Using Git with Visual Studio [closed]

Answer 1

I find that Git, working on whole trees as it does, benefits less from IDE integration than source control tools that are either file based or follow a checkout-edit-commit pattern. Of course there are instances when it can be nice to click on a button to do some history examination, but I don't miss that very much.

The real must-do is to get your .gitignore file full of the things that shouldn't be in a shared repository. Mine generally contain (amongst other stuff) the following:

*.vcproj.*.user
*.ncb
*.aps
*.suo

but this is heavily C++ biased with little or no use of any class wizard style functionality.

My usage pattern is something like the following.

1. Code, code, code in Visual Studio.

2. When happy (sensible intermediate point to commit code, switch to Git, stage changes and review diffs. If anything's obviously wrong switch back to Visual Studio and fix, otherwise commit.

Any merge, branch, rebase or other fancy SCM stuff is easy to do in Git from the command prompt. Visual Studio is normally fairly happy with things changing under it, although it can sometimes need to reload some projects if you've altered the project files significantly.

I find that the usefulness of Git outweighs any minor inconvenience of not having full IDE integration but it is, to some extent, a matter of taste.

Answer 2

There's a Visual Studio Tools for Git by Microsoft. It only supports Visual Studio 2012 (update 2) though.

Answer 3

The newest release of Git Extensions supports Visual Studio 2010 now (along with Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2005).

I found it to be fairly easy to use with Visual Studio 2008 and the interface seems to be the same in Visual Studio 2010.

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

Answer 5

Visual Studio 2013 natively supports Git.

See the official announcement.

Answer 6

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 ;-)