GIT is a free and open source version control system designed to handle small to very large project efficiently. Git is used to tracking changes in the source code, enabling multiple developers to work together on non-linear development. The Bochs source code and documentation is available using GIT[1] hostet on GitHub.
When you have a GIT client installed, the first step is to do a checkout. The initial checkout command is long and ugly, but usually you only have to do it once. The example below shows the GIT checkout process of the Bochs master branch in Unix. On the Windows platform, you can download a GIT client from git-scm.com, or use GIT within Cygwin[2].
Figure 3-1. Checking out Bochs in GIT
user$ git clone https://github.com/bochs-emu/Bochs.git Cloning into 'Bochs'... remote: Enumerating objects: 107946, done. remote: Counting objects: 100% (2708/2708), done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (869/869), done. remote: Total 107946 (delta 2095), reused 2118 (delta 1817), pack-reused 105238 Receiving objects: 100% (107946/107946), 39.53 MiB | 2.86 MiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (85554/85554), done. (This might take a few minutes, depending on your network connection.) user$ cd Bochs/bochs user$ ls CHANGES aclocal.m4 bxversion.rc.in crc.cc iodev osdep.h win32res.rc COPYING bios config.cc doc logio.cc param_names.h win32usbres.rc LICENSE bochs.h config.guess docs-html logio.h patches wxbochs.rc Makefile.in build config.h.in extplugin.h ltmain.sh pc_system.cc PARAM_TREE.txt bx_debug config.sub gdbstub.cc main.cc pc_system.h README bxdisasm.cc configure gui memory plugin.cc README-wxWidgets bxthread.cc configure.ac host misc plugin.h TESTFORM.txt bxthread.h cpu install-sh msrs.def qemu-queue.h TODO bxversion.h.in cpudb.h instrument osdep.cc win32_enh_dbg.rc user$ _
Note: This is just an example output of a checkout of specific version of the Bochs trunk and folder. Depending on the checkout command and revision, you most likely will see more/other files.
Tip: If you have write access to the Bochs GIT tree, see the Developers Guide for instructions.
The GIT checkout process (above) gives you a directory called Bochs
that contains the very latest source code. I will refer to this directory
as $BOCHS. In this directory there's also a subdirectory called ".git"
which tells the GIT software where the code was checked out, what version
you have, and where to go for future updates.
Most developers use GIT to always give them the latest source code. The minute
that any developer checks in a change, they are available to everyone else
through GIT. You just have to type git pull in the
$BOCHS directory, and GIT will retrieve any files and directories that have
been changed since you did a checkout. If you update regularly, each update
takes a short time because it downloads only the files that changed.
See also Getting a release version.
The git pull command tells you if any new files have been downloaded from the server, and it also tells you if you have modified any of the GIT-controlled files. As it checks through the source directories, it will list files that have changed.
You can also use the GIT checkout command to get the Bochs source code for any release since March 2000. The command is
user$ git clone --branch tagname https://github.com/bochs-emu/Bochs.gitThe tagname tells which release you want, and it can be one of the following:
Table 3-1. Bochs Release Tags
| Bochs version | Release tag for GIT | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| 2.8 | REL_2_8_FINAL | March 10, 2024 |
| 2.7 | REL_2_7_FINAL | August 1, 2021 |
| 2.6.11 (bugfix) | REL_2_6_11_FINAL | January 5, 2020 |
| 2.6.10 (intermediate) | REL_2_6_10_FINAL | December 1, 2019 |
| 2.6.9 (intermediate) | REL_2_6_9_FINAL | April 9, 2017 |
| 2.6.8 (intermediate) | REL_2_6_8_FINAL | May 3, 2015 |
| 2.6.7 (intermediate) | REL_2_6_7_FINAL | November 2, 2014 |
| 2.6.6 (bugfix) | REL_2_6_6_FINAL | June 15, 2014 |
| 2.6.5 (intermediate) | REL_2_6_5_FINAL | June 1, 2014 |
| 2.6.2 (bugfix) | REL_2_6_2_FINAL | May 26, 2013 |
| 2.6.1 (intermediate) | REL_2_6_1_FINAL | April 7, 2013 |
| 2.6 | REL_2_6_FINAL | September 2, 2012 |
| 2.5.1 (bugfix) | REL_2_5_1_FINAL | January 6, 2012 |
| 2.5 | REL_2_5_FINAL | November 27, 2011 |
| 2.4.6 | REL_2_4_6_FINAL | February 22, 2011 |
| 2.4.5 | REL_2_4_5_FINAL | April 25, 2010 |
| 2.4.2 | REL_2_4_2_FINAL | November 12, 2009 |
| 2.4.1 | REL_2_4_1_FINAL | June 7, 2009 |
| 2.4 | REL_2_4_FINAL | May 3, 2009 |
| 2.3.7 | REL_2_3_7_FINAL | June 3, 2008 |
| 2.3.6 | REL_2_3_6_FINAL | December 24, 2007 |
| 2.3.5 | REL_2_3_5_FINAL | September 16, 2007 |
| 2.3 | REL_2_3_FINAL | August 27, 2006 |
| 2.2.6 (intermediate2) | REL_2_2_6_FINAL | January 29, 2005 |
| 2.2.5 (intermediate1) | REL_2_2_5_FINAL | December 30, 2005 |
| 2.2.1 (bugfix1) | REL_2_2_1_FINAL | July 8, 2005 |
| 2.2 | REL_2_2_FINAL | May 28, 2005 |
| 2.1.1 (bugfix1) | REL_2_1_1_FINAL | February 8, 2004 |
| 2.1 | REL_2_1_FINAL | January 9, 2004 |
| 2.0.2 (bugfix2) | REL_2_0_2_FINAL | January 21, 2003 |
| 2.0.1 (bugfix1) | REL_2_0_1_FINAL | January 4, 2003 |
| 2.0 | REL_2_0_FINAL | December 21, 2002 |
| 1.4.1 (bugfix1) | REL_1_4_1_FINAL | June 22, 2002 |
| 1.4 | REL_1_4_FINAL | March 27, 2002 |
| 1.3 | REL_1_3_FINAL | December 10, 2001 |
| 1.2.1 (bugfix1) | REL_1_2_1_FINAL | June 12, 2001 |
| 1.2 | REL_1_2_FINAL | June 3, 2001 |
| 1.1.2 (bugfix3) | REL_1_1_2_BASE | May 16, 2001 |
| 1.1.1 (bugfix2) | REL_1_1_1_BASE | April 9, 2001 |
| 1.1 (bugfix1) | REL_1_1_BASE | April 6, 2001 |
| 1.0 (bochs-2000_0325a) | REL-bochs-2000-03-25 | March 25, 2000 |
The official GIT documentation can be found at https://git-scm.com/doc and the official GitHub docs are located at https://docs.github.com/en.
| [1] | You can download GIT software and documentation from git-scm.com. |
| [2] | Cygwin is an open source Unix-like environment for Windows platforms, available at www.cygwin.com. |