\begin{hcarentry}[updated]{Darcs}
\label{darcs}
\report{Eric Kow}%05/09
\participants{Ganesh Sittampalam, Trent Buck, Gwern Branwen}
\status{active development}
\makeheader

Darcs is a distributed revision control system written in Haskell. In
Darcs, every copy of your source code is a full repository, which allows for
full operation in a disconnected environment, and also allows anyone with
read access to a Darcs repository to easily create their own branch and
modify it with the full power of Darcs' revision control. Darcs is based on
an underlying theory of patches, which allows for safe reordering and
merging of patches even in complex scenarios. For all its power, Darcs
remains a very easy to use tool for every day use because it follows the
principle of keeping simple things simple.

Our most recent major release, Darcs 2.3, was in July 2009.  This release
provides better performance, easier insallation and gzip error checking.
The next release promises to be a particularly exciting one:
\begin{enumerate}
\item Faster repository-local operations: Darcs developer Petr Rockai
      has succesfully completed his 2009 Google Summer of Code
      program.  This work optimizes Darcs' use of hashed storage
      repositories, making repository-local faster and more scalable.
      We are extremely grateful for generous support of the Haskell.org
      mentoring organization, which has provided us with one of their Google
      Summer of Code slots.
\item Hunk-splitting: Ganesh Sittampalam has implemented an improvement
      that gives users much greater control over patches created by
      Darcs.  In the interactive darcs record interface, users can opt
      to split hunk patches into smaller pieces, allowing for more
      granular patches where appropriate and making cherry picking more
      useful in practice.
\end{enumerate}

These changes and more will appear in the upcoming Darcs 2.4 release,
scheduled for January 2010.  We still have a lot progress to make and
are always open to contributions.  Haskell hackers, we need your help!

Darcs is free software licensed under the GNU GPL.  Darcs is a proud
member of the Software Freedom Conservancy, a US tax-exempt 501(c)(3)
organization.  We accept donations at
\url{http://darcs.net/donations.html}.

\FurtherReading
\url{http://darcs.net}
\end{hcarentry}
