Fossil SCM

fossil-scm / www / index.wiki
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<title>A Coherent Software Configuration Management System</title>
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<h3>What Is It?</h3>
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<div class="nomargins" style='float:right;border:2px solid #446979;padding:0 15px 10px 0;margin:0 50px 0 10px'>
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<ul>
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<li> [/uv/download.html | Download]
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<li> [./quickstart.wiki | Quick Start]
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<li> [./build.wiki | Install]
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<li> [https://fossil-scm.org/forum | Support/Forum ]
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<li> [./hints.wiki | Tips &amp; Hints]
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<li> [./changes.wiki | Change Log]
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<li> [../COPYRIGHT-BSD2.txt | License]
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<li> [./userlinks.wiki | User Links]
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<li> [./hacker-howto.wiki | Hacker How-To]
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<li> [./fossil-v-git.wiki | Fossil vs. Git]
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<li> [./permutedindex.html | Doc Index]
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</ul>
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<p style="text-align:center"><img src="fossil3.gif" alt="Fossil logo"></p>
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</div>
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Fossil is a simple, high-reliability, distributed
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[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_configuration_management | SCM]
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system with these advanced features:
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1. <b>Project Management</b> —
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In addition to doing [./concepts.wiki | distributed version control]
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like Git and Mercurial,
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Fossil also supports [./bugtheory.wiki | bug tracking],
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[./wikitheory.wiki | wiki], [./forum.wiki | forum],
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[./alerts.md|email alerts], [./chat.md | chat], and
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[./event.wiki | technotes].
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2. <b>Built-in Web Interface</b> —
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Fossil has a built-in, [/skins | themeable], [./serverext.wiki | extensible],
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and intuitive [./webui.wiki | web interface]
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with a rich variety of information pages
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([./webpage-ex.md|examples]) promoting situational awareness.
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<br><br>
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This entire website is just a running instance of Fossil.
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The pages you see here are all [./wikitheory.wiki | wiki] or
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[./embeddeddoc.wiki | embedded documentation] or (in the case of
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the [/uv/download.html|download] page)
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[./unvers.wiki | unversioned files].
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When you clone Fossil from one of its
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[./selfhost.wiki | self-hosting repositories],
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you get more than just source code — you get this entire website.
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3. <b>All-in-one</b> —
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Fossil is a single self-contained, stand-alone executable.
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To install, simply download a
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[/uv/download.html | precompiled binary]
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for Linux, Mac, or Windows and put it on your $PATH.
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[./build.wiki | Easy-to-compile source code] is also available.
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4. <b>Self-host Friendly</b> — Stand up a project website
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in minutes using [./server/ | a variety of techniques].
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Fossil is CPU and memory efficient. Most projects can be
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hosted comfortably on a $5/month VPS or a Raspberry Pi.
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You can also set up an automatic
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[./mirrortogithub.md | GitHub mirror].
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5. <b>Simple Networking</b> —
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Fossil uses ordinary HTTPS (or SSH if you prefer)
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for network communications, so it works fine from behind
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firewalls and [./quickstart.wiki#proxy|proxies].
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The protocol is
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[./stats.wiki | bandwidth efficient] to the point that Fossil can be
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used comfortably over dial-up, weak 3G, or airliner Wifi.
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6. <b>Autosync</b> —
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Fossil supports [./concepts.wiki#workflow | "autosync" mode]
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which helps to keep projects moving
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forward by reducing the amount of needless
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[./branching.wiki | forking and merging] often
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associated with distributed projects.
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7. <b>Robust &amp; Reliable</b> —
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Fossil stores content using an [./fileformat.wiki | enduring file format]
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in an SQLite database so that transactions are
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atomic even if interrupted by a power loss or system crash.
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Automatic [./selfcheck.wiki | self-checks] verify that all aspects of
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the repository are consistent prior to each commit.
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8. <b>Free and Open-Source</b> — [../COPYRIGHT-BSD2.txt|2-clause BSD license].
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<hr>
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<h3>Latest Release: 2.28 ([/timeline?c=version-2.28|2026-03-11])</h3>
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* [/uv/download.html|Download]
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* [./changes.wiki#v2_28|Change Summary]
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* [/timeline?p=version-2.28&d=version-2.27&y=ci|Check-ins in version 2.28]
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* [/timeline?df=version-2.28&y=ci|Check-ins derived from the 2.28 release]
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* [/timeline?t=release|Timeline of all past releases]
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<hr>
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<h3>Quick Start</h3>
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1. [/uv/download.html|Download] or install using a package manager or
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[./build.wiki|compile from sources].
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2. <tt>fossil init</tt> <i>REPOSITORY-DIR/new-repository</i>
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3. <tt>fossil open</tt> <i>REPOSITORY-DIR/new-repository</i>
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4. <tt>fossil add</tt> <i>files-or-directories</i>
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5. <tt>fossil commit -m</tt> "<i>commit message</i>"
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6. <tt>fossil ui</tt>
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7. Repeat steps 4, 5, and 6, in any order, as necessary.
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See the [./quickstart.wiki|Quick Start Guide] for more detail.
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