Are there any differences with the git provided by Apple and the official git?

Question

I've come across several topics about 'updating' or 'installing' an 'official' version of git to replace the git pre-installed by Apple.

I haven't been able to find the reasons/benefits for/of doing so... Can someone explain why doing this is important or unimportant?

Thanks in advance !

Answer 1

It is basically the same as the upstream version at this point. You can see the differences in my github repo:

https://github.com/jeremyhu/git/commits/master

The major differences between Apple's git and mainline over time have been:

• the use of SecureTransport and CommonCrypto instead of OpenSSL (merged into mainline)
• git-svn improvements (merged into mainline)
• fix for a regression that mainline didn't want to take at the time (merged into mainline)
• test for that regression
• Support for relocation on the filesystem (since Xcode.app can move around)
• Support for Xcode.app-bundled gitconfig (for osxkeychain, etc)
• Support for Xcode.app-bundled gitattributes (for diff options, etc)
• Setting osxkeychain as credential.helper (since moved to a default in gitconfig)
• trust_ctime off by default (should move to a setting in gitconfig)
• Mark tests that fail on OSX as expected to fail
• Update expected values for tests that are affected by Xcode.app's gitconfig