gitui README

The project's README from github.com/gitui-org/gitui. As one markdown file: README.md.

CI crates MIT UNSAFE TWEET dep_status discord

GitUI provides you with the comfort of a git GUI but right in your terminal

Table of Contents

  1. Features
  2. Motivation
  3. Benchmarks
  4. Roadmap
  5. Limitations
  6. Installation
  7. Build
  8. FAQs
  9. Diagnostics
  10. Color Theme
  11. Key Bindings
  12. Sponsoring
  13. Inspiration
  14. Contributing
  15. Contributors

1. Features Top ▲

2. Motivation Top ▲

I do most of my git work in a terminal but I frequently found myself using git GUIs for some use-cases like: index, commit, diff, stash, blame and log.

Unfortunately popular git GUIs all fail on giant repositories or become unresponsive and unusable.

GitUI provides you with the user experience and comfort of a git GUI but right in your terminal while being portable, fast, free and opensource.

3. Benchmarks Top ▲

For a RustBerlin meetup presentation (slides) I compared lazygit,tig and gitui by parsing the entire Linux git repository (which contains over 900k commits):

Time Memory (GB) Binary (MB) Freezes Crashes
gitui 24 s ✅ 0.17 ✅ 10 No ✅ No ✅
lazygit 57 s 2.6 25 Yes Sometimes
tig 4 m 20 s 1.3 0.6 ✅ Sometimes No ✅

4. Road(map) to 1.0 Top ▲

These are the high level goals before calling out 1.0:

5. Known Limitations Top ▲

Currently, this tool does not fully substitute the git shell, however both tools work well in tandem.

The priorities for gitui are on features that are making me mad when done on the git shell, like stashing, staging lines or hunks. Eventually, I will be able to work on making gitui a one stop solution - but for that I need help - this is just a spare time project for now.

All support is welcomed! Sponsors as well! ❤️

6. Installation Top ▲

GitUI is in beta and may contain bugs and missing features. However, for personal use it is reasonably stable and is being used while developing itself.

Packaging status

Various Package Managers

Install Instructions
Arch Linux
pacman -S gitui
Fedora
sudo dnf install gitui
Gentoo

Available in dm9pZCAq overlay

sudo eselect repository enable dm9pZCAq
sudo emerge --sync dm9pZCAq
sudo emerge dev-vcs/gitui::dm9pZCAq
openSUSE
sudo zypper install gitui
Homebrew (macOS)
brew install gitui
MacPorts (macOS)
port install gitui
Winget (Windows)
winget install gitui
Scoop (Windows)
scoop install gitui
Chocolatey (Windows)
choco install gitui
Mise
mise use -g gitui@latest
Nix (Nix/NixOS)

Nixpkg

nix-env -iA nixpkgs.gitui

NixOS

nix-env -iA nixos.gitui
Termux (Android)
pkg install gitui
Anaconda
conda install -c conda-forge gitui

Release Binaries

Available for download in releases

Binaries available for:

Linux

All contain a single binary file

macOS

Windows

Nightly Builds

see NIGHTLIES.md

7. Build Top ▲

Requirements

Cargo Install

The simplest way to start playing around with gitui is to have cargo build and install it with cargo install gitui --locked. If you are not familiar with rust and cargo: Getting Started with Rust

Cargo Features

trace-libgit

enable libgit2 tracing

works if libgit2 built with -DENABLE_TRACE=ON

this feature enabled by default, to disable: cargo install --no-default-features

8. FAQs Top ▲

see FAQs page

9. Diagnostics Top ▲

To run with logging enabled run gitui -l.

This will log to:

10. Color Theme Top ▲

gitui should automatically work on both light and dark terminal themes.

However, you can customize everything to your liking: See Themes.

11. Key Bindings Top ▲

The key bindings can be customized: See Key Config on how to set them to vim-like bindings.

12. Sponsoring Top ▲

github

13. Inspiration Top ▲

14. Contributing Top ▲

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

15. Contributors Top ▲

Thanks goes to all the contributors that help make GitUI amazing! ❤️

Wanna become a co-maintainer? We are looking for you!

gitui (gitui-org/gitui)

async
Searching Database…

22.6K ·GitHub
Gitui
What is this?GitUI is a blazing-fast terminal UI for git written in Rust: the comfort of a git GUI, but running entirely in your terminal.
Does it replace the git command line, or do I still need it?It complements rather than replaces the git shell — the two work well in tandem. GitUI focuses on the tasks that hurt in the shell: stashing, staging lines or hunks.
Do I need Rust or other tooling installed to use it?Not for everyday use — release binaries are single files (a .msi installer exists for Windows). Building from source needs Rust/cargo 1.88+, openssl, perl 5.12+ and a C compiler.
Are there git features it does not support?Yes: no git-lfs support yet, no sparse-repo support, and for https remotes you must explicitly configure git's credential.helper yourself.
Why did the author build this instead of using existing git GUIs?He does most git work in a terminal but kept reaching for GUIs for index, commit, diff, stash, blame and log — and popular git GUIs freeze or fail on giant repositories. GitUI aims to deliver GUI comfort in the terminal while staying portable, fast, free and open source.
What is planned before the 1.0 release?The stated 1.0 goals are visualizing the branching structure in the log tab and interactive rebase. Until then, some things like git-lfs support remain out of scope.
Does it run on Android or ARM machines?Yes — there is a Termux package for Android, and release binaries cover linux aarch64, arm and armv7 alongside x86_64. macOS builds come for both Apple Silicon (arm64) and Intel.
How do I capture logs if something misbehaves?Run gitui -l. Logs go to $HOME/Library/Caches/gitui/gitui.log on macOS, $XDG_CACHE_HOME/gitui/gitui.log or $HOME/.cache/gitui/gitui.log on Linux, and %LOCALAPPDATA%/gitui/gitui.log on Windows.
What are similar projects?zoxide, oh-my-posh, navi, yazi, diff-so-fancy, lazygit, onefetch, git-bug
Which topics is it in?keyboard, version-control, bash, async, tui, git, customization, command-line, hacktoberfest, performance, rust, productivity
Creator
gitui-org
Size
64.3 MB
Stars
22.6K
Updated
CommitOct 06Releasev0.28.1Mar 24
Age
6y
Commits · 90 Days