Version Control

Eclipse Che natively supports the VS Code SCM model. By default, Eclipse Che includes the native VS Code Git extension as a Source Code Management (SCM) provider.

Managing Git configuration: identity

The first thing to do before starting to use Git is to set a user name and email address. This is important because every Git commit uses this information.

Prerequisites

The Visual Studio Code Git extension installed.

Procedure

To configure Git identity using the Che user interface, go to in Preferences.

Open File > Settings > Open Preferences:
In the opened window, navigate to the Git section, and find:
```
 user.name
 user.email
```
Configure the identity.

To configure Git identity using the command line, open the terminal of the Che-Theia container.

Navigate to the My Workspace view, and open Plugins > theia-ide… > New terminal:

Execute the following commands:

$ git config --global user.name "John Doe"
$ git config --global user.email johndoe@example.com

Che-Theia permanently stores this information and restores it on future workspace starts.

Accessing a Git repository using HTTPS

Prerequisites

The git tool is available. See: Getting Started - Installing Git.

Procedure

To clone a repository using HTTPS:

Use the clone command provided by the Visual Studio Code Git extension.

Alternatively, use the native Git commands in the terminal to clone a project.

Navigate to destination folder using the cd command.
Use git clone to clone a repository:
```
$ git clone <link>
```
Eclipse Che supports Git self-signed TLS certificates. See Deploying Che with support for Git repositories with self-signed certificates to learn more.

Accessing a Git repository using a generated SSH key pair

Generating an SSH key using the Che command palette

The following section describes a generation of an SSH key using the Che command palette and its further use in Git provider communication. This SSH key restricts permissions for the specific Git provider; therefore, the user has to create a unique SSH key for each Git provider in use.

Prerequisites

A running instance of Che. To install an instance of Eclipse Che, Installing Che.
An existing workspace defined on this instance of Che Creating and configuring a new Che 7.18 workspace.
Personal GitHub account or other Git provider account created.

Procedure

A common SSH key pair that works with all the Git providers is present by default. To start using it, add the public key to the Git provider.

Generate an SSH key pair that only works with a particular Git provider:
- In the Che IDE, press F1 to open the Command Palette, or navigate to View → Find Command in the top menu.
  
  The command palette can be also activated by pressing Ctrl+Shift+p (or Cmd+Shift+p on macOS).
- Search for SSH: generate key pair for particular host by entering generate into the search box and pressing Enter once filled.
- Provide the hostname for the SSH key pair such as, for example, github.com.
  
  The SSH key pair is generated.
Click the View button and copy the public key from the editor and add it to the Git provider.

Because of this action, the user can now use another command from the command palette: Clone git repository by providing an SSH secured URL.

Adding the associated public key to a repository or account on GitHub

To add the associated public key to a repository or account on GitHub:

Navigate to github.com.
Click the drop-down arrow next to the user icon in the upper right corner of the window.
Click Settings → SSH and GPG keys and then click the New SSH key button.
In the Title field, type a title for the key, and in the Key field, paste the public key copied from Che.
Click the Add SSH key button.

Adding the associated public key to a Git repository or account on GitLab

To add the associated public key to a Git repository or account on GitLab:

Navigate to gitlab.com.
Click the user icon in the upper right corner of the window.
Click Settings → SSH Keys.
In the Title field, type a title for the key and in the Key field, paste the public key copied from Che.
Click the Add key button.

Managing pull requests using the GitHub PR plug-in

To manage GitHub pull requests, the VS Code GitHub Pull Request plug-in is available in the list of plug-ins of the workspace.

Using the GitHub Pull Requests plug-in

Prerequisites

GitHub OAuth is configured. See Configuring GitHub OAuth.

Procedure

Authenticate by running the GitHub authenticate command.
You will be redirected to GitHub to authorize Che.
When Che is authorized, refresh the browser page where Che is running to update the plug-in with the GitHub token.

Alternatively, manually fetch the GitHub token and paste it to the plug-in by running the GitHub Pull Requests: Manually Provide Authentication Response command.

Creating a new pull request

Open the GitHub repository. To be able to execute remote operations, the repository must have a remote with an SSH URL.
Checkout a new branch and make changes that you want to publish.
Run the GitHub Pull Requests: Create Pull Request command.