INSTALL.md

# Getting started with vcsh #

Below you will find three methods for setting up vcsh:

1. The template way
2. The steal-from-template way
3. The manual way

# 1. The template way #

## Prerequisites ##

Make sure none of the following files/diretories exist for your test (user). If they do, move them away for now:

* ~/.gitignore
* ~/.mrconfig
* ~/.config/mr/available.d/mr.vcsh
* ~/.config/mr/available.d/zsh.vcsh
* ~/.config/mr/config.d/mr.vcsh
* ~/.config/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               # this is optional, but highly recommended

## Clone the template ##

    mkdir -p ~/work/git
    cd !$
    git clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh.git vcsh
    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.vcsh

## Enable your test repository ##

    mv ~/.zsh   ~/zsh.bak
    mv ~/.zshrc ~/zshrc.bak
    cd ~/.config/mr/config.d/
    ln -s ../available.d/zsh.vcsh .  # link, and thereby enable, the zsh repository
    cd
    mr up

## Set up your own repositories ##

Now, it's time to edit the template config and fill it with your own remotes:

    vim .config/mr/available.d/mr.vcsh
    vim .config/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 .config/mr/available.d/mr.vcsh .config/mr/available.d/foo.vcsh
    vim .config/mr/available.d/foo.vcsh # add your own repo

Done!

## Daily use  ##

### Keeping repositories up-to-date ###

This is the beauty of it all. Once you are set up, just run:

   mr up
   mr push

Neat.

### 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.


# 2. The steal-from-template way #

You're welcome to clone the example repository:

    git clone git://github.com/RichiH/vcsh_mr_template.git

Look around in the clone. It should be reasonably simple to understand. If not, poke me, RichiH, on Freenode (query) or OFTC (#vcs-home).


# 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 ~/.config/mr/config.d/
    ln -s ../available.d/* .


mr is used to actually retrieve configs, etc

    ~ % cat ~/.mrconfig
    [DEFAULT]
    include = cat ~/.config/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