Using Git with Visual Studio [closed]

Question

As a long-time Visual SourceSafe user (and hater) I was discussing switching to SVN with a colleague; he suggested using Git instead. Since, apparently, it can be used as peer-to-peer without a central server (we are a 3-developer team).

I have not been able to find anything about tools that integrate Git with Visual Studio, though - does such a thing exist?

What are the technologies available for using Git with Visual Studio? And what do I need to know about how they differ before I begin?

Answer 1

The Git support done by Microsoft in Visual Studio is just good enough for basic work (commit/fetch/merge and push). My advice is just to avoid it...

I highly prefer GitExtensions (or in less proportion SourceTree). Because seeing the DAG is for me really important to understand how Git works. And you are a lot more aware of what the other contributors to your project have done!

In Visual Studio, you can't quickly see the diff between files or commit, nor (add to the index) and commit only part of modifications. Browse your history is not good either... All that ending in a painful experience!

And, for example, GitExtensions is bundled with interesting plugins: background fetch, GitFlow,... and now, continuous integration!

For the users of Visual Studio 2015, Git is taking shape if you install the GitHub extension. But an external tool is still better ;-)

Answer 2

I've looked into this a bit at work (both with Subversion and Git). Visual Studio actually has a source control integration API to allow you to integrate third-party source control solutions into Visual Studio. However, most folks don't bother with it for a couple of reasons.

The first is that the API pretty much assumes you are using a locked-checkout workflow. There are a lot of hooks in it that are either way expensive to implement, or just flat out make no sense when you are using the more modern edit-merge workflow.

The second (which is related) is that when you are using the edit-merge workflow that both Subversion and Git encourage, you don't really need Visual Studio integration. The main killer thing about SourceSafe's integration with Visual Studio is that you (and the editor) can tell at a glance which files you own, which must be checked out before you can edit, and which you cannot check out even if you want to. Then it can help you do whatever revision-control voodoo you need to do when you want to edit a file. None of that is even part of a typical Git workflow.

When you are using Git (or SVN typically), your revision-control interactions all take place either before your development session, or after it (once you have everything working and tested). At that point it really isn't too much of a pain to use a different tool. You aren't constantly having to switch back and forth.

Answer 3

Visual Studio 2013 natively supports Git.

See the official announcement.

Answer 4

The simplest solution that actually works quite well is to add the TortoiseGit commands as external tools.

Solution to adding a Git (TortoiseGit) toolbar to Visual Studio