A snapshot is a copy of this project that only QuartzControl knows about. It stays inside the project, is never uploaded, and does not touch your own git history.
The Snapshots page with its list of snapshots.
A snapshot is not git sync
The difference is at the very top of the page, because it is the most common misunderstanding:
| Snapshot | Git sync | |
|---|---|---|
| For what | for going back | for sharing |
| Where to | stays on this machine | to GitHub, and from there to other machines |
| Needs | nothing — works even when the project is no repository at all | a repository |
The two do not exclude each other. You can and should use both.
What a snapshot holds
Everything that is yours in this project: the configuration, the plugins’ lock file, the frames, your own stylesheets, the translations, the publishing targets.
Not included: the dependencies, the build folder and the installed plugin files — those come about again on the next build anyway.
The content folder is a switch of its own — locked here, because it is linked.
The content folder is a switch of its own, and that depends on how it is built:
- Real folder: can be included, and QuartzControl recommends it — Markdown is small enough to always come along.
- Linked: cannot be included. The snapshot holds the link, not a single note. The vault is a source of its own with a backup of its own — and a snapshot would never overwrite it anyway.
When one comes about on its own
Before every larger change, and the list is in QuartzControl too:
- before a core update
- before a plugin change
- before a content switch
- before importing a template package
- before a restore
- before a configuration change
Every snapshot carries its origin as a label — By you, Before core update, Before plugin change and so on. That keeps the list readable when twenty of them are in it.
Ones you take yourself can be given a name: “before the theme switch” is worth more in three weeks than a timestamp.
Comparing
Compare puts a snapshot against today’s state: how many files differ, and for each the textual difference. Three states per file — changed, added since, deleted since.
With a linked vault QuartzControl adds what the comparison does not cover: everything except the content folder.
Exporting
Export as ZIP puts a snapshot down as an ordinary file — for an archive outside the project, or to send to somebody.