The Hackerlab at regexps.com

Preliminary Data Sheet for the Hackerlab arch

up: arch


Package:
        Hackerlab arch (a revision control system)

Supplier:
        regexps.com

Function:        

        Hackerlab arch performs revision control offering fancy
        features for branching and merging.  It provides distributed
        repositories (repositories spread over multiple hosts) and a
        global (world-wide) namespace for branches and revisions.


Key Features:
                
        arch is simple, small, fast, and featureful.

        Distributed repositories are especially appropriate for
        projects developed in the "open source" style -- with
        geographically distributed developers and sub-teams, loosely
        and flexibly cooperating.

        Arch's fancy merging features are ideal for projects
        supporting multiple concurrent releases and/or performing a
        lot of development in separate branches.

        Postscript and HTML documentation is included.


Licensing:

        Hackerlab arch is part of is distributed under the terms of
        the GNU General Public License, Version 2, as published by the
        Free Software Foundation.
        

Prerequisites:

        standard C compiler
        Posix libc.a (standard C library)
        GNU Make
        GNU tar
        GNU patch
        most of the standard Posix shell, text, and file utilities


Recommended and Disrecommended Applications:

        arch is brand new.  The recommended application at this stage
        is evaluation, help with porting, and help with testing.

        Given resources for robust testing, arch could be made ready
        for heavy-duty, mission critical application within months --
        but absent those resources, arch suffers from the risks
        associated with brand-new software.

        If your projects are characterized by distributed development,
        consider evaluating arch and finding ways to contribute to a 
        polished, commercial-quality release.


Limitations:

        The primary limitation is that arch needs porting and testing.

        A secondary limitation is that arch likes to operate on
        whole-trees, not individual files.  This limitation can be
        overcome with further development, though it remains to be
        seen if user's truly miss such features.


Size:

        The core of arch is around 40K lines of code, mostly shell and
        awk scripts.

        Small parts of arch rely on the Hackerlab C library, which
        adds considerably to the overall code size.  It is possible to
        eliminate this dependency, but not necessarily desirable.


Performance:

        Arch has some nice performance characteristics.

        Repositories are stored in compressed format and tree-deltas
        are efficiently represented.  This both saves disk space and 
        reduces network traffic.

        On the client side, arch makes heavy use of caching to speed
        up some operations and make detached operation possible.

Support:

        To purchase an alternative license, request additional
        features, or for any kind of support assistance, you can
        contact us at "hackerlab@regexps.com" or via our web site
        "www.regexps.com".  We can also be reached at (412) 401-5204.


arch: The arch Revision Control System
The Hackerlab at regexps.com