vcsh(1) - Version Control System for $HOME - multiple Git repositories in $HOME
===============================================================================

## SYNOPSIS

`vcsh` [<options>] <command>

`vcsh` clone <url> [<repo>]

`vcsh` delete <repo>

`vcsh` enter <repo>

`vcsh` help

`vcsh` init <repo>

`vcsh` list

`vcsh` list-tracked

`vcsh` list-tracked-by <repo>

`vcsh` pull

`vcsh` push

`vcsh` rename <repo> <newname>

`vcsh` run <repo> <shell command>

`vcsh` status [<repo>]

`vcsh` upgrade <repo>

`vcsh` version

`vcsh` which <substring>

`vcsh` write-gitignore <repo>

`vcsh` <repo> <git command>

`vcsh` <repo>


## DESCRIPTION

`vcsh` allows you to have several `git`(1) 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` is using a technique called fake bare Git repositories, keeping <$GIT_DIR>
in a different directory from <$GIT_WORK_TREE> which is pointed to <$HOME>.

The use of symlinks is not needed in this setup, making for a cleaner setup.

`vcsh` was designed with `mr`(1) in mind so you might want to install it alongside
vcsh. That being said, you can easily use `vcsh` without `mr` if you prefer.

A sample configuration for `vcsh` and `mr` can be found at
*https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh_mr_template* and used with `vcsh clone
https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh_mr_template mr`.

Please note that you can always use a path instead of a name for <repo>.
This is needed to support mr and other scripts properly and of no concern to
an interactive user.

## OPTIONS

* -c:
  Source <file> prior to other configuration files

* -d:
  Enable debug mode

* -v:
  Enable verbose mode

## COMMANDS

* clone:
  Clone an existing repository.

  If you need to clone a bundle of repositories, look into the
  `post-clone-retired` hook.

* commit:
  Commit in all repositories

* delete:
  Delete an existing repository.

* enter:
  Enter repository; spawn new <$SHELL>.

* help:
  Display help.

* init:
  Initialize an empty repository.

* list:
  List all local vcsh repositories.

* list-tracked:
  List all files tracked by vcsh.

* list-tracked-by:
  List files tracked by a repository.

* pull:
  Pull from all vcsh remotes.

* push:
  Push to all vcsh remotes.

* rename:
  Rename a repository.

* run:
  Run command with <$GIT_DIR> and <$GIT_WORK_TREE> set. Allows you to run any
  and all commands without any restrictions. Use with care.

  Please note that there is a somewhat magic feature for run. Instead of <repo>
  it accepts <path>, as well. Anything that has a slash in it will be assumed to
  be a path. `vcsh run` will then operate on this directory instead of the one
  normally generated from the repository's name.
  This is needed to support mr and other scripts properly and of no concern to
  an interactive user.

* status:
  Show statuses of all/one vcsh repositories.

* upgrade:
  Upgrade repository to currently recommended settings.

* version:
  Print version information.

* which <substring>:
  Find <substring> in name of any tracked file.

* write-gitignore:
  Write .gitignore.d/<repo> via `git ls-files`.

* <repo> <gitcommand>:
  Shortcut to run `vcsh` on a repo. Will prepend `git` to <command>.

* <repo>:
  Shortcut to run `vcsh enter <repo>`.

## ENVIRONMENT

As noted earlier, `vcsh` will set <$GIT_DIR> and <$GIT_WORK_TREE> to the
appropriate values for fake bare Git repositories.

## CONFIG

There are several ways to turn the various knobs on `vcsh`. In order of
ascending precedence, they are:

* `VARIABLE=foo vcsh`
* </etc/vcsh/config>
* <$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/config>
* `vcsh -c <file>`

Please note that those files are sourced. Any and all commands will be
executed in the context of your shell.

Interesting knobs you can turn:

* <$VCSH_GITIGNORE>:
  Can be <exact>, <none>, or <recursive>.

  <exact> will seed the repo-specific ignore file with all file and directory
  names which `git ls-files` returns.

  <none> will not write any ignore file.

  <recursive> will descend through all directories recursively additionally to
  the above.

  Defaults to <exact>.

* <$VCSH_VCSH_WORKTREE>:
  Can be <absolute>, or <relative>.

  <absolute> will set an absolute path; defaulting to <$HOME>.

  <relative> will set a path relative to <$GIT_DIR>.

  Defaults to <absolute>.

Less interesting knobs you could turn:

* <$VCSH_DEBUG>:
  Enter debug mode.

* <$XDG_CONFIG_HOME>:
  As specified in the 'XDG Base Directory Specification', see
  <http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html>

  Defaults to <$HOME/.config>.

* <$VCSH_REPO_D>:
  The directory where repositories are read from and stored.

  Defaults to <$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/repo.d>.

* <$VCSH_HOOK_D>:
  The directory where hooks are read from.

  Defaults to <$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/hooks-enabled>.

* <$VCSH_BASE>:
  The directory where repositories are checked out to.

  Defaults to <$HOME>.


## HOOK SYSTEM

`vcsh` provides a hook system. Hook scripts must be executable and should be
placed in <$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/hooks-available>. From there, they can be
soft-linked into <$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vcsh/hooks-enabled>; `vcsh` will only
execute hooks that are in this directory.

Hooks follow a simple format. <pre-run> will be run before anything is run.
If you want to have more than one script for a certain hook, just append
any kind of string to order them. A system of <pre-run>, <pre-run.10>,
<pre-run.20> etc is suggested; other options would be <pre-run-10> or
<pre-run.sh>. A dot after the hook name is optional.

If you want to create hooks for a specific <vcsh> repository, simply prepend
the repository's name, followed by a dot, i.e. <zsh.pre-run>. Otherwise, the
same rules as above apply. The dot between the repository's name and the hook
is mandatory, though.

Available hooks are <pre-clone>, <post-clone>, <post-clone-retired>,
<pre-command>, <post-command>, <pre-enter>, <post-enter>, <pre-init>,
<post-init>, <pre-pull>, <post-pull>, <pre-push>, <post-push>, <pre-run>,
<post-run>, <pre-upgrade>, and <post-upgrade>.
If you need more, vcsh is trivial to patch, but please let upstream know so
we can ship them by default.

## DETAILED HOWTO AND FURTHER READING

Manpages are often short and sometimes useless to glean best practices from.
While the author tried to avoid this in this case, manpages can not cover
detailed howtos.

This software also comes with a file called <README.md>. It contains various
approaches to setting up and using vcsh. You can view the file it as
plain text or render it into various other formats via Markdown.

On Debian-based systems, this file can be found in </usr/share/doc/vcsh>.

## SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

`vcsh` allows you to execute arbitrary commands via `vcsh run`. For example,
adding a `sudo`(8) rule for `vcsh` would be pretty stupid.

Additionally, vcsh will source, i.e. execute, all files listed in <CONFIG>.
You can put any and all commands into these config files and they will be
executed.

## BUGS

None are known at this time, but reports and/or patches are more than welcome.

## INTEROPERABILITY

If you rely on `git submodule` use `git` 1.7.12 or later. Earlier versions
do not clean internal variables properly before descending into submodules,
resulting in unhappy end users.

## HISTORY

Like most people, the author initially made do with a single repository for all
config files, all of which were soft-linked into <$HOME>.

Martin F. Krafft aka madduck came up with the concept of fake bare Git
repositories.

vcsh was initally written by madduck. This version is a re-implementation from
scratch with a lot more features. madduck graciously agreed to let the author
take over the name.

## AUTHOR

This manpage and `vcsh` itself were written by Richard "RichiH" Hartmann.

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2011-2013 Richard Hartmann <richih@debian.org>

Licensed under the GNU GPL version 2 or higher.

https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh

## SEE ALSO

`git`(1), `mr`(1)
