libvcs

libvcs provides a unified, typed, and pythonic interface for managing Git, Mercurial, and Subversion repositories. Whether you’re building a deployment tool, a developer utility, or just need to clone a repo in a script, libvcs handles the heavy lifting.

It powers vcspull and simplifies VCS interactions down to a few lines of code.

Features at a Glance

  • 🔄 Repository Synchronization: Clone, update, and manage local repository copies with a high-level API.

  • 🛠 Command Abstraction: Speak fluent git, hg, and svn through fully-typed Python objects.

  • 🔗 URL Parsing: Robustly validate, parse, and manipulate VCS URLs (including SCP-style).

  • 🧪 Pytest Fixtures: Batteries-included fixtures for spinning up temporary repositories in your test suite.

Installation

pip install libvcs

With uv:

uv add libvcs

Try it interactively:

uvx --with libvcs ipython

Tip: libvcs is pre-1.0. Pin a version range in projects to avoid surprises:

# pyproject.toml
dependencies = ["libvcs>=0.37,<0.38"]

Usage

1. Synchronize Repositories

Clone and update repositories with a consistent API, regardless of the VCS.

Learn more about Synchronization

import pathlib
from libvcs.sync.git import GitSync

# Define your repository
repo = GitSync(
    url="https://github.com/vcs-python/libvcs",
    path=pathlib.Path.cwd() / "libvcs",
    remotes={
        'gitlab': 'https://gitlab.com/vcs-python/libvcs'
    }
)

# Clone (if not exists) or fetch & update (if exists)
repo.update_repo()

print(f"Current revision: {repo.get_revision()}")

2. Command Abstraction

Traverse repository entities intuitively with ORM-like filtering, then run targeted commands against them.

Learn more about Command Abstraction

import pathlib
from libvcs.cmd.git import Git

# Initialize the wrapper
git = Git(path=pathlib.Path.cwd() / 'libvcs')

# Run commands directly
git.clone(url='https://github.com/vcs-python/libvcs.git')
git.checkout(ref='master')

# Traverse branches with ORM-like filtering
git.branches.create('feature/new-gui')
print(git.branches.ls())  # Returns QueryList for filtering

# Target specific entities with contextual commands
git.remotes.set_url(name='origin', url='[email protected]:vcs-python/libvcs.git')
git.tags.create(name='v1.0.0', message='Release version 1.0.0')

3. URL Parsing

Stop writing regex for Git URLs. Let libvcs handle the edge cases.

Learn more about URL Parsing

from libvcs.url.git import GitURL

# Validate URLs
GitURL.is_valid(url='https://github.com/vcs-python/libvcs.git')  # True

# Parse complex URLs
url = GitURL(url='[email protected]:vcs-python/libvcs.git')

print(url.user)      # 'git'
print(url.hostname)  # 'github.com'
print(url.path)      # 'vcs-python/libvcs'

# Transform URLs
url.hostname = 'gitlab.com'
print(url.to_url())  # '[email protected]:vcs-python/libvcs.git'

4. Testing with Pytest

Writing a tool that interacts with VCS? Use our fixtures to keep your tests clean and isolated.

Learn more about Pytest Fixtures

import pathlib
from libvcs.pytest_plugin import CreateRepoPytestFixtureFn
from libvcs.sync.git import GitSync

def test_my_git_tool(
    create_git_remote_repo: CreateRepoPytestFixtureFn,
    tmp_path: pathlib.Path
):
    # Spin up a real, temporary Git server
    git_server = create_git_remote_repo()
    
    # Clone it to a temporary directory
    checkout_path = tmp_path / "checkout"
    repo = GitSync(path=checkout_path, url=f"file://{git_server}")
    repo.obtain()
    
    assert checkout_path.exists()
    assert (checkout_path / ".git").is_dir()

Project Information

  • Python Support: 3.10+

  • VCS Support: Git (including AWS CodeCommit), Mercurial (hg), Subversion (svn)

  • License: MIT

Support

Your donations fund development of new features, testing, and support.