This type of project is quite interesting to me, and I plan to give it a try. Skimming through the README, I noticed a couple of errors:

1. Under cloning with git, the command should 'git' rather than 'fossil' 2. The link to LICENSE is a 404. The correct link should likely be https://code.rosaelefanten.org/zb/file?name=LICENSE&ci=tip rather than https://code.rosaelefanten.org/zb/LICENSE.

Regardless, this is an awesome idea and implementation. It's also neat that you're hosting the source with Fossil!

Ah, READMEs. The least loved part of my software, usually.

1. Yes, oops. I usually don't waste many thoughts on Git, I just happen to mirror my Fossil repositories there - so this has just slipped by. Fixed, thank you.

2. Hmm, Fossil's internal linking and its Markdown parser do not spark much joy... fixed as well. :-) (The GitHub mirror will be updated tomorrow night, but the Fossil repository is live.)

When I started hosting my own repositories, I was evaluating Mercurial, Fossil, CVS, SVN and Darcs, but Fossil was (and still is) the easiest to maintain, so I decided to stick with it. I'm glad that I'm not the only person who likes it! (Most of my projects are not a bazaar, so Fossil is perfect for them.)

So can this technique also be used to use with other compression algorithms like the hutter prize winning starlit, used to make a self-extracting wikipedia copy with state of the art text compression?

I like the idea, but you could also mount a file with a compressed and perhaps also encrypted filesystem (btrfs or zfs) and serve the contents through a portable lightweight high performance web or gemini server, or even modify a webserver to serve a compressed website in a single file?

It somehow reminds me of the seaside web framework contained in a single file smalltalk image even though the concepts are very different.

I assume that adding more compression algorithms would be doable. But zb is, in its current form, a proof of concept, at least. :-)

Check out redbean. It's a single cross platform exe which is also a zip containing html and also supports Lua script.

But that doesn't support Markdown I think. Yours is probably simpler to setup too.

(To clarify: redbean[1], by Justine Tunney of αcτµαlly pδrταblε εxεcµταblε, cosmopolitan, and sectorlisp fame.)

[1] https://redbean.dev/

I was told that redbean is a similar software, but I had not known it before. Always good to know alternatives. :-)

I am struggling to see the "why". Maybe that is obvious for some readers, but it would help readers like me to add a "why" to the readme. What problem does it solve?

The problem of not having a software that lets me maintain an .org-based website with no dependencies. :-)

Rarely do I get to see a fossil repository link on HN!

I should probably write more software… :-)

Pretty badass, I didn't know it but I've been waiting for just this!

Enjoy!

Based Fossil user!