Working on Windows - Jujutsu docs

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# Working on Windows

Jujutsu works the same on all platforms, but there are some caveats that Windows users should be aware of.

## Line endings conversion

Jujutsu currently has a setting, `working-copy.eol-conversion`, similar to Git's `core.autocrlf`1, but does not currently honor `.gitattributes` and the `core.autocrlf` git config, so it is recommended to keep the `working-copy.eol-conversion` setting and the `core.autocrlf` git config in sync1.

Note

If you created a colocated git workspace, forget to keep these 2 settings in sync, and result in a dirty working copy with only EOL diffs, you can set the `working-copy.eol-conversion` setting correctly and run `jj abandon` to fix it.

The line endings conversion won't be applied to files detected as a binary files via a heuristics2 regardless of the settings. This behavior is subject to change when we support the text git attribute.

Jujutsu may make incorrect decision on whether a file is a binary file and apply line conversion incorrectly, but currently, Jujutsu doesn't support configuring line endings conversion for particular files. If this issue is hit, one should not enable the line conversion setting.

Note

If Jujutsu applies line endings conversion on incorrect files, you should not enable the line conversion setting and the git `core.autocrlf` setting. See below.

To disable line conversion, set the `core.autocrlf` setting to `none` or just remove the setting.

    PS> git config core.autocrlf input
    # We use none instead of input to avoid applying EOL conversion.
    PS> jj config set --repo working-copy.eol-conversion none
    # Abandoning the working copy will cause Jujutsu to overwrite all files with
    # CRLF line endings with the line endings they are committed with, probably LF
    PS> jj abandon

This means that line endings will be checked out exactly as they are committed and committed exactly as authored.

This setting ensures Git will check out files with LF line endings without converting them to CRLF. You'll want to make sure any tooling you use, especially IDEs, preserve LF line endings.

## Pagination

On Windows, `jj` will use its integrated pager called `streampager` by default, unless the config `ui.pager` is explicitly set. See the pager section of the config docs for more details.

If the built-in pager doesn't meet your needs and you have Git installed, you can switch to using Git's pager as follows:

    PS> jj config set --user ui.pager '["C:\\Program Files\\Git\\usr\\bin\\less.exe", "-FRX"]'
    PS> jj config set --user ui.paginate auto

## Typing `@` in PowerShell

PowerShell uses `@` as part the array sub-expression operator, so it often needs to be escaped or quoted in commands:

    PS> jj log -r `@
    PS> jj log -r '@'

One solution is to create a revset alias. For example, to make `HEAD` an alias for `@`:

    PS> jj config set --user revset-aliases.HEAD '@'
    PS> jj log -r HEAD

## WSL sets the execute bit on all files

When viewing a Windows drive from WSL (via /mnt/c or a similar path), Windows exposes all files with the execute bit set. Since Jujutsu automatically records changes to the working copy, this sets the execute bit on all files committed in your repository.

If you only need to access the repository in WSL, the best solution is to clone the repository in the Linux file system (for example, in `~/my-repo`).

If you need to use the repository in both WSL and Windows, one solution is to create a workspace in the Linux file system:

    PS> jj workspace add --name wsl ~/my-repo

Then only use the `~/my-repo` workspace from Linux.

## Symbolic link support

`jj` supports symlinks on Windows only when they are enabled by the operating system. This requires Windows 10 version 14972 or higher, as well as Developer Mode. If those conditions are not satisfied, `jj` will materialize symlinks as ordinary files.

For colocated workspaces, Git support must also be enabled using the `git config` option `core.symlinks=true`.

1. This poses the question if we should support reading the `core.autocrlf` setting in colocated workspaces. See details at the issue. ↩↩

2. To detect if a file is binary, Jujutsu currently checks if there is 0 byte in the file which is different from the algorithm of `gitoxide` or `git`. Jujutsu doesn't plan to align the binary detection logic with git. ↩