annotate help/a-04.html @ 498:21aa41b62c3a

Add back/forward/home to Help window, and some Help edits
author Chris Cannam
date Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:46:06 +0100
parents 41a156d439d0
children
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Chris@494 1 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="help.css"/>
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Chris@494 4 <h2>What is a repository?</h2>
Chris@494 5
Chris@494 6 <p>When you use a version control system to keep track of your changes to
Chris@494 7 a set of files, there are two different concepts you're dealing with:
Chris@494 8 a <i>working copy</i> and a <i>repository</i>.</p>
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Chris@494 10 <p>A <i>working copy</i> is just a folder with your project's files in it. It
Chris@494 11 contains the versions of the files that you are working with now.
Chris@494 12 <ul><li>EasyMercurial's &ldquo;My Work&rdquo; tab shows you which files you have been working on in your current working copy.</li></ul></p>
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Chris@494 14 <p>A <i>repository</i> is a record of the entire history of your project. When
Chris@494 15 change something in the working copy, you can then commit it to the
Chris@494 16 repository and your change gets added to the history.
Chris@494 17 <ul><li>EasyMercurial's &ldquo;History&rdquo; tab shows you the changes that have been committed to your project's history in its repository.</li></ul></p>
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Chris@494 19 <p>You can also go back and grab an older version from the repository if
Chris@494 20 you find you need it. (If you do this, then the working copy will be
Chris@494 21 updated so as to contain that older version rather than the most
Chris@494 22 recent one.)</p>
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Chris@494 24 <p>Older centralised version control systems use a separate database for
Chris@494 25 the repository. But with a distributed version control system such as
Chris@494 26 Mercurial, the repository &ndash; the entire history of your project files
Chris@494 27 &ndash; is stowed into a special folder inside the working copy on your
Chris@494 28 hard drive. Every change you commit gets added to the history in that
Chris@494 29 hidden folder. (The history is compressed, so it doesn't take as much
Chris@494 30 space as you might imagine.)</p>
Chris@494 31
Chris@494 32 <p>The term <i>remote repository</i> simply refers to a repository related to
Chris@494 33 your local one, but stored on another computer somewhere else. Often
Chris@494 34 this may be a &ldquo;master copy&rdquo; of your project stored on a server
Chris@494 35 elsewhere, which you and your collaborators can use to keep up with
Chris@494 36 each other's work, or which you can use to make your work public, or
Chris@494 37 simply use as a private backup.</p>
Chris@494 38