Git Windows

This page describes how to use Git from Windows.

Other "how to" pages

Install MSysGit

Take latest on http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list .

And follow installation. It should be straightforward.

Install TortoiseGit

Take latest 32bits version on http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/downloads/list .

Start and follow installation until success. You may need to point where MSysGit is after installation (point it to the bin/ folder).

Checkout a project

Open explorer, create a folder named VideoLAN.

Enter it.

Right click, select Git Clone and enter one of the VideoLAN project.

In the URL text box fill in the following: "git://git.videolan.org/x264.git"

Accept and wait.

For more information including access using http only, see the Git page.

Cygwin git issue

Note for Windows users using Cygwin (linux-like build environment):

Applies to:

Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Security Update KB925902 installed
Windows XP Service Pack 3

There is a problem on Windows XP (and possibly on other Microsoft Operating Systems) with 'git clone' which aborts unexpectedly with a Cygwin error during the 'checking out files' (reproducable every time and at the same percentage) at the end of the clone procedure:

$ 2 [main] git 4012 D:\cygwin\bin\git.exe:
  *** fatal error - could not load shell32, Win32 error 487

This has been verified (May 22, 2008) against the currently available Cygwin 1.5.25-12 with git package versions 1.5.5.1-1 and 1.5.4-1 and is a generic problem which also affects cloning from other git repositories (although x264.git seems unaffected).

The issue is referred to in the mail archives of the Cygwin project mailing list here Git error on Cygwin.

By eliminating the impossible, whatever remained, however improbable, it is the following Windows Security Update (April 3, 2007) which is actually the cause of the Cygwin issue: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-017 - Vulnerabilities in GDI Could Allow Remote Code Execution (925902)

Even though the same Security Update applies to the following systems, these are reported not to be affected:

Windows Vista Service Pack 1
Windows 2003 Server Standard Service Pack 2

It is possible to get 'git clone' working again on the affected systems by removing the Security Update (KB925902) but this is obviously not recommended for security reasons.

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To use git with Cygwin (for WinXP) do this:

[Start][Run] and type "cmd".

Change to the directory where you desire to download x264 to:

cd c:\ffmpeg-SVN\

If you have installed Cygwin in the standard location then type this:

C:\ffmpeg-SVN\>c:\cygwin\bin\git clone git://git.videolan.org/x264.git

Initialized empty Git repository in /cygdrive/c/ffmpeg-SVN/x264/.git/
remote: Generating pack...
remote: Done counting 6710 objects.
remote: Deltifying 6710 objects...
remote: 100% (6710/6710) done
remote: Total 6710 (delta 5345), reused 156 (delta 123) :
Receiving objects: 100% (6710/6710), 1.63 MiB | 25 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (5345/5345), done.

You can use Cygwin's git under the DOS shell but if you try the same command under the Cygwin (Bash) shell you get an error message.

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