Installation

Install git-snapshot using curl or build from source

Installation

Install git-snapshot using a one-line curl command, or clone and build from source.

Quick install

The fastest way to get started:

1. Run the install script

   Execute the one-line installer:

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mhm13dev/git-snapshot/main/install.sh | bash
   

   This installs git-snapshot to /usr/local/bin by default.

2. Verify installation

   Check that git-snapshot is available:

   git-snapshot help
   

   You should see the help output with all available commands.

3. Create your first snapshot

   Navigate to a Git repository and create a test snapshot:

   cd your-repo
   git-snapshot test
   

   Output:

   Snapshot created: test.a1b2c3d4.snapshot
   
     Staged files:    2
     Unstaged files:  1
     Untracked files: 0
   
   Restore with:
     git-snapshot restore test
   

Custom installation directory

If you want to install to a different directory (e.g., ~/.local/bin):

1. Create the directory if needed

   mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
   
2. Run installer with custom path

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mhm13dev/git-snapshot/main/install.sh | bash -s -- ~/.local/bin
   
3. Add to PATH if needed

   If ~/.local/bin is not in your PATH, add it:

   For bash:

   echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
   source ~/.bashrc
   

   For zsh:

   echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
   source ~/.zshrc
   

The installer will automatically detect if the install directory is not in your PATH and provide instructions.

Install from source

For development or if you prefer building locally:

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/mhm13dev/git-snapshot.git
   cd git-snapshot
   
2. Run the local installer

   ./install.sh
   

   The installer will detect the local source and install from there instead of downloading.

3. Verify installation

   git-snapshot --help
   

Requirements

git-snapshot is a Bash script with minimal dependencies:

• Bash (version 4.0 or later)
• Git (any recent version)
• curl or wget (for installation only)
• tar (for creating and extracting snapshots)
• jq (optional, for better JSON handling)

Most Unix-like systems (Linux, macOS) have these tools pre-installed.

Updating git-snapshot

To update to the latest version, simply re-run the installer:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mhm13dev/git-snapshot/main/install.sh | bash

The installer will detect the existing installation and prompt you to overwrite:

git-snapshot is already installed at /usr/local/bin/git-snapshot
Overwrite? [y/N] y

Uninstallation

To remove git-snapshot:

# Remove the executable
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/git-snapshot

# Optionally, remove all snapshots
rm -rf ~/.local/share/git-snapshots

Removing ~/.local/share/git-snapshots will delete all your saved snapshots permanently. Make sure you don’t need them before removing this directory.

Troubleshooting

Permission denied during installation

If you see permission errors:

Need sudo to write to /usr/local/bin

The installer will automatically use sudo. Enter your password when prompted.

Alternatively, install to a user-writable directory:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mhm13dev/git-snapshot/main/install.sh | bash -s -- ~/.local/bin

Command not found after installation

If you get command not found: git-snapshot:

1. Check if the install directory is in your PATH:

   echo $PATH
   

2. If the install directory is missing, add it to your shell configuration (see “Add to PATH” above)

3. Reload your shell:

   source ~/.bashrc  # or ~/.zshrc
   

curl vs wget

The installer works with both curl and wget:

# Using curl (recommended)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mhm13dev/git-snapshot/main/install.sh | bash

# Using wget
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mhm13dev/git-snapshot/main/install.sh | bash

Next steps

Quick start

Learn how to create and restore snapshots

Introduction

Understand when to use git-snapshot vs git stash