# Index
-1. [30 second howto](#30-second-howto)
+1. [30 Second How-to](#30-second-how-to)
2. [Introduction](#introduction)
-3. [Usage Exmaples](#usage-examples)
+3. [Usage Examples](#usage-examples)
4. [Overview](#overview)
5. [Getting Started](#getting-started)
6. [Contact](#contact)
-# 30 second howto
+# 30 Second How-to
While it may appear that there's an overwhelming amount of documentation and
while the explanation of the concepts behind `vcsh` needs to touch a few gory
or interfering otherwise. By default, all Git repositories maintained via
`vcsh` store the actual files in `$HOME` but you can override this setting if
you want to.
+
All this means that you can have one repository per application or application
family, i.e. `zsh`, `vim`, `ssh`, etc. This, in turn, allows you to clone
custom sets of configurations onto different machines or even for different
There are three different ways to interact with `vcsh` repositories; this
section will only show the simplest and easiest way.
+
Certain more advanced use cases require the other two ways, but don't worry
about this for now. If you never even bother playing with the other two
modes you will still be fine.
+
`vcsh enter` and `vcsh run` will be covered in later sections.
As `vcsh` allows you to put an arbitrary number of distinct repositories into
your `$HOME`, you will end up with a lot of repositories very quickly.
-To manage both `vcsh` and other repositories, we suggest using [mr](mr). `mr`
-takes care of pulling in and pushing out new data for a variety of version
-control systems.
-
-`vcsh` was designed with [mr][mr], a tool to manage Multiple Repositories, in
-mind and the two integrate very nicely. `mr` has native support for `vcsh`
-repositories and to `vcsh`, `mr` is just another configuration to track.
-This make setting up any new machine a breeze. It takes literally less than
-five minutes to go from standard installation to fully set up system
-
-This is where `mr` comes in. While the use of `mr` is technically
-optional, but it will be an integral part of the proposed system that follows.
+`vcsh` was designed with [myrepos][myrepos], a tool to manage Multiple
+Repositories, in mind and the two integrate very nicely. The myrepos tool
+(`mr`) has native support for `vcsh` repositories and the configuration for
+myrepos is just another set of files that you cat track with `vcsh` like any
+other. This makes setting up any new machine a breeze. It can take literally
+less than five minutes to go from standard installation to fully set up system.
+
+We suggest using [myrepos][myrepos] to manage both `vcsh` and other
+repositories. The `mr` utility takes care of pulling in and pushing
+out new data for a variety of version control systems. While the use
+of myrepos is technically optional, it will be an integral part of the
+proposed system that follows. For instance, you can use
+[myrepos][myrepos] to track repositories in home such as `.emacs.d`,
+which `mr` can clone and update for you automatically. To do this,
+just add a `mr` configuration file to `availabile.d` with a `checkout`
+command to clone the repo, and set the [title] to the desired
+location, e.g. `$HOME/.emacs.d`. Try the `mr register` command in an
+existing repository, then view `~/.mrconfig` for an example.
## Default Directory Layout
### available.d
-The files you see in $XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/mr/available.d are mr configuration files
-that contain the commands to manage (checkout, update etc.) a single
-repository. vcsh repo configs end in .vcsh, git configs end in .git, etc. This
-is optional and your preference. For example, this is what a zsh.vcsh
-with read-only access to my zshrc repo looks likes. I.e. in this specific
-example, push can not work as you will be using the author's repository. This
-is for demonstration, only. Of course, you are more than welcome to clone from
-this repository and fork your own.
+The files you see in $XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/mr/available.d are myrepos
+configuration files that contain the commands to manage (checkout, update
+etc.) a single repository. vcsh repo configs end in .vcsh, git configs end
+in .git, etc. This is optional and your preference. For example, this is
+what a zsh.vcsh with read-only access to my zshrc repo looks likes. I.e. in
+this specific example, push can not work as you will be using the author's
+repository. This is for demonstration, only. Of course, you are more than
+welcome to clone from this repository and fork your own.
[$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/repo.d/zsh.git]
- checkout = vcsh clone 'git://github.com/RichiH/zshrc.git' zsh
+ checkout = vcsh clone 'git://github.com/RichiH/zshrc.git' 'zsh'
update = vcsh zsh pull
push = vcsh zsh push
status = vcsh zsh status
gc = vcsh zsh gc
+ [$HOME/.emacs.d]
+ checkout = vcsh clone 'git://github.com/andschwa/emacs.git' '.emacs.d'
+
### config.d
$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/mr/available.d contains *all available* repositories. Only
-files/links present in mr/config.d, however, will be used by mr. That means
+files/links present in mr/config.d, however, will be used by myrepos. That means
that in this example, only the zsh, gitconfigs, tmux and vim repositories will
be checked out. A simple `mr update` run in $HOME will clone or update those
four repositories listed in config.d.
are under vcsh's control are located. Since their working trees are configured
to be in $HOME, the files contained in those repositories will be put in $HOME
directly.
-Of course, [mr] [mr] will work with this layout if configured according to this
-document (see above).
+
+Of course, [myrepos][myrepos] will work with this layout if configured according to
+this document (see above).
vcsh will check if any file it would want to create exists. If it exists, vcsh
will throw a warning and exit. Move away your old config and try again.
To illustrate further, the following steps could move your desired
configuration to a new host.
-1. Clone the mr repository (containing available.d, config.d etc.); for
+1. Clone the myrepos repository (containing available.d, config.d etc.); for
example: `vcsh clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh_mr_template.git mr`
2. Choose your repositories by linking them in config.d (or go with the default
you may have already configured by adding symlinks to git).
-3. Run mr to clone the repositories: `cd; mr update`.
+3. Run myrepos to clone the repositories: `cd; mr update`.
4. Done.
Hopefully the above could help explain how this approach saves time by
1. making it easy to manage, clone and update a large number of repositories
- (thanks to mr) and
+ (thanks to myrepos) and
2. making it unnecessary to create symbolic links in $HOME (thanks to vcsh).
If you want to give vcsh a try, follow the instructions below.
Make sure none of the following files and directories exist for your test
(user). If they do, move them away for now:
-* ~/.gitignore.d
-* ~/.mrconfig
-* $XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/mr/available.d/mr.vcsh
-* $XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/mr/available.d/zsh.vcsh
-* $XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/mr/config.d/mr.vcsh
-* $XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/vcsh/repo.d/mr.git/
+* `~/.gitignore.d`
+* `~/.mrconfig`
+* `$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/mr/available.d/mr.vcsh`
+* `$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/mr/available.d/zsh.vcsh`
+* `$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/mr/config.d/mr.vcsh`
+* `$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/vcsh/repo.d/mr.git/`
All of the files are part of the template repository, the directory is where
the template will be stored.
- apt-get install mr
-
-#### Install vcsh
+### Install vcsh
#### Debian
-If you are using Debian Squeeze, you will need to enable backports
+If you are using Debian Squeeze, you will need to enable backports and the
+package name for myrepos will be 'mr'.
+
+From Wheezy onwards, you can install both directly:
+
+ apt-get install myrepos vcsh
+
+#### Gentoo
+
+To install vcsh in Gentoo Linux just give the following command as root:
- apt-get install vcsh
+ emerge dev-vcs/vcsh
+
+Note the portage package for myrepos still has the old project name:
+
+ emerge dev-vcs/mr
#### Arch Linux
-vcsh is availabe via [AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=54164)
-and further documentation about the use of AUR is available
-[on Arch's wiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository).
+vcsh is available via this [AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/vcsh/)
+package. Likewise myrepos is available [here](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/myrepos/).
+You may install both useing your favorite AUR helper. e.g. with yaourt:
+
+ yaourt -Sya myrepos vcsh
+
+Or you can do it yourself manually using the documentation on installing AUR packages
+[on Arch's wiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository#Installing_packages).
+
+If you prefer to use the devel package that installs the git HEAD version it
+is available [here](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/vcsh-git/).
+
+#### Mac OS X
- cd /var/abs/local/
- wget https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/vc/vcsh-git/vcsh-git.tar.gz
- tar xfz vcsh-git.tar.gz
- cd vcsh-git
- makepkg -s
- pacman -U vcsh*.pkg.tar.xz
+Formulas are available for vcsh as well as git and myrepos through [homebrew](http://brew.sh). The
+vcsh formula is set to depend on myrepos, so you only need one install command:
+
+ brew install vcsh
#### From source
+To install the latest version from git:
+
# choose a location for your checkout
mkdir -p ~/work/git
cd ~/work/git
git clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh.git
cd vcsh
- sudo ln -s vcsh /usr/local/bin # or add it to your PATH
- cd
+ sudo ln -s vcsh /usr/local/bin # or add it to your PATH
+
+For myrepos:
+
+ # use checkout location from above
+ cd ~/work/git
+ git clone git://myrepos.branchable.com/ myrepos
+ cd myrepos
+ make install
#### Clone the Template
sudo ln -s ~/work/git/vcsh/vcsh /usr/bin/local
hash -r
-Grab my mr config. see below for details on how I set this up
+Grab my myrepos config. see below for details on how I set this up
vcsh clone ssh://<remote>/mr.git
cd $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/config.d/
ln -s ../available.d/* .
-mr is used to actually retrieve configs, etc
+[myrepos][myrepos] is used to actually retrieve configs, etc.
~ % cat ~/.mrconfig
[DEFAULT]
- # adapt /usr/share/mr/vcsh to your system if needed
- include = cat /usr/share/mr/vcsh
include = cat $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/config.d/*
~ % echo $XDG_CONFIG_HOME
/home/richih/.config
~ % mr -j 5 up
-# mr usage ; will be factored out & rewritten
+# myrepos usage ; will be factored out & rewritten
### Keeping repositories Up-to-Date
vcsh foo commit
vcsh foo push
-### Using vcsh without mr
+### Using vcsh without myrepos
-vcsh encourages you to use [mr][mr]. It helps you manage a large number of
+vcsh encourages you to use [myrepos][myrepos]. It helps you manage a large number of
repositories by running the necessary vcsh commands for you. You may choose not
-to use mr, in which case you will have to run those commands manually or by
+to use myrepos, in which case you will have to run those commands manually or by
other means.
vcsh zsh add .zshrc
vcsh zsh commit
-Obviously, without mr keeping repositories up-to-date, it will have to be done
+Obviously, without myrepos keeping repositories up-to-date, it will have to be done
manually. Alternatively, you could try something like this:
for repo in `vcsh list`; do
* Pull requests or issues on [https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh][vcsh]
-[mr]: http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/mr/
+[myrepos]: http://myrepos.branchable.com/
[talks]: http://richardhartmann.de/talks/
[vcsh]: https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh
[vcs-home-list]: http://lists.madduck.net/listinfo/vcs-home
projects / code / vcsh.git / blobdiff