Mercurial is a fast, lightweight Source Control Management system
designed for efficient handling of very large distributed projects.
Fast
* Extremely high-performance delta-compressed storage scheme
* Optimized for disk layout and access efficiency
* Complete cross-indexing of files and changesets
* Bandwidth and CPU efficient HTTP and SSH sync protocols
Scalable
* Distributed development model supports unlimited numbers
of developers
* Allows arbitrary merging between developer branches
* Doesn't significantly degrade with large numbers of files
or changesets
* No waiting for locks!
Robust
* SHA1 integrity checking on repository data
* Append-only storage model with transaction journalling
* Fast full-repository verification
* Convenient backup
Easy to use
* Most commands are familiar to users of CVS and other systems
* Built-in command help
* Integrated stand-alone web interface
* Works with various GUI tools
Easy to adopt
* Runs on UNIX, MacOS X, and Windows
* Conversion tools available for many popular SCMs
* Allows a variety of usage models
* Supports user-defined hooks and extensions
Free
* Source code available under the GPL license
* Actively community supported and developed