New and Noteworthy 6.2
EGit 6.1 had introduced support for git config
commit.cleanup,
including syntax coloring comment lines in commit messages, and a
preview of the final commit message after cleaning.
EGit 6.2 adds support for git config
core.commentChar.
It enables users to change the default comment character # to some
other ASCII character. EGit 6.2 takes this setting into account and
determines comment lines in commit messages accordingly, for instance
with core.commentChar = ; as:
The Git Staging View has a new "Push Settings" button with a cogwheel
icon, providing a way to customize some settings for the push part of
the Commit & Push operation.
There are options to perform a force push, or to open a push dialog instead of just pushing automatically. If the "Force Push" option is active, the button's icon shows a little green plus sign top-right.
Settings made here are persisted; they are stored separately per repository, and they will be in effect for any Commit & Push operation on a particular repository until changed again via this "Push Settings" button.
Commit & Push performs the equivalent of git push <remote> HEAD:<upstream branch>
The remote is determined via git configs
branch.<name>.pushRemote,
remote.pushDefault,
branch.<name>.remote,
"origin". The upstream branch is determined from the
branch.<name>.merge
git configuration of the currently checked out branch; if none is set,
the upstream branch is assumed to have the same name as the current
local branch.
Activating the "Force Push" option changes this to git push <remote> +HEAD:<upstream branch>
Note: if the repository is configured for Gerrit and the Commit & Push operation will attempt pushing to Gerrit, then the "Push Settings" button is not available. First, the command will in that case always use a dialog, and second, force pushing a commit as a new change or patch set to Gerrit makes no sense.
EGit 6.2 supports the use of external diff and merge tools. An external tool can be configured via a new preference page, potentially combined with git repository configuration, as well as per product customization.
To configure an external diff or merge tool via the preference page:
- Navigate to the preference page: Main menu -> Window -> Preferences -> Version Control (Team) -> Git -> Diff/Merge
- In the diff or merge section, select the radio button for an external tool and select a tool from the combo box. Only tools available on your system are listed.
Alternatively, you can select using the available git configuration and
configure a tool via git config:
[merge]
tool = customMergeTool
[mergetool "customMergeTool"]
cmd = kdiff3 "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE" "$MERGED" "$BASE"
path = /usr/bin/kdiff3
prompt = false
trustExitCode = false
[diff]
tool = customDiffTool
[difftool "customDiffTool"]
cmd = kdiff3 "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE"
To use a tool available on your system as default, specify e.g. the following via git config:
[merge]
tool = kdiff3
You can override the default tool per folder and per file type, using
the .gitattributes file in a folder. The override will apply for
subfolders, as long as a subfolder does not override the tool via
.gitattributes:
* mergetool=kdiff3
*.txt difftool=kompare
To configure an external diff or merge tool via product customization,
specify the following in your customization file (passed to Eclipse via
the command line argument, e.g.
-pluginCustomization /some/path/my_customization.ini):
org.eclipse.egit.ui/diff_tool_custom=kdiff3
org.eclipse.egit.ui/diff_tool_mode=3
You can also configure a external tools per-extension. The value of the preference is comma separated pairs of extension and invocation command:
org.eclipse.egit.ui/external_diff_tool_per_extension=txt,/usr/bin/kdiff3 "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE"
org.eclipse.egit.ui/diff_tool_mode=1
The complete list of new features and bug fixes is available in the release notes.
The following 7 developers worked on this release:
Andre Bossert, Andrey Loskutov, Matthias Sohn, Michael Keppler, Mykola Zakharchuk, Simeon Andreev, Thomas Wolf
You can see the UI changes in action in the Eclipse 2022-06 Java IDE Improvements video.
See also the new features in JGit for additional information.