Home/ Questions/Q 7090599
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-28T08:04:29+00:00

I’ve tried to install the Git HTML help pages on OSX according to the

  • 0

I’ve tried to install the Git HTML help pages on OSX according to the instructions provided by the following links:

But when I get to the final verification step that involves running:

git help --web commit

I get the following error:

fatal: '/usr/local/git/share/doc/git-doc': not a documentation directory

I’ve verified that the folder, /usr/local/git/share/doc/git-doc was in fact created when I ran “git clone”, and that it is full of files that appear to be git documentation files.

Can someone let me know what I am missing? Thanks!

Here is a short list of some of the files that were created in the git-doc folder:

  • exec_cmd.c
  • exec_cmd.h
  • fast-import.c
  • fetch-pack.h
  • fixup-builtins
  • fmt-merge-msg.h
  • fsck.c
  • fsck.h
  • generate-cmdlist.sh
  • gettext.c
  • gettext.h
  • git-add–interactive.perl
  • git-am.sh
  • git-archimport.perl
  • git-bisect.sh
  • git-compat-util.h
  • git-cvsexportcommit.perl
  • git-cvsimport.perl
  • git-cvsserver.perl
  • git-difftool–helper.sh
  • git-difftool.perl
  • git-filter-branch.sh

EDIT:
Just looked over the git clone results and found this warning, not sure if it makes a difference:
“Remote branch html not found in upstream origin, using HEAD instead”

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Change clone command address from 

    $ sudo git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git git-doc --branch html

    to 

    $ sudo git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git-htmldocs.git git-doc

    Hope this will be changed in Github tutorial soon.

    UPDATE:

    If you are one of those who thinks it’s enough to have Apple Git distribution supplied with Xcode 4: 

    # create directory to keep Git documentation html-files
$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/git/share/doc # or whatever directory you choose

# change to that directory
$ cd /usr/local/git/share/doc

# clone repo with documentation 
$ sudo git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git-htmldocs.git git-doc 

# point your Git explicitly to a new documentation directory
$ git config --global help.htmlpath /usr/local/git/share/doc/git-doc

# tell Git to use html-formatted help by default
$ git config --global help.format html

    This will create an entry in your .gitconfig like:

    [help]
    format = html
    htmlpath = /usr/local/git/share/doc/git-doc
    • 0