Working with Repositories

This section describes common SmartGit actions you’ll need to use when working with Git Repositories on your local system.

Contents:

Opening a Repository

Use Repository | Add or Create to either open an existing local repository (e.g., initialized or cloned with the Git command line client) or to initialize a new repository.

Specify the local directory you want to open. If the specified directory is not yet a Git repository, you can initialize it.

Settings

Once you have a opened a repository, use Repository | Settings to configure repository-specific settings.

The Garbage Collector

The Git Garbage Collector performs housekeeping tasks such as deleting commits which are no longer referenced in the repository, such as:

  • commits which have been rebased
  • commits which have been amended and rewritten to a new commit
  • commits which have been squashed

The Git Garbage Collector usually runs in the background, however, you can choose to explicitly execute the Run Garbage Collector command to force the garbage collector (git gc) to run immediately.

You can view commits eligible for garbage collection in SmartGit’s Log by selecting the Recyclable Commits option in the Branches view of the Log Window.