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1 {Terminology}
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2
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3 What is a repository?
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4
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5 When you use a version control system to keep track of your changes to
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6 a set of files, there are two different concepts you're dealing with:
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7 a _working copy_ and a _repository_.
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8
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9 A _working copy_ is just a folder with your project's files in it. It
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10 contains the versions of the files that you are working with now.
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11
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12 * EasyMercurial's "My Work" tab shows you which files you have been working on in your current working copy.
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13
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14 A _repository_ is a record of the entire history of your project. When
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15 change something in the working copy, you can then commit it to the
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16 repository and your change gets added to the history.
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17
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18 * EasyMercurial's "History" tab shows you the changes that have been committed to your project's history in its repository.
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19
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20 You can also go back and grab an older version from the repository if
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21 you find you need it. (If you do this, then the working copy will be
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22 updated so as to contain that older version rather than the most
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23 recent one.)
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24
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25 Older centralised version control systems use a separate database for
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26 the repository. But with a distributed version control system such as
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27 Mercurial, the repository -- the entire history of your project files
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28 -- is stowed into a special folder inside the working copy on your
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29 hard drive. Every change you commit gets added to the history in that
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30 hidden folder. (The history is compressed, so it doesn't take as much
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31 space as you might imagine.)
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32
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33 The term _remote repository_ simply refers to a repository related to
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34 your local one, but stored on another computer somewhere else. Often
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35 this may be a "master copy" of your project stored on a server
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36 elsewhere, which you and your collaborators can use to keep up with
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37 each other's work, or which you can use to make your work public, or
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38 simply use as a private backup.
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39
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