TortoiseHg - Setup for Single .NET Developer with Local Copy and Central Repo on Network Share

Question

TortoiseHg is sending me mad! No pun intended.

I am a solo .NET developer just trying to achieve good source control e.g. diff and revert.

I wish to have a central repo on a network share e.g. "\\server\repos\DO I NEED A FOLDER HERE"

and a local copy e.g. "... My Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Websites\My Website"

but the quick start guide http://tortoisehg.bitbucket.io/manual/2.4/quick.html is not relevant in my case - I don't think I want to clone the repository?

Please could someone outline the steps and their order to achieve:

• Local copy
• Central repo on network share (which is backed up regularly)

E.g.

1. Create folder for repository "\\server\repos\My Website"
2. Link ".. My Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Websites\My Website" to repo
3. Add files / commit files - I'm unsure of the terminology here

or point me in the direction of some idiot-proof documentation.

I chose TortoiseHg because I thought it was modern and simple.

Should I have gone with Source Gear Vault instead?

Any help appreciated!

Answer 1

I'm far from an expert but I believe that you do want to clone the repository to start with. You will treat your network share just as any other "server"(bitbucket, etc). So you clone from the network share to your local machine. Then any commits you do will be on your local machine. When ready to send to the network share then just do a push. The process is exactly the same but instead of some web address you can push to your network share.

What I would do is create the repository on your network share. Then I would clone it locally. It really is simple. Once you have mercurial installed, you can just hg init any directory and you have a working repository. Then it's just a matter of setting up the shortcuts to point to the right places so you can do something like hg push netshare instead of hg push \\server\repos etc.

Also, adding files is not the same as committing. When you add files you are telling mercurial, "Hey, I want to keep track of changes to this/these files". When you commit, you are telling mercurial, "I've modified my files and I want you to record the changes since the last time I committed".