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1 \chapter{A tour of Mercurial: the basics}
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2 \label{chap:tour-basic}
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3
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4 \section{Installing Mercurial on your system}
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5 \label{sec:tour:install}
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6
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7 Prebuilt binary packages of Mercurial are available for every popular
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8 operating system. These make it easy to start using Mercurial on your
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9 computer immediately.
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10
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11 \subsection{Linux}
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12
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13 Because each Linux distribution has its own packaging tools, policies,
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14 and rate of development, it's difficult to give a comprehensive set of
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15 instructions on how to install Mercurial binaries. The version of
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16 Mercurial that you will end up with can vary depending on how active
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17 the person is who maintains the package for your distribution.
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18
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19 To keep things simple, I will focus on installing Mercurial from the
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20 command line under the most popular Linux distributions. Most of
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21 these distributions provide graphical package managers that will let
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22 you install Mercurial with a single click; the package name to look
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23 for is \texttt{mercurial}.
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24
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25 \begin{itemize}
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26 \item[Debian]
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27 \begin{codesample4}
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28 apt-get install mercurial
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29 \end{codesample4}
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30
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31 \item[Fedora Core]
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32 \begin{codesample4}
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33 yum install mercurial
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34 \end{codesample4}
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35
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36 \item[Gentoo]
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37 \begin{codesample4}
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38 emerge mercurial
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39 \end{codesample4}
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40
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41 \item[OpenSUSE]
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42 \begin{codesample4}
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43 yum install mercurial
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44 \end{codesample4}
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45
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46 \item[Ubuntu] Ubuntu's Mercurial package is based on Debian's. To
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47 install it, run the following command.
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48 \begin{codesample4}
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49 apt-get install mercurial
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50 \end{codesample4}
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51 The Ubuntu package for Mercurial tends to lag behind the Debian
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52 version by a considerable time margin (at the time of writing, seven
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53 months), which in some cases will mean that on Ubuntu, you may run
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54 into problems that have since been fixed in the Debian package.
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55 \end{itemize}
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56
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57 \subsection{Solaris}
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58
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59 XXX.
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60
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61 \subsection{Mac OS X}
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62
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63 Lee Cantey publishes an installer of Mercurial for Mac OS~X at
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64 \url{http://mercurial.berkwood.com}. This package works on both
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65 Intel-~and Power-based Macs. Before you can use it, you must install
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66 a compatible version of Universal MacPython~\cite{web:macpython}. This
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67 is easy to do; simply follow the instructions on Lee's site.
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68
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69 It's also possible to install Mercurial using Fink or MacPorts,
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70 two popular free package managers for Mac OS X. If you have Fink,
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71 use \command{sudo apt-get install mercurial-py25}. If MacPorts,
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72 \command{sudo port install mercurial}.
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73
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74 \subsection{Windows}
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75
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76 Lee Cantey publishes an installer of Mercurial for Windows at
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77 \url{http://mercurial.berkwood.com}. This package has no external
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78 dependencies; it ``just works''.
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79
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80 \begin{note}
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81 The Windows version of Mercurial does not automatically convert line
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82 endings between Windows and Unix styles. If you want to share work
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83 with Unix users, you must do a little additional configuration
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84 work. XXX Flesh this out.
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85 \end{note}
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86
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87 \section{Getting started}
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88
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89 To begin, we'll use the \hgcmd{version} command to find out whether
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90 Mercurial is actually installed properly. The actual version
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91 information that it prints isn't so important; it's whether it prints
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92 anything at all that we care about.
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93 \interaction{tour.version}
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94
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95 \subsection{Built-in help}
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96
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97 Mercurial provides a built-in help system. This is invaluable for those
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98 times when you find yourself stuck trying to remember how to run a
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99 command. If you are completely stuck, simply run \hgcmd{help}; it
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100 will print a brief list of commands, along with a description of what
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101 each does. If you ask for help on a specific command (as below), it
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102 prints more detailed information.
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103 \interaction{tour.help}
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104 For a more impressive level of detail (which you won't usually need)
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105 run \hgcmdargs{help}{\hggopt{-v}}. The \hggopt{-v} option is short
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106 for \hggopt{--verbose}, and tells Mercurial to print more information
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107 than it usually would.
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108
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109 \section{Working with a repository}
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110
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111 In Mercurial, everything happens inside a \emph{repository}. The
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112 repository for a project contains all of the files that ``belong to''
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113 that project, along with a historical record of the project's files.
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114
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115 There's nothing particularly magical about a repository; it is simply
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116 a directory tree in your filesystem that Mercurial treats as special.
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117 You can rename or delete a repository any time you like, using either the
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118 command line or your file browser.
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119
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120 \subsection{Making a local copy of a repository}
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121
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122 \emph{Copying} a repository is just a little bit special. While you
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123 could use a normal file copying command to make a copy of a
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124 repository, it's best to use a built-in command that Mercurial
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125 provides. This command is called \hgcmd{clone}, because it creates an
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126 identical copy of an existing repository.
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127 \interaction{tour.clone}
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128 If our clone succeeded, we should now have a local directory called
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129 \dirname{hello}. This directory will contain some files.
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130 \interaction{tour.ls}
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131 These files have the same contents and history in our repository as
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132 they do in the repository we cloned.
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133
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134 Every Mercurial repository is complete, self-contained, and
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135 independent. It contains its own private copy of a project's files
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136 and history. A cloned repository remembers the location of the
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137 repository it was cloned from, but it does not communicate with that
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138 repository, or any other, unless you tell it to.
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139
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140 What this means for now is that we're free to experiment with our
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141 repository, safe in the knowledge that it's a private ``sandbox'' that
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142 won't affect anyone else.
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143
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144 \subsection{What's in a repository?}
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145
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146 When we take a more detailed look inside a repository, we can see that
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147 it contains a directory named \dirname{.hg}. This is where Mercurial
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148 keeps all of its metadata for the repository.
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149 \interaction{tour.ls-a}
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150
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151 The contents of the \dirname{.hg} directory and its subdirectories are
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152 private to Mercurial. Every other file and directory in the
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153 repository is yours to do with as you please.
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154
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155 To introduce a little terminology, the \dirname{.hg} directory is the
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156 ``real'' repository, and all of the files and directories that coexist
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157 with it are said to live in the \emph{working directory}. An easy way
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158 to remember the distinction is that the \emph{repository} contains the
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159 \emph{history} of your project, while the \emph{working directory}
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160 contains a \emph{snapshot} of your project at a particular point in
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161 history.
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162
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163 \section{A tour through history}
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164
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165 One of the first things we might want to do with a new, unfamiliar
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166 repository is understand its history. The \hgcmd{log} command gives
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167 us a view of history.
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168 \interaction{tour.log}
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169 By default, this command prints a brief paragraph of output for each
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170 change to the project that was recorded. In Mercurial terminology, we
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171 call each of these recorded events a \emph{changeset}, because it can
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172 contain a record of changes to several files.
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173
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174 The fields in a record of output from \hgcmd{log} are as follows.
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175 \begin{itemize}
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176 \item[\texttt{changeset}] This field has the format of a number,
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177 followed by a colon, followed by a hexadecimal string. These are
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178 \emph{identifiers} for the changeset. There are two identifiers
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179 because the number is shorter and easier to type than the hex
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180 string.
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181 \item[\texttt{user}] The identity of the person who created the
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182 changeset. This is a free-form field, but it most often contains a
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183 person's name and email address.
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184 \item[\texttt{date}] The date and time on which the changeset was
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185 created, and the timezone in which it was created. (The date and
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186 time are local to that timezone; they display what time and date it
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187 was for the person who created the changeset.)
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188 \item[\texttt{summary}] The first line of the text message that the
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189 creator of the changeset entered to describe the changeset.
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190 \end{itemize}
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191 The default output printed by \hgcmd{log} is purely a summary; it is
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192 missing a lot of detail.
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193
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194 Figure~\ref{fig:tour-basic:history} provides a graphical representation of
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195 the history of the \dirname{hello} repository, to make it a little
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196 easier to see which direction history is ``flowing'' in. We'll be
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197 returning to this figure several times in this chapter and the chapter
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198 that follows.
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199
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200 \begin{figure}[ht]
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201 \centering
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202 \grafix{tour-history}
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203 \caption{Graphical history of the \dirname{hello} repository}
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204 \label{fig:tour-basic:history}
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205 \end{figure}
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206
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207 \subsection{Changesets, revisions, and talking to other
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208 people}
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209
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210 As English is a notoriously sloppy language, and computer science has
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211 a hallowed history of terminological confusion (why use one term when
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212 four will do?), revision control has a variety of words and phrases
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213 that mean the same thing. If you are talking about Mercurial history
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214 with other people, you will find that the word ``changeset'' is often
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215 compressed to ``change'' or (when written) ``cset'', and sometimes a
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216 changeset is referred to as a ``revision'' or a ``rev''.
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217
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218 While it doesn't matter what \emph{word} you use to refer to the
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219 concept of ``a~changeset'', the \emph{identifier} that you use to
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220 refer to ``a~\emph{specific} changeset'' is of great importance.
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221 Recall that the \texttt{changeset} field in the output from
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222 \hgcmd{log} identifies a changeset using both a number and a
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223 hexadecimal string.
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224 \begin{itemize}
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225 \item The revision number is \emph{only valid in that repository},
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226 \item while the hex string is the \emph{permanent, unchanging
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227 identifier} that will always identify that exact changeset in
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228 \emph{every} copy of the repository.
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229 \end{itemize}
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230 This distinction is important. If you send someone an email talking
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231 about ``revision~33'', there's a high likelihood that their
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232 revision~33 will \emph{not be the same} as yours. The reason for this
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233 is that a revision number depends on the order in which changes
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234 arrived in a repository, and there is no guarantee that the same
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235 changes will happen in the same order in different repositories.
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236 Three changes $a,b,c$ can easily appear in one repository as $0,1,2$,
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237 while in another as $1,0,2$.
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238
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239 Mercurial uses revision numbers purely as a convenient shorthand. If
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240 you need to discuss a changeset with someone, or make a record of a
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241 changeset for some other reason (for example, in a bug report), use
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242 the hexadecimal identifier.
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243
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244 \subsection{Viewing specific revisions}
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245
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246 To narrow the output of \hgcmd{log} down to a single revision, use the
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247 \hgopt{log}{-r} (or \hgopt{log}{--rev}) option. You can use either a
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248 revision number or a long-form changeset identifier, and you can
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249 provide as many revisions as you want. \interaction{tour.log-r}
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250
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251 If you want to see the history of several revisions without having to
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252 list each one, you can use \emph{range notation}; this lets you
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253 express the idea ``I want all revisions between $a$ and $b$,
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254 inclusive''.
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255 \interaction{tour.log.range}
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256 Mercurial also honours the order in which you specify revisions, so
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257 \hgcmdargs{log}{-r 2:4} prints $2,3,4$ while \hgcmdargs{log}{-r 4:2}
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258 prints $4,3,2$.
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259
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260 \subsection{More detailed information}
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261
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262 While the summary information printed by \hgcmd{log} is useful if you
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263 already know what you're looking for, you may need to see a complete
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264 description of the change, or a list of the files changed, if you're
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265 trying to decide whether a changeset is the one you're looking for.
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266 The \hgcmd{log} command's \hggopt{-v} (or \hggopt{--verbose})
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267 option gives you this extra detail.
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268 \interaction{tour.log-v}
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269
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270 If you want to see both the description and content of a change, add
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271 the \hgopt{log}{-p} (or \hgopt{log}{--patch}) option. This displays
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272 the content of a change as a \emph{unified diff} (if you've never seen
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273 a unified diff before, see section~\ref{sec:mq:patch} for an overview).
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274 \interaction{tour.log-vp}
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275
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276 \section{All about command options}
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277
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278 Let's take a brief break from exploring Mercurial commands to discuss
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279 a pattern in the way that they work; you may find this useful to keep
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280 in mind as we continue our tour.
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281
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282 Mercurial has a consistent and straightforward approach to dealing
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283 with the options that you can pass to commands. It follows the
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284 conventions for options that are common to modern Linux and Unix
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285 systems.
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286 \begin{itemize}
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287 \item Every option has a long name. For example, as we've already
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288 seen, the \hgcmd{log} command accepts a \hgopt{log}{--rev} option.
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289 \item Most options have short names, too. Instead of
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290 \hgopt{log}{--rev}, we can use \hgopt{log}{-r}. (The reason that
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291 some options don't have short names is that the options in question
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292 are rarely used.)
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293 \item Long options start with two dashes (e.g.~\hgopt{log}{--rev}),
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294 while short options start with one (e.g.~\hgopt{log}{-r}).
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295 \item Option naming and usage is consistent across commands. For
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296 example, every command that lets you specify a changeset~ID or
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297 revision number accepts both \hgopt{log}{-r} and \hgopt{log}{--rev}
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298 arguments.
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299 \end{itemize}
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300 In the examples throughout this book, I use short options instead of
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301 long. This just reflects my own preference, so don't read anything
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302 significant into it.
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303
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bos@91
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304 Most commands that print output of some kind will print more output
|
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bos@91
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305 when passed a \hggopt{-v} (or \hggopt{--verbose}) option, and less
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bos@91
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306 when passed \hggopt{-q} (or \hggopt{--quiet}).
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307
|
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bos@91
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308 \section{Making and reviewing changes}
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309
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bos@91
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310 Now that we have a grasp of viewing history in Mercurial, let's take a
|
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311 look at making some changes and examining them.
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312
|
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bos@91
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313 The first thing we'll do is isolate our experiment in a repository of
|
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314 its own. We use the \hgcmd{clone} command, but we don't need to
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bos@91
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315 clone a copy of the remote repository. Since we already have a copy
|
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316 of it locally, we can just clone that instead. This is much faster
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bos@91
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317 than cloning over the network, and cloning a local repository uses
|
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318 less disk space in most cases, too.
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319 \interaction{tour.reclone}
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bos@91
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320 As an aside, it's often good practice to keep a ``pristine'' copy of a
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321 remote repository around, which you can then make temporary clones of
|
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bos@91
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322 to create sandboxes for each task you want to work on. This lets you
|
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323 work on multiple tasks in parallel, each isolated from the others
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324 until it's complete and you're ready to integrate it back. Because
|
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325 local clones are so cheap, there's almost no overhead to cloning and
|
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326 destroying repositories whenever you want.
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327
|
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bos@91
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328 In our \dirname{my-hello} repository, we have a file
|
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bos@91
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329 \filename{hello.c} that contains the classic ``hello, world'' program.
|
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330 Let's use the ancient and venerable \command{sed} command to edit this
|
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331 file so that it prints a second line of output. (I'm only using
|
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bos@91
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332 \command{sed} to do this because it's easy to write a scripted example
|
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333 this way. Since you're not under the same constraint, you probably
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334 won't want to use \command{sed}; simply use your preferred text editor to
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335 do the same thing.)
|
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bos@91
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336 \interaction{tour.sed}
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337
|
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338 Mercurial's \hgcmd{status} command will tell us what Mercurial knows
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339 about the files in the repository.
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bos@91
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340 \interaction{tour.status}
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bos@91
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341 The \hgcmd{status} command prints no output for some files, but a line
|
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342 starting with ``\texttt{M}'' for \filename{hello.c}. Unless you tell
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343 it to, \hgcmd{status} will not print any output for files that have
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344 not been modified.
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345
|
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bos@91
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346 The ``\texttt{M}'' indicates that Mercurial has noticed that we
|
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bos@97
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347 modified \filename{hello.c}. We didn't need to \emph{inform}
|
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348 Mercurial that we were going to modify the file before we started, or
|
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bos@97
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349 that we had modified the file after we were done; it was able to
|
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350 figure this out itself.
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351
|
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bos@91
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352 It's a little bit helpful to know that we've modified
|
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353 \filename{hello.c}, but we might prefer to know exactly \emph{what}
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354 changes we've made to it. To do this, we use the \hgcmd{diff}
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355 command.
|
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bos@91
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356 \interaction{tour.diff}
|
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357
|
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bos@91
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358 \section{Recording changes in a new changeset}
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359
|
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360 We can modify files, build and test our changes, and use
|
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361 \hgcmd{status} and \hgcmd{diff} to review our changes, until we're
|
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362 satisfied with what we've done and arrive at a natural stopping point
|
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363 where we want to record our work in a new changeset.
|
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364
|
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bos@91
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365 The \hgcmd{commit} command lets us create a new changeset; we'll
|
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bos@91
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366 usually refer to this as ``making a commit'' or ``committing''.
|
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367
|
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bos@102
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368 \subsection{Setting up a username}
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369
|
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bos@174
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370 When you try to run \hgcmd{commit} for the first time, it is not
|
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bos@174
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371 guaranteed to succeed. Mercurial records your name and address with
|
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bos@174
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372 each change that you commit, so that you and others will later be able
|
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bos@174
|
373 to tell who made each change. Mercurial tries to automatically figure
|
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bos@174
|
374 out a sensible username to commit the change with. It will attempt
|
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bos@174
|
375 each of the following methods, in order:
|
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bos@174
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376 \begin{enumerate}
|
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bos@174
|
377 \item If you specify a \hgopt{commit}{-u} option to the \hgcmd{commit}
|
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bos@174
|
378 command on the command line, followed by a username, this is always
|
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|
379 given the highest precedence.
|
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bos@174
|
380 \item If you have set the \envar{HGUSER} environment variable, this is
|
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bos@174
|
381 checked next.
|
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bos@174
|
382 \item If you create a file in your home directory called
|
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bos@174
|
383 \sfilename{.hgrc}, with a \rcitem{ui}{username} entry, that will be
|
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bos@174
|
384 used next. To see what the contents of this file should look like,
|
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bos@174
|
385 refer to section~\ref{sec:tour-basic:username} below.
|
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bos@174
|
386 \item If you have set the \envar{EMAIL} environment variable, this
|
|
bos@174
|
387 will be used next.
|
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bos@174
|
388 \item Mercurial will query your system to find out your local user
|
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bos@174
|
389 name and host name, and construct a username from these components.
|
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bos@174
|
390 Since this often results in a username that is not very useful, it
|
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bos@174
|
391 will print a warning if it has to do this.
|
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bos@174
|
392 \end{enumerate}
|
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bos@174
|
393 If all of these mechanisms fail, Mercurial will fail, printing an
|
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bos@174
|
394 error message. In this case, it will not let you commit until you set
|
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bos@174
|
395 up a username.
|
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bos@174
|
396
|
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bos@174
|
397 You should think of the \envar{HGUSER} environment variable and the
|
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bos@174
|
398 \hgopt{commit}{-u} option to the \hgcmd{commit} command as ways to
|
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bos@174
|
399 \emph{override} Mercurial's default selection of username. For normal
|
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bos@174
|
400 use, the simplest and most robust way to set a username for yourself
|
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bos@174
|
401 is by creating a \sfilename{.hgrc} file; see below for details.
|
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bos@102
|
402
|
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bos@102
|
403 \subsubsection{Creating a Mercurial configuration file}
|
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bos@174
|
404 \label{sec:tour-basic:username}
|
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bos@102
|
405
|
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bos@102
|
406 To set a user name, use your favourite editor to create a file called
|
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bos@102
|
407 \sfilename{.hgrc} in your home directory. Mercurial will use this
|
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bos@102
|
408 file to look up your personalised configuration settings. The initial
|
|
bos@102
|
409 contents of your \sfilename{.hgrc} should look like this.
|
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bos@102
|
410 \begin{codesample2}
|
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bos@102
|
411 # This is a Mercurial configuration file.
|
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bos@102
|
412 [ui]
|
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bos@102
|
413 username = Firstname Lastname <email.address@domain.net>
|
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bos@102
|
414 \end{codesample2}
|
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bos@102
|
415 The ``\texttt{[ui]}'' line begins a \emph{section} of the config file,
|
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bos@102
|
416 so you can read the ``\texttt{username = ...}'' line as meaning ``set
|
|
bos@102
|
417 the value of the \texttt{username} item in the \texttt{ui} section''.
|
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bos@102
|
418 A section continues until a new section begins, or the end of the
|
|
bos@102
|
419 file. Mercurial ignores empty lines and treats any text from
|
|
bos@102
|
420 ``\texttt{\#}'' to the end of a line as a comment.
|
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bos@102
|
421
|
|
bos@102
|
422 \subsubsection{Choosing a user name}
|
|
bos@102
|
423
|
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bos@102
|
424 You can use any text you like as the value of the \texttt{username}
|
|
bos@102
|
425 config item, since this information is for reading by other people,
|
|
bos@102
|
426 but for interpreting by Mercurial. The convention that most people
|
|
bos@102
|
427 follow is to use their name and email address, as in the example
|
|
bos@102
|
428 above.
|
|
bos@102
|
429
|
|
bos@102
|
430 \begin{note}
|
|
bos@102
|
431 Mercurial's built-in web server obfuscates email addresses, to make
|
|
bos@102
|
432 it more difficult for the email harvesting tools that spammers use.
|
|
bos@102
|
433 This reduces the likelihood that you'll start receiving more junk
|
|
bos@102
|
434 email if you publish a Mercurial repository on the web.
|
|
bos@102
|
435 \end{note}
|
|
bos@102
|
436
|
|
bos@91
|
437 \subsection{Writing a commit message}
|
|
bos@91
|
438
|
|
bos@91
|
439 When we commit a change, Mercurial drops us into a text editor, to
|
|
bos@91
|
440 enter a message that will describe the modifications we've made in
|
|
bos@91
|
441 this changeset. This is called the \emph{commit message}. It will be
|
|
bos@91
|
442 a record for readers of what we did and why, and it will be printed by
|
|
bos@91
|
443 \hgcmd{log} after we've finished committing.
|
|
bos@91
|
444 \interaction{tour.commit}
|
|
bos@91
|
445
|
|
bos@91
|
446 The editor that the \hgcmd{commit} command drops us into will contain
|
|
bos@91
|
447 an empty line, followed by a number of lines starting with
|
|
bos@91
|
448 ``\texttt{HG:}''.
|
|
bos@91
|
449 \begin{codesample2}
|
|
bos@91
|
450 \emph{empty line}
|
|
bos@91
|
451 HG: changed hello.c
|
|
bos@91
|
452 \end{codesample2}
|
|
bos@91
|
453 Mercurial ignores the lines that start with ``\texttt{HG:}''; it uses
|
|
bos@91
|
454 them only to tell us which files it's recording changes to. Modifying
|
|
bos@91
|
455 or deleting these lines has no effect.
|
|
bos@91
|
456
|
|
bos@91
|
457 \subsection{Writing a good commit message}
|
|
bos@91
|
458
|
|
bos@91
|
459 Since \hgcmd{log} only prints the first line of a commit message by
|
|
bos@91
|
460 default, it's best to write a commit message whose first line stands
|
|
bos@91
|
461 alone. Here's a real example of a commit message that \emph{doesn't}
|
|
bos@91
|
462 follow this guideline, and hence has a summary that is not readable.
|
|
bos@91
|
463 \begin{codesample2}
|
|
bos@91
|
464 changeset: 73:584af0e231be
|
|
bos@91
|
465 user: Censored Person <censored.person@example.org>
|
|
bos@91
|
466 date: Tue Sep 26 21:37:07 2006 -0700
|
|
bos@91
|
467 summary: include buildmeister/commondefs. Add an exports and install
|
|
bos@91
|
468 \end{codesample2}
|
|
bos@91
|
469
|
|
bos@91
|
470 As far as the remainder of the contents of the commit message are
|
|
bos@91
|
471 concerned, there are no hard-and-fast rules. Mercurial itself doesn't
|
|
bos@91
|
472 interpret or care about the contents of the commit message, though
|
|
bos@91
|
473 your project may have policies that dictate a certain kind of
|
|
bos@91
|
474 formatting.
|
|
bos@91
|
475
|
|
bos@91
|
476 My personal preference is for short, but informative, commit messages
|
|
bos@91
|
477 that tell me something that I can't figure out with a quick glance at
|
|
bos@91
|
478 the output of \hgcmdargs{log}{--patch}.
|
|
bos@91
|
479
|
|
bos@91
|
480 \subsection{Aborting a commit}
|
|
bos@91
|
481
|
|
bos@91
|
482 If you decide that you don't want to commit while in the middle of
|
|
bos@91
|
483 editing a commit message, simply exit from your editor without saving
|
|
bos@91
|
484 the file that it's editing. This will cause nothing to happen to
|
|
bos@91
|
485 either the repository or the working directory.
|
|
bos@91
|
486
|
|
bos@91
|
487 If we run the \hgcmd{commit} command without any arguments, it records
|
|
bos@91
|
488 all of the changes we've made, as reported by \hgcmd{status} and
|
|
bos@91
|
489 \hgcmd{diff}.
|
|
bos@91
|
490
|
|
bos@102
|
491 \subsection{Admiring our new handiwork}
|
|
bos@91
|
492
|
|
bos@91
|
493 Once we've finished the commit, we can use the \hgcmd{tip} command to
|
|
bos@91
|
494 display the changeset we just created. This command produces output
|
|
bos@91
|
495 that is identical to \hgcmd{log}, but it only displays the newest
|
|
bos@91
|
496 revision in the repository.
|
|
bos@91
|
497 \interaction{tour.tip}
|
|
bos@91
|
498 We refer to the newest revision in the repository as the tip revision,
|
|
bos@91
|
499 or simply the tip.
|
|
bos@91
|
500
|
|
bos@91
|
501 \section{Sharing changes}
|
|
bos@91
|
502
|
|
bos@91
|
503 We mentioned earlier that repositories in Mercurial are
|
|
bos@91
|
504 self-contained. This means that the changeset we just created exists
|
|
bos@91
|
505 only in our \dirname{my-hello} repository. Let's look at a few ways
|
|
bos@91
|
506 that we can propagate this change into other repositories.
|
|
bos@91
|
507
|
|
bos@91
|
508 \subsection{Pulling changes from another repository}
|
|
bos@91
|
509 \label{sec:tour:pull}
|
|
bos@91
|
510
|
|
bos@91
|
511 To get started, let's clone our original \dirname{hello} repository,
|
|
bos@91
|
512 which does not contain the change we just committed. We'll call our
|
|
bos@91
|
513 temporary repository \dirname{hello-pull}.
|
|
bos@91
|
514 \interaction{tour.clone-pull}
|
|
bos@91
|
515
|
|
bos@91
|
516 We'll use the \hgcmd{pull} command to bring changes from
|
|
bos@91
|
517 \dirname{my-hello} into \dirname{hello-pull}. However, blindly
|
|
bos@91
|
518 pulling unknown changes into a repository is a somewhat scary
|
|
bos@91
|
519 prospect. Mercurial provides the \hgcmd{incoming} command to tell us
|
|
bos@91
|
520 what changes the \hgcmd{pull} command \emph{would} pull into the
|
|
bos@91
|
521 repository, without actually pulling the changes in.
|
|
bos@91
|
522 \interaction{tour.incoming}
|
|
bos@91
|
523 (Of course, someone could cause more changesets to appear in the
|
|
bos@91
|
524 repository that we ran \hgcmd{incoming} in, before we get a chance to
|
|
bos@91
|
525 \hgcmd{pull} the changes, so that we could end up pulling changes that we
|
|
bos@91
|
526 didn't expect.)
|
|
bos@91
|
527
|
|
bos@91
|
528 Bringing changes into a repository is a simple matter of running the
|
|
bos@91
|
529 \hgcmd{pull} command, and telling it which repository to pull from.
|
|
bos@91
|
530 \interaction{tour.pull}
|
|
bos@91
|
531 As you can see from the before-and-after output of \hgcmd{tip}, we
|
|
bos@91
|
532 have successfully pulled changes into our repository. There remains
|
|
bos@92
|
533 one step before we can see these changes in the working directory.
|
|
bos@92
|
534
|
|
bos@92
|
535 \subsection{Updating the working directory}
|
|
bos@92
|
536
|
|
bos@92
|
537 We have so far glossed over the relationship between a repository and
|
|
bos@91
|
538 its working directory. The \hgcmd{pull} command that we ran in
|
|
bos@91
|
539 section~\ref{sec:tour:pull} brought changes into the repository, but
|
|
bos@91
|
540 if we check, there's no sign of those changes in the working
|
|
bos@91
|
541 directory. This is because \hgcmd{pull} does not (by default) touch
|
|
bos@91
|
542 the working directory. Instead, we use the \hgcmd{update} command to
|
|
bos@91
|
543 do this.
|
|
bos@91
|
544 \interaction{tour.update}
|
|
bos@91
|
545
|
|
bos@91
|
546 It might seem a bit strange that \hgcmd{pull} doesn't update the
|
|
bos@91
|
547 working directory automatically. There's actually a good reason for
|
|
bos@91
|
548 this: you can use \hgcmd{update} to update the working directory to
|
|
bos@91
|
549 the state it was in at \emph{any revision} in the history of the
|
|
bos@91
|
550 repository. If you had the working directory updated to an old
|
|
bos@91
|
551 revision---to hunt down the origin of a bug, say---and ran a
|
|
bos@91
|
552 \hgcmd{pull} which automatically updated the working directory to a
|
|
bos@91
|
553 new revision, you might not be terribly happy.
|
|
bos@91
|
554
|
|
bos@91
|
555 However, since pull-then-update is such a common thing to do,
|
|
bos@91
|
556 Mercurial lets you combine the two by passing the \hgopt{pull}{-u}
|
|
bos@91
|
557 option to \hgcmd{pull}.
|
|
bos@91
|
558 \begin{codesample2}
|
|
bos@91
|
559 hg pull -u
|
|
bos@91
|
560 \end{codesample2}
|
|
bos@92
|
561 If you look back at the output of \hgcmd{pull} in
|
|
bos@92
|
562 section~\ref{sec:tour:pull} when we ran it without \hgopt{pull}{-u},
|
|
bos@92
|
563 you can see that it printed a helpful reminder that we'd have to take
|
|
bos@92
|
564 an explicit step to update the working directory:
|
|
bos@92
|
565 \begin{codesample2}
|
|
bos@92
|
566 (run 'hg update' to get a working copy)
|
|
bos@92
|
567 \end{codesample2}
|
|
bos@91
|
568
|
|
bos@91
|
569 To find out what revision the working directory is at, use the
|
|
bos@91
|
570 \hgcmd{parents} command.
|
|
bos@91
|
571 \interaction{tour.parents}
|
|
bos@101
|
572 If you look back at figure~\ref{fig:tour-basic:history}, you'll see
|
|
bos@101
|
573 arrows connecting each changeset. The node that the arrow leads
|
|
bos@101
|
574 \emph{from} in each case is a parent, and the node that the arrow
|
|
bos@101
|
575 leads \emph{to} is its child. The working directory has a parent in
|
|
bos@101
|
576 just the same way; this is the changeset that the working directory
|
|
bos@101
|
577 currently contains.
|
|
bos@101
|
578
|
|
bos@91
|
579 To update the working directory to a particular revision, give a
|
|
bos@91
|
580 revision number or changeset~ID to the \hgcmd{update} command.
|
|
bos@91
|
581 \interaction{tour.older}
|
|
bos@91
|
582 If you omit an explicit revision, \hgcmd{update} will update to the
|
|
bos@94
|
583 tip revision, as shown by the second call to \hgcmd{update} in the
|
|
bos@94
|
584 example above.
|
|
bos@91
|
585
|
|
bos@92
|
586 \subsection{Pushing changes to another repository}
|
|
bos@92
|
587
|
|
bos@92
|
588 Mercurial lets us push changes to another repository, from the
|
|
bos@92
|
589 repository we're currently visiting. As with the example of
|
|
bos@92
|
590 \hgcmd{pull} above, we'll create a temporary repository to push our
|
|
bos@92
|
591 changes into.
|
|
bos@92
|
592 \interaction{tour.clone-push}
|
|
bos@92
|
593 The \hgcmd{outgoing} command tells us what changes would be pushed
|
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bos@92
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594 into another repository.
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595 \interaction{tour.outgoing}
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bos@92
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596 And the \hgcmd{push} command does the actual push.
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597 \interaction{tour.push}
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598 As with \hgcmd{pull}, the \hgcmd{push} command does not update the
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599 working directory in the repository that it's pushing changes into.
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600 (Unlike \hgcmd{pull}, \hgcmd{push} does not provide a \texttt{-u}
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601 option that updates the other repository's working directory.)
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602
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603 What happens if we try to pull or push changes and the receiving
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604 repository already has those changes? Nothing too exciting.
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605 \interaction{tour.push.nothing}
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606
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607 \subsection{Sharing changes over a network}
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608
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609 The commands we have covered in the previous few sections are not
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610 limited to working with local repositories. Each works in exactly the
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611 same fashion over a network connection; simply pass in a URL instead
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612 of a local path.
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bos@93
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613 \interaction{tour.outgoing.net}
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bos@93
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614 In this example, we can see what changes we could push to the remote
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615 repository, but the repository is understandably not set up to let
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616 anonymous users push to it.
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bos@93
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617 \interaction{tour.push.net}
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618
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619 %%% Local Variables:
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bos@84
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620 %%% mode: latex
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bos@84
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621 %%% TeX-master: "00book"
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bos@84
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622 %%% End:
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