fstools : vv - visual versioning

So you have access to the last version of your edited file, without the hassle of additional versioning software like RCS, SCCS, subversion or Git.

The drawback is the "pollution" of your directory with all these files~

With vv you will have not only the last version, but up to 100 (default are 10) versions and there is no more files~ mess in your working directory, because all version files are stored in a .versions/ subdirectory.

• To use vv with vim, add to your $HOME/.vimrc :

     autocmd BufWritePre  * execute '! vv -s ' . shellescape(@%)
     autocmd BufWritePost * execute '! vv -s ' . shellescape(@%)
  

  ATTENTION: this will not work with vim.tiny, you need the full version of vim (vim.basic)

• To use vv with emacs, add to your $HOME/.emacs :

     (add-hook 'before-save-hook (lambda () (shell-command (concat "vv -qs " (shell-quote-argument (buffer-file-name))))))
     (add-hook 'after-save-hook  (lambda () (shell-command (concat "vv -qs " (shell-quote-argument (buffer-file-name))))))
     (setq make-backup-files nil)
  

• To use vv with jed, install vv.sl in your jed library path (see: jed -batch).

• If you want to use vv with any other editor, you have to set:

     export EDITOR=your_favourite_editor # example: export EDITOR=nano
     alias ve='vv -e'
  

  Then you can edit your files (with automatic versioning) with:

     ve file
  

  Limitation of ve: you can edit only one file within one run.

If you inadvertently delete your file, you can recover it with: vv file

vv does not break symbolic or hard links (like many other programs).

vv comes with zz and del in one package.

To install it, call: perl -I vv

usage

  vv [-l] [FILE]                                 # list
  vv -s [-f] FILE [COMMENT]                      # save
  vv -r [VERSION_NUMBER] FILE [NEW_FILE]         # recover
  vv -d [VERSION_NUMBER[:VERSION_NUMBER]] [FILE] # show diff
  vv -D [VERSION_NUMBER[-VERSION_NUMBER]] FILE   # delete
  vv -D [-R] .                                   # delete all
  vv -v VERSION_NUMBER FILE [VIEWER_COMMAND]     # view
  vv -c [VERSION_NUMBER] FILE [COMMENT]          # comment
  vv -e FILE                                     # edit
  vv -N [NUMBER] FILE                            # set or show number
  vv -m [-R]                                     # migrate
  vv -p                                          # purge
  vv -M FILE DIRECTORY                           # move
  vv SHELL_COMMAND FILE~                         # execute
  vv -H                                          # help

examples

framstag@fex:/sw/share/jedlib-0.99-19/lib: vv
 8 defaults.sl
 9 jed.rc
 3 keys.sl
 1 misc.sl
 9 versions.sl

framstag@fex:/sw/share/jedlib-0.99-19/lib: vv keys.sl
version  bytes  time
.         6003  2013-04-13 13:32:58
1         6001  2013-04-11 09:39:59
2         5963  2012-07-29 13:01:45
3         5793  2011-07-25 13:46:39

framstag@fex:/sw/share/jedlib-0.99-19/lib: ll keys.sl .versions/keys.sl*
-rw-r--r-- framstag users    6,003 2013-04-13 13:32:58 keys.sl
-rw-r--r-- framstag users    6,001 2013-04-11 09:39:59 .versions/keys.sl~01~
-rw-r--r-- framstag users    5,963 2012-07-29 13:01:45 .versions/keys.sl~02~
-rw-r--r-- framstag users    5,793 2011-07-25 13:46:39 .versions/keys.sl~03~