Does TortoiseGit allow selective staging, like git-gui?

Question

This question:

Can you interact with the index/staging area with TortoiseGit?

takes the position that TortoiseGit's main function is not to eliminate the need for the git command line, and in general, I agree.

However, git-gui has a feature I use a lot (maybe to compensate for bad workflow): the ability to selectively stage or unstage hunks or lines from the current patch in order to split a bunch of interspersed changes into coherent changesets in multiple commits.

The command-line alternative (for me, at any rate) is a bit clunky, so, ideally, I'd like to do the same selective committing in TortoiseGit.

So far I haven't found a way to do this, and I suspect, from the answer to the other question, that it isn't possible. Can anyone confirm this, please?

Answer 1

The only client on windows that has full support for selective staging in the GUI I've seen so far is SmartGit.

Thus said it has weak sides too, comparing to TortoiseGit or GitExtensions.

For me, main showstoppers in SmartGit are:

1. Inability to compare two revisions. You could only see diff between one and its parent (TortoiseGit can that).
2. Inability (well, it is somewhat strange, it is possible I didn't found the way) to limit log to some folder if I don't interested in everything (TortoiseGit can).
3. Integration with VisualStudio (somewhat subjective, but GitEx have it and it is very handy)

I remember that there was something else, but evaluating last version of SmartGit now I can't find it. Either it was fixed/added or I just forgot what thing I can't do that time.

In any case I'm using both GitEx and TortoiseGit for some things and for everything else console is the best tool.

Answer 2

Yes it does now: see issue 222 - it takes the same approach as TortoiseSVN where you:

• right-click on file, choose "Restore after commit"
• TSVN creates a copy of the file outside the working copy, the file is shown differently in > the commit dialog (maybe an overlay icon or a different color)
• user can double-click the file to open it in TMerge or some other diff tool and undo all the changes that should not be committed, then save those changes
• commit
• after the commit is finished, the copy of the original file is moved back

(From TSVN Issue 68)

Answer 3

From the look of issue 222, the "add -p" feature isn't implemented yet.

Could you add support for partially committing a file? (git add -p).
I understand the way TortoiseGit works is a bit different from the normal "git index", but still I would like to have support for this in some way.

I'd love to commit only a few changes of a file.
For example, only commit a single line fix of the file, and leave the rest remaining in the working copy.

Answer 4

SourceTree (https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/) has a very intuitive GUI for selective staging. It is made to integrate with BitBucket (it is by the same company after all), but can easily work with any git repository.

I do still use TortoiseGit in parallel, especially because of some nice features like the revision graph.

Answer 5

There is the pull request which implement this feature from year 2020, hope it will be merged ASAP.

https://github.com/TortoiseGit/TortoiseGit/pull/233