This is a set of Thor repository tools for Visual FoxPro developers who are using Git or Mercurial
(Hg) for version control. They are designed as "one-click" tools to quickly synchronize working
folders to the files retrieved from the DVCS, and prepare files to be committed to the DVCS
repositories.
NOTE: Mercurial support was added with the 2016-07-23 release.
Version history is available in the GitUtilitiesVersionFile.txt file.
In addition to being able to watch the GitHub and BitBucket repositories for changes to these utilities, you can also check for notices posted on the [FoxProThor Google group] FoxProThor-Google-group.
The following items are required to take full advantage of the Git and Mercurial utilities:
- Thor - The Thor framework must be loaded as part of the VFP development environment.
- The Thor Repository (this is a collection of tools, and not to be confused with a Git repository)
- FoxBin2Prg - The minimum required version is 1.19.42. For best results, FoxBin2Prg should be installed via Thor's "Check for Updates" feature. If FoxBin2Prg is installed some other way, the Thor plug-in "Get FoxBin2Prg Folder" can be edited to tell Thor where you have FoxBin2Prg installed.
- Git for Windows (only if Git will be used) - When installing Git for
Windows, at the step entitled Adjusting your Path environment, select the second option
"Use Git from the Windows Command Prompt".
NOTE: Beginning with the 2.x versions of Git for Windows, there are 32- and 64-bit versions. You MUST have the 32-bit version of Git for Windows installed in order for these utilities to work, even on 64-bit Windows, because VFP is a 32-bit app, and is unable to run 64-bit Git from the command line. If you need the 64-bit version of Git for Windows, it appears that both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions can be installed on the same PC, but in my testing, the 64-bit install uninstalled the 32-bit version, so the 32-bit version must be installed LAST. - Mercurial for Windows (only if Mercurial will be used) - When installing Mercurial for Windows, at the end of the setup select the option to Add the installation path to the search path (this is selected by default). Like Git for Windows, there are 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Mercurial, but in testing so far, it appears that either version of Mercurial works fine with these utilities.
- Windows Scripting Host - This is installed as part of Windows, but system administrators will sometimes disable it on the PCs on their networks.
If you are new to Git, I've created a setup guide for getting started with Git. This guide includes:
- some basic instructions for installing Git and some useful third-party tools
- some tips on configuring Git and the tools
- information on SSH keys
- a list of resources, including documentation, articles, and links to Git and all the tools referenced
If you are new to DVCS in general, are planning to use Mercurial, or are interested in the differences between Git and Mercurial, several excellent resources are available on Rick Borup's Developers Page.
The Git and Hg Utilities are included in Thor's Check for Updates. When installed, these tools
will appear in the Thor tools menus under Applications > Git-Hg Utilities.
Occasionally I may make new features available via a beta version of Git and Utilities before
releasing them in the regular version. If you would like to try the beta version, first install
the release as described in the previous section. In the Thor tools menus, under
Applications > Git-Hg Utilities, there is a menu item called Add/Remove Git-Hg Beta in Check
for Updates. Running this tool will prompt you to add a new item to Thor's Check for Updates
called Git and Hg Utilities (Beta). To remove the beta from the Check for Updates list, run the
same tool again, and you will be prompted to remove it.
NOTE: The beta version of Git and Hg Utilities completely replaces the release version, so you cannot have both installed at the same time. However, it is very easy to return to the release version again by simply running Check for Updates and selecting Git and Hg Utilities to reinstall it.
The options for these tools are found under Git Utilities on the Options page of the Thor Configuration form. For backward-compatibility reasons, the name of the options page did not change to include Mercurial, but the options themselves include settings for Mercurial. The same options can also be accessed from the Options link on the tool page of each tool that is affected by the options.
This is the main program file, which defines the Git and Hg utilities class that contains all the features used by the other tools in this collection. If you want to access the features of this class directly, you can do so using the following command:
loGitUtils = EXECSCRIPT( _Screen.cThorDispatcher, "Thor_Proc_GitUtilities" )
The code contains documentation for all of the properties, methods, parameters, and return values.
This tool appears under the Git-Hg Utilities menu as Prepare for Git-Hg commit. It operates on either an entire VFP project, or an individual Git or Mercurial repository folder. It performs several operations to prepare VFP files to be committed to their respective repositories.
- When a VFP project (.PJX) is selected for processing, a text version of the project file itself is generated, regardless of whether that project file is being tracked in any way.
- (New - 2016-07-23) For any .PJX files found in any of the repositories being processed, if there is a corresponding text version of that project file which is being tracked by the repository, the text file for the .PJX file will be regenerated.
- (New - 2016-12-09) Only the text files that correspond to the VFP binary files are required to be stored in a repository. Keeping the VFP binary files in a repository is optional, and you may keep a mix within the same repository - storing the binary files for some files, and only the text files for others.
- In the Git Utilities options, if you have specified that timestamp files are to be generated,
then the timestamp file for each repository being processed will be updated for all of the
files currently tracked in the repository.
NOTE: Untracked files (those that are new and not added) are ignored. For new files which have not been committed to the repository yet, timestamps are only saved for the new files that have been added in Git or Mercurial.
- A text file is generated for each VFP binary file which has been modified since the last commit.
The FoxBin2Prg configuration settings determine which binary files have text files generated
for them, and how the file is generated.
NOTE: Untracked files (those that are new and have not been added to the repository yet) are ignored. For new binary files which have not been committed to the repository yet, a text file is only generated if the primary binary file (VCX, SCX, MNX, FRX, LBX, DBF, DBC) is added in Git or Mercurial. - For any binary file that has changed because VFP generated new object code, but the source code
has not changed (the text file is still the same), the changes to the binary file will be
reverted.
NOTE: When this tool reverts binary files that haven't really changed, Git or Mercurial is used to replace those files. That means that any databases, tables, or classes which are being reverted need to be closed/released before running this utility. Files that are still open can cause this utility to "hang", preventing the process from completing. - (New - 2015-10-12) If the primary binary file (VCX, SCX, MNX, FRX, LBX, DBF, DBC) is added in Git or Mercurial, but the secondary file(s) (VCT, SCT, etc.) and/or the text file are still untracked (haven't been added to the repository yet), then those untracked files will be added to the repository automatically. This causes those files to be prepared for commit, and timestamps will be saved for them if you are using that option.
- For each text file being tracked, the tool will check if the corresponding VFP binary files exist, and whether the text file needs to be regenerated. If the Windows modification date and time of the VFP binaries does not match the date/time of the text file, the text file will be regenerated.
- After regenerating a text file, the tool makes sure the modification date/time of the VFP binary files is set to match the text file's date/time.
- NOTE: When a new VFP binary file is created, FoxBin2Prg will need to be called manually to create the text file for the first time, and the text file will need to be added to the repository. After that, this tool will take care of keeping the text file updated.
This tool appears under the Git-Hg Utilities menu as Post-checkout/update file synchronization. It operates on either an entire VFP project (all the repositories in that project), or an individual Git or Mercurial repository folder. It performs several operations to synchronize binary files and object code to the files tracked in a Git or Mercurial repository. This tool should be run after any Git or Mercurial operation that makes changes to VFP files in the working folders. In addition to Git checkout or Hg update, this includes pull, merge, and rebase.
(New - 2016-12-09) Storing VFP binaries in a repository is now optional. This tool supports repositories that only include FoxBin2Prg text files, or where only some of the binaries are tracked by the repository.
- For any repositories contain FoxBin2Prg text files, but do not store the corresponding VFP binary files, the binary files will be regenerated, if necessary. This tool checks and sets the Windows modification date/time values of the files it processes, so that it can determine when a VFP binary file needs to be regenerated.
- For any binary menu files (.MNX) that are stored in the repositories, or regenerated by this
process, the code files (.MPR) will be regenerated and recompiled using whatever program is
specified in the VFP
_GENMENUsystem variable.
(New - 2016-12-19) If the .MPR file is committed to your repository, then this tool will not call the_GENMENUprogram, but it will check if the .MPR file needs to be recompiled to update the .MPX file. If the .MPX file is also committed to the repository, this tool will not recompile the .MPR, either. - All program files (.PRG) in the repositories will be recompiled, if necessary.
(New - 2016-12-19) If you commit any .FXP files to your repositories, the corresponding .PRG file will not be recompiled. - In the Git Utilities options, if you have specified that timestamp files are be generated, then for each repository being processed that has a timestamp file, the file modification dates will be restored for all files in the repository.
- (New - 2016-09-07, enhanced 2016-12-09) If a repository uses a timestamp file, then any of the files that are recompiled or regenerated by this tool (.FXP, .MPR/.MPX, all the VFP binary files) will have their modification date and time set to match the timestamp of the main file (.PRG, VFP binary, or FoxBin2Prg text file). In addition, if a file to be recompiled/regenerated already has the same modification date and time as the timestamp of the main file, then that file will not be recompiled/regenerated.
Since this tool finds and regenerates binary files for all the text files in the selected repositories, it is normally simpler and faster than running FoxBin2Prg directly. In addition, regenerating and recompiling just the menus and programs is faster than recompiling an entire project to accomplish the same end result, and will save time when running the Prepare for Git-Hg commit tool, since it won't change the object code in the other VFP binary files.
This tool appears under the Git-Hg Utilities menu as Save file timestamps. It operates on
either an entire VFP project, or an individual Git or Mercurial repository folder. The purpose of
this tool is to preserve the modification date of each file being tracked in a repository, which
Git and Mercurial do not do. Whenever files are checked out of a Git or Mercurial repository, they
are assigned the current system date and time. However, sometimes it is nice to know the last time
a particular file was modified. This tool creates/updates a timestamp file in the root folder of
each repository being processed, saving the last modification date for each file being tracked in
the repository.
If the Git-Hg options specify that a timestamp file should always be used, or if a specific
repository is using a timestamp file, then the Prepare for Git-Hg commit tool will call this
process automatically to update the timestamp file.
This tool appears under the Git-Hg Utilities menu as Restore file timestamps. It operates on
either an entire VFP project, or an individual Git or Mercurial repository folder. Its purpose is
to restore the modification dates for all files listed in the timestamp files created by the Save
file timestamps tool.
If the Git-Hg options specify that a timestamp file should always be used, or if a specific
repository is using a timestamp file, then the Post-checkout file synchronization tool will
call this process automatically to restore the file modification date/times from the timestamp
file.
This tool appears under the Git-Hg Utilities menu as Show Git-Hg repos in project. It operates on the active VFP project, or if no project is open, it prompts for one. This is strictly an informational tool, which displays a cursor containing a list of all repositories which include files from the project, the branch that is currently checked out for each project, and a few stats about any changes or conflicts for each repository. A type field indicates whether each repository is a Git (G) or Mercurial (M) repository.