Artifact 976b9491beacc78dc4782d6469a2533a758ab041
File
www/index.html
part of check-in
[6f1af23ebe]
- Added section numbers to delta format, labels for linking, navigation bar. Added delta encoder description (incomplete, right now only all the trivial parts). Using TeX for formulas, and mimetex for conversion.
by
aku on
2007-08-26 22:22:01.
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<title>Fossil SCM Homepage</title>
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<h1>Fossil - A Software Configuration Management System</h1>
<p>
This is a preliminary homepage for a new software configuration
management system called "Fossil".
The system is
<a href="http://fossil-scm.hwaci.com/fossil/timeline">self-hosting</a> on
<a href="http://www.hwaci.com/cgi-bin/fossil/timeline">two separate servers</a>.
You can download the lastest sources
compile it yourself using the instructions below.
</p>
<p>Design Goals For Fossil:</p>
<ul>
<li>Supports disconnected, distributed development (like
<a href="http://kerneltrap.org/node/4982">git</a>,
<a href="http://www.venge.net/monotone/">monotone</a>,
<a href="http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/wiki/index.cgi">mercurial</a>, or
<a href="http://www.bitkeeper.com/">bitkeeper</a>)
or client/server operation (like
<a href="http://www.nongnu.org/cvs/">CVS</a> or
<a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/">subversion</a>)
or both at the same time</li>
<li>Integrated bug tracking and wiki, along the lines of
<a href="http://www.cvstrac.org/">CVSTrac</a> and
<a href="http://www.edgewall.com/trac/">Trac</a>.</li>
<li>Built-in web interface that supports deep archaeological digs through
historical source code.</li>
<li>All network communication via
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP">HTTP</a>
(so that everything works from behind restrictive firewalls).</li>
<li>Everything included in a single self-contained executable -
trivial to install</li>
<li>Server runs as <a href="http://www.w3.org/CGI/">CGI</a>, using
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/inetd">inetd</a> or
<a href="http://www.xinetd.org/">xinetd</a> or using its own built-in,
standalone web server.</li>
<li>An entire project contained in single disk file (which also
happens to be an <a href="http://www.sqlite.org/">SQLite</a> database.)</li>
<li>Trivial to setup and administer</li>
<li>Files and versions are identified by their
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-1">SHA1</a> signature.</a>
Any unique prefix is sufficient to identify a file
or version - usually the first 4 or 5 characters suffice.</li>
<li>The file format is trival and requires nothing more complex
than a text editor and the "sha1sum" command-line utility to decode.</li>
<li>Automatic <a href="selfcheck.html">self-check</a>
on repository changes makes it exceedingly
unlikely that data will ever be lost because of a software bug.</li>
</ul>
<p>Objectives Of Fossil:</p>
<ul>
<li>Fossil should be ridiculously easy to
<a href="build.html">install</a> and
<a href="quickstart.html">operate</a>.</li>
<li>With fossil, it should be possible (and
<a href="quickstart.html#serversetup">easy</a>) to set up a project
on an inexpensive shared-hosting ISP
(example: <a href="http://www.he.net/hosting.html">Hurricane Electric</a>)
that provides nothing more than web space and CGI capability.
Here is <a href="http://www.hwaci.com/cgi-bin/fossil/timeline">a demo</a>.</li>
<li>Fossil should provide in-depth historical and status information about the
project through a web interface</li>
<li>The integration of <a href="http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki">Wiki</a>
and the ability to safely support anonymous check-in are features sometimes
described as
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html">Web 2.0</a>.
Fossil attempts to better capture "collective intelligence" and
"the wisdom of crowds" by opening up write access to the masses.</li>
</ul>
<p>Other Links:</p>
<ul>
<li>The <a href="concepts.html">concepts</b> behind fossil</li>
<li><a href="build.html">Building And Installing</a></li>
<li><a href="quickstart.html">Quick Start</a> guide to using fossil
<li><a href="pop.html">Principals Of Operation</a></li>
<li>The <a href="selfcheck.html">automatic self-check</a> mechanism
helps insure project integrity.</li>
<li>The <a href="fileformat.html">file format</a> used by every content
file stored in the repository.</li>
<li>The <a href="delta_format.html">format of deltas</a> used to
efficiently store changes between file revisions.</li>
<li>The <a href="delta_encoder_algorithm.html">encoder algorithm</a> used to
efficiently generate deltas.</li>
</ul>
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