3.5.2 Getting started

To get started, open a Changes & Versions tool with Repository | Changes & Versions, and choose VCS Settings | Paths.... This opens the _vcsPaths() generator from Graph, which contains the settings for VCS integration:

	the name to use for this MetaEdit+ repository in your VCS, `$dbName`. By default in a new repository this uses `__(internal 'dbName' read)` to pick up the name of the repository shown in the Startup Launcher; it is better to change this to simply assign the name as a fixed string, e.g. `$dbName = 'demo'`
	your choice of VCS, `$vcs = 'git'` or `$vcs = 'svn'`
	the base VCS working directory on your disk, `$gitBaseDir` /`$svnBaseDir`
	the base URL of a VCS repository: optional `$gitBaseURL` for Git (e.g. a GitHub account URL), an obligatory `$svnBaseURL` repository for SVN.

The full paths to the working directory on your disk and to the URL are then formed by appending the name you chose for your MetaEdit+ repository. Under a single base directory and URL you can thus have multiple MetaEdit+ repositories, each of which is versioned separately.

In this section we will detail the settings necessary for a single user MetaEdit+ repository. Extra information for multi-user repositories is provided in Section 3.5.5.

On Linux, note that you must install xterm. MetaEdit+ generates VCS and shell commands in .bat files, and these are run via the metarun script, which opens them in xterm and runs them as bash scripts.

Git

Install Git – you can use the defaults or your own preferences. When MetaEdit+ runs Git commands, it will add Git to the path as needed, use Git’s built-in credential caching, and use the cmd terminal (or xterm on Linux).

On your OS command line, run the following:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email your@email.address

Select VCS Settings | Paths to adjust _vcsPaths() to fit your needs, choosing $vcs='git'. Make sure the $gitBaseDir and $gitExeDir point to the desired directories, and that those directories already exist. The $gitWorkingDir will be built from $gitBaseDir by appending the given $dbName. Save your changes to _vcsPaths().

Git does not necessarily require a $gitBaseURL – the local working directory has a full git repository in itself. You can have a $gitBaseURL if you want, and versioning will then keep that remote git repository in sync with your local working directory’s git repository. The remote git repository must already exist or be created manually: You can set up an account on GitHub or Bitbucket.org, and create an empty git repository there with the same name as dbName in _vcsPaths(). You should set $gitBaseURL to the URL for your account; $gitProjectURL will be built from that by appending the given $dbName.

Select Extra VCS Commands | Init to run _vcsInit(). This, and its _vcsInit_git() subgenerator, will create and run gitInit.bat to:

	create the working directory for this MetaEdit+ db,
	set up credential caching to remember the password for this `$gitProjectURL` (you will be prompted for the password on the command line, once only),
	set the necessary file types and line end handling for this platform and multi-platform use, and
	set up the link to `$gitProjectURL`, if non-empty.

TortoiseSVN and SVN

If on Linux, simply install SVN (1.8 or later). If on Windows, install TortoiseSVN (1.8 or later). Plain SVN lacks certain functions that are needed on Windows for VCS integration. A TortoiseSVN installation will include SVN, and MetaEdit+ calls those SVN commands directly to perform some tasks, and opens a TortoiseSVN window for other tasks that require a UI.

SVN requires an $svnBaseURL (can be a remote URL, or a file:/// URL for a local SVN repository) and requires that the SVN repository exists.

Create the directories: by default we use X:\svn and an X:\svn\svn_working base directory within which we will have a working directory per MetaEdit+ repository.

If you are creating a local SVN repository rather than using an existing remote repository, create the empty SVN repository:

	On Windows: create X:\svn\svn_repos, right-click it and choose TortoiseSVN \| Create Repository Here.... You do not need to choose ‘Create folder structure’.
	On Linux: `snvadmin create /home/myUser/svn/svn_repos`

Select VCS Settings | Paths to adjust _vcsPaths() to fit your needs, choosing $vcs='svn'. Make sure the $svnBaseDir and $svnBaseURL point to the desired locations, and that those locations already exist.

On Windows the settings for a local SVN repository might be:

$svnBaseDir = 'X:\svn\svn_working'
$svnBaseURL = 'file:///X:/svn/svn_repos'

On Linux the settings for a local SVN repository might be:

$svnBaseDir = '/home/myUser/svn/svn_working'
$svnBaseURL = 'file:///home/myUser/svn/svn_repos'

The $svnWorkingDir and $svnProjectURL will be built from these by appending the given $dbName. Save your changes to _vcsPaths().

Select Extra VCS Commands | Init to run _vcsInit().This, and its _vcsInit_svn() subgenerator, will create and run svnInit.bat to create an SVN project for your MetaEdit+ db.

If on Windows, when pressing Save Version to check in, remember to always press the All link above the file list in the TortoiseSVN dialog that opens, so that added and deleted files are versioned.