Question

First, a confession. In about 10 years of professional development, I’ve never used a source control system. There, that feels better. My historical setup (as recommended by management, ha!) has been to create dated folders on a server and copy-and-paste my data into it each evening.

I’ve known for a long time that a much better, manageable solution would be to use git or Mercurial to manage my source but I’ve never taken the time to learn any of these new tools because myold system has always worked well enough for my needs as the lone developer for every project I’ve ever worked on.

I have finally change this setup. I’ve installed Mercurial on my Mac, which after a bit of reading, I prefer over git. As a GUI front-end, I have installed SourceTree which appears to be easy to use and quite friendly. The problem I am having is that I can’t find a very simple, straight-forward walkthrough for setting up a server repository that I use for pushing changes to each evening. I’m sure it’s there, I just can’t find it.

I’ve honestly tried to Google this, but there is something about the term “SourceTree”. I can’t find anything useful because half of the information I find is in regards to using git and it tends to involve pushing a project to a site like github.com, which is not pertinent in my case.

Additionally, I have skimmed the Mercurial documentation and I still may not be entirely clear about the full commit/update/push/pull/branch/merge concept. I just want to get something setup rather fast that will back-up and track the changes of my projects, without having to be a source control guru.

How do I setup a simple repository on a Windows network server, and push and pull changes each evening? My company want me to store my data in a personal folder, on a network share that is backed up to tape and is then stored off site.

I’m sure it has to be simple. I just want to be sure that I’m doing it correctly so that in the case that I need to access a back up, it is there and can be easily pulled… or branched.. or whatever.

Answer 1

Well, it depends on the kind of the server you are going to use.

Let’s assume it’s not a Windows server (just a guess, as you’re a Mac user). Let’s also assume that right now you only need it for yourself, not for a bunch of users.

Then the simplest way is to use SSH. Suppose the server is server, and you have an account rlh there. You’ll need to have a public/private key pair for a seamless access (no need to enter the password on each pull/push). You’ll need to install Mercurial on the server as well, obviously.

On the server, create a repo (in your home dir, for example):

rlh@mac$ ssh server
rlh@server$ mkdir myproject
rlh@server$ cd myproject
rlh@server$ hg init

On your machine, clone the repo:

rlh@mac$ hg clone ssh://rlh@server/myproject myproject

The default target will be set automatically, and you should be able to pull/push with no additional configuration.

Feel free to ask if you have a question regarding this.