* IRC: #vcs-home on irc.oftc.net
-* Mailing list: vcs-home@lists.madduck.net
+* Mailing list: [http://lists.madduck.net/listinfo/vcs-home][vcs-home-list]
-* Pull requests or issues on https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh
+* Pull requests or issues on [https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh][vcsh]
# 2 Introduction #
-vcsh allows you to have several git 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 was designed with [mr] [1] in mind so you might want to install that, as
+vcsh allows you to maintain several git repositories in one single 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
+family, i.e. zsh, vim, ssh, mr, etc.
+This, in turn, allows you to clone different sets of configurations onto
+different machines or even for different users; picking and mixing which
+configurations you want to use on which machine.
+For example, you may not need to have your mplayer configuration on a server or
+for 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.
-Read INSTALL.md for detailed setup instructions.
+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 ##
+
+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 ##
| | |-- tmux.vcsh -> ../available.d/tmux.vcsh
| | `-- vim.vcsh -> ../available.d/vim.vcsh
| `-- vcsh
+ | |-- config
| `-- repo.d
| |-- zsh.git -----------+
| |-- gitconfigs.git |
| `-- vim.git |
|-- [...] |
|-- .zshrc <----------------------+
- |-- .gitignore
+ |-- .gitignore.d
+ | `-- zsh
|-- .mrconfig
`-- .mrtrust
### available.d ###
-The files you see in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/available.d are mr configuration files
+The files you see in $XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/mr/available.d are mr configuration files
that contain the commands to manage (checkout, update etc.) a single
repository. vcsh repo configs end in .vcsh, git configs end in .git, etc. This
is optional and your preference. For example, this is what a zsh.vcsh
### config.d ###
-$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/available.d contains *all available* repositories. Only
+$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
[DEFAULT]
jobs = 5
- include = cat $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mr/config.d/*
+ # 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 ###
-$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/repo.d is the directory where all git repositories which
+$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.
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`
+ 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`.
-4. Done.
+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
Make sure none of the following files and directories exist for your test
(user). If they do, move them away for now:
-* ~/.gitignore
+* ~/.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/
+* $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 Clone the Template ####
+#### 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
+
+#### 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).
+
+ 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 $HOME
mkdir -p ~/work/git
- cd !$
- git clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh.git vcsh
+ git clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh.git
cd vcsh
- ln -s vcsh /usr/local/bin # or add it to your PATH
+ ln -s vcsh /usr/local/bin # or add it to your PATH
cd
- vcsh clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh_mr_template.git mr.vcsh
-#### 4.1.3 Enable Your Test Repository ####
+#### 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
mr up
-#### 4.1.4 Set Up Your Own Repositories ####
+#### 4.1.5 Set Up Your Own Repositories ####
Now, it's time to edit the template config and fill it with your own remotes:
You're welcome to clone the example repository:
- git clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh_mr_template.git
+ 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).
~ % 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
vcsh run $repo git pull;
done
-----------
-
-mr can be found at: [http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/mr/][1]
-[1]: http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/mr/ (http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/mr/)
+[mr]: http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/mr/
+[talks]: http://richardhartmann.de/talks/
+[vcsh]: https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh
+[vcs-home-list]: http://lists.madduck.net/listinfo/vcs-home