<title>libgit2: a linkable library for Git</title>

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<a href="/"><img alt="a linkable library for Git" src="logo.png" width="725"/></a>

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libgit2 is a portable, pure C implementation of the Git core methods provided as a

re-entrant linkable library with a solid API, allowing you to write native

speed custom Git applications in any language which supports C bindings.

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<a class="button" href="#started">Getting started</a>

<a class="button" href="#cando">What it can do</a>

<a class="button" href="#install">Compiling the library</a>

<a class="button" href="#bindings">Language bindings</a>

<h2 id="started">Getting started</h2>

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In the current Git project, though a libgit.a file is produced it is

not re-entrant (it will call <code>die()</code> on basically any error)

and it has no stable or well-designed public API. As there is no good

way to link to this effectively, a new library was needed that fulfilled

these requirements. Thus libgit2.

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<h3>libgit2 is...</h3>

<li><b>faster</b> than any other Git library</li>

<li>written in standards compilant <b>C99</b></li>

<li>completely <b>multi-platform</b>: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, xBSD</li>

<li>compiled <b>natively</b> under all platforms (yes, even MSVC on Windows)</li>

<li><b>re-entrant</b>, with sane error handling</li>

<li>designed with a solid and <b>consistent API</b></li>

<li>available as bindings for <b>all major scripting languages</b></li>

<li>compiled with <b>minimal external dependencies</b> (currently only zlib)</li>

<li>licensed under the <b>GPLv2 with a linking exception</b>, so you can use it everywhere</li>

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<p>libgit2 is still in early development, and although it's already <a href="#cando">quite feature complete</a>, there are no official binary releases available yet. Interested early adopters must <a href="#install" class="link">compile the library</a> by hand -- which is easy enough to do.</p>

<a class="button" href="https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2">Get the code at GitHub</a>

<h2 id="cando">What it can do</h2>

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libgit2 is already very usable:

<li><a href="api.html#sha">SHA conversions and formatting</a></li>

<li><a href="api.html#rawread">object reading (loose and packed)</a></li>

<li><a href="api.html#rawwrite">object writing (loose)</a></li>

<li><a href="api.html#parsing">commit, tag, tree and blob parsing and write-back</a></li>

<li><a href="api.html#trees">tree traversal</a></li>

<li><a href="api.html#revwalk">revision walking</a></li>

<li><a href="api.html#index">index file (staging area) manipulation</a></li>

<li>...and much more</li>

<p>For full API documentation see the generated <a href="http://libgit2.github.com/libgit2/modules.html">Doxygen docs</a> or the <a href="api.html">usage guide</a>.</p>

<h2 id="install">Building the library</h2>

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libgit2 uses <a href="http://code.google.com/p/waf/">waf</a> as its buildsystem,

and hence requires <a href="http://www.python.org">Python 2.4 or better</a> to

configure the build. The library can be built under the following platforms:

<b>Linux</b>, <b>Mac OS X</b>, <b>xBSD</b>, <b>Windows (MSVC)</b> and <b>Windows (MinGW)</b>.

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<div class="description">Start by configuring the build system by running:</div>

<pre class="sunburst">$ ./waf configure</pre>

<div class="description">Then build the library, either in its shared or static form</div>

<pre class="sunburst">$ ./waf build-static

<div class="description">You can then test the library with:</div>

<pre class="sunburst">$ ./waf test</pre>

<div class="description">And finally you can install it with (you may need to sudo):</div>

<pre class="sunburst">$ ./waf install</pre>

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Once that is done, you should be able to link the library to your program

with a normal <code>-lgit2</code>.</div>

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Detailed build instructions for different platforms can be found in libgit2's

<a href="https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/blob/master/README.md">readme file</a>.

<h2 id="bindings">Language bindings</h2>

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There are already a number of language bindings in the works, so you can

use Git at native speed from your favorite programming language.

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<h3>Rugged (Ruby bindings)</h3>

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Rugged (previously known as Ribbit) is the reference bindings for libgit2, used to make sure the

source C API is sane and functional. They are always in sync with the libgit2 master branch.

</p>

<a class="button" href="https://github.com/libgit2/rugged">Get Rugged</a>

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<h3>pygit2 (Python bindings)</h3>

<p>pygit2 are the Python 2.6+ bindings for libgit2 mantained by David Borowitz.

They should be (mostly) up to date with the library changes.</p>

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<a class="button" href="https://github.com/libgit2/pygit2">Get pygit2</a>

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<h3>libgit2sharp (.NET bindings)</h3>

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</p>

<a class="button" href="https://github.com/nulltoken/libgit2sharp">Get libgit2sharp</a>

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<h3>Geef (Erlang bindings)</h3>

<p>

Geef is an example of an Erlang NIF binding to libgit2. A bit out of

date, but can be made to mostly work.

</p>

<a class="button" href="https://github.com/schacon/geef">Get Geef</a>

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<div id="credits">

<p>Thanks to the folks at <a href="http://gembundler.com">Bundler</a> for letting us steal their awesome CSS</p>

<a href="https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2" id="github">

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