So I've been using CVS, with a private repository on my departmental Unix login that I connect to from my laptop using ssh. I use it both for code and for my papers. Is that a type of setup that fossil can handle? The integrated bug-tracking system sounds like a good idea, but what other reasons would there be to migrate?

I think Fossil is aimed at people who want to support a open-source project, with collaborators from around the internet. I have a hard time imagining that you might want an open wiki for internet people to discuss your applications, or an open bug-tracking system for people to submit bug reports against them. Mostly, you do awesome cutting-edge algorithms stuff, rather than plodding software maintenance stuff. (We need both, of course.)

However, CVS does client-server source code control. Fossil does both that and also git-style distributed source code control. So you could clone your server to your laptop, then go offline, and commit your work periodically to your local repository, and then come back online, and sync with the server. That might be an advantage.

Also, setting up CVS again if your server burned down might be mildly annoying. With Fossil, the entire repository is a single file. If I had, say, a tarball of a CVS tree, it would be a single file. But I'd be nervous about reinstalling/reconfiguring CVS and splicing the tarball into place. It would be a multiple-hour annoyance.

The disadvantages include: Fossil is new, and CVS is old. There are lots of CVS-specific scripts and tools, including migration tools to other SCM systems. People know what CVS is and how to work it. Fossil is much easier to work, but it's unfamiliar.

I do also use CVS collaboratively for papers, with a couple of other repositories, but relying on Unix login and group security for the access control. So a version control system with more fine-grained access control would also be helpful.

I don't know. Fossil does have more fine-grained control, but it might be slicing in a perpendicular direction than you'd like. Here's a snip from the "Edit User" page, explaining what the various privileges mean.

"The Read Wiki, New Wiki, Append Wiki, and Write Wiki privileges control access to wiki pages. The Read Tkt, New Tkt, Append Tkt, and Write Tkt privileges control access to trouble tickets."

You probably want per-directory (per-paper) access control, which fossil does not have.

Anyway, I suggest playing with it for 5 minutes, because it's easy to download and compile and "install". It's a single executable that runs from wherever you put it.

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