Download VTK with Git

This page documents how to download VTK source code through Git. See the README for more information.

Clone

Clone VTK using the commands:

$ git clone https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk.git VTK
$ cd VTK
$ git submodule update --init

Update

Users that have made no local changes and simply want to update a clone with the latest changes may run:

$ git pull

Avoid making local changes unless you have read our developer instructions.

Release

After cloning your local repository will be configured to follow the upstream master branch by default. One may create a local branch to track the upstream release branch instead, which should guarantee only bug fixes to the functionality available in the latest release:

$ git checkout --track -b release origin/release

This local branch will always follow the latest release. Use the above instructions to update it. Alternatively one may checkout a specific release tag:

$ git checkout v6.2.0

Release tags never move. Repeat the command with a different tag to get a different release. One may list available tags:

$ git tag

and then checkout any tag listed.