vcsh(1) - manage config files in $HOME via fake bare git repositories
=====================================================================

## SYNOPSIS

`vcsh` clone <url> [<repo>]

`vcsh` delete <repo>

`vcsh` enter <repo>

`vcsh` help

`vcsh` init <repo>

`vcsh` list

`vcsh` list-tracked

`vcsh` list-tracked-by <repo>

`vcsh` rename <repo> <newname>

`vcsh` run <repo> <command>

`vcsh` setup <repo>

`vcsh` which <substring>

`vcsh` write-gitignore <repo>

`vcsh` <repo> <gitcommand>

`vcsh` <repo>


## DESCRIPTION

`vcsh` allows you to have several `git`(1) repositories, all maintaining their
working trees in $HOME without clobbering each other. That, in turn, means you
can have one repository per config set (zsh, vim, ssh, etc), picking and
choosing which configs you want to use on which machine.

`vcsh` is using a technique called fake bare git repositories, keeping <$GIT_DIR>
in a different directory from <$GIT_WORK_TREE> which is pointed to <$HOME>.

The use of symlinks is not needed in this setup, making for a cleaner setup.

`vcsh` was designed with `mr`(1) in mind so you might want to install it alongside
vcsh. That being said, you can easily use `vcsh` without `mr` if you prefer.

A sample configuration for `vcsh` and `mr` can be found at
*https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh_mr_template* and used with `vcsh clone
https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh_mr_template mr`.

Please note that you can always use a path instead of a name for <repo>.
This is needed to support mr and other scripts properly and of no concern to
an interactive user.

## OPTIONS

* clone:
  Clone an existing repository.

* delete:
  Delete an existing repository.

* enter:
  Enter repository; spawn new <$SHELL>.

* help:
  Display help.

* init:
  Initialize an empty repository.

* list:
  List all local vcsh repositories.

* list-tracked:
  List all files tracked by vcsh.

* list-tracked-by:
  List files tracked by a repository.

* rename:
  Rename a repository.

* run:
  Run command with <$GIT_DIR> and <$GIT_WORK_TREE> set. Allows you to run any
  and all commands without any restrictions. Use with care.

  Please note that there is a somewhat magic feature for run. Instead of <repo>
  it accepts <path>, as well. Anything that has a slash in it will be assumed to
  be a path. `vcsh run` will then operate on this directory instead of the one
  normally generated from the repository's name.
  This is needed to support mr and other scripts properly and of no concern to
  an interactive user.

* setup:
  Set up repository with recommended settings.

* which <substring>:
  Find <substring> in name of any tracked file.

* write-gitignore:
  Write .gitignore.d/<repo> via git ls-files.

* <repo> <gitcommand>:
  Shortcut to run `vcsh` on a repo. Will prepend `git` to <command>.

* <repo>:
  Shortcut to run `vcsh enter <repo>`.

## ENVIRONMENT

As noted earlier, `vcsh` will set <$GIT_DIR> and <$GIT_WORK_TREE> to the
appropriate values for fake bare git repositories.

## HOOK SYSTEM

`vcsh` provides a hook system. Hook scripts must be executable and should be
placed in <$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/hooks-available>. From there, they can be
soft-linked into <$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/hooks-enabled>; `vcsh` will only
execute hooks that are in this directory.

Hooks follow a simple format. <pre-run> will be run before anything is run.
If you want to have more than one script for a certain hook, just append
any kind of string to order them. A system of <pre-run>, <pre-run.10>,
<pre-run.20> etc is suggested; other options would be <pre-run-10> or
<pre-run.sh>. A dot after the hook name is optional.

If you want to create hooks for a specific <vcsh> repository, simply prepend
the repository's name, followed by a dot, i.e. <zsh.pre-run>. Otherwise, the
same rules as above apply. The dot between the repository's name and the hook
is mandatory, though.

Available hooks are <pre-enter>, <post-enter>, <pre-run>, <post-run>,
<pre-setup>, and <post-setup>. If you need more, vcsh is trivial to patch,
but please let upstream know so we can ship them by default.

## DETAILED HOWTO AND FURTHER READING

Man pages are intended to be short and thus often useless to glean best
practices from. This software comes with a file called <README.md>. It contains
various approaches to setting up and using vcsh. You can view the file it as
plain text or render it into various other formats via Markdown.

On Debian-based systems, this file can be found in </usr/share/doc/vcsh>.

## SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

`vcsh` allows you to execute arbitrary commands via `vcsh` run. For example,
adding a `sudo`(8) rule for `vcsh` would be pretty stupid.

Additionally, vcsh will source, i.e. execute, <$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/config>.
You can put any and all commands into this config file and they will be executed.

## BUGS

None are known at this time, but reports and/or patches are more than welcome.

## KNOWN ISSUES

As of this writing (June 2012), `vcsh` does not work with `git submodule` due
to limitations within `git`. Depending on when you are reading this, you might
want to consider upgrading.

## HISTORY

Like most people, the author initially made do with a single repository for all
config files, all of which were soft-linked into <$HOME>.

Martin F. Krafft aka madduck came up with the concept of fake bare git
repositories.

vcsh was initally written by madduck. This version is a re-implementation from
scratch with a lot more features. madduck graciously agreed to let the author
take over the name.

## AUTHOR

This manpage and `vcsh` itself were written by Richard "RichiH" Hartmann.

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2011-2012 Richard Hartmann <richih.mailinglist@gmail.com>

Licensed under the GNU GPL version 2 or higher.

https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh

## SEE ALSO

`git`(1), `mr`(1)