Package vcs provides the ability to work with varying version control systems (VCS), also known as source control systems (SCM) though the same interface. This package includes a function that attempts to detect the repo type from the remote URL and return the proper type. For example, In this case repo will be a GitRepo instance. NewRepo can detect the VCS for numerous popular VCS and from the URL. For example, a URL ending in .git that's not from one of the popular VCS will be detected as a Git repo and the correct type will be returned. If you know the repository type and would like to create an instance of a specific type you can use one of constructors for a type. They are NewGitRepo, NewSvnRepo, NewBzrRepo, and NewHgRepo. The definition and usage is the same as NewRepo. Once you have an object implementing the Repo interface the operations are the same no matter which VCS you're using. There are some caveats. For example, each VCS has its own version formats that need to be respected and checkout out branches, if a branch is being worked with, is different in each VCS.