Fossil

[/help?cmd=ui|UI],
protected by [./caps/ | a fine-grained role-based
access control system].
These additional capabilities are available for Git as 3rd-party
add-ons, but with Fossil they are integrated into
the design.  One way to describe Fossil is that it is
"[https://github.com/ | GitHub]-in-a-box."






















For developers who choose to self-host projects (rather than using a
3rd-party service such as GitHub) Fossil is much easier to set up, since
the stand-alone Fossil executable together with a [./server/any/cgi.md|2-line CGI script]
suffice to instantiate a full-featured developer website.  To accomplish
the same using Git requires locating, installing, configuring, integrating,
and managing a wide assortment of separate tools.  Standing up a developer
................................................................................
The practical impact of SHAttered on structured data stores like the one
in Git and Fossil isn't clear, but you want to have your repositories
moved over to a stronger hash algorithm before someone figures out how
to make use of the weaknesses in the old one.  Fossil's developers moved
on this problem quickly and had a widely-deployed solution to it years
ago.


<h2 id="missing">3.0 Missing Features</h2>

Although there is a large overlap in capability between Fossil and Git,
there are many areas where one system has a feature that is simply
missing in the other. We covered most of those above, but there
are a few remaining feature differences we haven't gotten to yet.


<h3 id="missing-in-git">3.1 Features found in Fossil but missing from Git</h3>

  *  <b>The [/help?cmd=all|fossil all] command</b>

   Fossil keeps track of all repositories and check-outs and allows
   operations over all of them with a single command.  For example, in
   Fossil is possible to request a pull of all repositories on a laptop
   from their respective servers, prior to taking the laptop off network.
   Or it is possible to do "fossil all changes" to see if there are any
   uncommitted changes that were overlooked prior to the end of the workday.

  *  <b>The [/help?cmd=undo|fossil undo] command</b>

   Whenever Fossil is told to modify the local checkout in some
   destructive way ([/help?cmd=rm|fossil rm], [/help?cmd=update|fossil
   update], [/help?cmd=revert|fossil revert], etc.) Fossil remembers the
   prior state and is able to return the local check-out directory to
   its prior state with a simple "fossil undo" command. You
   [#history|cannot undo a commit], since writes to the actual
   repository — as opposed to the local check-out directory — are more
   or less permanent, on purpose, but as long as the change is simply
   staged locally, Fossil makes undo
   [https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Undoing-Things|easier than
   in Git].


<h3 id="missing-in-fossil">3.2 Features found in Git but missing from Fossil</h3>

  *  <b>Rebase</b>

   Because of its emphasis on recording history exactly as it happened,
   rather than as we would have liked it to happen, 
   [./rebaseharm.md|Fossil deliberately omits the "rebase" command].
   For those rare
   occasions where something like rebase is actually needed, the same
   topology can be achieved using cherrypick merges.

  *  <b>Push or pull a single branch</b>

   The [/help?cmd=push|fossil push], [/help?cmd=pull|fossil pull], and
   [/help?cmd=sync|fossil sync] commands do not provide the capability to
   push or pull individual branches.  Pushing and pulling in Fossil is
   all or nothing.  This is in keeping with Fossil's emphasis on maintaining
   a complete record and on sharing everything between all developers.

<hr/>

<h3>Asides and Digressions</h3>

<i><small><ol>
    <li><p>[./mirrorlimitations.md|Many
    things are lost] in making a Git mirror of a Fossil repo due to

[/help?cmd=ui|UI],
protected by [./caps/ | a fine-grained role-based
access control system].
These additional capabilities are available for Git as 3rd-party
add-ons, but with Fossil they are integrated into
the design.  One way to describe Fossil is that it is
"[https://github.com/ | GitHub]-in-a-box."

Fossil can do operations over all local repo clones and check-out
directories with a single command. For example, Fossil lets you say
<tt>fossil all pull</tt> on a laptop prior to taking it off the network
hosting those repos. You can sync up to all of the private repos on your
company network plus those public Internet-hosted repos you use. Whether
going out for a working lunch or on a transoceanic an airplane trip, one
command gets you in sync. This works with several other Fossil
sub-commands, such as <tt>fossil all changes</tt> to get a list of files
that you forgot to commit prior to the end of your working day, across
all repos.

Whenever Fossil is told to modify the local checkout in some destructive
way ([/help?cmd=rm|fossil rm], [/help?cmd=update|fossil update],
[/help?cmd=revert|fossil revert], etc.) Fossil remembers the prior state
and is able to return the check-out directory to that state with a
<tt>fossil undo</tt> command. You cannot undo a commit in Fossil
([#history | on purpose!]) but as long as the change remains confined to
the local check-out directory only, Fossil makes undo
[https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Undoing-Things|easier than in
Git].

For developers who choose to self-host projects (rather than using a
3rd-party service such as GitHub) Fossil is much easier to set up, since
the stand-alone Fossil executable together with a [./server/any/cgi.md|2-line CGI script]
suffice to instantiate a full-featured developer website.  To accomplish
the same using Git requires locating, installing, configuring, integrating,
and managing a wide assortment of separate tools.  Standing up a developer
................................................................................
The practical impact of SHAttered on structured data stores like the one
in Git and Fossil isn't clear, but you want to have your repositories
moved over to a stronger hash algorithm before someone figures out how
to make use of the weaknesses in the old one.  Fossil's developers moved
on this problem quickly and had a widely-deployed solution to it years
ago.























































<hr/>

<h3>Asides and Digressions</h3>

<i><small><ol>
    <li><p>[./mirrorlimitations.md|Many
    things are lost] in making a Git mirror of a Fossil repo due to