| Magit | |
| Author: | Marius Vollmer |
| Developer: | Jonas Bernoulli, Kyle Meyer, and Noam Postavsky |
| Latest Release Version: | 3.3.0.[1] |
| License: | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Programming Language: | Emacs Lisp |
Magit is an interface to the Git version control system(a Git Client),implemented as a GNU Emacs package[2] [3] written in Elisp.It is made available through the MELPA package repository,[4] on which it is the most-downloaded non-library package, with over 3.7 million downloads as of February 2023.[5]
Like many graphical user interfaces, Magit provides a visual interface to represent version control actions;however, it uses a keyboard-centric model, and also functions as a text-based user interface.The issue of key-memorization is mitigated through use of a popup menu which displays the actions available to the user[6] — serving as a mnemonic aid.[7]
Magit was created by Marius Vollmer in 2008,[8] with Jonas Bernoulli assuming the role of maintainer in 2013.[9] Since its release, Magit has seen a high degree of community involvement, with 350 individuals[10] having contributed code to this free software project as of September 2020.
In 2018 Magit underwent a Kickstarter funding campaign[11] which aimed to fund the maintainer for a year of work. The fundraising was successful and resulted in the project being the 27th most funded software project on Kickstarter.[12] Since the Kickstarter funded period expired donations are encouraged to support the authors development via direct payments, GitHub's sponsorship program and various other crowdfunding services.[13]
Magit aims to encapsulate the entire functionality of Git.As such, Magit includes interfaces for[14]
Magit's Forge provides integration with a number of forges,[15] namely GitHub and GitLab.[16]
Partial support is also listed for: Gitea, Gogs, Bitbucket, Gitweb, Cgit, StGit and SourceHut.
Forge currently allows for[17]
There has been interest in including Magit in Emacs, but there are issues with obtaining FSF copyright assignment from all contributors to the project.[18]
Magit is favourably covered in a number of blog posts and tutorialsand a talk delivered by former Emacs' maintainer John Wiegley.[19] [20] [21]
Magit is included by default in the Emacs configuration frameworks Spacemacs and Doom Emacs.[22] [23]
As of February 2023, Magit is the most starred Emacs package on GitHub.[24]