Switch from Tortoise Git to Sourcetree
Asked by Normanbird:

I am currently using Tortoise Git and noticed Bitbucket has Sourcetree gui for windows. Can anyone share if they know if it is possible to run both at the same time to test Source tree prior to changing?

And also, can anyone share their thoughts on if Sourcetree is as good or better and is it worth it to switch?

Finally, if anyone knows a good workflow for switching, it would be appriciated.


Answers:
author: Seth
body: You should be able to switch seamlessly in either direction. Both clients use core git files as much as possible, and will not modify them in any client-specific way.

The question is largely preference. The primary difference is the Windows context menu. Nearly everything that you do in Tortoise **must** start by right-clicking on a file or folder. SourceTree, on the other hand, runs in its own window, and has absolutely **no** integration with the context menu.

You may run in to trouble running both literally at the same time, but you should be able to install SourceTree and set it up with your repo, then switch back and forth as frequently as you want until you decide which you prefer.


author: Johannes Kilian
body: Under the hood SourceTree uses more elemental git commands while TortoiseGit often uses combinations of git commands to perform an action.

This makes TortoiseGit more comfortable to use on the one hand - but on the other hand it's more difficult to understand what really happened when something went wrong using TortoiseGit.

In my case I miss that both tools do not offer full access to all my needed git functionality (for example Sourcetree does not offer a gui-element to "git push --force" (you can do it on the command line anyway) - TortoiseGit does not offer access to the staging area ...)

I use both tools - each has it advantages/disadvantages ...

comments: author: Seth
body: Do you run into any problems if you run them literally simultaneously? For example, does SourceTree get confused if it is running while you do a commit with Tortoise?


author: Johannes Kilian
body: Nope - not yet. It's unlikely that you are running in those problems since git operations are usually fast ... and normally you are aware that you started a git action with one tool and probably you won't start another git action meanwhile with the second tool - at least I don't ...

There are some refreshing delays in the one tool if an action has finished in the other tool. Esp. Sourcetree might need a manual refresh to see those changes. TortoiseGit cannot be refreshed manually and sometimes the overlay icons get a delayed refresh. Beyond this, I haven't noticed anything else ...


author: Seth
body: Cool, sounds pretty safe to use them in parallel then, which is useful for someone trying to evaluate/compare.


author: Johannes Kilian
body: I think it's not more dangerous than using a GUI-Tool and git-commandline in parallel (at least that's my experience yet)...


author: samuel.zhang
body: We use TortoiseSVN for version control, now move to Git SourceTree. We will migrate all the files from TortoiseSVN to SourceTree, is there any step-by-step document related how to do migration without losing the version history?

comments: author: Johannes Kilian
body: Maybe I don't get your question, but ...

The version history is part of your repository - TortoiseGit, Sourcetree or any other git client are just tools (beside other tasks) to look at the repository history and display it in a convinient way.

So the answer is: No, you wont loose the version history switching to a different git-client.

You don't need to consider special migration steps - just open the repository in the new git GUI - and there you go ...

I have installed both clients (Sourcetree and TortoiseGit and use them simultaneously - without any impact.


Tags: git

workflow