-vcsh - Version Control System for $HOME (based on git)
+vcsh - Version Control System for $HOME - multiple Git repositories in $HOME
-# Index #
+# Index
1. [30 second howto](#30-second-howto)
-2. [Contact](#contact)
-3. [Introduction](#introduction)
+2. [Introduction](#introduction)
+3. [Usage Exmaples](#usage-examples)
4. [Overview](#overview)
5. [Getting Started](#getting-started)
-6. [Usage](#usage)
+6. [Contact](#contact)
-# 30 second howto #
+# 30 second howto
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.
+details of `git` internals, getting started with `vcsh` is extremely simple.
Let's say you want to version control your `vim` configuration:
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 origin master:master
+ 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
If all that looks a _lot_ like standard `git`, that's no coincidence; it's
a design feature.
-Once you get familiar with `vcsh`, it's strongly suggested that you look
-into more advanced usage scenarios, especially on how to manage your
-`vcsh` and other repositories with [mr][mr].
+# Introduction
-# 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][vcs-home-list]
-
-* Pull requests or issues on [https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh][vcsh]
-
-
-# Introduction #
-
-[vcsh][vcsh] allows you to maintain several git repositories in one single
+[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` 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.
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` for install instructions or `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.md> for instructions specific to your operating
-system.
+## Talks
-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.
+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].
-## 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].
+# Usage Examples
+
+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.
+
+
+| Task | Command |
+| ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
+| _Initialize a new repository called "vim"_ | `vcsh init vim` |
+| _Clone an existing repository_ | `vcsh clone <remote> <repository_name>` |
+| _Add files to repository "vim"_ | `vcsh vim add ~/.vimrc ~/.vim` |
+| | `vcsh vim commit -m 'Update Vim configuration'` |
+| _Add a remote for repository "vim"_ | `vcsh vim remote add origin <remote>` |
+| | `vcsh vim push origin master:master` |
+| | `vcsh vim branch --track master origin/master` |
+| _Push to remote of repository "vim"_ | `vcsh vim push` |
+| _Pull from remote of repository "vim"_ | `vcsh vim pull` |
+| _Show status of changed files in all repositories_ | `vcsh status` |
+| _Pull from all repositories_ | `vcsh pull` |
+| _Push to all repositories_ | `vcsh push` |
# Overview
-## Comparison to Other Solutions ##
+## From zero to vcsh
+
+You put a lot of effort into your configuration and want to both protect and
+distribute this configuration.
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)
+single repository in `$HOME`, adding all their dotfiles (and possibly more)
to it. This works, of course, but can become a nuisance as soon as you try to
manage more than one host.
The next logical step is to create single-purpose repositories in, for example,
-<~/.dotfiles> and to create symbolic links into <$HOME>. This gives you the
+`~/.dotfiles` and to create symbolic links into `$HOME`. This gives you the
flexibility to check out only certain repositories on different hosts. The
downsides of this approach are the necessary manual steps of cloning and
symlinking the individual repositories.
-`vcsh` takes this second approach one step further. It expects
-single-purpose repositories and stores them in a hidden directory (similar
-to <~/.dotfiles>). However, it does not create symbolic links in <$HOME>; it
-puts the actual files right into <$HOME>.
-
-Furthermore, by making use of [mr][mr], it makes it very easy to enable/disable
-and clone a large number of repositories. The use of `mr` is technically
-optional (see section 4.3), but it will be an integral part of the proposed
-system that follows.
-
-## Default Directory Layout ##
+`vcsh` takes this approach one step further. It enables single-purpose
+repositories and stores them in a hidden directory. However, it does not create
+symbolic links in `$HOME`; it puts the actual files right into `$HOME`.
+
+As `vcsh` allows you to put an arbitrary number of distinct repositories into
+your `$HOME`, you will end up with a lot of repositories very quickly.
+
+`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
To illustrate, this is what a possible directory structure looks like.
|-- .mrconfig
`-- .mrtrust
-### available.d ###
+### 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
- update = vcsh run zsh git pull
- push = vcsh run zsh git push
- status = vcsh run zsh git status
- gc = vcsh run zsh git gc
+ 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 ###
+### 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.
-### ~/.mrconfig ###
+### ~/.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 ###
+### 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).
+
+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.
Optionally, merge your local and your global configs afterwards and push with
-`vcsh run foo git push`.
+`vcsh foo push`.
-## Moving into a New Host ##
+## 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
+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. 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.
+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.
-# Getting Started #
+# Getting Started
Below, you will find a few different methods for setting up vcsh:
2. The Steal-from-Template Way
3. The Manual Way
-### The Template Way ###
+### The Template Way
-#### Prerequisites ####
+#### 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
-* $XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/vcsh/repo.d/mr.git/
+* `~/.gitignore.d`
+* `~/.mrconfig`
+* `$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
+
+#### Debian
+
+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
-#### Install vcsh ####
+To install vcsh in Gentoo Linux just give the following command as root:
-#### Debian ####
+ emerge dev-vcs/vcsh
-If you are using Debian Squeeze, you will need to enable backports
+Note the portage package for myrepos still has the old project name:
- apt-get install vcsh
+ emerge dev-vcs/mr
-#### Arch Linux ####
+#### 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:
- 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
+ yaourt -Sya myrepos vcsh
-#### From source ####
+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 your version of mr is older than version 1.07, make sure to put
+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/).
- include = cat /usr/share/mr/vcsh
+#### Mac OS X
-into your .mrconfig .
+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
- cd $HOME
mkdir -p ~/work/git
+ cd ~/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
+ 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 ####
+#### Clone the Template
vcsh clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh_mr_template.git mr
-#### Enable Your Test Repository ####
+#### Enable Your Test Repository
mv ~/.zsh ~/zsh.bak
mv ~/.zshrc ~/zshrc.bak
cd
mr up
-#### Set Up Your Own Repositories ####
+#### Set Up Your Own Repositories
Now, it's time to edit the template config and fill it with your own remotes:
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
+ vcsh foo add bar baz quux
+ vcsh foo remote add origin git://quuux
+ vcsh foo commit
+ vcsh foo 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!
-### The Steal-from-Template Way ###
+### The Steal-from-Template Way
You're welcome to clone the example repository:
poke me, RichiH, on Freenode (query) or OFTC (#vcs-home).
-### The Manual Way ###
+### 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.
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
-# Usage #
+# myrepos usage ; will be factored out & rewritten
-### Keeping repositories Up-to-Date ###
+### Keeping repositories Up-to-Date
This is the beauty of it all. Once you are set up, just run:
Neat.
-### Making Changes ###
+### 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
+ vcsh foo add bar baz quux
+ vcsh foo commit
+ vcsh foo 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.
+### Using vcsh without myrepos
-### Using vcsh without mr ###
-
-vcsh encourages you to use [mr] [1]. 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.
-#### A Few Examples ####
To initialize a new repository: `vcsh init zsh`
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
+ vcsh zsh status
+ 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
done
-[mr]: http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/mr/
+# 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][vcs-home-list]
+
+* Pull requests or issues on [https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh][vcsh]
+
+
+[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