Can multiple Git clients be used on the same repos

Question

I currently am using TortoiseGit from my Windows development machine. My repository is located on BitBucket. Recently I have been looking at other Git clients as I find TortoiseGit a bit confusing.

Since Git information and meta-data is stored in .git folders I was wondering if I can use other Git clients on my current branch. If possible are there any disadvantages to doing this?

Answer 1

Can you switch to a different client, say you were using command-line yesterday and TortoiseGit today? Sure, why not. Possibly somewhere there is (or maybe will be) a client that stores things differently and than you'd have some problems, but a smoke-check (aka doing equivalent of git log and checking that all your commits are there) should be enough.

But do yourself a favor and don't run both at the same time. Close all TortoiseGit instances before attempting your IDE plugin. At least when it comes to RW operations (RO are generally safe). While the original git binary is safe for concurrent access, I won't assume it about every other implementation in the wild. Most probably it won't harm you, but why take chances in the first place?