Fossil (software)
Software configuration management, bug tracking system and wiki server
title: "Fossil (software)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["bug-and-issue-tracking-software", "2006-software", "cross-platform-free-software", "distributed-bug-tracking-systems", "distributed-version-control-systems", "free-software-programmed-in-c", "free-version-control-software", "free-wiki-software", "software-using-the-bsd-license", "version-control-systems"] description: "Software configuration management, bug tracking system and wiki server" topic_path: "technology/software-engineering" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_(software)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Software configuration management, bug tracking system and wiki server ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Fossil |
| logo | [[File:Fossil SCM logo.svg |
| author | D. Richard Hipp |
| released | |
| latest release version | |
| latest release date | |
| latest preview date | |
| programming language | C, SQL |
| operating system | Cross-platform |
| genre | Software configuration management, bug tracking system, wiki software |
| license | 2010: BSD-2-Clause |
| 2007: GPL-2.0-only | |
| :: |
| name = Fossil
| title =
| logo = [[File:Fossil SCM logo.svg|frameless|upright]]
| screenshot =
| caption =
| collapsible =
| author = D. Richard Hipp
| developer =
| released =
| discontinued =
| latest release version =
| latest release date =
| latest preview version =
| latest preview date =
| programming language = C, SQL
| operating system = Cross-platform
| platform =
| size =
| language =
| status =
| genre = Software configuration management, bug tracking system, wiki software
| license = 2010: BSD-2-Clause
2007: GPL-2.0-only
Fossil is a software configuration management, bug tracking system and wiki software server for use in software development created by D. Richard Hipp.
Features
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Fossil-web-timeline.png" caption="The Fossil web interface showing changes to the [[SQLite]] source tree"] ::
Fossil is a cross-platform distributed version control system that runs on Linux, BSD derivatives, Mac and Windows. It is capable of performing distributed version control, bug tracking, wiki services, and documentation.
The software has a built-in web interface, which reduces project tracking complexity and promotes situational awareness. A user may simply type "fossil ui" from within any check-out and Fossil automatically opens the user's web browser to display a page giving detailed history and status information on that project. The fossil executable may be run as a standalone HTTP server, as a CGI application, accessed via SSH, or run interactively from the CLI.
To simplify centralized development, Fossil provides an "autosync" mode to automatically sync changes when commits are made, in a similar manner to centralized version control systems.
Content is stored using a SQLite database so that transactions are atomic even if interrupted by a power loss or system crash.
Fossil is free software released under a BSD license (relicensed from previously GPL).
Adoption
Fossil is used for version control by the SQLite project, which is itself a component of Fossil. SQLite transitioned to using Fossil for version control over CVS on 2009-08-12.
Some examples of other projects using Fossil are:
- Tcl/Tk Project
- Pikchr
- MySQL++, a C++ wrapper for the MySQL and MariaDB C APIs
- LuaSQLite3
- libfossil
- fnc, the ncurses-based Fossil UI experience in the terminal
- Androwish, the Tcl implementation for Android
Source code hosting
The following websites provide free source code hosting for Fossil repositories:
- Chisel. Original site owner James Turner announced that the site would cease operation on May 1, 2013. After domain ownership was transferred on May 1, 2013, it continued operation.
- SourceForge (unofficially through webpages hosting service)
Notes
References
References
- [http://www.fossil-scm.org/fossil/doc/tip/COPYRIGHT-BSD2.txt Fossil Copyright]
- "Fossil: A Coherent Software Configuration Management System".
- Edge, Jake. (March 16, 2011). "Version control with Fossil".
- "Fossil: The Fossil Web Interface".
- "Fossil: Fossil Concepts: Workflow".
- (5 November 2009). "Integrated version control with Fossil SCM".
- (2010-05-16). "Fossil DSCM Relicensed with BSD License.".
- (2009-08-23). "Fossil: Fossil Performance". Fossil-scm.org.
- "SQLite: Timeline". sqlite.org.
- (2013-03-28). "Chiselapp.com shutting down". James Turner.
- (2013-04-30). "ChiselApp ChangeOver Complete". Andreas Kupries.
- "Example: Free Fossil-SCM Repository Hosting".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::