Provided by: libgit-repository-perl_1.310-1_all 
NAME
Git::Repository - Perl interface to Git repositories
VERSION
version 1.310
SYNOPSIS
use Git::Repository;
# start from an existing repository
$r = Git::Repository->new( git_dir => $gitdir );
# start from an existing working copy
$r = Git::Repository->new( work_tree => $dir );
# start from a repository reachable from the current directory
$r = Git::Repository->new();
# or init our own repository first
Git::Repository->run( init => $dir, ... );
$r = Git::Repository->new( work_tree => $dir );
# or clone from a URL first
Git::Repository->run( clone => $url, $dir, ... );
$r = Git::Repository->new( work_tree => $dir );
# provide an option hash for Git::Repository::Command
# (see Git::Repository::Command for all available options)
$r = Git::Repository->new( ..., \%options );
# run commands
# - get the full output (no errput) passing options for this command only
$output = $r->run( @cmd, \%options );
# - get the full output as a list of lines (no errput), with options
@output = $r->run( @cmd, \%options );
# - process the output with callbacks
$output = $r->run( @cmd, sub {...} );
@output = $r->run( @cmd, sub {...} );
# - obtain a Git::Repository::Command object
# (see Git::Repository::Command for details)
$cmd = $r->command( @cmd, \%options );
# obtain version information
my $version = $r->version();
# compare current git version
if ( $r->version_gt('1.6.5') ) {
...;
}
DESCRIPTION
Git::Repository is a Perl interface to Git, for scripted interactions with repositories. It's a low-level
interface that allows calling any Git command, whether porcelain or plumbing, including bidirectional
commands such as "git commit-tree".
A Git::Repository object simply provides context to the git commands being run. It is possible to call
the "command()" and "run()" methods against the class itself, and the context (typically current working
directory) will be obtained from the options and environment.
As a low-level interface, it provides no sugar for particular Git commands. Specifically, it will not
prepare environment variables that individual Git commands may need or use.
However, the "GIT_DIR" and "GIT_WORK_TREE" environment variables are special: if the command is run in
the context of a Git::Repository object, they will be overridden by the object's "git_dir" and
"work_tree" attributes, respectively. It is however still possible to override them if necessary, using
the "env" option.
Git::Repository requires at least Git 1.5.0, and is expected to support any later version.
See Git::Repository::Tutorial for more code examples.
CONSTRUCTOR
new
Git::Repository->new( %args, $options );
Create a new Git::Repository object, based on an existing Git repository.
Parameters are:
git_dir => $gitdir
The location of the git repository (.git directory or equivalent).
For backward compatibility with versions 1.06 and before, "repository" is accepted in place of
"git_dir" (but the newer name takes precedence).
work_tree => $dir
The location of the git working copy (for a non-bare repository).
If "work_tree" actually points to a subdirectory of the work tree, Git::Repository will automatically
recompute the proper value.
For backward compatibility with versions 1.06 and before, "working_copy" is accepted in place of
"work_tree" (but the newer name takes precedence).
If none of the parameter is given, Git::Repository will find the appropriate repository just like Git
itself does. Otherwise, one of the parameters is usually enough, as Git::Repository can work out where
the other directory (if any) is.
"new()" also accepts a reference to an option hash which will be used as the default by
Git::Repository::Command when working with the corresponding Git::Repository instance.
So this:
my $r = Git::Repository->new(
# parameters
work_tree => $dir,
# options
{ git => '/path/to/some/other/git',
env => {
GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL => 'book@cpan.org',
GIT_COMMITTER_NAME => 'Philippe Bruhat (BooK)',
},
}
);
is equivalent to explicitly passing the option hash to each "run()" or "command()" call. The
documentation for Git::Repository::Command lists all available options.
Note that Git::Repository and Git::Repository::Command take great care in finding the option hash
wherever it may be in @_, and to merge multiple option hashes if more than one is provided.
It probably makes no sense to set the "input" option in "new()", but Git::Repository won't stop you.
Note that on some systems, some git commands may close standard input on startup, which will cause a
"SIGPIPE". Git::Repository::Command will raise an exception.
To create a Git repository and obtain a Git::Repository object pointing to it, simply do it in two steps:
# run a clone or init command without an instance,
# using options like cwd
Git::Repository->run( ... );
# obtain a Git::Repository instance
# on the resulting repository
$r = Git::Repository->new( ... );
METHODS
Git::Repository supports the following methods:
command
Git::Repository->command( @cmd );
$r->command( @cmd );
Runs the git sub-command and options, and returns a Git::Repository::Command object pointing to the sub-
process running the command.
As described in the Git::Repository::Command documentation, @cmd may also contain a hashref containing
options for the command.
run
Git::Repository->run( @cmd );
$r->run( @cmd );
Runs the command and returns the output as a string in scalar context, or as a list of lines in list
context. Also accepts a hashref of options.
Lines are automatically "chomp"ed.
In addition to the options hashref supported by Git::Repository::Command, the parameter list can also
contain code references, that will be applied successively to each line of output. The line being
processed is in $_, but the coderef must still return the result string (like "map").
If the git command printed anything on stderr, it will be printed as warnings. For convenience, if the
git sub-process exited with status 128 (fatal error), or 129 (usage message), "run()" will "die()". The
exit status values for which "run()" dies can be modified using the "fatal" option (see
Git::Repository::Command for details).
The exit status of the command that was just run is accessible as usual using "$? >> 8". See perlvar for
details about $?.
git_dir
Returns the repository path.
work_tree
Returns the working copy path. Used as current working directory by Git::Repository::Command.
options
Return the option hash that was passed to "Git::Repository->new()".
version
Return the version of git, as given by "git --version".
Version-comparison "operators"
Git evolves very fast, and new features are constantly added. To facilitate the creation of programs
that can properly handle the wide variety of Git versions seen in the wild, a number of version
comparison "operators" are available.
They are named "version_op" where op is the equivalent of the Perl operators "lt", "gt", "le", "ge",
"eq", "ne". They return a boolean value, obtained by comparing the version of the git binary and the
version string passed as parameter.
The methods are:
version_lt( $version )
version_gt( $version )
version_le( $version )
version_ge( $version )
version_eq( $version )
version_ne( $version )
All those methods also accept an option hash, just like the others.
Note that there are a small number of cases where the version comparison operators will not compare
versions correctly for very old versions of Git. Typical example is "1.0.0a gt 1.0.0" which should return
true, but doesn't. This only matters in comparisons, only for version numbers prior to "1.4.0-rc1" (June
2006), and only when the compared versions are very close.
Other issues exist when comparing development version numbers with one another. For example, 1.7.1.1 is
greater than both "1.7.1.1.gc8c07" and "1.7.1.1.g5f35a", and 1.7.1 is less than both. Obviously,
"1.7.1.1.gc8c07" will compare as greater than "1.7.1.1.g5f35a" (asciibetically), but in fact these two
version numbers cannot be compared, as they are two siblings children of the commit tagged "v1.7.1").
If one were to compute the set of all possible version numbers (as returned by "git --version") for all
git versions that can be compiled from each commit in the git.git repository, the result would not be a
totally ordered set. Big deal.
Also, don't be too precise when requiring the minimum version of Git that supported a given feature. The
precise commit in git.git at which a given feature was added doesn't mean as much as the release branch
in which that commit was merged.
PLUGIN SUPPORT
Git::Repository intentionally has only few methods. The idea is to provide a lightweight wrapper around
git, to be used to create interesting tools based on Git.
However, people will want to add extra functionality to Git::Repository, the obvious example being a
"log()" method that returns simple objects with useful attributes.
Taking the hypothetical "Git::Repository::Plugin::Hello" module which source code is listed in the
previous reference, the methods it provides would be loaded and used as follows:
use Git::Repository qw( Hello );
my $r = Git::Repository->new();
print $r->hello();
print $r->hello_gitdir();
It's possible to load only a selection of methods from the plugin:
use Git::Repository [ Hello => 'hello' ];
my $r = Git::Repository->new();
print $r->hello();
# dies: Can't locate object method "hello_gitdir"
print $r->hello_gitdir();
If your plugin lives in another namespace than "Git::Repository::Plugin::", just prefix the fully
qualified class name with a "+". For example:
use Git::Repository qw( +MyGit::Hello );
See Git::Repository::Plugin about how to create a new plugin.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Todd Rinalo, who wanted to add more methods to Git::Repository, which made me look for a
solution that would preserve the minimalism of Git::Repository. The "::Plugin" interface is what I came
up with.
OTHER PERL GIT WRAPPERS
(This section was written in June 2010. The other Git wrappers have probably evolved since that time.)
A number of Perl git wrappers already exist. Why create a new one?
I have a lot of ideas of nice things to do with Git as a tool to manipulate blobs, trees, and tags, that
may or may not represent revision history of a project. A lot of those commands can output huge amounts
of data, which I need to be able to process in chunks. Some of these commands also expect to receive
input.
What follows is a short list of "missing features" that I was looking for when I looked at the existing
Git wrappers on CPAN. They are the "rational" reason for writing my own (the real reason being of course
"I thought it would be fun, and I enjoyed doing it").
Even though it works well for me and others, Git::Repository has its own shortcomings: it is a low-level
interface to Git commands, anything complex requires you to deal with input/output handles, it provides
no high-level interface to generate actual Git commands or process the output of commands (but have a
look at the plugins), etc. One the following modules may therefore be better suited for your needs,
depending on what you're trying to achieve.
Git.pm
Git.pm is not on CPAN. It is usually packaged with Git, and installed with the system Perl libraries. Not
being on CPAN makes it harder to install in any Perl. It makes it harder for a CPAN library to depend on
it.
It doesn't allow calling "git init" or "git clone".
The "command_bidi_pipe" function especially has problems:
<http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/git/2008/10/24/3789584>
Git::Class
Git::Class depends on Moose, which seems an unnecessary dependency for a simple wrapper around Git. The
startup penalty could become significant for command-line tools.
Although it supports "git init" and "git clone" (and has methods to call any Git command), it is mostly
aimed at porcelain commands, and provides no way to control bidirectional commands (such as "git
commit-tree").
Git::Wrapper
Git::Wrapper doesn't support streams or bidirectional commands.
Git::Sub
(This description was added for completeness in May 2013.)
Git::Sub appeared in 2013, as a set of Git-specific System::Sub functions. It provide a nice set of
"git::" functions, and has some limitations (due to the way System::Sub itself works) which don't impact
most Git commands.
Git::Sub doesn't support working with streams.
BUGS
Since version 1.17, Git::Repository delegates the actual command execution to System::Command, which has
better support for Win32 since version 1.100.
Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-git-repository at rt.cpan.org", or through the web
interface at <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Git-Repository>. I will be notified, and
then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.
SUPPORT
You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
perldoc Git::Repository
You can also look for information at:
• RT: CPAN's request tracker
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Git-Repository>
• AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
<http://annocpan.org/dist/Git-Repository>
• CPAN Ratings
<http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Git-Repository>
• Search CPAN
<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Git-Repository>
BUGS
Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Git-Repository or by email to bug-git-repository@rt.cpan.org.
When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that
illustrates the bug or desired feature.
AUTHOR
Philippe Bruhat (BooK) <book@cpan.org>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2010-2014 Philippe Bruhat (BooK), all rights reserved.
LICENSE
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl
itself.