Setting Up Version Control on your Home Directory

UPDATE: I just initialized a mercurial repository in my home dir as well to have a side by side comparison of the two. If you are interested in using mercurial please look at the bottom for a few notes on setting it up.

In Ubuntu 9.04 a new application was introduced called etckeeper. This application uses various version control systems to store versions of files within etc. Some machines that I work on I keep my home directory very clean, and I go out of my way to keep things organized and stored in version control. I have dropped the ball on being so organized when it comes to my home desktop, but tonight, that changed. This is how to use version control with your home directory. I am not going to cover indepth topics about using Git or any other version control, this guide simply explains how to maintain a local repository.

The first step is to install your preferred version control system. In this case I am going to use git, since a lot of people are familiar with it.

sudo apt-get install git
Read the rest of this entry »