# Library Browser Help

Note: please forgive the crude diagrams and terse descriptions in this help file. It is only a first draft.

topics:

- About the Browser in General
- About the First Browser Page in Particular

## About the Browser in General

This is a browser for `arch` repositories. `arch` is a revision control system. You can learn more about arch at regexps.com.

Using this browser, you can explore all of the revisions in one or more repositories from many different perspectives. You can examine change histories as recorded in log messages and patch sets, study the merging history of particular revisions, examine individual files from any revision, look at the history of particular source code distributions that were made from these repositories, and look at configurations: particular sets of revisions that you might check out from the repository if you are a developer. The library window is divided into four sections:

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    	| navigation bar					      |
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    	| left chooser	| right chooser				      |
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    	|	display area 					      |
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The browser is arranged as a shallow hierarchy of topics and sub-topics, which are displayed in the left and right choosers.

Generally speaking, when you select an item from the left chooser, a set of further choices specific to that item appear in the right chooser. When you choose an item in the right chooser, one of two things will happen: either the item will be displayed in the display area, or the items in the right chooser will move to the left chooser and a new choice of items will appear in the right chooser.

Sometimes items in a chooser have alternative links printed in a smaller font. Generally speaking, when you click on one of those alternative links, the corresponding data appears in the display area.

The navigation bar let's you quickly climb back up the hierarchy and also provides links to help messages like these.

## About the First Browser Page in Particular

On the first page, the left chooser displays lists of:

- cataloged archives
  This is a list of repositories indexed by the browser. Clicking on an achive name gives you a list of project categories for that archive. Clicking on a particular category will lead you to a choice of branches within that category. You can use the cataloged archives links to explore the overall structure of a repository.

- cataloged configurations
  Developers generally work with collections of packages combined into a single source tree. These collections are known as configurations. Clicking on a particular configuration name will display, in the right chooser, a list of the latest revisions of all packages included in the configuration and where each package resides in a source tree. Clicking on a particular revision name will display, in the display area, a detailed change history for that revision. You can use the cataloged configurations links to explore what "the latest sources are" for various branches of various projects.

- cataloged distributions
  `arch` knows how to automatically produce source distributions (tar bundles) from a repository. The cataloged distributions list is a list of distributions that can be produced. Clicking on a particular distribution name displays, in the right chooser, a list of each known version of that distribution. For each version, a list of the package revisions in that distribution is shown. Clicking on a particular revision gives you a detailed change history for that revision. You can use the cataloged distributions links to explore the contents and change history of specific tar bundles.