INSTALLon commit bash completion: difftool accepts the same options as diff (f7ad96c)
   1
   2                Git installation
   3
   4Normally you can just do "make" followed by "make install", and that
   5will install the git programs in your own ~/bin/ directory.  If you want
   6to do a global install, you can do
   7
   8        $ make prefix=/usr all doc info ;# as yourself
   9        # make prefix=/usr install install-doc install-html install-info ;# as root
  10
  11(or prefix=/usr/local, of course).  Just like any program suite
  12that uses $prefix, the built results have some paths encoded,
  13which are derived from $prefix, so "make all; make prefix=/usr
  14install" would not work.
  15
  16The beginning of the Makefile documents many variables that affect the way
  17git is built.  You can override them either from the command line, or in a
  18config.mak file.
  19
  20Alternatively you can use autoconf generated ./configure script to
  21set up install paths (via config.mak.autogen), so you can write instead
  22
  23        $ make configure ;# as yourself
  24        $ ./configure --prefix=/usr ;# as yourself
  25        $ make all doc ;# as yourself
  26        # make install install-doc install-html;# as root
  27
  28
  29Issues of note:
  30
  31 - Ancient versions of GNU Interactive Tools (pre-4.9.2) installed a
  32   program "git", whose name conflicts with this program.  But with
  33   version 4.9.2, after long hiatus without active maintenance (since
  34   around 1997), it changed its name to gnuit and the name conflict is no
  35   longer a problem.
  36
  37   NOTE: When compiled with backward compatibility option, the GNU
  38   Interactive Tools package still can install "git", but you can build it
  39   with --disable-transition option to avoid this.
  40
  41 - You can use git after building but without installing if you
  42   wanted to.  Various git commands need to find other git
  43   commands and scripts to do their work, so you would need to
  44   arrange a few environment variables to tell them that their
  45   friends will be found in your built source area instead of at
  46   their standard installation area.  Something like this works
  47   for me:
  48
  49        GIT_EXEC_PATH=`pwd`
  50        PATH=`pwd`:$PATH
  51        GITPERLLIB=`pwd`/perl/blib/lib
  52        export GIT_EXEC_PATH PATH GITPERLLIB
  53
  54 - Git is reasonably self-sufficient, but does depend on a few external
  55   programs and libraries.  Git can be used without most of them by adding
  56   the approriate "NO_<LIBRARY>=YesPlease" to the make command line or
  57   config.mak file.
  58
  59        - "zlib", the compression library. Git won't build without it.
  60
  61        - "ssh" is used to push and pull over the net.
  62
  63        - A POSIX-compliant shell is required to run many scripts needed
  64          for everyday use (e.g. "bisect", "pull").
  65
  66        - "Perl" is needed to use some of the features (e.g. preparing a
  67          partial commit using "git add -i/-p", interacting with svn
  68          repositories with "git svn").  If you can live without these, use
  69          NO_PERL.
  70
  71        - "openssl" library is used by git-imap-send to use IMAP over SSL.
  72          If you don't need it, use NO_OPENSSL.
  73
  74          By default, git uses OpenSSL for SHA1 but it will use it's own
  75          library (inspired by Mozilla's) with either NO_OPENSSL or
  76          BLK_SHA1.  Also included is a version optimized for PowerPC
  77          (PPC_SHA1).
  78
  79        - "libcurl" library is used by git-http-fetch and git-fetch.  You
  80          might also want the "curl" executable for debugging purposes.
  81          If you do not use http:// or https:// repositories, you do not
  82          have to have them (use NO_CURL).
  83
  84        - "expat" library; git-http-push uses it for remote lock
  85          management over DAV.  Similar to "curl" above, this is optional
  86          (with NO_EXPAT).
  87
  88        - "wish", the Tcl/Tk windowing shell is used in gitk to show the
  89          history graphically, and in git-gui.  If you don't want gitk or
  90          git-gui, you can use NO_TCLTK.
  91
  92 - Some platform specific issues are dealt with Makefile rules,
  93   but depending on your specific installation, you may not
  94   have all the libraries/tools needed, or you may have
  95   necessary libraries at unusual locations.  Please look at the
  96   top of the Makefile to see what can be adjusted for your needs.
  97   You can place local settings in config.mak and the Makefile
  98   will include them.  Note that config.mak is not distributed;
  99   the name is reserved for local settings.
 100
 101 - To build and install documentation suite, you need to have
 102   the asciidoc/xmlto toolchain.  Because not many people are
 103   inclined to install the tools, the default build target
 104   ("make all") does _not_ build them.
 105
 106   "make doc" builds documentation in man and html formats; there are
 107   also "make man", "make html" and "make info". Note that "make html"
 108   requires asciidoc, but not xmlto. "make man" (and thus make doc)
 109   requires both.
 110
 111   "make install-doc" installs documentation in man format only; there
 112   are also "make install-man", "make install-html" and "make
 113   install-info".
 114
 115   Building and installing the info file additionally requires
 116   makeinfo and docbook2X.  Version 0.8.3 is known to work.
 117
 118   Building and installing the pdf file additionally requires
 119   dblatex.  Version 0.2.7 with asciidoc >= 8.2.7 is known to work.
 120
 121   The documentation is written for AsciiDoc 7, but "make
 122   ASCIIDOC8=YesPlease doc" will let you format with AsciiDoc 8.
 123
 124   Alternatively, pre-formatted documentation is available in
 125   "html" and "man" branches of the git repository itself.  For
 126   example, you could:
 127
 128        $ mkdir manual && cd manual
 129        $ git init
 130        $ git fetch-pack git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git man html |
 131          while read a b
 132          do
 133            echo $a >.git/$b
 134          done
 135        $ cp .git/refs/heads/man .git/refs/heads/master
 136        $ git checkout
 137
 138   to checkout the pre-built man pages.  Also in this repository:
 139
 140        $ git checkout html
 141
 142   would instead give you a copy of what you see at:
 143
 144        http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/
 145
 146   There are also "make quick-install-doc", "make quick-install-man"
 147   and "make quick-install-html" which install preformatted man pages
 148   and html documentation.
 149   This does not require asciidoc/xmlto, but it only works from within
 150   a cloned checkout of git.git with these two extra branches, and will
 151   not work for the maintainer for obvious chicken-and-egg reasons.
 152
 153   It has been reported that docbook-xsl version 1.72 and 1.73 are
 154   buggy; 1.72 misformats manual pages for callouts, and 1.73 needs
 155   the patch in contrib/patches/docbook-xsl-manpages-charmap.patch