a distributed, interactive, smart revision control system.
Darcs is a free, open source revision control system. It is:
Distributed: Darcs was one of the first revision control systems in which every user has access to the full command set, removing boundaries between server and client or committer and non-committers.
Interactive: Darcs is easy to learn and efficient to use because it asks you questions in response to simple commands, giving you choices in your work flow. You can choose to record one change in a file, while ignoring another. As you update from upstream, you can review each patch, picking and choosing which patches are appropriate.
Smart: Darcs is different from most revision control systems in that it is based on the notion of change (or patch), rather than version. An underlying algebra of patches determines whether changes can be re-ordered. The laws of this algebra guarantee that the result of merging depends only on the final set of patches applied in a repository and not on their order.
Simple: As a consequence, Darcs offers a conceptually simpler view of the state of a repository: it is given by the set of patches it contains. Pulling and pushing patches merely transfers them from one set to another. So called "cherry-picking" is the default mode of operation, and it fully preserves the identity of patches.
About
Darcs is a distributed version control system written in Haskell.
Building
To build and install the latest release, use
cabal update && cabal install darcs
with a recent cabal (version 3.2 or later is recommended). Any version of ghc from 8.2 up to 9.8 should work.
From inside a clone or a source dist, use
> cabal build
Cabal will tell you where the resulting darcs binary is. If you'd rather use cabal install and you are in a clone (not a source dist), you first have to generate the version info, like this:
> runghc release/gen-version-info.hs
> cabal install
Building/installing with stack used to work with a few tweaks, but is no longer officially supported due to lack of manpower. If this inconveniences you, consider contributing patches to maintain our stack.yaml.
Testing
Running the test-suite is optional, of course, but useful if you want to help find bugs or before you contribute patches. The easiest and most flexible way to do this is
> cabal configure --enable-tests
> cabal run darcs-test -- [options for darcs-test, try --help]
Using
To clone a repository via HTTP and send patches by mail:
> darcs clone --lazy http://darcs.net
> # edit files...
> darcs add my_new_file
> darcs record -m "my changes"
> darcs send
To clone via SSH and push patches:
> darcs clone [email protected]:user/repo
> # edit files...
> darcs add my_new_file
> darcs record -m "my changes"
> darcs push
To create a project and start working:
> darcs init my_project
> cd my_project
> # create and edit files...
> darcs add my_new_file
> darcs record -m "initial version"
Pull new patches from upstream:
> darcs pull
Documentation
Concise and up-to-date documentation is available from darcs itself:
> darcs help # list all commands
> darcs help command # help for specific command
> darcs command --help # dito
The complete documentation is available as a man page which can be generated using
darcs help manpage > darcs.1
Reporting bugs
Please send bug reports to [email protected]. This will automatically add your report to the bug tracker. If you are unsure or just have a question or a comment, you can subscribe to [email protected] and post your question or comments there. See http://darcs.net/MailingLists for details.
There is also an IRC channel named #darcs on freenode.net, where you can report problems or ask questions.
Hacking
We are happy to receive patches and will try our best to review them in a timely fashion. Just record your patches in a clone of http://darcs.net/screened and darcs send them. You are encouraged, but not required, to look at http://darcs.net/Development/GettingStarted for additional information.
BTW, the wiki is a darcs repo, you can clone it with:
> darcs clone --lazy http://darcs.net/darcs-wiki
to edit the contents and send us patches.