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
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.
-
-
-## 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 enter` and `vcsh run` will be covered in later sections.
- vcsh pull
-## Push to all repositories
+| 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` |
- vcsh push
# Overview
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.
-To manage both `vcsh` and other repositories, we suggest using [mr](mr). `mr`
-takes care of pulling in and pushing out new data for a variety of version
-control systems.
-
-`vcsh` was designed with [mr][mr], a tool to manage Multiple Repositories, in
-mind and the two integrate very nicely. `mr` has native support for `vcsh`
-repositories and to `vcsh`, `mr` is just another configuration to track.
-This make setting up any new machine a breeze. It takes literally less than
-five minutes to go from standard installation to fully set up system
+`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.
-This is where `mr` comes in. While the use of `mr` is technically
-optional, but it will be an integral part of the proposed system that follows.
+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.
## Default Directory Layout
### 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
+ update = vcsh zsh pull
+ push = vcsh zsh push
+ status = vcsh zsh status
+ gc = vcsh zsh 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
+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.
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] [mr] 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
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. Run mr to clone the repositories: `cd; mr update`.
+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.
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
+### Install vcsh
#### Debian
-If you are using Debian Squeeze, you will need to enable backports
+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
- apt-get install vcsh
+#### Gentoo
+
+To install vcsh in Gentoo Linux just give the following command as root:
+
+ emerge dev-vcs/vcsh
+
+Note the portage package for myrepos still has the old project name:
+
+ emerge dev-vcs/mr
#### 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:
+
+ yaourt -Sya myrepos vcsh
- 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
+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 you prefer to use the devel package that installs the git HEAD version it
+is available [here](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/vcsh-git/).
+
+#### Mac OSX
+
+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
mkdir -p ~/work/git
cd ~/work/git
git clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh.git
cd vcsh
- sudo 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
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
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 is used to actually retrieve configs, etc
~ % cat ~/.mrconfig
[DEFAULT]
~ % mr -j 5 up
-# mr usage ; will be factored out & rewritten
+# myrepos usage ; will be factored out & rewritten
### Keeping repositories Up-to-Date
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.
+ vcsh foo add bar baz quux
+ vcsh foo commit
+ vcsh foo push
-### Using vcsh without mr
+### Using vcsh without myrepos
-vcsh encourages you to use [mr][mr]. 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.
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
* 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
projects / code / vcsh.git / blobdiff