🔗Compiling Git with Visual Studio

Please note: this page describes how to compile Git’s source code in Visual Studio 2015 or later.

🔗Checking out `vs/main`

[!WARNING]
The vs/main branch and git.sln is deprecated. The current approach is to open the git folder in VS directly, refer to the README of the vs/main branch.

Git’s source code (and hence also Git for Windows’ source code) is usually built using GNU C and GNU Make in a Git for Windows SDK.

However, as of Git for Windows v2.11.0, a much more convenient way is available: by cloning https://github.com/git-for-windows/git and checking out the vs/main branch, you will automatically have project definitions ready to go with Visual Studio.

Simply open the git.sln file and build the solution. DO NOT upgrade Build Tools to v141 - it will not work. If you are using VS 2017 or later, you need to install Build Tools v140 manually.

🔗Running the tests

When building Git in Visual Studio, you do not actually need a full-blown Git for Windows SDK. Simply install Git for Windows, make sure that the entire solution was built, open a Git Bash and run the tests in the t/ subdirectory.

🔗Running an individual test

To test, say, the interactive rebase functionality, simply run the appropriate test (the file names are pretty self-explanatory):

sh t3404-rebase-interactive.sh

If you need much more verbose output, e.g. when a test is failing, use the -i -v -x options:

bash t3404-rebase-interactive.sh -i -v -x

🔗Running the entire test suite

You can use the prove tool (which mostly works reliably, sometimes you will see that a test exited “dubiously” but running it again individually would not show any signs of failure…):

prove --timer --jobs 15 ./t[0-9]*.sh

🔗Browsing the code