Using Git with Eclipse

Background

I’m using Eclipse on Windows 10.

The Jgit API

Git functionality is programmatically exposed via the JGit API (Java library). To use Git in Eclipse, you install the plugin called EGit, which makes calls to the JGit library.

• EGit – the EGit plugin is a Team Provider that implements the Git features in Eclipse.
• JGit – the programming API Java library that implements the Git version control file access routines, network protocols, and core version control algorithms. JGit contains Git porcelain commands in the org.eclipse.jgit.api package.

Goal

To get the curent Git Commit SHA1 from the environment, you are going to have to write code that calls the JGit API.

The HEAD reference is a SHA1 of the current branch.

HEAD = ref: refs/heads/feature/api_doc

= C:\Users\Chris\src\python_rest_api.git\refs\heads\feature\api_doc

But it might not be what you want…

Remember that your work in progress resides in your Working Tree, and isn’t yet associated with a changeset.

As you edit your work, it currently resides in RAM. When you save your work, a snapshot of the current RAM image is copied into a file. When you stage your work, the current state of the file is converted into a git Blob, and is added to the Index to create the next changeset. When you commit your work, the Index becomes the current changeset (and is pointed to by the local HEAD ref).

If you want to find out which Change Set any topic in a doc set belongs to (perhaps by using View Source on the topic you’re currently viewing) – then you don’t want to know the Change Set SHA1 of HEAD if you simply built the docs as a matter of course of writing/editing. You’ll want the SHA1 of the commit that corresponds to the final committ, which you won’t get until you’ve completed the writing work.

JGit cookBook

This project has example code that demonstrates how to develop code using JGit.

git clone git://github.com/centic9/jgit-cookbook

mvn dependency:sources eclipse:eclipse package