---+ Accessing SWI-Prolog source via GIT

[[GIT][<git:>]] is a fast version control system developed by Linus Torvalds and
currently maintained by Junio C Hamano. Here is our
[[motivation][whygit.txt]] for choosing GIT for managing the SWI-Prolog
sources. You should use the GIT version if you want to stay
*|up-to-date|* and/or you want to [[contribute][<howto/SubmitPatch.html>]] to the project. Many professional users opt for this route.

First install [[GIT][<git:>]] for your platform. You need at least
version 1.6.0 because the SWI-Prolog repository uses the GIT submodule
features. Many modern Unix versions come with GIT installed. If your
version is too old, installing a new version from source is simple. On
MS-Windows we use [[msysGit][<msysgit:>]], which is easily installed and
except for being much slower than its Unix counterpart appears to do the
job flawlessly. If you want graphical tools on Windows, please check out
[[TortoiseGit][<tortoisegit:>]].

With GIT installed, you can clone the repository from one of the
addresses below. The HTTP gateway provides you with access if a proxy or
firewall denies direct internet access to the git port (9418).

    * http://www.swi-prolog.org/home/pl/git/pl.git
    * git://www.swi-prolog.org/home/pl/git/pl.git [[star.gif]]

The development version is kept in its own repository at

    * http://www.swi-prolog.org/home/pl/git/pl-devel.git
    * git://www.swi-prolog.org/home/pl/git/pl-devel.git [[star.gif]]

Initial checkout is achieved using the command below, which creates a
directory =|pl-devel|= below the current directory. The download does not
contain generated documentation and configuration files, neither the
required stand-alone submodules. Use the *|./prepare|* script to fetch
these. This script also runs on Windows using the bash-shell that comes
with =msysGit=. 

==
% git clone git://www.swi-prolog.org/home/pl/git/pl-devel.git
% cd pl-devel
% ./prepare
==

Next, consult the file INSTALL for further instructions for installing
SWI-Prolog from source. You can update to the latest version using the
following commands from the toplevel directory:

==
% make distclean 	(typically you can ignore errors)
% git pull
% ./prepare
% ./build
==