Artifact [0765ce031b]

---

title: Quickstart weight: 20

aliases: ["/docs/quickstart/"]

A five-minute tour of libfossil: clone a repo and read its history from Go.

Install

go install github.com/danmestas/go-libfossil/cmd/libfossil@latest
libfossil --help

The binary is pure-Go and CGo-free — drop it on any host.

Clone a repository

Clone using the Go API:

package main

import (
    "context"
    "log"

    "github.com/danmestas/go-libfossil"
)

func main() {
    t := libfossil.NewHTTPTransport("https://example.com/repo.fossil")
    repo, _, err := libfossil.Clone(context.Background(), "./repo.fossil", t, libfossil.CloneOpts{})
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer repo.Close()
}

Open from Go

After cloning (above), open the same .fossil file from Go and read its history:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "log"

    "github.com/danmestas/go-libfossil"
)

func main() {
    repo, err := libfossil.Open("repo.fossil")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer repo.Close()

    entries, err := repo.Timeline(libfossil.TimelineOpts{Limit: 10})
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    for _, e := range entries {
        fmt.Println(e.UUID, e.Comment)
    }
}

Sync over HTTP

package main

import (
    "context"
    "log"

    "github.com/danmestas/go-libfossil"
)

func main() {
    repo, err := libfossil.Open("repo.fossil")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer repo.Close()

    t := libfossil.NewHTTPTransport("https://example.com/repo.fossil")
    if _, err := repo.Sync(context.Background(), t, libfossil.SyncOpts{Pull: true}); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

Or use the simpler Pull wrapper for pull-only workflows:

_, err := repo.Pull(context.Background(), "https://example.com/repo.fossil", libfossil.PullOpts{})

Next steps

• Architecture — how the pieces fit
• Production patterns — error handling, context, telemetry beyond log.Fatal
• Extension Points — observers for telemetry, custom SQLite drivers
• Migration from Fossil — command mapping from upstream
• SDK reference — every package, every exported symbol