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[code/vcsh.git] / README.md

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-vcsh - manage config files in $HOME via fake bare git repositories
+vcsh - Version Control System for $HOME - multiple Git repositories in $HOME
+[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/RichiH/vcsh.svg)](https://travis-ci.org/RichiH/vcsh)

 
 

-# Index #

 
 

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

 
 

-# 1 Contact #
+1. [30 Second How-to](#30-second-how-to)
+2. [Introduction](#introduction)
+3. [Contact](#contact)

 
 

-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.
-
-* IRC: #vcs-home on irc.oftc.net
-
-* Mailing list: http://lists.madduck.net/listinfo/vcs-home
-
-* Pull requests or issues on https://github.com/RichiH/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
-well.
-
-Read INSTALL.md for detailed setup instructions.
-
-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 at [here](http://richardhartmann.de/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 #
+# 30 Second How-to

 
 

-Below, you will find a few different methods for setting up 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.

 
 

-1. The Template Way
-2. The Steal-from-Template Way
-3. The Manual Way
+Let's say you want to version control your `vim` configuration:

 
 

-### 4.1 The Template Way ###
+    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

 
 

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

 
 

-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/
+# Introduction

 
 

-All of the files are part of the template repository, the directory is where
-the template will be stored.
+[vcsh][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` store the actual files in `$HOME` but you can override this setting if
+you want to.

 
 

-    apt-get install mr
+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.
+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.

 
 

-#### 4.1.2 Clone the Template ####
+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.

 
 

-    cd $HOME
-    mkdir -p ~/work/git
-    git clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh.git vcsh
-    # make sure 'include = cat /usr/share/mr/vcsh' points to an exiting file
-    vim .mrconfig
-    cd vcsh
-    ln -s vcsh /usr/local/bin                       # or add it to your PATH
-    cd
-    vcsh clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh_mr_template.git mr
+## Talks

 
 

-#### 4.1.3 Enable Your Test Repository ####
+Some people found it useful to look at slides and videos explaining how `vcsh`
+works instead of working through the docs.
+All slides, videos, and further information can be found
+[on the author's talk page][talks].

 
 

-    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

 
 

-#### 4.1.4 Set Up Your Own Repositories ####
+# Contact

 
 

-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:
-
-    vcsh run zsh git status
-    vcsh run zsh git add -f .zshrc
-    vcsh run zsh git commit
+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.

 
 

-Obviously, without mr keeping repositories up-to-date, it will have to be done
-manually. Alternatively, you could try something like this:
+* IRC: #vcs-home on irc.oftc.net

 
 

-    for repo in `vcsh list`; do
-        vcsh run $repo git pull;
-    done
+* Mailing list: [http://lists.madduck.net/listinfo/vcs-home][vcs-home-list]

 
 

-----------
+* Pull requests or issues on [https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh][vcsh]

 
 

-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/)
+[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