[Gnu-arch-users] Usage tips

[Russ Brown]

Hello,

I've recently moved to Arch from a CVS background. Very impressed! Seems 
very feature-rich and it's good to see that the mailing list is busy. I've 
had little trouble getting to grips with the basics (updating and 
committing etc) but I'm having a little trouble figuring out some of the 
more advanced features. Once it clicks, I'll be fine, but I need a little 
help to push me in the right direction.

I've always thought that the best way to learn is by example, so I would 
like to present a situation that I would like to realise, and would 
appreciate tips on how to make it a reality.

Basically, I have an archive on my machine which contains a (PHP) project 
I've been working on. There's just me working on this project.

At some point, I'm going to need to go and install this project at the 
customer's premesis. Going on the experience of past installations, there 
will be a few issues with the software when it is first installed, which I 
will fix there and then.

Obviously, I want these changes to make their way back into my archive at 
home.

So, I think I know what needs to happen, I just don't know how to do it.

I think I need to mirror (copy?) my archive onto a removable storage 
device (I was going to use a Compact flash card, but the details aren't 
important). At the customer's site I install the software by checking it 
out from the archive on the storage device. I make the changes I need, and 
then commit those changes to the archive on the storage device. When I get 
home I put the changes back into my main archive.

I think that's the right procedure, but I'm not confident that I can 
figure out how to get the procedure right first time (i.e. the commands to 
use). For example, should the portable archive use a different user ID, or 
should I just use the same one? I don't want to get this wrong, as it 
would complicate my installation trip!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

--

Russell Brown