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+<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="help.css"/>
+<p><a href="topics.html">Back to Topics</a></p><hr>
+
+
+<h2>What is a repository?</h2>
+
+<p>When you use a version control system to keep track of your changes to
+a set of files, there are two different concepts you're dealing with:
+a <i>working copy</i> and a <i>repository</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A <i>working copy</i> is just a folder with your project's files in it.  It
+contains the versions of the files that you are working with now.
+<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>
+
+<p>A <i>repository</i> is a record of the entire history of your project. When
+change something in the working copy, you can then commit it to the
+repository and your change gets added to the history.
+<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>
+
+<p>You can also go back and grab an older version from the repository if
+you find you need it.  (If you do this, then the working copy will be
+updated so as to contain that older version rather than the most
+recent one.)</p>
+
+<p>Older centralised version control systems use a separate database for
+the repository.  But with a distributed version control system such as
+Mercurial, the repository &ndash; the entire history of your project files
+&ndash; is stowed into a special folder inside the working copy on your
+hard drive.  Every change you commit gets added to the history in that
+hidden folder. (The history is compressed, so it doesn't take as much
+space as you might imagine.)</p>
+
+<p>The term <i>remote repository</i> simply refers to a repository related to
+your local one, but stored on another computer somewhere else.  Often
+this may be a &ldquo;master copy&rdquo; of your project stored on a server
+elsewhere, which you and your collaborators can use to keep up with
+each other's work, or which you can use to make your work public, or
+simply use as a private backup.</p>
+
+<hr><p><a href="topics.html">Back to Topics</a></p>