Sorry to be such a Newb.

Is it wrong to start with the Tarball ? Couldn't get fossil to open the tarball directories, complains that they're not empty. Also 'fossil update' gives "current directory is not within open checkout"

Following the various Readme.md files leads me to CONTRIBUTING.md

In a new pidp8i directoiry, if I 'fossil open https://tan...etc' - seems to work and creates a directory tree

If I then enter 'fossil up gpio hack ' I get "content missing for media /etos/etosv5b-demo.rk05 missing content, unable to update"

I tried copying the tarball's /etos directories to the fossil directory tree on my pi, but to no avail.

Stuck at this point ....

(Also, no biggie, website link to top-level README.md file not working).

Is it wrong to start with the Tarball ?

It's fine for building the software as an end user, but as a developer, it limits you to a single version, then doesn't give you a way to commit your changes should you accept my offer of developer access.

Couldn't get fossil to open the tarball directorie

Fossil doesn't manipulate tarballs. It manipulates checkout directories. The intent is that you "open" the repository into an empty directory, extracting the current trunk version into that directory. Fossil won't merge a repo's contents into a directory full of files without being --force'd, a good default because you can create a big mess if you don't know what you're doing.

If you're still running from the binary OS images, though, you already have a working checkout in ~/pidp8i, which is why this command sequence works.

'fossil update' gives "current directory is not within open checkout"

So cd into one, such as ~/pidp8i.

The contribution guide begins with a Fossil tutorial. Hint. :)

content missing for media /etos/etosv5b-demo.rk05

That's a hole in the file history due to lack of any public evidence that we have a license to redistribute ETOS. We chose to retroactively remove it from the repository.

While that explains the nature of the error, I don't see how you got Fossil to give it, because it doesn't happen here when I switch to the branch in question. Can you give me a command-by-command reproduction sequence, please?

My sequence is, roughly:

cd ~/pidp8i
fossil up pi4-gpio-hack

website link to top-level README.md file not working

It works for me, with multiple browsers.

Rather than nest a nested reponse ...

My sequence was pretty much identical to yours, I followed your One-Step Clone-and-Open instructions verbatim, followed by the 'fossil up gpio..etc' command to get the missing ETOS message.

I'm not running a binary download as I'm trying to build a Pi4 from scratch, new SD card with Bullseye 32 bit installed, then get the tarball.

Should I instead start with a downloaded binary as it has already has a Fossil directory tree embedded ? Meaning I then only have to issue the 'fossil up gpio-etc'command and then rebuild everything ?

I've not the knowledge or ability to be a developer/contributor, so not really any desire to get into the details of Fossil.

(I was getting website DB_Errors on MacOS (Firefox & Safari) & Pi (Chromium and Firefox), when I clicked the README.md link, but they seem to have resolved themselves now, maybe it's in your logs.

Thanks for your patience

start with a downloaded binary as it has already has a Fossil directory tree embedded.

then only have to issue the 'fossil up gpio-etc'command and then rebuild everything

Confirmed that this works