Git, Github, Github desktop, and PHPStorm

Answered

Created November 18, 2019 20:31

I'm a PHP newbie working with a tutor. He set me up with an account on Github, PHPstorm, XAMPP, and Github desktop. However, ever since we did that I now get an error message whenever I open PHPstorm "Cannot run git.exe". Since I don't have, and never did have, git (i use github desktop instead), I don't know why this message is appearing or how I can get rid of it. I close it, but it opens again a few minutes later. I tried entering the path to github desktop in the configuration where it is looking for git.exe, but it didn't work. Can anyone tell me how to eliminate this error message?

Also, my tutor says that GitDesktop will be easier for me to use than Git. What are the disadvantages of using GitDesktop over using just plain Git? Should I switch?

(I submitted this question before - twice - but I think I submitted them in the wrong place. I'm still a little confused by the community setup, but I'm sure at some point it will make more sense to me.)

Thanks

CJ Rhoads

4 comments

Eugene Morozov

Created November 19, 2019 22:04

Usually, on Windows, people go with Git SCM: https://git-scm.com/
That is a native Windows Git client: https://github.com/git/git-scm.com
If you don't want to install this client, you can as well specify the path to git.exe (and not to the installation folder) installed by GithubDesktop.
You can find clues about its whereabouts here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34565238/where-does-github-desktop-install-command-line-version-of-git

P.S. Please avoid cross-posting.

Created November 25, 2019 14:34

Thanks for your help. Unfortunately, I read the stackoverflow and they point to a folder that does not exist on my system:

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\GitHubDesktop\app-1.0.5\resources\app\git\cmd\git.exe

Reading further, it appears that since 2017 GitHubDesktop has dropped support for the command line version of git, which may be why the git.exe no longer exists in the GitHubDesktop directory structure.

Which still leaves me with the problem of getting GitHubDesktop to work in conjunction with PHPStorm. I'll look into git-scm.com with my tutor to see if that is a better option, but for now I just want to get rid of the error message in PHPStorm. I'm NOT using git integration with PHPStorm - I'm just learning how to use the programs separately. (I may integrate after I've learned more about what I'm doing.)

So if you know how I can suppress the error message, I would greatly appreciate that information.

Regards

CJ Rhoads

Eugene Morozov

Created November 25, 2019 14:43

I'm NOT using git integration with PHPStorm - I'm just learning how to use the programs separately. (I may integrate after I've learned more about what I'm doing.)

Ah, that's easy then. You can disable the Git plugin at Settings | Plugins | Installed, that should do the trick.

Created November 25, 2019 15:04

Thanks. I tried that many times, but couldn't figure out how to do it because I was looking at the Git Integration settings. But your explicit directions to Plugins was what I needed - I just unclicked the Github integration and voila! No more error code.

Thanks so much.

Peace

Please sign in to leave a comment.