1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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2 <!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "../../dtd/dblite.dtd">
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3 <chapter id="tsvn-introduction">
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4 <title>Introduction</title>
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5 <?dbhh topicname="HIDD_ABOUT"?>
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8 <primary>version control</primary>
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11 Version control is the art of managing changes to
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12 information. It has long been a critical tool for programmers,
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13 who typically spend their time making small changes to software
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14 and then undoing or checking some of those changes the next day.
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15 Imagine a team of such developers working concurrently - and perhaps even
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16 simultaneously on the very same files! - and you can see why
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17 a good system is needed to <emphasis>manage the potential chaos</emphasis>.
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20 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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21 <!-- ======================== SECTION 1 ============================== -->
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22 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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23 <sect1 id="tsvn-intro-about">
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24 <title>What is TortoiseGit?</title>
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26 TortoiseGit is a free open-source client for the
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27 <firstterm>Git</firstterm> version control system.
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28 That is, TortoiseGit manages files over time.
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29 Files are stored in a local <firstterm>repository</firstterm>.
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30 The repository is much like an ordinary file server, except that it
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31 remembers every change ever made to your files and directories.
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32 This allows you to recover older versions of your files and examine
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33 the history of how and when your data changed, and who changed it.
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34 This is why many people think of Git and version control
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35 systems in general as a sort of <quote>time machine</quote>.
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38 Some version control systems are also software configuration
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39 management (SCM) systems. These systems are specifically
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40 tailored to manage trees of source code, and have many features
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41 that are specific to software development - such as natively
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42 understanding programming languages, or supplying tools for
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43 building software. Git, however, is not one of these
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44 systems; it is a general system that can be used to manage
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45 <emphasis>any</emphasis> collection of files, including
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49 Git is an <emphasis>open source, distributed version control system</emphasis>
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50 designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and
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51 efficiency. Every Git clone is a full-fledged repository with complete history
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52 and full revision tracking capabilities, not dependent on network access or
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53 a central server. Branching and merging are fast and easy to do.
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56 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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57 <!-- ======================== SECTION 2 ============================== -->
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58 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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59 <sect1 id="tsvn-intro-history">
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60 <title>TortoiseGit's History</title>
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62 In 2008, Frank Li found that Git was a very good version
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63 control system, but it lacked a good GUI client. The idea for a
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64 Git client as a Windows shell integration was inspired by
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65 the similar client for SVN named TortoiseSVN.
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68 Frank studied the source code of TortoiseSVN and used it as a base for
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69 TortoiseGit. He then started the project, registered the project
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70 at code.google.com and put the source code online.
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73 As Git became more stable it attracted more and more users
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74 who also started using TortoiseGit as their Git client.
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77 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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78 <!-- ======================== SECTION 3 ============================== -->
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79 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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80 <sect1 id="tsvn-intro-features">
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81 <title>TortoiseGit's Features</title>
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83 What makes TortoiseGit such a good Git client?
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84 Here's a short list of features.
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88 <term>Shell integration</term>
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91 <primary>Windows shell</primary>
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94 <primary>explorer</primary>
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97 TortoiseGit integrates seamlessly into the Windows shell
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98 (i.e. the explorer). This means you can keep working
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99 with the tools you're already familiar with. And you
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100 do not have to change into a different application
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101 each time you need functions of the version control!
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104 And you are not even forced to use the Windows Explorer.
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105 TortoiseGit's context menus work in many other file managers,
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106 and in the File/Open dialog which is common to most
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107 standard Windows applications.
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108 You should, however, bear in mind that TortoiseGit
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109 is intentionally developed as extension for the Windows
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110 Explorer. Thus it is possible that in other applications
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111 the integration is not as complete and e.g. the icon
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112 overlays may not be shown.
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117 <term>Icon overlays</term>
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120 The status of every versioned file and folder is
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121 indicated by small overlay icons. That way you can see
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122 right away what the status of your working copy is.
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127 <term>Easy access to Git commands</term>
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130 All Git commands are available from the explorer
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131 context menu. TortoiseGit adds its own submenu there.
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137 Since TortoiseGit is a Git client, we would also like to show you
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138 some of the features of Git itself:
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142 <term>Distributed version control</term>
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145 Like most other modern version control systems, Git
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146 gives each developer a local copy of the entire development
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147 history, and changes are copied from one such repository
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148 to another. These changes are imported as additional
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149 development branches, and can be merged in the same way
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150 as a locally developed branch. Repositories can be easily
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151 accessed via the efficient Git protocol (optionally wrapped
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152 in ssh for authentication and security) or simply using
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153 HTTP - you can publish your repository anywhere without
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154 any special webserver configuration required.
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159 <term>Atomic commits</term>
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162 A commit either goes into the repository completely,
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168 <term>Strong support for non-linear development</term>
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171 Git supports rapid and convenient branching and merging,
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172 and includes powerful tools for visualizing and navigating
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173 a non-linear development history.
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178 <term>Efficient handling of large projects</term>
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181 Git is very fast and scales well even when working with
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182 large projects and long histories. It is commonly an order
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183 of magnitude faster than most other version control systems,
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184 and several orders of magnitude faster on some operations.
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185 It also uses an extremely efficient packed format for long-term
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186 revision storage that currently tops any other open source
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187 version control system.
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192 <term>Cryptographic authentication of history</term>
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195 The Git history is stored in such a way that the name of a
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196 particular revision (a "commit" in Git terms) depends upon
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197 the complete development history leading up to that commit.
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198 Once it is published, it is not possible to change the old
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199 versions without it being noticed. Also, tags can be
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200 cryptographically signed.
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205 <term>Efficient branching and tagging</term>
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208 The cost of branching and tagging need not be
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209 proportional to the project size. Branch is just head of commits.
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210 Tag is friend name of commit hash.
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215 <term>Toolkit design.</term>
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218 Following the Unix tradition, Git is a collection of many small
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219 tools written in C, and a number of scripts that provide convenient
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220 wrappers. Git provides tools for both easy human usage and easy
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221 scripting to perform new clever operations.
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227 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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228 <!-- ======================== SECTION 4 ============================== -->
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229 <!-- ================================================================= -->
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230 <sect1 id="tsvn-intro-install">
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231 <title>Installing TortoiseGit</title>
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233 <title>System requirements</title>
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235 TortoiseGit runs on Windows 2000 SP2, Windows XP or higher.
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236 Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows NT4 are no longer supported.
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239 If you encounter any problems during or after installing
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240 TortoiseGit please refer to
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241 <xref linkend="tsvn-faq"/>
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246 <title>Installation</title>
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248 <primary>install</primary>
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251 TortoiseGit comes with an easy to use installer. Double click on
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252 the installer file and follow the instructions. The installer
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253 will take care of the rest.
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257 You need Administrator privileges to install TortoiseGit.
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261 <sect2 id="tsvn-intro-install-lang">
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262 <title>Language Packs(not start)</title>
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264 <primary>language packs</primary>
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267 <primary>translations</primary>
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270 The TortoiseGit user interface has been translated into many
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271 different languages, so you may be able to download a language
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272 pack to suit your needs.
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273 You can find the language packs on our
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274 <ulink url="http://TortoiseGit.net/translation_status">
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275 <citetitle>translation status page</citetitle>
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277 And if there is no language pack available yet, why not join
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278 the team and submit your own translation ;-)
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281 Each language pack is packaged as a <literal>.exe</literal> installer.
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282 Just run the install program and follow the instructions.
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283 Next time you restart, the translation will be available.
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286 <sect2 id="tsvn-intro-instalsl-spell">
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287 <title>Spellchecker</title>
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289 <primary>spellchecker</primary>
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292 <primary>dictionary</primary>
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295 TortoiseGit includes a spell checker which allows you to check your
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296 commit log messages. This is especially useful if the project language
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297 is not your native language.
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298 The spell checker uses the same dictionary files as
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299 <ulink url="http://openoffice.org">
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300 <citetitle>OpenOffice</citetitle>
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303 <ulink url="http://mozilla.org">
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304 <citetitle>Mozilla</citetitle>
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308 The installer automatically adds the US and UK English dictionaries.
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309 If you want other languages, the easiest option is simply to
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310 install one of TortoiseGit's language packs. This will install
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311 the appropriate dictionary files as well as the TortoiseGit local
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313 Next time you restart, the dictionary will be available too.
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316 Or you can install the dictionaries yourself. If you have OpenOffice or
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317 Mozilla installed, you can copy those dictionaries, which are located
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318 in the installation folders for those applications.
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319 Otherwise, you need to download the required dictionary files from
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320 <ulink url="http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Dictionaries">
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321 <citetitle>http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Dictionaries</citetitle>
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325 Once you have got the dictionary files, you
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326 probably need to rename them so that the filenames only have
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327 the locale chars in it.
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332 <filename>en_US.aff</filename>
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337 <filename>en_US.dic</filename>
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341 Then just copy them to the <filename>bin</filename> sub-folder of
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342 the TortoiseGit installation folder. Normally this will be
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343 <filename>C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\bin</filename>.
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344 If you don't want to litter the <filename>bin</filename> sub-folder,
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345 you can instead place your spell checker files in
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346 <filename>C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\Languages</filename>. If that folder isn't
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347 there, you have to create it first.
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348 The next time you start TortoiseGit, the spell checker will be available.
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351 If you install multiple dictionaries, TortoiseGit uses these rules
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352 to select which one to use.
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356 Check the <literal>tsvn:projectlanguage</literal> setting.
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357 Refer to <xref linkend="tsvn-dug-propertypage"/> for information
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358 about setting project properties.
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363 If no project language is set, or that language is not
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364 installed, try the language corresponding to the Windows locale.
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369 If the exact Windows locale doesn't work, try the
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370 <quote>Base</quote> language, eg.
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371 <literal>de_CH</literal> (Swiss-German) falls back to
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372 <literal>de_DE</literal> (German).
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377 If none of the above works, then the default language
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378 is English, which is included with the standard installation.
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388 sgml-parent-document: ("book.xml" "chapter")
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