Installation

Getting started with Hug SCM is straightforward.

It's designed to be installed directly from its Github repository, and doesn't require root privileges.

Prerequisites

• Git or Mercurial: Hug requires an underlying SCM tool. It works with both Git and Mercurial (Hg), so you must have at least one installed and available in your PATH.
• Bash shell: Hug is a Bash-based tool and requires Bash 4.0 or higher.

Installation Steps

1. Clone the Repository

   First, clone the Hug SCM repository to a permanent location on your local machine. A common choice is your home directory.

   cd $HOME # or any other directory
   git clone https://github.com/elifarley/hug-scm.git

2. Run the Installer

   $HOME/hug-scm/install.sh

hug will be available for any future terminal sessions you open.

3. Activate Hug

   For the hug command to be immediately available in your current terminal session, you need to activate it. Just follow the installer instructions to do so.

   Alternatively, you can simply open a new terminal window.

4. Verify the Installation

   You're all set! To confirm that Hug is installed correctly, run the status command.

   hug s

   You can also see a list of all available command families by running:

   hug help

You are now ready to use Hug SCM in any of your Git repositories.

Optional Dependencies

Hug works great out of the box, but certain commands can benefit from additional tools that enhance the user experience. These are completely optional and only needed for specific features.

Installing Optional Tools

To install all optional dependencies at once:

make optional-deps-install

Or check which optional tools are installed:

make optional-deps-check

Available Optional Tools

• gum: Interactive filter/prompt tool from Charm Bracelet
  • Used by: hug brestore for better UX when selecting from 10+ backup branches
  • Without it: Falls back to a numbered list menu (still fully functional)
  • Install manually: go install github.com/charmbracelet/gum@latest

Optional tools are installed to $HOME/.hug-deps/bin by default. Set OPTIONAL_DEPS_DIR to customize the location.

Mercurial Support

Hug also supports Mercurial repositories!

Once installed, Hug will automatically detect whether you're in a Git or Mercurial repository and use the appropriate commands. The same familiar Hug commands work in both!

See Mercurial Support in the main README for more details on Mercurial-specific features and limitations.