hgwebdir

hgwebdir is a component of the Mercurial distributed version control system that provides a web-based interface for serving multiple repositories from a single directory. It acts as a web application (often invoked as a CGI script or via a WSGI wrapper) and presents each repository in a browsable format, including changesets, branches, file history, diffs, and file contents.

Deployment and configuration: Administrators place Mercurial repositories under a root directory and configure hgwebdir through a configuration file (typically hgweb.config) that maps URL paths to repository directories. The web server is configured to execute hgwebdir as a CGI or WSGI application. Access to repositories can be controlled via the web server or the configuration, enabling read-only browsing by the public or restricted access.

Functionality: For each repository, hgwebdir provides a repository index, changeset lists, diffs, and a file viewer supporting viewing historical revisions and directory trees. It also supports searching changesets, bookmarking, and viewing branch and tag information. It is designed to be lightweight and easy to deploy for hosting multiple Mercurial projects.

Relation and scope: hgwebdir is part of Mercurial’s web interface suite, complementary to hgweb, which can serve a single repository. hgwebdir emphasizes multi-repo hosting from a shared root, making it suitable for project portals and organization-wide code hosting.

See also: Mercurial, hgweb, hgwebdir.fcgi, web hosting.