getting started with fossil

Question

I just got started with fossil. My reasons for selecting fossil are:

• cross-platform
• single exectuable
• single repository file (typical extension .fossil)
• supposedly easy to use (but aren't they all?)

I have several questions. Context: Suppose I want to keep track of changes to every file inside several directories, aptly named dir1, dir2, etc. Suppose I want to keep a copy on a USB stick. Suppose I want to keep a copy on another partition of the same disc as I move back and forth between Linux and Windows partitions. I'm the only user and may not always have access to the internet.

1. I would like to store dir1.fossil outside of dir1. Can I do that? The user-manual instructions tell me to create dir1.fossil from inside dir1, and that's where the dir1.fossil are currently created in my setup. Ideally I'd like my dir1.fossil, dir2.fossil, etc. files to be stored together in another directory, e.g. named fossilreposdir and located at the root. Possible?

2. I would like to stick a usb flash drive into my laptop and push/pull repositories from it in a plug-and-play manner.

3. If possible I would also like to push/pull repositories across my windows and linux partitions without using the usb stick.

If setting it up is too much of a headache (for my poor head), I will resort to simple copy-pasting of the .fossil repositories back and forth.

Answer 1

1. Yes.

2. Yes.

3. What DO you want to use? Me, I use dropbox to hold my repositories. Then every machine registered with dropbox has access to all my repositories.

// into working directory
cd ../dir1
// create repository somewhere else
fossil new ../fossilreposdir/test.fsl
// open remote repo in local working directory
fossil open ../fossilreposdir/test.fsl test.fsl
// add files
fossil addremove
// commit
fossil ci