Why does "Use Git Bash only" not work with stash?

[David Smith]

The doco in https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/STASH/Installing+and+upgrading+Gitstates that selecting option "Use Git Bash only" not work with stash when installing msysgit.

Is this information still current?

What is it about this option that does not work with stash?

[David Smith · Accepted solution]

Ah, got it now. Now I see why I was confused.

I was installing git (msysgit) locally on my client and saw a statement that I thought referred to using git with stash https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/STASH/Installing+and+upgrading+Gitthat states that you cannot use the first option - git bash with stash.

Perhaps to avoid future confusion, you could mention that this relates to git on the server where Stash is installed and not git installed on clients connectiong to a Stash server

[dericleeyy]

Hi David,

The reason is that Git installation directory have to be included in your PATH directory so git commands can be called outside of Git Bash (example: command prompt).

Regards,

Deric

[David Smith]

Thanks for that, But if I have understood correctly, Stash is a webapp and doesn't call any commands locally on your PC, so if you are happy using a GitBash prompt to commit or an embedded Git inside and IDE or other tool then Stash should accept those commits/clones etc.

What is it in Stash that requires a PC to have Git on the path?

[dericleeyy]

Stash performs git operations in the back end for all kinds of function.

You can prove this by enabling debug logging and looking at the logs. For example, viewing a simple source file, you would see the following in your debug logging

2014-08-11 21:16:10,934 DEBUG [http-bio-7990-exec-4] admin @1GRZASKx1276x742x0 1x4hicq 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 "GET /projects/HEL/repos/hellorepo/browse/123.txt HTTP/1.1" com.atlassian.stash.scm.BaseCommand Executed C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\cmd\git.exe cat-file -p fc25f95:123.txt

Another example is when you create a pull request, Stash actually performs a merge in the background and notifies you if the merge was clean.

[David Smith]

So the web application Stash is running commands on my PC on my behalf?

[dericleeyy]

Technically, Stash runs git commands on the server repo data.

[Stefan Saasen]

So the web application Stash is running commands on my PC on my behalf?

Only if Stash is running on your PC.

Stash requires the git binary to be installed on the machine it is running on and uses that to operate on the git repositories. So the requirement you mention only affects the server machine Stash is running on, not any of the clients accessing Stash remotely.