completes.

git pull without any options does a fetch of the changes you don't have from origin and will merge the changes for your current branch.

Pull a remote branch into a local one by passing remote branch information into pull:

A pull command is a useful way to directly merge the work from remote branch into your local branch.

Update your branch with the latest changes from main

When working in a branch, you may want to incorporate the latest changes from the main branch into your branch. There are two approaches you can use: rebase or merge.

Rebase takes the changes made in the commits in your current branch and replays them on the history of another branch. Rebasing rewrites the commit history of your current branch. The history starts from the most recent commit in the target branch of the rebase.
Merge merges the changes from the source branch to the target branch using a merge commit, which becomes part of the commit history.

Note

This article demonstrates the merge approach. For more information on rebase and guidance on which method is right for your scenario, see Apply changes with Rebase - When to rebase vs. merge and Rebase vs merge from the Pro Git book.

Note

The git pull origin main command combines git fetch and git merge commands. To do this properly in Visual Studio integration, you will need to Sync in Team Explorer to do the fetch part. This ensures your local git repository is up to date with its remote origin.

To merge the latest changes from the main branch to your branch:

In Team Explorer, select the Home button and choose Branches.
Check out your target branch. Right-click the target branch, and choose Merge From.
Specify a Merge from branch, which is main in this example, and then select Merge.
If there are any merge conflicts, Team Explorer tells you now. Resolve the merge commits before the next step.
Enter a commit message and select Commit Staged.
When you're ready to push your local commits, including your new merge commit, to the remote server, choose Push from the Synchronization view.

To merge the latest changes from main into your branch, in this example named users/jamal/readme-fix, you can use the following commands:

Visual Studio Code Git Ssh Key

git pull origin main fetches and merges the contents of the main branch with your branch and creates a merge commit. If there are any merge conflicts, git shows you after the pull. Resolve the merge commits before you continue. When you're ready to push your local commits, including your new merge commit, to the remote server, run git push.

Blogillinois611

Visual Studio Code Git

How to use Git in Visual Studio

Create a new Git repository

Clone an existing Git repository

Using Git With Vs Code

Open an existing local repository

View files in Solution Explorer

Git Changes window

Select an existing branch

Create a new branch

Git Repository window

Manage branches

Incoming and outgoing commits

Commit Details

Handle merge conflicts

The Merge Editor

Personalize your Git settings

How to use the full Team Explorer experience in Visual Studio

What's next

See also

Video Overview

Download changes with fetch

Visual Studio Code Git Diff

Update branches with merge

Fetch and merge with pull

Update your branch with the latest changes from main

Visual Studio Code Git Ssh Key

Next steps