triptico.com

2007-12-07

Bky

A minimalistic, distributed VCS / SCM

Latest version is 1.1.1. Bky Release Notes.

Bky is a minimalistic, distributed Version Control System / Source Code Management tool that uses rsync as a backend to store revisions as complete trees, optimizing the size by storing unchanged files as hard links.

This software is licensed under the BSD license.

Features

Distributed: The repository is not stored in a central server as in CVS or Subversion, but as a subdirectory inside your working directory, like Arch, Darcs or Linus Torvalds' git. Developers communicate via patches.
Cheap branches: Just copy your tree to another directory and you've started a new branch.
Old history is easily pruned: Legacy revisions can just be deleted or moved to another place with your usual filesystem tools.
Safety: Any given revision under the repository is a directory with all your files that can be used, copied or stored as-is.
Repository is easily manipulable: As every revision is stored as plain files, you can delete, add or modify files, or update the commit message without interfering.
No need for special commands to put files under version control: Just create a file in your working directory and it will automatically be version-controlled. Uninteresting files as object files, libraries or other generated files are automatically ignored. Also, there is support for .cvsignore files.
Small dependencies: Bky is a shell script. It needs rsync, diff and the usual Unix basic tools. You also need a filesystem that support hard and symbolic links. That's it. It's just a version control system.