<h1>Fossil - Distributed Revision Control, Wiki, And Bug-Tracking</h1>

<p>
Fossil is a new 
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_control">
distributed software revision control system</a> that includes an integrated
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki">Wiki</a> and an integrated
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugtracker">
bug-tracking system</a> all in a single easy-to-use stand-alone
executable.
(NB: The bug-tracker component is still not completely functional yet, but
we expect it to be available soon.)
Fossil is
<a href="http://www.fossil-scm.org/fossil/timeline">self-hosting</a>
since 2007-07-21 on
<a href="http://www.hwaci.com/cgi-bin/fossil/timeline">two separate servers</a>.
You can download the lastest sources
compile it yourself using the instructions below.
Or you can grab
<a href="http://www.fossil-scm.org/download.html">precompiled binaries</a>.
</p>

<p>Design Goals For Fossil:</p>

<ul>
<li>Supports disconnected, distributed development (like
<a href="http://kerneltrap.org/node/4982">git</a>,
<a href="http://www.monotone.ca/">monotone</a>,
<a href="http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/wiki/index.cgi">mercurial</a>, or
<a href="http://www.bitkeeper.com/">bitkeeper</a>)
or client/server operation (like 
<a href="http://www.nongnu.org/cvs/">CVS</a> or
<a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/">subversion</a>),
or operations on local repositories,
or all three at the same time</li>
<li>Integrated bug tracking and wiki, along the lines of
<a href="http://www.cvstrac.org/">CVSTrac</a> and
<a href="http://www.edgewall.com/trac/">Trac</a>.</li>
<li>Built-in web interface that supports deep archaeological digs through
historical source code.</li>
<li>All network communication via 
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP">HTTP</a>
(so that everything works from behind restrictive firewalls).</li>
<li>Everything included in a single self-contained executable -
    trivial to install</li>
<li>Server runs as <a href="http://www.w3.org/CGI/">CGI</a>, using
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/inetd">inetd</a> or
<a href="http://www.xinetd.org/">xinetd</a> or using its own built-in,
standalone web server.</li>
<li>An entire project contained in single disk file (which also
happens to be an <a href="http://www.sqlite.org/">SQLite</a> database.)</li>
<li>Trivial to setup and administer</li>
<li>Files and versions are identified by their
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-1">SHA1</a> signature.</a>
Any unique prefix is sufficient to identify a file
or version - usually the first 4 or 5 characters suffice.</li>
<li>The file format is trival and requires nothing more complex
than a text editor and the "sha1sum" command-line utility to decode.</li>
<li>Automatic <a href="selfcheck.wiki">self-check</a>
on repository changes makes it exceedingly
unlikely that data will ever be lost because of a software bug.</li>
</ul>

<p>Objectives Of Fossil:</p>

<ul>
<li>Fossil should be ridiculously easy to 
<a href="build.wiki">install</a> and 
<a href="quickstart.wiki">operate</a>.</li>
<li>With fossil, it should be possible (and 
<a href="quickstart.wiki#serversetup">easy</a>) to set up a project
on an inexpensive shared-hosting ISP
(example: <a href="http://www.he.net/hosting.html">Hurricane Electric</a>)
that provides nothing more than web space and CGI capability.
Here is <a href="http://www.hwaci.com/cgi-bin/fossil/timeline">a demo</a>.</li>
<li>Fossil should provide in-depth historical and status information about the
project through a web interface</li>
<li>The integration of <a href="http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki">Wiki</a>
and the ability to safely support anonymous check-in are features sometimes
described as
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html">Web 2.0</a>.
Fossil attempts to better capture "collective intelligence" and 
"the wisdom of crowds" by opening up write access to the masses.</li>
</ul>

<p>User Links:</p>

<ul>
<li>The <a href="concepts.wiki">concepts</b> behind fossil</li>
<li><a href="build.wiki">Building And Installing</a></li>
<li><a href="quickstart.wiki">Quick Start</a> guide to using fossil
<li>The <a href="selfcheck.wiki">automatic self-check</a> mechanism
helps insure project integrity.</li>
<li>The <a href="http://www.fossil-scm.org/fossil/wiki">self-hosting
    fossil wiki</a>, capable of hosting static pages and community-editable wiki
    content.</li>
<li>There is a
    <a href="http://lists.fossil-scm.org:8080/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fossil-users">
    mailing list</a> available for discussing fossil issues.</li>
</ul>

<p>Developer Links: </p>

<ul>
<li><a href="pop.wiki">Principles Of Operation</a></li>
<li>The <a href="fileformat.wiki">file format</a> used by every content
file stored in the repository.</li>
<li>The <a href="delta_format.wiki">format of deltas</a> used to
efficiently store changes between file revisions.</li>
<li>The <a href="delta_encoder_algorithm.wiki">encoder algorithm</a> used to
efficiently generate deltas.</li>
<li>The <a href="sync.wiki">synchronization protocol</a>.</li>
</ul>

<p>Competing Projects:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.ditrack.org/">DITrace</a>
     - A Distributed Issue  Tracker</li>
<li><a href="http://www.distract.wellquite.org/">DisTract</a>
     - Another distributed issue tracker based on 
     <a href="http://www.monotone.ca/">monotone</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.monotone.ca/">Monotone</a> - distributed
     SCM in a single-file executable with a single-file SQLite
     database repository.</li>
</ul>
