How To : Set up Git on your dev machine (configure, create, clone, add)

Applies to : Visual Studio 2013

When you start using Visual Studio with Git, choose the way that works best for you and the kind of project you’re working on. For example, you can start an experimental solo effort in a new or an existing local repository and continue developing there as long as you want.

Or you can join a collaborative effort in a remote Git repository, hosted either in Team Foundation Server (TFS) or on another service.

Before you start

• If you don’t have Visual Studio, get it here.
• If you plan to use TFS, create or get access to a team project.

What do you want to do?

• Start from a local repository Start from your dev machine with a new solution or an existing solution, add an existing local repository, or create a new (init) empty repository
• Start from a remote repository Start from a remote repository (hosted on either TFS or on another service) and then clone it to your dev machine
• Customize Git settings on your dev machine Customize (config) how you identify yourself, specify the kinds of files you manage, and customize other settings
• Get answers to common questions

Start from a local repository

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You can create a local repository on your dev machine—whether or not you have a network connection—and start developing right away: coding, committing, branching, and merging code. When you’re ready to collaborate with your team, you can publish one or more branches from your local repository into a team project.

• Create a new solution under local Git version control
• Put an existing solution under local Git version control
• Create or add a local repository
• Publish your local repository into TFS

Create a new solution under local Git version control

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You’ve got an idea for a new app, so you want to experiment on your dev machine. In less than a minute you can use Visual Studio with Git to create a new code project under local version control. (And no Internet required!)Create a new code project (Keyboard: Ctrl + Shift + N). We suggest that you put your new project in c:\Users\YourName\Source\Repos\.

Put an existing solution under local Git version control

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You’ve already got an app in progress and you want to start working on it under local Git version control.

Tip
Before you add the solution to Git version control, we recommend you first move the solution to the TFS Git default location: c:\Users\YourName\Source\Repos\

1. If you have not already done so, open your solution, (Keyboard: Ctrl + Shift + O) and then open Solution Explorer (Keyboard: Ctrl + Alt + L).
2. Add your solution to source control.
3. On the Choose Source Control dialog box, choose Git.
4. Now that your repository is created, you are ready to commit your files. Go to the Changes page (Keyboard:Ctrl + 0, G) and commit.

   (If you are prompted to configure your user name and email address, do that now. See Configure Git settings.)

   

 

Create or add a local repository

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You can create an empty local repository and add files later. It’s possible to track your changes to the files whether or not they are part of a solution. Or, if you already have a local repository, just start working with it in Visual Studio.Open the Connect page (Keyboard: Press Ctrl + 0, C).

To create an empty local repository, choose New. To open a local repository that already exists on your dev machine, choose Add.

Specify the local path and then choose Create or Add.

Publish your local repository into TFS

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When you are ready to share your code and collaborate with your teammates, publish your local repository intoTFS.

1. Make sure you have committed all your changes in the local repository. See Manage and commit your changes.
2. If you haven’t already done so, create a new a new team project (choose Git version control) or create a new Git repository in an existing Git team project.
3. From the Connect page (Keyboard:Ctrl + 0, C), connect to the empty Git repository and publish the local repository to it.

 

Start from a remote repository

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Your friends have invited you to work with them on a new project. Or maybe you are setting up a new project or a new dev machine. You can use Visual Studio and Git to collaborate on TFS (on-premises or in the cloud), on CodePlex, or on a third-party service such asGitHub orBitbucket.What do you want to do?

• Open and clone a repository in a Git team project
• Clone a remote Git repository from a third-party service

 

Open and clone a Git team project

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If you haven’t already done so, go ahead and create or get access to a Git team project.From Visual Studio: Go to the Team Explorer Connect page (Keyboard: Press Ctrl + 0, C) and then connect to the team project.

(If the team project you want to open is not listed, choose Select Team Projects and then connect to the team project.)

From the web: Open a team project from its home page in your web browser (Keyboard: Ctrl + 0, A).

After you connect to the Git team project, if you have not already done so, you must clone it to your dev machine before you can work in it.

Just specify the local path and choose Clone.

Clone a remote Git repository from a third-party service

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Does your team have some code in GitHub or another service such as CodePlex or Bitbucket? To start working in Visual Studio, clone the code to your dev machine.

Note
You can use Visual Studio’s Git capabilities with services other than TFS. However, if you use these repositories, you will not be able to use TFS features such as project planning and tracking and Team Foundation Build.

 

Customize Git settings on your dev machine

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To customize your Git settings, you must be connected to a local or remote Git repository. Open the Git Settings page.

• Apply global settings Apply global Git settings to control aspects of how Git functions for the current user on the dev machine. For example, you can specify how you identify yourself on the changes you commit.
• Apply repository settings Apply settings to control how Git functions in each individual local repository on your dev machine. For example, you can fine tune how the system blocks clutter from entering your user experience and repository.
• Apply more settings Visual Studio respects all Git settings but provides you with control over only a few of them. Use the Git command prompt to customize all Git settings.

 

Apply global settings

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User Name and Email Address: Git associates each commit you create with your name and email address. When you start using Visual Studio with Git on your dev machine, if you connect to a Git team project first, then Visual Studio fills in your name and email address for you.Default Repository Location: Specify the default root directory where you want to create or clone new local Git repositories. Author images: Use images to more easily see the author of each commit. If your Git repo remote origin is in a TFS Git team project, team members can specify their images in their TFS profiles. How? See tips below. If your Git repo remote origin is in a non-TFS Git service (such as CodePlex, GitHub, or Bitbucket), select Enable download of author images from 3rd party source, and then ask team members to set up Gravatar accounts for their email addresses. Note Enable download of author images from 3rd party source also works for TFS Git team projects in cases where the author has not supplied a profile image.

An example of how author images enhance the collaborative experience:

 

Apply repository settings

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If your repository does not have settings files, you should probably use Visual Studio to add some default files that apply the most typically useful settings. You’ll avoid distraction and potential clutter in your repository from non-source files such aslocally-built binaries..gitignore file: See Use the Git ignore file to avoid file clutter in your work and in your repository. .gitattributes file: To specify options such as how the system handles line-breaks, specify a .gitattributes file. See Customizing Git – Git Attributes

 

Commit your repository settings files: In most cases you should commit and push these files so that everyone else on your team uses the same repository settings on their dev machines.

Apply more Git settings

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You can specify three kinds of Git settings, listed in order ofsupersedence:

• Repository settings apply to the work done in the local repository.
• Global settings apply to the work done by the current user on the dev machine.
• System settings apply to all work done on the client dev machine. (Visual Studio respects these settings, but does not expose them.)

If you need to modify system settings, or if you prefer the command prompt, then modify your Git settings from there. See Work from the Git command prompt, Customizing Git – Git Configuration, and git-config command.

Q & A

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Q: I’m really new to all this. How can I get more help?

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A: Follow a step-by-step walkthrough to get started using Git to work locally on a new project and then to begin collaborating with a team on Visual Studio Online.

Q: I was blocked by the system because I don’t have permission. How do I get it?

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A: In most cases, it’s best to use a short, understandable folder path. For example: C:\Users\YourName\Source\Repos\FabrikamGit\SolutionName\.Some tips on effective folder names:

• Keep all folder, sub-folder, and file names short to simplify your work and avoid potential long-path issues that can occur with some types of code projects.
• Avoid whitespace if you want make command-line operations a little easier to perform.

Q: How do I specify my TFS author image?

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A: If your Git repo remote origin is in a TFS Git team project, you can specify your images in your TFS profile from your web browser (Keyboard: Ctrl + 0, A).

Q: It seems like I can claim to be anybody I want to be in my Git Settings. How can I know for sure who made a change?

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A: Yes, any contributor to your team project can claim any user name and any email address they want when authoring a commit. However, TFS does authenticate who pushes the commit. To see who pushed a commit, open your team project in your web browser (Keyboard: Ctrl + 0, A). Open the commit you want to examine from the Commits section, and then expand the commit details.

How To : Use the Microsoft Monitoring Agent to Monitor apps in deployment

You can locally monitor IIS-hosted ASP.NET web apps and SharePoint 2010 or 2013 applications for errors, performance issues, or other problems by using Microsoft Monitoring Agent. You can save diagnostic events from the agent to an IntelliTrace log (.iTrace) file. You can then open the log in Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 to debug problems with all the Visual Studio diagnostic tools.

If you use System Center 2012, use Microsoft Monitoring Agent with Operations Manager to get alerts about problems and create Team Foundation Server work items with links to the saved IntelliTrace logs. You can then assign these work items to others for further debugging.

See Integrating Operations Manager with Development Processes and Monitoring with Microsoft Monitoring Agent.

Before you start, check that you have the matching source and symbols for the built and deployed code. This helps you go directly to the application code when you start debugging and browsing diagnostic events in the IntelliTrace log. Set up your builds so that Visual Studio can automatically find and open the matching source for your deployed code.

1. Set up Microsoft Monitoring Agent.
2. Start monitoring your app.
3. Save the recorded events.

Step 1: Set up Microsoft Monitoring Agent

Set up the standalone agent on your web server to perform local monitoring without changing your application. If you use System Center 2012, see Installing Microsoft Monitoring Agent.

Set up the standalone agent

1. Make sure that:
   • Your web server is running supported versions of Internet Information Services (IIS).
   • Your web server has .NET Framework 3.5, 4, or 4.5.
   • Your web server is running Windows PowerShell 3.0 or later. What if I have Windows PowerShell 2.0?
   • You have administrator permissions on your web server to run PowerShell commands and to recycle the application pool when you start monitoring.
   • You’ve uninstalled any earlier versions of Microsoft Monitoring Agent.
2. Download the free Microsoft Monitoring Agent, either the 32-bit version MMASetup-i386.exe or 64-bit version MMASetup-AMD64.exe, from the Microsoft Download Center to your web server.
3. Run the downloaded executable to start the installation wizard.
4. Create a secure directory on your web server to store the IntelliTrace logs, for example, C:\IntelliTraceLogs.

   Make sure that you create this directory before you start monitoring. To avoid slowing down your app, choose a location on a local high-speed disk that’s not very active.

    

   Security Note
   IntelliTrace logs might contain personal and sensitive data. Restrict this directory to only those identities that must work with the files. Check your company’s privacy policies.

5. To run detailed, function-level monitoring or to monitor SharePoint applications, give the application pool that hosts your web app or SharePoint application read and write permissions to the IntelliTrace log directory. How do I set up permissions for the application pool?

Q: What if I have Windows PowerShell 2.0?

Use the Windows PowerShell Start-WebApplicationMonitoring command to start monitoring your app. If you use System Center 2012, see Monitoring Web Applications with Microsoft Monitoring Agent.

Q: How do I set up permissions for the application pool?

Step 2: Start monitoring your app

1. On your web server, open a Windows PowerShell or Windows PowerShell ISE command prompt window as an administrator.

    

    

2. Run the Start-WebApplicationMonitoring command to start monitoring your app. This will restart all the web apps on your web server.

    

   Here’s the short syntax:

    

   Start-WebApplicationMonitoring “<appName>” <monitoringMode> “<outputPath>” <UInt32> “<collectionPlanPathAndFileName>”

    

   Here’s an example that uses just the web app name and lightweight Monitor mode:

    

   PS C:\>Start-WebApplicationMonitoring “Fabrikam\FabrikamFiber.Web” Monitor “C:\IntelliTraceLogs”

    

   Here’s an example that uses the IIS path and lightweight Monitor mode:

    

   PS C:\>Start-WebApplicationMonitoring “IIS:\sites\Fabrikam\FabrikamFiber.Web” Monitor “C:\IntelliTraceLogs”

    

   After you start monitoring, you might see the Microsoft Monitoring Agent pause while your apps restart.

    

    

   “<appName>”	Specify the path to the web site and web app name in IIS. You can also include the IIS path, if you prefer.   “<IISWebsiteName>\<IISWebAppName>” -or- “IIS:\sites \<IISWebsiteName>\<IISWebAppName>”   You can find this path in IIS Manager. For example:     You can also use the Get-WebSite and Get WebApplication commands.
   <monitoringMode>	Specify the monitoring mode:   Monitor: Record minimal details about exception events and performance events. This mode uses the default collection plan. Trace: Record function-level details or monitor SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 applications by using the specified collection plan. This mode might make your app run more slowly.   Make sure that the application pool has read and write permissions to the IntelliTrace log directory. How can I get the most data without slowing down my app?   This example records events for a SharePoint app hosted on a SharePoint site:   Start-WebApplicationMonitoring “FabrikamSharePointSite\FabrikamSharePointApp” Trace “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Monitoring Agent\Agent\IntelliTraceCollector\collection_plan.ASP.NET.default.xml” “C:\IntelliTraceLogs”   Custom: Record custom details by using specified custom collection plan. You’ll have to restart monitoring if you edit the collection plan after monitoring has already started.
   “<outputPath>”	Specify the full directory path to store the IntelliTrace logs. Make sure that you create this directory before you start monitoring.
   <UInt32>	Specify the maximum size for the IntelliTrace log. The default maximum size of the IntelliTrace log is 250 MB. When the log reaches this limit, the agent overwrites the earliest entries to make space for more entries. To change this limit, use the -MaximumFileSizeInMegabytes option or edit the MaximumLogFileSize attribute in the collection plan.
   “<collectionPlanPathAndFileName>”	Specify the full path or relative path and the file name of the collection plan. This plan is an .xml file that configures settings for the agent. These plans are included with the agent and work with web apps and SharePoint applications: collection_plan.ASP.NET.default.xml Collects only events, such as exceptions, performance events, database calls, and Web server requests. collection_plan.ASP.NET.trace.xml Collects function-level calls plus all the data in default collection plan. This plan is good for detailed analysis but might slow down your app.   You can find localized versions of these plans in the agent’s subfolders. You can also customize these plans or create your own plans to avoid slowing down your app. Put any custom plans in the same secure location as the agent.   How else can I get the most data without slowing down my app?

    

   For the more information about the full syntax and other examples, run the get-help Start-WebApplicationMonitoring –detailed command or the get-help Start-WebApplicationMonitoring –examples command.

3. To check the status of all monitored web apps, run the Get-WebApplicationMonitoringStatus command.

List of all Visual Studio ALM Virtual Machines

COURTESY OF THE ALM RANGERS @

 

Given the growing list of virtual machines we have published to showcase various application lifecycle management scenarios, I created this blog post to be a permanent location you can bookmark any time you want to find the latest and greatest. An easy-to-remember URL for this page is http://aka.ms/ALMVMs.

Visual Studio 2013 ALM Virtual Machine and Hands-on-Labs / Demo Scripts
Last Update: January 9, 2014
This virtual machine is based on the RTM release of Visual Studio 2013 and includes hands-on-labs / demo scripts which showcase the new ALM capabilities introduced in this release. This VM was also upgraded on January 9, 2014 to include the content and hands-on-labs / demo scripts for capabilities which were originally introduced in Visual Studio 2010/2012.

Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 ALM Virtual Machine and Hands-on-Labs / Demo Scripts
Last Updated: April 17, 2013
This is the primary ALM virtual machine which demonstrates many of the scenarios introduced in Visual Studio 2010/2012 for application lifecycle management. This includes project management, source control, developer productivity and collaboration, testing, lab management, and IntelliTrace.

Team Foundation Server 2012 and Project Server 2013 Integration Virtual Machine and Hands-on-Labs / Demo Scripts
Last Updated: April 17, 2013
This VM highlights the integration scenarios which are possible between Team Foundation Server and Project Server which allow development teams to automatically synchronize the status of their projects with a centralized project management office (PMO).

Team Foundation Server 2012 and System Center 2012 Operations Manager Integration Virtual Machine and Hands-on-Lab / Demo Script
Last Updated: February 7, 2013
This VM highlights the integration scenarios which are possible between System Center 2012 Operations Manager and Team Foundation Server 2012 which allow operations teams to easily surface incidents from production in a rich, actionable way for developers to quickly diagnose these problems.