binary]
or <a href="build.wiki">compile it yourself</a> from sources.
Install Fossil by putting the fossil binary
someplace on your $PATH.

You can test that Fossil is present and working like this:

<blockquote>
<b>
fossil version<br>
<tt>This is fossil version 2.13 [309af345ab] 2020-09-28 04:02:55 UTC</tt><br>
</b>
<pre><b>fossil version
This is fossil version 2.13 [309af345ab] 2020-09-28 04:02:55 UTC
</b></pre>
</blockquote>

<h2 id="workflow" name="fslclone">General Work Flow</h2>

Fossil works with repository files (a database in a single file with the project's
complete history) and with checked-out local trees (the working directory
you use to do your work). 
(See [./glossary.md | the glossary] for more background.)

operations.

<h2 id="new">Starting A New Project</h2>

To start a new project with fossil create a new empty repository
this way: ([/help/init | more info])

<blockquote>
<b>fossil init </b><i> repository-filename</i>
</blockquote>
<pre><b>fossil init</b> <i>repository-filename</i>
</pre>

You can name the database anything you like, and you can place it anywhere in the filesystem.
The <tt>.fossil</tt> extension is traditional but only required if you are going to use the 
<tt>[/help/server | fossil server DIRECTORY]</tt> feature.”

<h2 id="clone">Cloning An Existing Repository</h2>

Most fossil operations interact with a repository that is on the
local disk drive, not on a remote system.  Hence, before accessing
a remote repository it is necessary to make a local copy of that
repository.  Making a local copy of a remote repository is called
"cloning".

Clone a remote repository as follows: ([/help/clone | more info])

<blockquote>
<b>fossil clone</b> <i>URL  repository-filename</i>
</blockquote>
<pre><b>fossil clone</b> <i>URL repository-filename</i>
</pre>

The <i>URL</i> specifies the fossil repository
you want to clone.  The <i>repository-filename</i> is the new local
filename into which the cloned repository will be written.  For
example, to clone the source code of Fossil itself:

<blockquote>
<b>fossil clone https://fossil-scm.org/ myclone.fossil</b>
<pre><b>fossil clone https://fossil-scm.org/ myclone.fossil</b></pre>
</blockquote>

If your logged-in username is 'exampleuser', you should see output something like this:

<blockquote>
<b><tt>
        Round-trips: 8   Artifacts sent: 0  received: 39421<br>
        Clone done, sent: 2424  received: 42965725  ip: 10.10.10.0<br>
        Rebuilding repository meta-data...<br>
        100% complete...<br>
        Extra delta compression... <br>
        Vacuuming the database... <br>
        project-id: 94259BB9F186226D80E49D1FA2DB29F935CCA0333<br>
        server-id:  016595e9043054038a9ea9bc526d7f33f7ac0e42<br>
        admin-user: exampleuser (password is "yoWgDR42iv")><br>
</tt></b>
<pre><b>Round-trips: 8   Artifacts sent: 0  received: 39421
Clone done, sent: 2424  received: 42965725  ip: 10.10.10.0
Rebuilding repository meta-data...
100% complete...
Extra delta compression... 
Vacuuming the database... 
project-id: 94259BB9F186226D80E49D1FA2DB29F935CCA0333
server-id:  016595e9043054038a9ea9bc526d7f33f7ac0e42
admin-user: exampleuser (password is "yoWgDR42iv")>
</b></pre>
</blockquote>

If the remote repository requires a login, include a
userid in the URL like this:

<blockquote>
<b>fossil clone https://</b><i>remoteuserid</i><b>@www.example.org/ myclone.fossil</b>
<pre><b>fossil clone https://</b><i>remoteuserid</i><b>@www.example.org/ myclone.fossil</b></pre>
</blockquote>

You will be prompted separately for the password.
Use [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent-encoding#Percent-encoding_reserved_characters|"%HH"] escapes for special characters in the userid.
For example "/" would be replaced by "%2F" meaning that a userid of "Projects/Budget" would become "Projects%2FBudget")

If you are behind a restrictive firewall, you might need
to <a href="#proxy">specify an HTTP proxy</a>.

<h2 id="checkout">Checking Out A Local Tree</h2>

To work on a project in fossil, you need to check out a local
copy of the source tree.  Create the directory you want to be
the root of your tree and cd into that directory.  Then
do this: ([/help/open | more info])

<blockquote>
<b>fossil open </b><i> repository-filename</i>
<pre><b>fossil open</b> <i>repository-filename</i></pre>
</blockquote>

for example:

<blockquote>
<b><tt>
    fossil open ../myclone.fossil<br>
    BUILD.txt<br>
    COPYRIGHT-BSD2.txt<br>
    README.md<br>
      ︙<br>
</tt></b>
<pre><b>fossil open ../myclone.fossil
    BUILD.txt
    COPYRIGHT-BSD2.txt
    README.md
      ︙
</tt></b></pre>
</blockquote>

(or "fossil open ..\myclone.fossil" on Windows).

This leaves you with the newest version of the tree
checked out.
From anywhere underneath the root of your local tree, you
can type commands like the following to find out the status of
your local tree:

<blockquote>
<b>[/help/info | fossil info]</b><br>
<b>[/help/status | fossil status]</b><br>
<b>[/help/changes | fossil changes]</b><br>
<b>[/help/diff | fossil diff]</b><br>
<b>[/help/timeline | fossil timeline]</b><br>
<b>[/help/ls | fossil ls]</b><br>
<b>[/help/branch | fossil branch]</b><br>
</blockquote>
<pre>
<b>[/help/info | fossil info]</b>
<b>[/help/status | fossil status]</b>
<b>[/help/changes | fossil changes]</b>
<b>[/help/diff | fossil diff]</b>
<b>[/help/timeline | fossil timeline]</b>
<b>[/help/ls | fossil ls]</b>
<b>[/help/branch | fossil branch]</b>
</pre>

If you created a new repository using "fossil init" some commands will not
produce much output.

Note that Fossil allows you to make multiple check-outs in
separate directories from the same repository.  This enables you,
for example, to do builds from multiple branches or versions at
the same time without having to generate extra clones.

To switch a checkout between different versions and branches,
use:<

<blockquote>
<b>[/help/update | fossil update]</b><br>
<b>[/help/checkout | fossil checkout]</b><br>
</blockquote>
<pre>
<b>[/help/update | fossil update]</b>
<b>[/help/checkout | fossil checkout]</b>
</pre>

[/help/update | update] honors the "autosync" option and
does a "soft" switch, merging any local changes into the target
version, whereas [/help/checkout | checkout] does not
automatically sync and does a "hard" switch, overwriting local
changes if told to do so.

<h2 id="changes">Making and Committing Changes</h2>

To add new files to your project or remove existing ones, use these
commands:

<blockquote>
<b>[/help/add | fossil add]</b> <i>file...</i><br>
<b>[/help/rm | fossil rm]</b> <i>file...</i><br>
<b>[/help/addremove | fossil addremove]</b> <i>file...</i><br>
</blockquote>
<pre>
<b>[/help/add | fossil add]</b> <i>file...</i>
<b>[/help/rm | fossil rm]</b> <i>file...</i>
<b>[/help/addremove | fossil addremove]</b> <i>file...</i>
</pre>

The command:

<blockquote>
<b>
        [/help/changes | fossil changes]</b>
<pre><b>[/help/changes | fossil changes]</b></pre>
</blockquote>

lists files that have changed since the last commit to the repository. For
example, if you edit the file "README.md":

<blockquote>
<b>
        fossil changes<br>
        EDITED     README.md
</b>
<pre><b>fossil changes
EDITED     README.md
</b></pre>
</blockquote>

To see exactly what change was made you can use the command
<b>[/help/diff | fossil diff]</b>:

<blockquote>
<b>
        fossil diff <br><tt>
        Index: README.md<br>
        ============================================================<br>
        --- README.md<br>
        +++ README.md<br>
        @@ -1,5 +1,6 @@<br>
        +Made some changes to the project<br>
        # Original text<br>
 </tt></b>
<pre><b>fossil diff
Index: README.md
============================================================
--- README.md
+++ README.md
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
+Made some changes to the project
# Original text
</b></pre>
</blockquote>

"fossil diff" shows the difference between your tree on disk now and as
the tree was when you last committed changes. If you haven't committed
yet, then it shows the difference relative to the tip-of-trunk commit in
the repository, being what you get when you "fossil open" a repository
without specifying a version, populating the working directory.

To see the most recent changes made to the repository by other users, use "fossil timeline" to
find out the most recent commit, and then "fossil diff" between that commit and the
current tree:
<blockquote>

<b>
        fossil timeline <br><tt>
        === 2021-03-28 === <br>
        03:18:54 [ad75dfa4a0] *CURRENT* Added details to frobnicate command (user: user-one tags: trunk) <br>
        === 2021-03-27 === <br>
        23:58:05 [ab975c6632] Update README.md. (user: user-two tags: trunk) <br>
             ⋮ <br>
        </tt><br>
        fossil diff --from current --to ab975c6632 <br><tt>
        Index: frobnicate.c<br>
        ============================================================<br>
        --- frobnicate.c<br>
        +++ frobnicate.c<br>
        @@ -1,10 +1,11 @@<br>
        +/* made a change to the source file */<br>
        # Original text<br>
</tt></b>
<pre><b>fossil timeline
=== 2021-03-28 === 
03:18:54 [ad75dfa4a0] *CURRENT* Added details to frobnicate command (user: user-one tags: trunk) 
=== 2021-03-27 === 
23:58:05 [ab975c6632] Update README.md. (user: user-two tags: trunk) 
     ⋮ 

fossil diff --from current --to ab975c6632
Index: frobnicate.c
============================================================
--- frobnicate.c
+++ frobnicate.c
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
+/* made a change to the source file */
# Original text
</b></pre>
</blockquote>

"current" is an alias for the checkout version, so the command
"fossil diff --from ad75dfa4a0 --to ab975c6632" gives identical results.

To commit your changes to a local-only repository:
<blockquote>

<b>
fossil commit     </b><i>(... Fossil will start your editor, if defined)</i><b><br><tt>
# Enter a commit message for this check-in. Lines beginning with # are ignored.<br>
<pre><b>fossil commit</b>     <i>(... Fossil will start your editor, if defined)</i><b>
# Enter a commit message for this check-in. Lines beginning with # are ignored.
#<br>
# user: exampleuser<br>
# tags: trunk<br>
#
# user: exampleuser
# tags: trunk
#<br>
# EDITED     README.md<br>
Edited file to add description of code changes<br>
New_Version: 7b9a416ced4a69a60589dde1aedd1a30fde8eec3528d265dbeed5135530440ab<br>
</tt></b>
#
# EDITED     README.md
Edited file to add description of code changes
New_Version: 7b9a416ced4a69a60589dde1aedd1a30fde8eec3528d265dbeed5135530440ab
</b></pre>
</blockquote>

You will be prompted for check-in comments using whatever editor
is specified by your VISUAL or EDITOR environment variable. If none is
specified Fossil uses line-editing in the terminal.

To commit your changes to a repository that was cloned from a remote
repository, you give the same command, but the results are different.

When you create a new repository, either by cloning an existing
project or create a new project of your own, you usually want to do some
local configuration.  This is easily accomplished using the web-server
that is built into fossil.  Start the fossil web server like this:
([/help/ui | more info])

<blockquote>
<b>fossil ui </b><i> repository-filename</i>
</blockquote>
<pre>
<b>fossil ui</b> <i>repository-filename</i>
</pre>

You can omit the <i>repository-filename</i> from the command above
if you are inside a checked-out local tree.

This starts a web server then automatically launches your
web browser and makes it point to this web server.  If your system
has an unusual configuration, fossil might not be able to figure out
how to start your web browser.  In that case, first tell fossil
where to find your web browser using a command like this:

<blockquote>
<b>fossil setting web-browser </b><i>  path-to-web-browser</i>
</blockquote>
<pre>
<b>fossil setting web-browser</b> <i>path-to-web-browser</i>
</pre>

By default, fossil does not require a login for HTTP connections
coming in from the IP loopback address 127.0.0.1.  You can, and perhaps
should, change this after you create a few users.

When you are finished configuring, just press Control-C or use
the <b>kill</b> command to shut down the mini-server.

<h2 id="sharing">Sharing Changes</h2>

When [./concepts.wiki#workflow|autosync] is turned off,
the changes you [/help/commit | commit] are only
on your local repository.
To share those changes with other repositories, do:

<blockquote>
<pre>
<b>[/help/push | fossil push]</b> <i>URL</i>
</blockquote>
</pre>

Where <i>URL</i> is the http: URL of the server repository you
want to share your changes with.  If you omit the <i>URL</i> argument,
fossil will use whatever server you most recently synced with.

The [/help/push | push] command only sends your changes to others.  To
Receive changes from others, use [/help/pull | pull].  Or go both ways at
once using [/help/sync | sync]:

<blockquote>
<b>[/help/pull | fossil pull]</b> <i>URL</i><br>
<pre>
<b>[/help/pull | fossil pull]</b> <i>URL</i>
<b>[/help/sync | fossil sync]</b> <i>URL</i>
</blockquote>
</pre>

When you pull in changes from others, they go into your repository,
not into your checked-out local tree.  To get the changes into your
local tree, use [/help/update | update]:

<blockquote>
<pre>
<b>[/help/update | fossil update]</b> <i>VERSION</i>
</blockquote>
</pre>

The <i>VERSION</i> can be the name of a branch or tag or any
abbreviation to the 40-character
artifact identifier for a particular check-in, or it can be a
date/time stamp.  ([./checkin_names.wiki | more info])
If you omit
the <i>VERSION</i>, then fossil moves you to the
latest version of the branch your are currently on.

The default behavior is for [./concepts.wiki#workflow|autosync] to
be turned on.  That means that a [/help/pull|pull] automatically occurs
when you run [/help/update|update] and a [/help/push|push] happens
automatically after you [/help/commit|commit].  So in normal practice,
the push, pull, and sync commands are rarely used.  But it is important
to know about them, all the same.

<blockquote>
<pre>
<b>[/help/checkout | fossil checkout]</b> <i>VERSION</i>
</blockquote>
</pre>

Is similar to update except that it does not honor the autosync
setting, nor does it merge in local changes - it prefers to overwrite
them and fails if local changes exist unless the <tt>--force</tt>
flag is used.

<h2 id="branch" name="merge">Branching And Merging</h2>

To merge two branches back together, first
[/help/update | update] to the branch you want to merge into.
Then do a [/help/merge|merge] of the other branch that you want to incorporate
the changes from.  For example, to merge "featureX" changes into "trunk"
do this:

<blockquote>
<b>fossil [/help/update|update] trunk</b><br>
<b>fossil [/help/merge|merge] featureX</b><br>
<i># make sure the merge didn't break anything...</i><br>
<pre>
<b>fossil [/help/update|update] trunk</b>
<b>fossil [/help/merge|merge] featureX</b>
<i># make sure the merge didn't break anything...</i>
<b>fossil [/help/commit|commit]
</blockquote>
</pre>

The argument to the [/help/merge|merge] command can be any of the
version identifier forms that work for [/help/update|update].
([./checkin_names.wiki|more info].)
The merge command has options to cherry-pick individual
changes, or to back out individual changes, if you don't want to
do a full merge.

into trunk previously, you can do so again and Fossil will automatically
know to pull in only those changes that have occurred since the previous
merge.

If a merge or update doesn't work out (perhaps something breaks or
there are many merge conflicts) then you back up using:

<blockquote>
<pre>
<b>[/help/undo | fossil undo]</b>
</blockquote>
</pre>

This will back out the changes that the merge or update made to the
working checkout.  There is also a [/help/redo|redo] command if you undo by
mistake.  Undo and redo only work for changes that have
not yet been checked in using commit and there is only a single
level of undo/redo.


<h2 id="server">Setting Up A Server</h2>

Fossil can act as a stand-alone web server using one of these
commands:

<blockquote>
<b>[/help/server | fossil server]</b> <i>repository-filename</i><br>
<pre>
<b>[/help/server | fossil server]</b> <i>repository-filename</i>
<b>[/help/ui | fossil ui]</b> <i>repository-filename</i>
</blockquote>
</pre>

The <i>repository-filename</i> can be omitted when these commands
are run from within an open check-out, which is a particularly useful
shortcut with the <b>fossil ui</b> command.

The <b>ui</b> command is intended for accessing the web user interface
from a local desktop. (We sometimes call this mode "Fossil UI.")

If you are behind a restrictive firewall that requires you to use
an HTTP proxy to reach the internet, then you can configure the proxy
in three different ways.  You can tell fossil about your proxy using
a command-line option on commands that use the network,
<b>sync</b>, <b>clone</b>, <b>push</b>, and <b>pull</b>.

<blockquote>
<b>fossil clone </b><i>URL</i>  <b>--proxy</b> <i>Proxy-URL</i>
</blockquote>
<pre>
<b>fossil clone </b><i>URL</i> <b>--proxy</b> <i>Proxy-URL</i>
</pre>

It is annoying to have to type in the proxy URL every time you
sync your project, though, so you can make the proxy configuration
persistent using the [/help/setting | setting] command:

<blockquote>
<pre>
<b>fossil setting proxy </b><i>Proxy-URL</i>
</blockquote>
</pre>

Or, you can set the "<b>http_proxy</b>" environment variable:

<blockquote>
<pre>
<b>export http_proxy=</b><i>Proxy-URL</i>
</blockquote>
</pre>

To stop using the proxy, do:

<blockquote>
<pre>
<b>fossil setting proxy off</b>
</blockquote>
</pre>

Or unset the environment variable.  The fossil setting for the
HTTP proxy takes precedence over the environment variable and the
command-line option overrides both.  If you have a persistent
proxy setting that you want to override for a one-time sync, that
is easily done on the command-line.  For example, to sync with
a co-worker's repository on your LAN, you might type:

<blockquote>
<pre>
<b>fossil sync http://192.168.1.36:8080/ --proxy off</b>
</blockquote>
</pre>

<h2 id="links">Other Resources</h2>

<ul>
<li> <a href="./gitusers.md">Hints For Users With Prior Git Experience</a>
<li> <a href="./whyusefossil.wiki">Why You Should Use Fossil</a>
<li> <a href="./history.md">The History and Purpose of Fossil</a>
<li> <a href="./branching.wiki">Branching, Forking, and Tagging</a>
<li> <a href="./hints.wiki">Fossil Tips and Usage Hints</a>
<li> <a href="./permutedindex.html">Comprehensive Fossil Doc Index</a>
</ul>