Merge pull request #228 from ttuegel/bugfix/shared

[code/vcsh.git] / README.md

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 41997d54517c03244cfc9a821e4521841a849ae8..f885b4a3cb1ad8097e451be32ac5582accea72df 100644 (file)
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,31 +1,45 @@
-vcsh - manage config files in $HOME via fake bare git repositories
+vcsh - Version Control System for $HOME - multiple Git repositories in $HOME

 
 

-# Index #
+[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/RichiH/vcsh.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/RichiH/vcsh)

 
 

-1. Contact
-2. Introduction
-3. Overview
-4. Getting Started
-5. Usage

 
 

-# 1 Contact #
+# Index

 
 

-There are several ways to get in touch with the author and a small but committed
-community around the general idea of version controlling your (digital) life.
+1. [30 Second How-to](#30-second-how-to)
+2. [Introduction](#introduction)
+3. [Contact](#contact)

 
 

-* IRC: #vcs-home on irc.oftc.net

 
 

-* Mailing list: [http://lists.madduck.net/listinfo/vcs-home][vcs-home-list]
+# 30 Second How-to

 
 

-* Pull requests or issues on [https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh][vcsh]
+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
+details of `git` internals, getting started with `vcsh` is extremely simple.
+
+Let's say you want to version control your `vim` configuration:
+
+    vcsh init vim
+    vcsh vim add ~/.vimrc ~/.vim
+    vcsh vim commit -m 'Initial commit of my Vim configuration'
+    # optionally push your files to a remote
+    vcsh vim remote add origin <remote>
+    vcsh vim push -u origin master
+    # from now on you can push additional commits like this
+    vcsh vim push

 
 

-# 2 Introduction #
+If all that looks a _lot_ like standard `git`, that's no coincidence; it's
+a design feature.

 
 

-[vcsh][vcsh] allows you to maintain several git repositories in one single
+
+# Introduction
+
+[vcsh][vcsh] allows you to maintain several Git repositories in one single

 directory. They all maintain their working trees without clobbering each other
 directory. They all maintain their working trees without clobbering each other

-or interfering otherwise. By default, all git repositories maintained via
-`vcsh` are stored in `$HOME` but you can override this setting if you want to.
-All that means that you can have one repository per application or application
+or interfering otherwise. By default, all Git repositories maintained via
+`vcsh` store the actual files in `$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
 users; picking and mixing which configurations you want to use where.
 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
 users; picking and mixing which configurations you want to use where.


@@ -33,357 +47,33 @@ For example, you may not need to have your `mplayer` configuration on a server
 or available to root and you may want to maintain different configuration for
 `ssh` on your personal and your work machines.
 
 or available to root and you may want to maintain different configuration for
 `ssh` on your personal and your work machines.
 

-`vcsh` was designed with [mr][mr] in mind so you might want to install that, as
-well.
+A lot of modern UNIX-based systems offer packages for `vcsh`. In case yours
+does not, read [INSTALL.md](doc/INSTALL.md) for install instructions or
+[PACKAGING.md](doc/PACKAGING.md) to create a package yourself. If you do end
+up packaging `vcsh` please let us know so we can give you your own packaging
+branch in the upstream repository.

 
 

-Read `INSTALL.md` and `PACKAGING` for instructions specific to your operating
-system.
-
-The following overview will try to give you an idea of the use cases and
-advantages of `vcsh`. See sections 3 and 4 for detailed instructions and
-examples.
-
-## 2.1 Talks ##
+## Talks

 
 Some people found it useful to look at slides and videos explaining how `vcsh`
 
 Some people found it useful to look at slides and videos explaining how `vcsh`

-works.
-They can all be found [on the author's talk page][talks].
-
-# 3 Overview
-
-## 3.1 Comparison to Other Solutions ##
-
-Most people who decide to put their dotfiles under version control start with a
-single repository in $HOME, adding all their dotfiles (and possibly more)
-to it. This works, of course, but can become a nuisance as soon as you try to
-manage more than one host.
-
-The next logical step is to create single-purpose repositories in, for example,
-~/.dotfiles and to create symbolic links in $HOME. This gives you the
-flexibility to check out only certain repositories on different hosts. The
-downsides of this approach are the necessary manual steps of cloning and
-symlinking the individual repositories. It will probably become a nuisance when
-you try to manage more than two hosts.
-
-vcsh takes this second approach one step further. It expects
-single-purpose repositories and stores them in a hidden directory (similar
-to ~/.dotfiles). However, it does not create symbolic links in $HOME; it puts
-the actual files right into $HOME.
-
-Furthermore, by making use of [mr] [1], it makes it very easy to enable/disable
-and clone a large number of repositories. The use of mr is technically optional
-(see 4.3), but it will be an integral part of the proposed system that follows.
-
-## 3.2 Default Directory Layout ##
-
-To illustrate, this is what a possible directory structure looks like.
-
-    $HOME
-        |-- $XDG_CONFIG_HOME (defaults to $HOME/.config)
-        |   |-- mr
-        |   |   |-- available.d
-        |   |   |   |-- zsh.vcsh
-        |   |   |   |-- gitconfigs.vcsh
-        |   |   |   |-- lftp.vcsh
-        |   |   |   |-- offlineimap.vcsh
-        |   |   |   |-- s3cmd.vcsh
-        |   |   |   |-- tmux.vcsh
-        |   |   |   |-- vim.vcsh
-        |   |   |   |-- vimperator.vcsh
-        |   |   |   `-- snippets.git
-        |   |   `-- config.d
-        |   |       |-- zsh.vcsh        -> ../available.d/zsh.vcsh
-        |   |       |-- gitconfigs.vcsh -> ../available.d/gitconfigs.vcsh
-        |   |       |-- tmux.vcsh       -> ../available.d/tmux.vcsh
-        |   |       `-- vim.vcsh        -> ../available.d/vim.vcsh
-        |   `-- vcsh
-        |       |-- config
-        |       `-- repo.d
-        |           |-- zsh.git  -----------+
-        |           |-- gitconfigs.git      |
-        |           |-- tmux.git            |
-        |           `-- vim.git             |
-        |-- [...]                           |
-        |-- .zshrc   <----------------------+
-        |-- .gitignore.d
-        |   `-- zsh
-        |-- .mrconfig
-        `-- .mrtrust
-
-### available.d ###
-
-The files you see in $XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/mr/available.d are mr configuration files
-that contain the commands to manage (checkout, update etc.) a single
-repository. vcsh repo configs end in .vcsh, git configs end in .git, etc. This
-is optional and your preference. For example, this is what a zsh.vcsh
-with read-only access to my zshrc repo looks likes. I.e. in this specific
-example, push can not work as you will be using the author's repository. This
-is for demonstration, only. Of course, you are more than welcome to clone from
-this repository and fork your own.
-
-    [$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/repo.d/zsh.git]
-    checkout = vcsh clone 'git://github.com/RichiH/zshrc.git' zsh
-    update   = vcsh run zsh git pull
-    push     = vcsh run zsh git push
-    status   = vcsh run zsh git status
-    gc       = vcsh run zsh git gc
-
-### 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
-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.
-
-### ~/.mrconfig ###
-
-Finally, ~/.mrconfig will tie together all those single files which will allow
-you to conveniently run `mr up` etc. to manage all repositories. It looks like
-this:
-
-    [DEFAULT]
-    jobs = 5
-    # Use if your mr does not have vcsh support in mainline, yet
-    include = cat /usr/share/mr/vcsh
-    include = cat ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/mr/config.d/*
-
-### repo.d ###
-
-$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/vcsh/repo.d is the directory where all git repositories which
-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] [1] 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.
-Optionally, merge your local and your global configs afterwards and push with
-`vcsh run foo git push`.
-
-## 3.3 Moving into a New Host ##
-
-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
-   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. Make sure the line 'include = cat /usr/share/mr/vcsh' in .mrconfig points
-   to an existing file
-4. Run mr to clone the repositories: `cd; mr update`.
-5. 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
-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.
-
-# 4 Getting Started #
-
-Below, you will find a few different methods for setting up vcsh:
-
-1. The Template Way
-2. The Steal-from-Template Way
-3. The Manual Way
-
-### 4.1 The Template Way ###
-
-#### 4.1.1 Prerequisites ####
-
-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/
-
-All of the files are part of the template repository, the directory is where
-the template will be stored.
-
-    apt-get install mr
-
-#### 4.1.2 Install vcsh ####
-
-#### 4.1.2.1 Debian ####
-
-If you are using Debian Squeeze, you will need to enable backports
-
-    apt-get install vcsh
+works instead of working through the docs.
+All slides, videos, and further information can be found
+[on the author's talk page][talks].

 
 

-#### 4.1.2.2 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).
+# Contact

 
 

-    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
-
-#### 4.1.2.3 From source ####
-
-If your version of mr is older than version 1.07, make sure to put
-
-    include = cat /usr/share/mr/vcsh
-
-into your .mrconfig .
-
-    # choose a location for your checkout
-    cd $HOME
-    mkdir -p ~/work/git
-    git clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh.git
-    cd vcsh
-    ln -s vcsh /usr/local/bin                       # or add it to your PATH
-    cd
-
-#### 4.1.3 Clone the Template ####
-
-    vcsh clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh_mr_template.git mr
-
-#### 4.1.4 Enable Your Test Repository ####
-
-    mv ~/.zsh   ~/zsh.bak
-    mv ~/.zshrc ~/zshrc.bak
-    cd $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/config.d/
-    ln -s ../available.d/zsh.vcsh .  # link, and thereby enable, the zsh repository
-    cd
-    mr up
-
-#### 4.1.5 Set Up Your Own Repositories ####
-
-Now, it's time to edit the template config and fill it with your own remotes:
-
-    vim $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/available.d/mr.vcsh
-    vim $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/available.d/zsh.vcsh
-
-And then create your own stuff:
-
-    vcsh init foo
-    vcsh run foo git add -f bar baz quux
-    vcsh run foo git remote add origin git://quuux
-    vcsh run foo git commit
-    vcsh run foo git push
-
-    cp $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/available.d/mr.vcsh $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/available.d/foo.vcsh
-    vim $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/available.d/foo.vcsh # add your own repo
-
-Done!
-
-### 4.2 The Steal-from-Template Way ###
-
-You're welcome to clone the example repository:
-
-    vcsh clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh_mr_template.git mr
-    # make sure 'include = cat /usr/share/mr/vcsh' points to an exiting file
-    vim .mrconfig
-
-Look around in the clone. It should be reasonably simple to understand. If not,
-poke me, RichiH, on Freenode (query) or OFTC (#vcs-home).
-
-
-### 4.3 The Manual Way ###
-
-This is how my old setup procedure looked like. Adapt it to your own style or
-copy mine verbatim, either is fine.
-
-    # Create workspace
-    mkdir -p ~/work/git
-    cd !$
-
-    # Clone vcsh and make it available
-    git clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh.git vcsh
-    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
-
-    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
-
-    ~ % 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
-    ~ % ls $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/available.d # random selection of my repos
-    git-annex gitk.vcsh git.vcsh ikiwiki mr.vcsh reportbug.vcsh snippets.git wget.vcsh zsh.vcsh
-    ~ %
-    # then simply ln -s whatever you want on your local machine from
-    # $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/available.d to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/config.d
-    ~ % cd
-    ~ % mr -j 5 up
-
-# 5 Usage #
-
-### 5.1 Keeping repositories Up-to-Date ###
-
-This is the beauty of it all. Once you are set up, just run:
-
-    mr up
-    mr push
-
-Neat.
-
-### 5.1 Making Changes ###
-
-After you have made some changes, for which you would normally use `git add`
-and `git commit`, use the vcsh wrapper (like above):
-
-    vcsh run foo git add -f bar baz quux
-    vcsh run foo git commit
-    vcsh run foo git push
-
-By the way, you'll have to use -f/--force flag with git-add because all files
-will be ignored by default. This is to show you only useful output when running
-git-status. A fix for this problem is being worked on.
-
-### 5.3 Using vcsh without mr ###
-
-vcsh encourages you to use [mr] [1]. 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
-other means.
-
-#### A Few Examples ####
-
-To initialize a new repository: `vcsh init zsh`
-
-To clone a repository: `vcsh clone ssh://<remote>/zsh.git`
-
-To interact with a repository, use the regular Git commands, but prepend them
-with `vcsh run $repository_name`. For example:
+There are several ways to get in touch with the author and a small but committed
+community around the general idea of version controlling your (digital) life.

 
 

-    vcsh run zsh git status
-    vcsh run zsh git add -f .zshrc
-    vcsh run zsh git commit
+* IRC: #vcs-home on irc.oftc.net

 
 

-Obviously, without mr keeping repositories up-to-date, it will have to be done
-manually. Alternatively, you could try something like this:
+* Mailing list: [http://lists.madduck.net/listinfo/vcs-home][vcs-home-list]

 
 

-    for repo in `vcsh list`; do
-        vcsh run $repo git pull;
-    done
+* 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
 [talks]: http://richardhartmann.de/talks/
 [vcsh]: https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh
 [vcs-home-list]: http://lists.madduck.net/listinfo/vcs-home