vcsh(1) - manage config files in $HOME via fake bare git repositories ===================================================================== ## SYNOPSIS `vcsh` [] `vcsh` clone [] `vcsh` delete `vcsh` enter `vcsh` help `vcsh` init `vcsh` list `vcsh` list-tracked `vcsh` list-tracked-by `vcsh` rename `vcsh` run `vcsh` setup `vcsh` which `vcsh` write-gitignore `vcsh` `vcsh` ## 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 . This is needed to support mr and other scripts properly and of no concern to an interactive user. ## OPTIONS * -c: Source prior to other configuration files * -d: Enable debug mode * -v: Enable verbose mode ## COMMANDS * 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 <$GIT_WORK_TREE> set. Allows you to run any and all commands without any restrictions. Use with care. Please note that there is a somewhat magic feature for run. Instead of it accepts , as well. Anything that has a slash in it will be assumed to be a path. `vcsh run` will then operate on this directory instead of the one normally generated from the repository's name. This is needed to support mr and other scripts properly and of no concern to an interactive user. * setup: Set up repository with recommended settings. * which : Find in name of any tracked file. * write-gitignore: Write .gitignore.d/ via git ls-files. * : Shortcut to run `vcsh` on a repo. Will prepend `git` to . * : Shortcut to run `vcsh enter `. ## ENVIRONMENT As noted earlier, `vcsh` will set <$GIT_DIR> and <$GIT_WORK_TREE> to the appropriate values for fake bare git repositories. ## CONFIG There are several ways to turn the various knobs on `vcsh`. In order of ascending precedence, they are: * `VARIABLE=foo vcsh` * * <$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/config> * `vcsh -c ` Please note that those files are sourced. Any and all commands will be executed in the context of your shell. Interesting knobs you can turn: * <$VCSH_GITIGNORE>: Can be either or . will seed the repo-specific <.gitignore> with all file and directory names which `git ls-files` returns. will descend through all directories recursively additionally to the above. Defaults to . Less interesting knobs you could turn: * <$VCSH_DEBUG>: Enter debug mode. * <$XDG_CONFIG_HOME>: As specified in the 'XDG Base Directory Specification', see Defaults to <$HOME/.config>. * <$VCSH_REPO_D>: The directory where repositories are read from and stored. Defaults to <$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/repo.d>. * <$VCSH_HOOK_D>: The directory where hooks are read from. Defaults to <$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/hooks-enabled>. * <$VCSH_BASE>: The directory where repositories are checked out to. Defaults to <$HOME>. ## 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. 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 , , etc is suggested; other options would be or . A dot after the hook name is optional. If you want to create hooks for a specific repository, simply prepend the repository's name, followed by a dot, i.e. . Otherwise, the same rules as above apply. The dot between the repository's name and the hook is mandatory, though. Available hooks are , , , , , and . 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 Manpages are often short and sometimes useless to glean best practices from. While the author tried to avoid this in this case, manpages can not cover detailed howtos. This software also comes with a file called . 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 . ## 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, all files listed in . You can put any and all commands into these config files and they will be executed. ## BUGS None are known at this time, but reports and/or patches are more than welcome. ## INTEROPERABILITY If you rely on `git submodule`, use `git` 1.7.12 or later. Earlier versions do not clean internal variables properly before descending into a submodule. ## 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 Licensed under the GNU GPL version 2 or higher. https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh ## SEE ALSO `git`(1), `mr`(1)