Git LabVIEW Integration

This repository provides Bash wrappers for local LVCompare and LVMerge executables to be used in both Windows and POSIX(-like) environments (Mac and Linux).

Usage

It can serve as a template of a LabVIEW project using Git as its version control system, a submodule of another git repo, or be placed outside the project (e.g. in the home directory).

To get start on Windows, work on Git Bash:

• Copy git-labview-integration-posix/labview_path_windows.config.default to your project and rename to labview_path_windows.config.

  • The name is arbitrary, and the path to the configuration will be used later.
  • It is preferred to place it at the project root, but it's okay not to.
  • PROJECT_ROOT_FORCED needs to be set if the config file isn't placed inside the project.

• Edit the configuration

  • LABVIEW_EXECUTABLE
    • Absolute path to the LabVIEW executable.
    • Specify manually if command -v LabVIEW fails to print out the expected value.
  • LVCOMPARE_EXECUTABLE
    • Absolute path to the LVCompare executable.
    • Specify manually if command -v LVCompare fails to print out the expected value.
  • LVMERGE_EXECUTABLE
    • Absolute path to the LVMerge executable.
    • Specify manually if command -v LVMerge fails to print out the expected value.
  • CONFIG_DIRECTORY_LEVEL
    • Sub-directory level from the project root to the configuration file.
    • The default value 0 indicates that the configuration file is placed under the project root.
    • Change if the configuration is placed in a sub-directory inside the project instead of placing at the project root.
    • For example, the sub-directory level for foo/bar/labview_path_windows.config is 2.
  • PROJECT_ROOT_FORCED
    • Manually-specified project root.
    • Optional, specify only if the configuration file is not placed inside the project, or if the absolute path to the project root cannot be correctly determined.
    • For example, when working on a project in the shared folder of Windows-in-VirtualBox, Git sometimes interprete the path as //VBoxSvr and cause the script to fail, making manual specification nessisary.

• Inside the project, do

  $ git config difftool.lvcompare.cmd "bash \"path/to/lvcompare_as_difftool.sh\" \"path/to/labview_path_windows.config\" \"\$REMOTE\" \"\$LOCAL\""
  $ git config difftool.lvmerge.cmd "bash \"path/to/lvmerge_as_mergetool.sh\" \"path/to/labview_path_windows.config\" \"\$BASE\" \"\$REMOTE\" \"\$LOCAL\" \"\$MERGED\""

  • "path\\to\\blablabla" is okay in Git BASH, but too much escape makes me dizzy.
  • If you want lvcompare to be the default difftool and lvmerge the default mergetool, you can also do

    $ git config diff.tool lvcompare
    $ git config merge.tool lvmerge

• Now you can use

  $ git difftool -t lvconfig something another

  to see the difference with LVCompare and

  $ git mergetool -t lvmerge

  to resolve merge conflicts. -t can be omitted if lvdiff and lvmerge is set as the default difftool and mergetool respectively.

The above configuration can also be done in cmd.exe or PowerShell, but the escaping might be different.

The configuration steps are the same in POSIX environments, plus the executable path can be automatically detected by e.g. "$(command -v LabVIEW)" as long as those commands appear in the PATH variable.

Status

• The usage/featrues mentioned above have all been implemented.

• The Windows version has been tested with LabVIEW setup.

• Both are tested by specifying echo as LVCOMPARE_EXECUTABLE and LVMERGE_EXECUTABLE.

• Since I haven't figured out the way to get a working setup of LabVIEW on Linux, and I doesn't have a Mac machine, the POSIX part haven't been tested against real LabVIEW setup.

• Considering that the Windows part are more complex than the POSIX part due to the gap between Windows and BASH, it also requires more user experience to be improved.

• Suggestions, ideas and contributions are welcome!

References

• NI Documentation

  • Configuring Source Control with LvConfig.exe
    https://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361R-01/lvhowto/configlvcomp_thirdparty/
  • Compare VIs Dialog Box
    https://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361R-01/lvdialog/compare_vis_dialog_box/
  • Configuring Source Control with LVMerge.exe
    https://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361R-01/lvhowto/configmerge_thirdparty/
  • Select VIs to Merge Dialog Box
    https://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361R-01/lvdialog/merge_vis_db/
  • Getting started with Git and LabVIEW
    https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z0000019OWSSA2

• Forum posts

  • Configuring Git to work with LVCompare and LVMerge
    https://lavag.org/topic/17934-configuring-git-to-work-with-lvcompare-and-lvmerge/
  • LabVIEW and Git
    https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/LabVIEW-and-git/td-p/3369275?profile.language=en
  • Git and DiffTool problems : What do LOCAL and REMOTE point to?
    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5440610/git-and-difftool-problems-what-do-local-and-remote-point-to

Acknowledgements

• Special thanks go to Jörg Herzinger, Joe Friedrichsen and contributers of the project joerg/LabViewGitEnv.
  The project also works on making LVCompare and LVMerge available Git. Their work enhanced my understanding to LVCompare, LVMerge, git-difftool and git-mergetool, and inspired me to make this one.

Copyright

• This work is authored by Yueh-Shun Li (a.k.a. Shamrock Lee) and is released under the MIT license. See LICENSE for detail.

• Git is a trademark held by the Git Project.

• LabVIEW is a trademark held by the National Instruments Corp..