DVC: Distributed Version Control for Emacs - a tutorial for the GIT user

(ido-mode 'buffer)
(load-file (expand-file-name "~/.emacs.d/dvc/dvc-load.el"))

(require 'ido)
(setq ido-enable-flex-matching t)
(ido-mode 'buffer)
(ffap-bindings)

DVC can be downloaded from the links listed at http://www.xsteve.at/prg/emacs_dvc/dvc.html

You need to generate a configure file before you can make DVC. Read instructions in the INSTALL file, but I found the following to be sufficient for my needs:

cd /path/to/dvc
autoconf
make

Then add the location of the newly created load definitions file to your .emacs:

(load-file "/path/to/dvc/dvc-load.el")

Evaluate this form or restart emacs as you wish.

• Basic GIT Repository Commands : http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/everyday.html#Basic%20Repository

Most programmers will have multiple repositories. Possibly even using different back ends. In this tutorial we assume the GIT backend but it's not necessarily relevant. We use DVC bookmarks to select the repository we wish to work with.

In the last section, note the lines for our newly created files, f1 and f2. The "unknown" informs us that DVC knows nothing about them. Lets fix that by adding them. We do this by pressing a having first marked them with m

a runs the command dvc-add-files, which is an interactive compiled
Lisp function in `dvc-unified.el'.

or, alternatively, add them all with A

A runs the command xgit-status-add-u, which is an interactive compiled |
Lisp function in `xgit.el'.                                            |

Refresh the status buffer with g

g runs the command dvc-generic-refresh, which is an interactive
compiled Lisp function in `dvc-utils.el'.

We can now see out two newly added files:

git status for /home/shamrock/git-tutorial/

   added         f1
   added         f2
                                                                        

# On branch master
#
# Initial commit
#
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git rm --cached <file>..." to unstage)
#
#       new file: f1
#       new file: f2
#

These changes are not committed. They are merely staged. Should you wish you could undo this by resetting the GIT Index from the menu using

<menu-bar> <GIT-Diff> <Reset index (reset --mixed)> runs the command
xgit-status-reset-mixed, which is an interactive compiled Lisp
function in `xgit.el'.

It is bound to <menu-bar> <GIT-Diff> <Reset index (reset --mixed)>.

(xgit-status-reset-mixed)

But we wish to work with these staged files and so we will commit them. The standard commit will commit all work in the current staging area. We commit our files to the repository using c from the status buffer:

c runs the command dvc-log-edit, which is an interactive compiled Lisp
function in `dvc-unified.el'.

We add a note, hit C-c C-c to save the commit note and then refresh the status buffer using g once again.

git status for /home/shamrock/git-tutorial/

# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)

Open your status using C-x V s, select your bookmark. Now open f1 using the normal open file command C-x C-f

Lets modify f1 : add the text R1. Save it.

Now we can see the differences between modified files and the committed ones. Hit C-x V = while in the file f1.

C-x V = runs the command dvc-diff, which is an interactive compiled
Lisp function in `dvc-unified.el'.

Select "y" when prompted to use the index.

A diff buffer appears:

diff --git a/f1 b/f1
index e69de29..1e1244e 100644
--- a/f1
+++ b/f1
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+R1

We can see the difference between our working copy and the committed original. Note that this shows ALL differences in all files in the project. Should you just want to see the difference in ONE file then highlight it in the status buffer and hit =

= runs the command dvc-diff-diff, which is an interactive compiled
Lisp function in `dvc-diff.el'.

It is bound to =, <menu-bar> <DVC-Diff> <File Changes> <View Diff in
Separate Buffer>.

But what about the project status? We can jump direct to the status using C-x V s

C-x V s runs the command dvc-status, which is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `dvc-unified.el'.

or, we can go back to the bookmark UI, highlight the project we are interested in and hit s.

git status for /home/shamrock/git-tutorial/
 
    modified      f1
                                                                      
 
 # On branch master
 # Changed but not updated:
 #   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
 #
 #      modified:   f1
 #
 no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

If we wish to commit these stages we first need to stage them using A or a from the status buffer and then commit them using c as described in an earlier section.

e runs the command dvc-diff-ediff, which is an interactive compiled
Lisp function in `dvc-diff.el'.