# 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 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.
+vcsh was designed with mr [1] in mind so you might want to install that, as
+well.
Read INSTALL.md for detailed setup instructions.
## 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.
+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.
+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**.
+**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 $HOME**.
-Furthermore, by making use of mr [1], it makes it very easy to enable/disable and clone a large number of repositories.
-The use of mr is technically optional, but it will be an integral part of the proposed system that follows.
+Furthermore, by making use of mr [1], it makes it very easy to enable/disable
+and clone a large number of repositories. The use of mr is technically
+optional, but it will be an integral part of the proposed system that follows.
## Default Directory Layout ##
jobs = 5
include = cat ~/.config/mr/config.d/*
-The files you see in ~/.config/mr/available.d are mr configuration files that contain the commands to manage (checkout, update etc.) a single repository.
-vcsh repo configs end in .vcsh, git configs end in .git, etc. This is optional and your preference.
-For example, this is what a zsh.mrconfig with read-only access to my zshrc repo looks likes. I.e. in this specific example, push can not work.
+The files you see in ~/.config/mr/available.d are mr configuration files that
+contain the commands to manage (checkout, update etc.) a single repository.
+vcsh repo configs end in .vcsh, git configs end in .git, etc. This is optional
+and your preference. For example, this is what a zsh.mrconfig with read-only
+access to my zshrc repo looks likes. I.e. in this specific example, push can
+not work.
[$HOME/.config/vcsh/repo.d/zsh.git]
checkout = vcsh clone 'git://github.com/RichiH/zshrc.git'
push = vcsh run bash git push
status = vcsh run bash git status
-~/.config/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.
+~/.config/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.
-~/.config/vcsh/repo.d is the directory into which vcsh clones the git repositories.
-Since their working trees are configured to be in $HOME, the files contained in those repositories will be put in $HOME directly (see .zshrc above).
+~/.config/vcsh/repo.d is the directory into which vcsh clones the git
+repositories. Since their working trees are configured to be in $HOME, the
+files contained in those repositories will be put in $HOME directly (see .zshrc
+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 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`.
## Moving into a New Host ##
-To illustrate further, the following steps could move your desired configuration to 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`
-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).
+1. Clone the mr repository (containing available.d, config.d etc.); for
+ example: `vcsh clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh_mr_template.git`
+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.
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
+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).
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projects / code / vcsh.git / blobdiff