Use git for project without deleting - eclipse

I have this project in eclipse that has 9000+ lines of code that I have been working on, so I decided it is about time I got version control for it. So I installed egit for eclipse and added a project to a respository. Unfortinitely, when I did this, git moved the project from where it was located to its own location, introducing bugs. So now I have to find a way to take git away from the project (remove project from version control) and make git use the project again, this time without moving it.
Visual representation
this is what happened:
project original source: C://something/something/project
| files
|
v
git repository: C://something/git/project
this is what I need to do:
git repository ----------> original source
eclipse resolves workspace vars it has changed
project uses version control, git does not move the files
git creates a master repository for files that are committed from the main location (C://something/something/project)

Move the project back where it was.
Git repository is nothing but a .git (notice the dot in the front) directory and can be moved together with code as it's not depended on absolute paths in any way.
Egit should be able to pick it up from new location, and if it doesn't, init the repo from the command line.

Related

Eclipse Projects And Git

I used computer A via the Terminal to create a) create a git repository, b) add an index.html file to the repo, c) add a remote origin, d) push to the remote origin. All OK.
Then, i used computer B to clone that repository via Terminal. Then, I opened Eclipse (equipped with Egit), and created a new project in the folder that was created by the cloning process. Then I used Eclipse to push any changes to the remote origin.
Returning to computer A, I used Eclipse to create a project in the original repo folder, and then I attempted to pull from the remote origin, in order to get the changes that were pushed when using computer B.
Eclipse will not do it. It complains the I have items such as .settings, .project and similar and since they are not under version control it won't overwrite them by fetching files from the server. I had to manually delete those files (via Terminal) and then Eclipse worked as expected.
Please provide information on how to avoid this.
Should I create the local repo from within Eclipse and then push it to the remote origin, so that items such as (.settings) are under version control and (if so) how would that cause trouble to people cloning the repo and use different versions of Eclipse?
Should I gitignore those items?
Should I ask Eclipse to save its own affiliated files to another folder (not that i am aware how to do that, i only know that NetBeans does it)?
Looks like you didn't gitignored eclipse files.
Probably, when you commit/push via egit, you also commit and push those files you already had unversioned in your machine A, so git complains, because you are asking to override existing unversioned files.
I strongly recommend you to gitignore those eclipse files. You can see examples of .gitignore files in the github gitignore repo.
Hope it helps.
It complains because if you pull the changes from your remote it will overwrite your local files. That is the problem. The other answerer has right. You should better add all the eclipse project files and and target .settings and classpath to gitignore. You can use a global gitignore for your computers as well, before creating projects. You could use maven for example, then you can import your projects only from the pom.xml-s given in the git repository.
I use them the same. Egit and other guis are a bit too complex to work with. Git repositories can get easy in an inconsistent state where you should use the oldfashioned terminal to solve things. Like, rebasing, merging on conflicts. Gits learning curve is solid.
Now you can solve your problem if on the first computer save a backup of your original and clones your project later, after fixed it on the second. On the second git remove all this files, but use the --cached option to avoid deleting them. Before you do it so, check the help of git remove! after you have done this, put them into the .gitignore as filenames with wildcards. You can also use a global gitignore file in your user folder. Creating a .gitconfig file where you can specifiy the global ignore with the following :
[core]
excludesfile = ~/.gitignore_global
Than just create the .gitignore_global like this :
/nbproject
/bin
/build.xml
.idea
chess.iml
target/
bin
( This file is for idea and netbeans. you can add eclipse project files here )
You can have .gitignore files per project too. You can commit them to the repository, so on the next machine you do not have to do this again. The nicest way I think is having a dotfiles git repository, which is a git repo of your home directory and the dotfiles in it. I also use it for different windows and linux distros.
That's all. You should keep all of your configuration in a safe place. And source code management can do it. But do not commit private stuff to public a place! ;)
Oh I wanted to mention that, you can also have a .gitignore entry in your .gitignore file. That can be very useful when you do not want to touch a repository but need to add a gitignore to hide some stuff especially from the given repo.

How do I configure Eclipse to use an existing git repository with existing source code?

I have Eclipse Juno with EGit and a project that I've been working on for a while. I've decided to move it to Git, so I created a Github account and downloaded and installed the program. The repository is at C:\Users\username\GitHub\project_name\, but all it has is the README.md file.
How can I configure Eclipse to use my existing source code (in a workspace separate from the git folder) to work well with git? I've tried using Window → Show View → Other and selecting "Git Repositories," but other than adding a repository (which I have done) I can't figure out how to sync the code.
I've read this question but I get the impression that those answers will perform a one-time commit, instead of a sync.
To clarify: The repository does not have any code. I would like my existing code (in the Eclipse workspace) to be synced to the new repository.
If you already have a git repository in place, first copy all your files to that directory (yes, manually) and do a git commit -a to commit all the files into the repository. I'm assuming here that you've already initialized the repository at C:\Users\username\GitHub\project_name\ with git init.
In eclipse, go to File → Switch Workspace → Other... and point it to a workspace of your choice that can be completely different than the location of your code, or your earlier workspace. In fact, don't point it to the directory which contains your git repository.
Once you have a clean workspace, go to File → New → Other..., select Git → Git Repository and enter the path of your git repository (C:\Users\username\GitHub\project_name\). Enter a name for the repository, and click Finish.
I would really recommend you read at least the first few chapters of the git book to understand how git works, and to help you push and pull code to and from remote repositories.
If your existing repository is not git, you're going to have a hard time keeping the directories in sync. You might want to setup rsync to sync the directories. There is no way AFAIK for eclipse to automagically keep the two repositories in sync.

How to isolate Eclipse workspace from git local repository?

I installed EGit on Juno and created a Java project in workspace of Eclipse. Then I shared that project to Git. Then when I check the project's properties, I found that the project had been moved from its original workspace into Git local repository. When I make some changes in Eclipse editor, the changes are made on the local repository without commit.
How to isolate Eclipse workspace from git local repository?
(Well, my Eclipse workspace is ~/Documents/workspace, my git local repository is ~/git/myrepository1. )
The workspace is still in its original location outside of edit. It's the projects that have been moved into the git-controlled directories. Normally projects are created in the Eclipse workspace folder but you can override that default.
If you really want to isolate changes from git, you'll have to break git's control of the project, but you may still have to move the project contents back into your workspace. Unfortunately, the process of getting further changes back into git gets really messy.
I've found it unnerving at first the way git controls my eclipse projects, but after a while it does begin to make sense and is really a very powerful version control function.

Does git exclude eclipse project files from a new repo by default?

I have tried pushing several eclipse projects to github repos. Every time I have trouble later cloning or fetching them back into eclipse. The reason seems to be that the eclipse specific project files (.project, .classpath, etc) are not staged when I do a 'git add .' I have tried researching gitignore files but cannot find one created by default. The file in .git/info/exclude also seems unrelated. I've searched StackOverflow and the internet at large and find no mention of this. So obviously I'm the only person this has every happened to or the only dummy who can't figure it out on my own. Do I need to stage those project files explicitly to include them in them in the repo (after adding a whole project with a 'git add .')?
If those Eclispe project weren't in a git repo locally, you can create a git repo at the root directory of your project, and you should be able to add the files with a '?' on them, including the .project and .classpath:
(From Egit User Guide / Create Repository section)
But if the project is already in a git repo, check first in the git command-line those files status. In doubt, always fall back to the CLI (command line interface), with any local git installation (for instance for Windows: msysgit)
The EGit Eclipse option "Import > Git > Projects from Git" should reference all the files, included the .project and .classpath
I'd recommend using Egit instead of the command line in this case. While the command line is typically more powerful, Egit knows better about the logical project structure of an Eclipse project.

How to keep .git folder out of a Cloned Eclipse Project

Issue
After importing an Eclipse project from a cloned git repository, I make some changes and commit - and wtf? I get a ".git" folder added to the project, the whole shebang with the heads and refs and worst of all the whole object database gets added to the project, all files/folders having that little question-mark icon signaling that the files have not been added / are not yet tracked by git. This .git folder exists in the actual Working Directory (how does that even make sense?). You can imagine what an annoyance this causes when trying to use the "Synchronize" tool/view (which is supposed to make life easier for committing, you can see all the changes and changed files and diffs).
Question (tl;dr)
How to correctly import an Eclipse project from a cloned git repository? I don't want a .git folder showing up in "Team > Synchronize" when I commit, let the .git folder reside somewhere else outside of my project.
Additional Info
I'm on Windows 7 using Eclipse Indigo and Egit.
I am using Egit to clone a git repo from http://git.apache.org/ (the ofbiz project, to be exact) and in the wizard I choose the option to import an existing project from this newly cloned repo.
Yes I am aware of how little I may expect from Egit. In fact, if there are any alternative ways (external git tool? command line git for windows? other?) to use a git-tracked project in Eclipse which keeps the actual .git stuff out of the project, i'd gladly abandon Egit.
When you clone a git repository, the default behavior is to create a .git folder inside the root of the local clone. You can change the default behavior by setting the GIT_DIR variable:
Git docs says:
"GIT_DIR
If the GIT_DIR environment variable is set then it specifies a path to use instead of the default .git for the base of the repository."
Depending on which terminal you use, you could set it using setenv or export.
For example in a bash terminal:
export GIT_DIR='[path_to_git_directory]'
After setting the variable, you should be able to clone and the .git directory should show up at the specified directory.
I totally agree - I can't imagine it would ever be anyones intent to commit the .git folder!
And git/EGit knows that this is the repository folder of the project, so it should be easy to implement the appropriate exception - so that this folder does not become part of the synchronization.
I know the following does not solve your problem, but in cases where you control the way files are layed out in the repository, you could choose to have the Eclipse project folder not be the root folder of the repository, but rather a sub-folder.
This also allows you to have stuff in the repository that should not show up in Eclipse, or even have multiple Eclipse projects grouped in one repository (if you should wish to do so).