# libfossil: Fossil SCM Library API

See also: [](TODOs), [](download), [](building), [f-apps][],
[](DbFunctions), [](SQLSnippets), [](HackersGuide),
[doxygen docs][doxygen-docs] (refreshed from current sources relatively frequently).

This source code repository houses an in-development C99-compliant library API for the [Fossil SCM][home-fossil]. The primary goal is to port existing behaviour into a library form (the fossil app is extremely monolithic in nature). This effort, officially called "libfossil", intends to provide an alternative interface into fossil repositories, as opposed to a replacement for the core fossil application. It does not aim to provide 100% feature-parity with the main app - see [](TODOs) for details about features which are considered out of scope (or otherwise unlikely).

This code currently doesn't do much which would interest non-Fossil hackers. It might be of interest to those wanting to follow or participate in the design of libfossil.

**License:** same as Fossil: the "2-Clause BSD" a.k.a. "FreeBSD License".

# Update Feb. 2021:
# Update Feb. 2021: Back from the Dead

After a 6-year forced hiatus due to chronic RSI, libfossil is again making some headway. In early Feb. 2021 its hashing support was brought up to date with regard to fossil's hardened SHA1 and SHA3-256 hashes. That was the major technical hurdle preventing further progress, so now they way is clear (or clearer) for bringing the library into the 2020's.

A chat room and forum have been established for this effort but they are limited to developers. Please [get in touch][home-sgb] if you are a participant and need info about either. This project is *currently* only opened to active participants of the [Fossil SCM][home-fossil] project (as committers and/or forum participants). That said, it does not require the same code release waiver which that project requires. If/when the project reaches a client-usable state, it will be opened up for wider participation.


[home-sgb]: https://wanderinghorse.net/home/stephan/
[home-fossil]: https://fossil-scm.org


# libfossil: Fossil SCM Library API

See also: [](TODOs), [](download), [](building), [f-apps][],
[](DbFunctions), [](SQLSnippets), [](HackersGuide),
[doxygen docs][doxygen-docs] (refreshed from current sources relatively frequently).

[f-apps]: /doc/ckout/f-apps/

This source code repository houses an in-development C99-compliant library API for the [Fossil SCM][home-fossil]. The primary goal is to port existing behaviour into a library form (the v1 app is extremely monolithic in nature). This effort, officially called "libfossil", intends to introduce no breaking changes, and the intention is to provide an alternative interface into fossil repositories, as opposed to a replacement for the core fossil application. It does not aim to provide 100% feature-parity with the main app - see [](TODOs) for details about features which are considered out of scope (or otherwise unlikely).

This code currently doesn't do much which would interest non-Fossil hackers. It might be of interest to those wanting to follow or participate in the design of libfossil.

**License:** same as Fossil: the "2-Clause BSD" a.k.a. "FreeBSD License".

## Status, TODOs, and Whatnot
## Status, [](TODOs), and Whatnot

All of this code is an <em>experiment</em>, and it does not represent a commitment by anyone. It is alpha quality. What's there works but is subject to change and there is still a great deal of the higher-level SCM bits left to port in and refactor to make them usable via library-style interfaces. Anyone looking for a project roadmap/timeline is asked respectfully to look elsewhere - there is no timebox on nor schedule for this project/experiment. That said: the [f-apps][] demonstrate what functionality is working.

The code changes can be followed via [the timeline](/timeline).

The current public (and documented) API can be found in [the header files](/dir?name=include/fossil-scm), and occasionally that gets [exported to doxygen][doxygen-docs].

   *  20130816: <b>Milestone:</b> manifest parsing is more or less complete, covering the whole range of control artifact types. Strict validation is done (including the Z-card hash) to ensure that bogus manifests cannot be read (and the generator does the same at several different levels). "Parsing," in this context means converting a raw Fossil manifest to a higher-level (OO) construct. That construct can then be output to a new manifest which is identical to the old one, providing a 100% loss-less round-trip conversion. (Such round-trips are useful only for testing/proof-of-concept, and are not needed in practice.)
   *  20130815: the past couple days have seen many incremental additions to the manifest machinery. We can now "round-trip" some artifact types, parsing them into a high-level form and re-generating them from that high-level form.
   *  20130812: Started the [f-apps][].
   *  20130811: Got "manifest crosslinking" of control artifact (tag changes) ported in.
   *  20130810: <b>Milestone:</b> the library [saved its first tag](/info/70666e1c11) today! (The timestamp of the tag was intentionally falsified for testing purposes.)
   *  20130808: Restructured source tree and ported build configuration process to [autosetup](https://msteveb.github.io/autosetup/) (because that's what Fossil uses). Existing build files (not the sources) still require GNU Make on a Unix platform, though. Many thanks to Steve Bennett (autosetup's author) for his assistance.
   *  20130804: ported in the symbol-to-uuid resolution bits from the main repo. These are what allow apps to use short-form UUIDs and symbolic names like "trunk," instead of having to use 40-byte UUIDs everywhere.
   *  20130803: most of the infrastructure for creating [manifests and control artifacts](https://fossil-scm.org/index.html/doc/trunk/www/fileformat.wiki) is in place, but we don't yet write them to the db.
   *  20130803: most of the infrastructure for creating [manifests and control artifacts](https://fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/fileformat.wiki) is in place, but we don't yet write them to the db.
   *  20130801: ported in the delta generation/apply code and added script bindings for them.
   *  20130730: changed internal handling of DBs from 1 connection per db to a single main connection to an in-memory db and attaching the repo/config/checkout to that. Not yet sure if this is a feature or a bug, but it simplifies the internal tracking of db handles notably.
   *  20130728: it can now search for and open a checkout based on a directory name, analog to how v1 finds an open checkout.
   *  20130727: started work on a [th1ish script engine binding](/dir?ci=tip&name=th1ish) for v2. It is of course a work-in-progress but it is extended in parallel to the core lib because that simplifies testing and helps work the kinks out of the core API.
   *  20130726: when opening a repo db, the library now validates that it is a repo db, and can distinguish between/report various types of errors, e.g. repo schema is out of data or the db is not a fossil repo.
   *  20130725: removed the per-instance allocator configuration - it is now library-wide. This simplifies buffer usage and makes it legal to use them before instantiating a fossil context.

[doxygen-docs]: https://fossil.wanderinghorse.net/doxygen/libfossil/