Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
Merge pull request #122 from aspiers/dedupe-depot
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
  • Loading branch information
aspiers authored Jan 19, 2025
2 parents faf2330 + 7612eb0 commit 89a1b13
Showing 1 changed file with 10 additions and 17 deletions.
27 changes: 10 additions & 17 deletions README.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -44,15 +44,6 @@ directory](http://brandon.invergo.net/news/2012-05-26-using-gnu-stow-to-manage-y
especially when [coupled with version control
systems](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-stow/2011-12/msg00000.html).

Stow was inspired by Carnegie Mellon's Depot program, but is
substantially simpler and safer. Whereas Depot required database files
to keep things in sync, Stow stores no extra state between runs, so
there's no danger (as there was in Depot) of mangling directories when
file hierarchies don't match the database. Also unlike Depot, Stow will
never delete any files, directories, or links that appear in a Stow
directory (e.g., `/usr/local/stow/emacs`), so it's always possible
to rebuild the target tree (e.g., `/usr/local`).

Stow is implemented as a combination of a Perl script providing a CLI
interface, and a backend Perl module which does most of the work.

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -124,16 +115,18 @@ without any warranty.
Brief history and authorship
----------------------------

Stow was inspired by Carnegie Mellon's "Depot" program, but is
substantially simpler. Whereas Depot requires database files to keep
things in sync, Stow stores no extra state between runs, so there's no
danger (as there is in Depot) of mangling directories when file
hierarchies don't match the database. Also unlike Depot, Stow will
never delete any files, directories, or links that appear in a Stow
directory (e.g., `/usr/local/stow/emacs`), so it's always possible to
rebuild the target tree (e.g., `/usr/local`).
Stow was inspired by [Carnegie Mellon's "Depot" program][depot], but
is substantially simpler. Whereas Depot requires database files to
keep things in sync, Stow stores no extra state between runs, so
there's no danger (as there is in Depot) of mangling directories when
file hierarchies don't match the database. Also unlike Depot, Stow
will never delete any files, directories, or links that appear in a
Stow directory (e.g., `/usr/local/stow/emacs`), so it's always
possible to rebuild the target tree (e.g., `/usr/local`).

For a high-level overview of the contributions of the main developers
over the years, see [the `AUTHORS` file](AUTHORS).

For a more detailed history, please see the `ChangeLog` file.

[depot]: https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Depot

0 comments on commit 89a1b13

Please sign in to comment.