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Add to SafariWhen comparing The Command Line vs Ungit, the Slant community recommends The Command Line for most people. In the question“What are the best Git clients for macOS?” The Command Line is ranked 1st while Ungit is ranked 15th. The most important reason people chose The Command Line is:
Using CLI gives access to every single git function available.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro The most powerful way to use git
Using CLI gives access to every single git function available.
Pro Best community support
Since most devs invoke git via CLI there's a higher chance of getting an answer to a CLI based git problem than a GUI-based.
Pro It's the same across all the platforms
Pro Gives a better understanding of how git functions
By using the git from the command line, it's possible to learn how it functions and how to get the desired result.
Pro Available in Homebrew
brew install git
Pro Fast and straightforward
There's no additional layer of abstraction.
Pro Simple
Pro Even a visual representation of various branches and how they're merged is possible
To visualize history:
git log --graph
Pro Customizable
You can customize it and/or integrate it into automated workflows. It has support for plugins, additional subcommands, and event hooks to perform automated tasks such as updating a bug database or kicking off tests.
Additionally, because it is a simple command line program, it is easy to create shell aliases, write scripts that invoke it, or integrate it into a text editor.
Pro Gives you full control over what is happening
Any GUI would just use command-line in the background, so by using command-line you are in control.
Pro Free and Open Source Software
Ungit is open source software available under the MIT Licence.
Pro Cross-platform
Works on Windows, Linux, and OS X.
Pro Optional Integration with Modern Text Editors
Ungit can be integrated directly into modern text editors, Atom, Brackets, and VS Code.
Pro Web-based interface
Ungit is web-based, meaning you can run it on your cloud/pure shell machine and then use the UI from your browser.
Cons
Con Steeper barrier to entry as compared to a GUI solution
Since you have to learn all the different commands and you don't have the visual help that a GUI app gives you, it has a rather steep learning curve.
Con Hard to solve complex conflicts
Con Difficult to overview complex project histories
Con Recalling is more difficult than recognizing
Although there's autocompletion for commands, it still requires recalling at least the beginning of a command while all that's required using a GUI is recognizing the desired outcome.
Con Hardest part of the learning curve is the ambiguity of some terms (us/them)
When merging (e.g. git checkout master && git merge my-branch), us refers to master, them is the branch you're merging in. When rebasing (eg git checkout my-branch && git rebase master), us refers to master, them refers to your current working branch. This seems counter-intuitive at first, making it harder to use the CLI to some, but after a while you kind of understand why the terminology is used in this way, and you get used to it.
Con Diffing
GUI diffing is way superior.
Con Is a badly designed API
Git has awesome architecture but a bad CLI. The meanings of many commands overlap and contradict each other depending on the arguments passed. e.g. Just some: When checkout is used with file path arguments it is a mutative action, changing the working tree but without those arguments it is for passive navigation. reset is just like the mutative behaviour of checkout except it does it for all files.branch requires a flag to create a new branch but tag doesn't to do the same with a tag.
https://stevebennett.me/2012/02/24/10-things-i-hate-about-git/
Con Easy to use improperly
Newer users (not necessarily new developers) can make mistakes more easily which can be time-consuming or costly to fix.
Con Node.js dependent
Con Setup is not user-friendly
Ungit is distributed as an NPM package and requires git and Node.js to be installed on your system before you can run it. Ungit must be launched by running ungit in a command line terminal.
Con Exposes git commands to your network
No authentication, if someone can communicate with your computer on the port this is running on, they can execute any git command they want on your repos as well as view your filesystem's folders.
