hgbook

annotate es/collab.tex @ 412:a9ea523446cc

Started translating collab chapter to spanish
author Igor TAmara <igor@tamarapatino.org>
date Mon Nov 10 23:38:36 2008 -0500 (2008-11-10)
parents b05e35d641e4
children c7234c5d01b2
rev   line source
igor@412 1 \chapter{Colaborar con otros}
igor@402 2 \label{cha:collab}
igor@402 3
igor@412 4 Debido a su naturaleza descentralizada, Mercurial no impone política
igor@412 5 alguna de cómo deben trabajar los grupos de personas. Sin embargo, si
igor@412 6 usted es nuvo al control distribuido de versiones, es bueno tener
igor@412 7 herramientas y ejemplos a la mano al pensar en posibles modelos de
igor@412 8 flujo de trabajo.
igor@412 9
igor@412 10 \section{La interfaz web de Mercurial}
igor@412 11
igor@412 12 Mercurial tiene una poderosa interfaz web que provee bastantes
igor@412 13 capacidades útiles.
igor@412 14
igor@412 15 Para uso interactivo, la interfaz le permite visualizar uno o varios
igor@412 16 repositorios. Puede ver la historia de un repositorio, examinar cada
igor@412 17 cambio(comentarios y diferencias), y ver los contenidos de cada
igor@412 18 directorio y fichero.
igor@412 19
igor@412 20 Adicionalmente la interfaz provee feeds de RSS de los cambios de los
igor@412 21 repositorios. Que le permite ``subscribirse''a un repositorio usando
igor@412 22 su herramienta de lectura de feeds favorita, y ser notificado
igor@412 23 automáticamente de la actividad en el repositorio tan pronto como
igor@412 24 sucede. Me gusta mucho más este modelo que el estar suscrito a una
igor@412 25 lista de correo a la cual se envían las notificaciones, dado que no
igor@412 26 requiere configuración adicional de parte de quien sea que está
igor@412 27 administrando el repositorio.
igor@412 28
igor@412 29 La interfaz web también permite clonar repositorios a los usuarios
igor@412 30 remotos, jalar cambios, y (cuando el servidor está configurado para
igor@412 31 permitirlo) publicar cambios en el mismo. El protocolo de tunneling
igor@412 32 de Mercurial comprime datos agresivamente, de forma que trabaja
igor@412 33 eficientemente incluso con conexiones de red con poco ancho de banda.
igor@412 34
igor@412 35 La forma más sencilla de iniciarse con la interfaz web es usar su
igor@412 36 navegador para visitar un repositorio existente, como por ejemplo el
igor@412 37 repositorio principal de Mercurial \url{http://www.selenic.com/repo/hg?style=gitweb}.
igor@412 38
igor@412 39 Si está interesado en proveer una interfaz web a sus propios
igor@412 40 repositorios, Mercurial provee dos formas de hacerlo. La primera es
igor@412 41 usando la orden \hgcmd{serve}, que está enfocada a servir ``de forma
igor@412 42 liviana'' y por intervalos cortos. Para más detalles de cómo usar
igor@412 43 esta orden vea la sección~\ref{sec:collab:serve} más adelante. Si
igor@412 44 tiene un repositorio que desea hacer permanente, Mercurial tiene
igor@412 45 soporte embebido del \command{ssh} para publicar cambios con seguridad
igor@412 46 al repositorio central, como se documenta en la
igor@412 47 sección~\ref{sec:collab:ssh}. Es muy usual que se publique una copia
igor@412 48 de sólo lectura en el repositorio que está corriendo sobre HTTP usando
igor@412 49 CGI, como en la sección~\ref{sec:collab:cgi}. Publicar sobre HTTP
igor@412 50 satisface las necesidades de la gente que no tiene permisos de
igor@412 51 publicación y de aquellos que quieren usar navegadores web para
igor@412 52 visualizar la historia del repositorio.
igor@412 53
igor@412 54 \subsection{Trabajo con muchas ramas}
igor@412 55
igor@412 56 Los proyectos de cierta talla tienden naturlamente a progresar de
igor@412 57 forma simultánea en varios frentes. En el caso del software, es común
igor@412 58 que un proyecto tenga versiones periódicas oficiales. Una versión
igor@412 59 puede entrar a ``modo mantenimiento'' por un tiempo después de su
igor@412 60 primera publicación; las versiones de mantenimiento tienden a contener
igor@412 61 solamente arreglos de fallos, pero no nuevas características. En
igor@412 62 paralelo con las versiones de mantenimiento puede haber una o muchas
igor@412 63 versiones futuras pueden estar en desarrollo. La gente usa normalmente
igor@412 64 la palabra ``rama'' para referirse a una de las direcciones
igor@412 65 ligeramente distintas en las cuales procede el desarrollo.
igor@412 66
igor@412 67 Mercurial está especialmente preparado para administrar un buen número
igor@412 68 de ramas simultáneas pero no idénticas. Cada ``dirección de
igor@412 69 desarrollo'' puede vivir en su propio repositorio central, y puede
igor@412 70 mezclar los cambios de una a otra de acuerdo con las necesidades. Dado
igor@412 71 que los repositorios son independientes, uno del otro, los cambios
igor@412 72 inestables de una rama de desarrollo nunca afectarán una rama estable
igor@412 73 a menos que alguien explícitamente mezcle los cambios.
igor@412 74
igor@412 75 A continuación un ejemplo de cómo podría hacerse esto en la
igor@412 76 práctica. Digamos que tiene una ``rama principal'' en un servidor
igor@412 77 central.
igor@402 78 \interaction{branching.init}
igor@412 79 Alguien lo clona, hace cambios locales, los prueba, y los publica allí
igor@412 80 mismo.
igor@412 81
igor@412 82 Una vez que la rama principal alcanza una estado de versión se puede
igor@412 83 usar la orden \hgcmd{tag} para dar un nombre permanente a la revisión.
igor@402 84 \interaction{branching.tag}
igor@412 85 Digamos que en la rama principal ocurre más desarrollo.
igor@402 86 \interaction{branching.main}
igor@412 87 Cuando se usa la etiqueta con que se identificó la versión, la gente
igor@412 88 puede clonar el repositorio en cualquier momento en el futuro
igor@412 89 empleando \hgcmd{update} para obtener una copia del directorio de
igor@412 90 trabajo exacta como cuando se creó la etiqueta de la revisión que se
igor@412 91 consignó.
igor@402 92 \interaction{branching.update}
igor@402 93
igor@412 94 Adicionalmente, justo después de que la rama principal se etiquete,
igor@412 95 alguien puede clonarla en el servidor a una nueva rama ``estable'',
igor@412 96 también en el servidor.
igor@402 97 \interaction{branching.clone}
igor@402 98
igor@412 99 Alguien que requiera hacer un cambio en la rama estable puede clonar
igor@412 100 \emph{ese} repositorio, hacer sus cambios, consignar y publicarlos
igor@412 101 posteriormente al inicial.
igor@402 102 \interaction{branching.stable}
igor@412 103 Puesto que los repositorios de Mercurial son independientes, y que
igor@412 104 Mercurial no mueve los cambios de un lado a otro automáticamente, las
igor@412 105 ramas estable y principal están \emph{aisladas} la una de la otra.
igor@412 106 Los cambios que haga en la rama principal no ``se filtran'' a la rama
igor@412 107 estable o vice versa.
igor@412 108
igor@412 109 Es usual que los arreglos de fallos de la rama estable deban hacerse
igor@412 110 aparecer en la rama principal también. En lugar de reescribir el
igor@412 111 arreglo del fallo en la rama principal, puede jalar y mezclar los
igor@412 112 cambios de la rama estable a la principal, Mercurial traerá tales
igor@412 113 arreglos por usted.
igor@402 114 \interaction{branching.merge}
igor@412 115 La rama principal contendtrá aún los cambios que no están en la
igor@412 116 estable y contendrá además todos los arreglos de fallos de la rama
igor@412 117 estable. La rama estable permanece incólume a tales cambios.
igor@402 118
igor@402 119 \subsection{Feature branches}
igor@402 120
igor@402 121 For larger projects, an effective way to manage change is to break up
igor@402 122 a team into smaller groups. Each group has a shared branch of its
igor@402 123 own, cloned from a single ``master'' branch used by the entire
igor@402 124 project. People working on an individual branch are typically quite
igor@402 125 isolated from developments on other branches.
igor@402 126
igor@402 127 \begin{figure}[ht]
igor@402 128 \centering
igor@402 129 \grafix{feature-branches}
igor@402 130 \caption{Feature branches}
igor@402 131 \label{fig:collab:feature-branches}
igor@402 132 \end{figure}
igor@402 133
igor@402 134 When a particular feature is deemed to be in suitable shape, someone
igor@402 135 on that feature team pulls and merges from the master branch into the
igor@402 136 feature branch, then pushes back up to the master branch.
igor@402 137
igor@402 138 \subsection{The release train}
igor@402 139
igor@402 140 Some projects are organised on a ``train'' basis: a release is
igor@402 141 scheduled to happen every few months, and whatever features are ready
igor@402 142 when the ``train'' is ready to leave are allowed in.
igor@402 143
igor@402 144 This model resembles working with feature branches. The difference is
igor@402 145 that when a feature branch misses a train, someone on the feature team
igor@402 146 pulls and merges the changes that went out on that train release into
igor@402 147 the feature branch, and the team continues its work on top of that
igor@402 148 release so that their feature can make the next release.
igor@402 149
igor@402 150 \subsection{The Linux kernel model}
igor@402 151
igor@402 152 The development of the Linux kernel has a shallow hierarchical
igor@402 153 structure, surrounded by a cloud of apparent chaos. Because most
igor@402 154 Linux developers use \command{git}, a distributed revision control
igor@402 155 tool with capabilities similar to Mercurial, it's useful to describe
igor@402 156 the way work flows in that environment; if you like the ideas, the
igor@402 157 approach translates well across tools.
igor@402 158
igor@402 159 At the center of the community sits Linus Torvalds, the creator of
igor@402 160 Linux. He publishes a single source repository that is considered the
igor@402 161 ``authoritative'' current tree by the entire developer community.
igor@402 162 Anyone can clone Linus's tree, but he is very choosy about whose trees
igor@402 163 he pulls from.
igor@402 164
igor@402 165 Linus has a number of ``trusted lieutenants''. As a general rule, he
igor@402 166 pulls whatever changes they publish, in most cases without even
igor@402 167 reviewing those changes. Some of those lieutenants are generally
igor@402 168 agreed to be ``maintainers'', responsible for specific subsystems
igor@402 169 within the kernel. If a random kernel hacker wants to make a change
igor@402 170 to a subsystem that they want to end up in Linus's tree, they must
igor@402 171 find out who the subsystem's maintainer is, and ask that maintainer to
igor@402 172 take their change. If the maintainer reviews their changes and agrees
igor@402 173 to take them, they'll pass them along to Linus in due course.
igor@402 174
igor@402 175 Individual lieutenants have their own approaches to reviewing,
igor@402 176 accepting, and publishing changes; and for deciding when to feed them
igor@402 177 to Linus. In addition, there are several well known branches that
igor@402 178 people use for different purposes. For example, a few people maintain
igor@402 179 ``stable'' repositories of older versions of the kernel, to which they
igor@402 180 apply critical fixes as needed. Some maintainers publish multiple
igor@402 181 trees: one for experimental changes; one for changes that they are
igor@402 182 about to feed upstream; and so on. Others just publish a single
igor@402 183 tree.
igor@402 184
igor@402 185 This model has two notable features. The first is that it's ``pull
igor@402 186 only''. You have to ask, convince, or beg another developer to take a
igor@402 187 change from you, because there are almost no trees to which more than
igor@402 188 one person can push, and there's no way to push changes into a tree
igor@402 189 that someone else controls.
igor@402 190
igor@402 191 The second is that it's based on reputation and acclaim. If you're an
igor@402 192 unknown, Linus will probably ignore changes from you without even
igor@402 193 responding. But a subsystem maintainer will probably review them, and
igor@402 194 will likely take them if they pass their criteria for suitability.
igor@402 195 The more ``good'' changes you contribute to a maintainer, the more
igor@402 196 likely they are to trust your judgment and accept your changes. If
igor@402 197 you're well-known and maintain a long-lived branch for something Linus
igor@402 198 hasn't yet accepted, people with similar interests may pull your
igor@402 199 changes regularly to keep up with your work.
igor@402 200
igor@402 201 Reputation and acclaim don't necessarily cross subsystem or ``people''
igor@402 202 boundaries. If you're a respected but specialised storage hacker, and
igor@402 203 you try to fix a networking bug, that change will receive a level of
igor@402 204 scrutiny from a network maintainer comparable to a change from a
igor@402 205 complete stranger.
igor@402 206
igor@402 207 To people who come from more orderly project backgrounds, the
igor@402 208 comparatively chaotic Linux kernel development process often seems
igor@402 209 completely insane. It's subject to the whims of individuals; people
igor@402 210 make sweeping changes whenever they deem it appropriate; and the pace
igor@402 211 of development is astounding. And yet Linux is a highly successful,
igor@402 212 well-regarded piece of software.
igor@402 213
igor@402 214 \subsection{Pull-only versus shared-push collaboration}
igor@402 215
igor@402 216 A perpetual source of heat in the open source community is whether a
igor@402 217 development model in which people only ever pull changes from others
igor@402 218 is ``better than'' one in which multiple people can push changes to a
igor@402 219 shared repository.
igor@402 220
igor@402 221 Typically, the backers of the shared-push model use tools that
igor@402 222 actively enforce this approach. If you're using a centralised
igor@402 223 revision control tool such as Subversion, there's no way to make a
igor@402 224 choice over which model you'll use: the tool gives you shared-push,
igor@402 225 and if you want to do anything else, you'll have to roll your own
igor@402 226 approach on top (such as applying a patch by hand).
igor@402 227
igor@402 228 A good distributed revision control tool, such as Mercurial, will
igor@402 229 support both models. You and your collaborators can then structure
igor@402 230 how you work together based on your own needs and preferences, not on
igor@402 231 what contortions your tools force you into.
igor@402 232
igor@402 233 \subsection{Where collaboration meets branch management}
igor@402 234
igor@402 235 Once you and your team set up some shared repositories and start
igor@402 236 propagating changes back and forth between local and shared repos, you
igor@402 237 begin to face a related, but slightly different challenge: that of
igor@402 238 managing the multiple directions in which your team may be moving at
igor@402 239 once. Even though this subject is intimately related to how your team
igor@402 240 collaborates, it's dense enough to merit treatment of its own, in
igor@402 241 chapter~\ref{chap:branch}.
igor@402 242
igor@402 243 \section{The technical side of sharing}
igor@402 244
igor@402 245 The remainder of this chapter is devoted to the question of serving
igor@402 246 data to your collaborators.
igor@402 247
igor@402 248 \section{Informal sharing with \hgcmd{serve}}
igor@402 249 \label{sec:collab:serve}
igor@402 250
igor@402 251 Mercurial's \hgcmd{serve} command is wonderfully suited to small,
igor@402 252 tight-knit, and fast-paced group environments. It also provides a
igor@402 253 great way to get a feel for using Mercurial commands over a network.
igor@402 254
igor@402 255 Run \hgcmd{serve} inside a repository, and in under a second it will
igor@402 256 bring up a specialised HTTP server; this will accept connections from
igor@402 257 any client, and serve up data for that repository until you terminate
igor@402 258 it. Anyone who knows the URL of the server you just started, and can
igor@402 259 talk to your computer over the network, can then use a web browser or
igor@402 260 Mercurial to read data from that repository. A URL for a
igor@402 261 \hgcmd{serve} instance running on a laptop is likely to look something
igor@402 262 like \Verb|http://my-laptop.local:8000/|.
igor@402 263
igor@402 264 The \hgcmd{serve} command is \emph{not} a general-purpose web server.
igor@402 265 It can do only two things:
igor@402 266 \begin{itemize}
igor@402 267 \item Allow people to browse the history of the repository it's
igor@402 268 serving, from their normal web browsers.
igor@402 269 \item Speak Mercurial's wire protocol, so that people can
igor@402 270 \hgcmd{clone} or \hgcmd{pull} changes from that repository.
igor@402 271 \end{itemize}
igor@402 272 In particular, \hgcmd{serve} won't allow remote users to \emph{modify}
igor@402 273 your repository. It's intended for read-only use.
igor@402 274
igor@402 275 If you're getting started with Mercurial, there's nothing to prevent
igor@402 276 you from using \hgcmd{serve} to serve up a repository on your own
igor@402 277 computer, then use commands like \hgcmd{clone}, \hgcmd{incoming}, and
igor@402 278 so on to talk to that server as if the repository was hosted remotely.
igor@402 279 This can help you to quickly get acquainted with using commands on
igor@402 280 network-hosted repositories.
igor@402 281
igor@402 282 \subsection{A few things to keep in mind}
igor@402 283
igor@402 284 Because it provides unauthenticated read access to all clients, you
igor@402 285 should only use \hgcmd{serve} in an environment where you either don't
igor@402 286 care, or have complete control over, who can access your network and
igor@402 287 pull data from your repository.
igor@402 288
igor@402 289 The \hgcmd{serve} command knows nothing about any firewall software
igor@402 290 you might have installed on your system or network. It cannot detect
igor@402 291 or control your firewall software. If other people are unable to talk
igor@402 292 to a running \hgcmd{serve} instance, the second thing you should do
igor@402 293 (\emph{after} you make sure that they're using the correct URL) is
igor@402 294 check your firewall configuration.
igor@402 295
igor@402 296 By default, \hgcmd{serve} listens for incoming connections on
igor@402 297 port~8000. If another process is already listening on the port you
igor@402 298 want to use, you can specify a different port to listen on using the
igor@402 299 \hgopt{serve}{-p} option.
igor@402 300
igor@402 301 Normally, when \hgcmd{serve} starts, it prints no output, which can be
igor@402 302 a bit unnerving. If you'd like to confirm that it is indeed running
igor@402 303 correctly, and find out what URL you should send to your
igor@402 304 collaborators, start it with the \hggopt{-v} option.
igor@402 305
igor@402 306 \section{Using the Secure Shell (ssh) protocol}
igor@402 307 \label{sec:collab:ssh}
igor@402 308
igor@402 309 You can pull and push changes securely over a network connection using
igor@402 310 the Secure Shell (\texttt{ssh}) protocol. To use this successfully,
igor@402 311 you may have to do a little bit of configuration on the client or
igor@402 312 server sides.
igor@402 313
igor@402 314 If you're not familiar with ssh, it's a network protocol that lets you
igor@402 315 securely communicate with another computer. To use it with Mercurial,
igor@402 316 you'll be setting up one or more user accounts on a server so that
igor@402 317 remote users can log in and execute commands.
igor@402 318
igor@402 319 (If you \emph{are} familiar with ssh, you'll probably find some of the
igor@402 320 material that follows to be elementary in nature.)
igor@402 321
igor@402 322 \subsection{How to read and write ssh URLs}
igor@402 323
igor@402 324 An ssh URL tends to look like this:
igor@402 325 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 326 ssh://bos@hg.serpentine.com:22/hg/hgbook
igor@402 327 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 328 \begin{enumerate}
igor@402 329 \item The ``\texttt{ssh://}'' part tells Mercurial to use the ssh
igor@402 330 protocol.
igor@402 331 \item The ``\texttt{bos@}'' component indicates what username to log
igor@402 332 into the server as. You can leave this out if the remote username
igor@402 333 is the same as your local username.
igor@402 334 \item The ``\texttt{hg.serpentine.com}'' gives the hostname of the
igor@402 335 server to log into.
igor@402 336 \item The ``:22'' identifies the port number to connect to the server
igor@402 337 on. The default port is~22, so you only need to specify this part
igor@402 338 if you're \emph{not} using port~22.
igor@402 339 \item The remainder of the URL is the local path to the repository on
igor@402 340 the server.
igor@402 341 \end{enumerate}
igor@402 342
igor@402 343 There's plenty of scope for confusion with the path component of ssh
igor@402 344 URLs, as there is no standard way for tools to interpret it. Some
igor@402 345 programs behave differently than others when dealing with these paths.
igor@402 346 This isn't an ideal situation, but it's unlikely to change. Please
igor@402 347 read the following paragraphs carefully.
igor@402 348
igor@402 349 Mercurial treats the path to a repository on the server as relative to
igor@402 350 the remote user's home directory. For example, if user \texttt{foo}
igor@402 351 on the server has a home directory of \dirname{/home/foo}, then an ssh
igor@402 352 URL that contains a path component of \dirname{bar}
igor@402 353 \emph{really} refers to the directory \dirname{/home/foo/bar}.
igor@402 354
igor@402 355 If you want to specify a path relative to another user's home
igor@402 356 directory, you can use a path that starts with a tilde character
igor@402 357 followed by the user's name (let's call them \texttt{otheruser}), like
igor@402 358 this.
igor@402 359 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 360 ssh://server/~otheruser/hg/repo
igor@402 361 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 362
igor@402 363 And if you really want to specify an \emph{absolute} path on the
igor@402 364 server, begin the path component with two slashes, as in this example.
igor@402 365 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 366 ssh://server//absolute/path
igor@402 367 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 368
igor@402 369 \subsection{Finding an ssh client for your system}
igor@402 370
igor@402 371 Almost every Unix-like system comes with OpenSSH preinstalled. If
igor@402 372 you're using such a system, run \Verb|which ssh| to find out if
igor@402 373 the \command{ssh} command is installed (it's usually in
igor@402 374 \dirname{/usr/bin}). In the unlikely event that it isn't present,
igor@402 375 take a look at your system documentation to figure out how to install
igor@402 376 it.
igor@402 377
igor@402 378 On Windows, you'll first need to choose download a suitable ssh
igor@402 379 client. There are two alternatives.
igor@402 380 \begin{itemize}
igor@402 381 \item Simon Tatham's excellent PuTTY package~\cite{web:putty} provides
igor@402 382 a complete suite of ssh client commands.
igor@402 383 \item If you have a high tolerance for pain, you can use the Cygwin
igor@402 384 port of OpenSSH.
igor@402 385 \end{itemize}
igor@402 386 In either case, you'll need to edit your \hgini\ file to tell
igor@402 387 Mercurial where to find the actual client command. For example, if
igor@402 388 you're using PuTTY, you'll need to use the \command{plink} command as
igor@402 389 a command-line ssh client.
igor@402 390 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 391 [ui]
igor@402 392 ssh = C:/path/to/plink.exe -ssh -i "C:/path/to/my/private/key"
igor@402 393 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 394
igor@402 395 \begin{note}
igor@402 396 The path to \command{plink} shouldn't contain any whitespace
igor@402 397 characters, or Mercurial may not be able to run it correctly (so
igor@402 398 putting it in \dirname{C:\\Program Files} is probably not a good
igor@402 399 idea).
igor@402 400 \end{note}
igor@402 401
igor@402 402 \subsection{Generating a key pair}
igor@402 403
igor@402 404 To avoid the need to repetitively type a password every time you need
igor@402 405 to use your ssh client, I recommend generating a key pair. On a
igor@402 406 Unix-like system, the \command{ssh-keygen} command will do the trick.
igor@402 407 On Windows, if you're using PuTTY, the \command{puttygen} command is
igor@402 408 what you'll need.
igor@402 409
igor@402 410 When you generate a key pair, it's usually \emph{highly} advisable to
igor@402 411 protect it with a passphrase. (The only time that you might not want
igor@402 412 to do this id when you're using the ssh protocol for automated tasks
igor@402 413 on a secure network.)
igor@402 414
igor@402 415 Simply generating a key pair isn't enough, however. You'll need to
igor@402 416 add the public key to the set of authorised keys for whatever user
igor@402 417 you're logging in remotely as. For servers using OpenSSH (the vast
igor@402 418 majority), this will mean adding the public key to a list in a file
igor@402 419 called \sfilename{authorized\_keys} in their \sdirname{.ssh}
igor@402 420 directory.
igor@402 421
igor@402 422 On a Unix-like system, your public key will have a \filename{.pub}
igor@402 423 extension. If you're using \command{puttygen} on Windows, you can
igor@402 424 save the public key to a file of your choosing, or paste it from the
igor@402 425 window it's displayed in straight into the
igor@402 426 \sfilename{authorized\_keys} file.
igor@402 427
igor@402 428 \subsection{Using an authentication agent}
igor@402 429
igor@402 430 An authentication agent is a daemon that stores passphrases in memory
igor@402 431 (so it will forget passphrases if you log out and log back in again).
igor@402 432 An ssh client will notice if it's running, and query it for a
igor@402 433 passphrase. If there's no authentication agent running, or the agent
igor@402 434 doesn't store the necessary passphrase, you'll have to type your
igor@402 435 passphrase every time Mercurial tries to communicate with a server on
igor@402 436 your behalf (e.g.~whenever you pull or push changes).
igor@402 437
igor@402 438 The downside of storing passphrases in an agent is that it's possible
igor@402 439 for a well-prepared attacker to recover the plain text of your
igor@402 440 passphrases, in some cases even if your system has been power-cycled.
igor@402 441 You should make your own judgment as to whether this is an acceptable
igor@402 442 risk. It certainly saves a lot of repeated typing.
igor@402 443
igor@402 444 On Unix-like systems, the agent is called \command{ssh-agent}, and
igor@402 445 it's often run automatically for you when you log in. You'll need to
igor@402 446 use the \command{ssh-add} command to add passphrases to the agent's
igor@402 447 store. On Windows, if you're using PuTTY, the \command{pageant}
igor@402 448 command acts as the agent. It adds an icon to your system tray that
igor@402 449 will let you manage stored passphrases.
igor@402 450
igor@402 451 \subsection{Configuring the server side properly}
igor@402 452
igor@402 453 Because ssh can be fiddly to set up if you're new to it, there's a
igor@402 454 variety of things that can go wrong. Add Mercurial on top, and
igor@402 455 there's plenty more scope for head-scratching. Most of these
igor@402 456 potential problems occur on the server side, not the client side. The
igor@402 457 good news is that once you've gotten a configuration working, it will
igor@402 458 usually continue to work indefinitely.
igor@402 459
igor@402 460 Before you try using Mercurial to talk to an ssh server, it's best to
igor@402 461 make sure that you can use the normal \command{ssh} or \command{putty}
igor@402 462 command to talk to the server first. If you run into problems with
igor@402 463 using these commands directly, Mercurial surely won't work. Worse, it
igor@402 464 will obscure the underlying problem. Any time you want to debug
igor@402 465 ssh-related Mercurial problems, you should drop back to making sure
igor@402 466 that plain ssh client commands work first, \emph{before} you worry
igor@402 467 about whether there's a problem with Mercurial.
igor@402 468
igor@402 469 The first thing to be sure of on the server side is that you can
igor@402 470 actually log in from another machine at all. If you can't use
igor@402 471 \command{ssh} or \command{putty} to log in, the error message you get
igor@402 472 may give you a few hints as to what's wrong. The most common problems
igor@402 473 are as follows.
igor@402 474 \begin{itemize}
igor@402 475 \item If you get a ``connection refused'' error, either there isn't an
igor@402 476 SSH daemon running on the server at all, or it's inaccessible due to
igor@402 477 firewall configuration.
igor@402 478 \item If you get a ``no route to host'' error, you either have an
igor@402 479 incorrect address for the server or a seriously locked down firewall
igor@402 480 that won't admit its existence at all.
igor@402 481 \item If you get a ``permission denied'' error, you may have mistyped
igor@402 482 the username on the server, or you could have mistyped your key's
igor@402 483 passphrase or the remote user's password.
igor@402 484 \end{itemize}
igor@402 485 In summary, if you're having trouble talking to the server's ssh
igor@402 486 daemon, first make sure that one is running at all. On many systems
igor@402 487 it will be installed, but disabled, by default. Once you're done with
igor@402 488 this step, you should then check that the server's firewall is
igor@402 489 configured to allow incoming connections on the port the ssh daemon is
igor@402 490 listening on (usually~22). Don't worry about more exotic
igor@402 491 possibilities for misconfiguration until you've checked these two
igor@402 492 first.
igor@402 493
igor@402 494 If you're using an authentication agent on the client side to store
igor@402 495 passphrases for your keys, you ought to be able to log into the server
igor@402 496 without being prompted for a passphrase or a password. If you're
igor@402 497 prompted for a passphrase, there are a few possible culprits.
igor@402 498 \begin{itemize}
igor@402 499 \item You might have forgotten to use \command{ssh-add} or
igor@402 500 \command{pageant} to store the passphrase.
igor@402 501 \item You might have stored the passphrase for the wrong key.
igor@402 502 \end{itemize}
igor@402 503 If you're being prompted for the remote user's password, there are
igor@402 504 another few possible problems to check.
igor@402 505 \begin{itemize}
igor@402 506 \item Either the user's home directory or their \sdirname{.ssh}
igor@402 507 directory might have excessively liberal permissions. As a result,
igor@402 508 the ssh daemon will not trust or read their
igor@402 509 \sfilename{authorized\_keys} file. For example, a group-writable
igor@402 510 home or \sdirname{.ssh} directory will often cause this symptom.
igor@402 511 \item The user's \sfilename{authorized\_keys} file may have a problem.
igor@402 512 If anyone other than the user owns or can write to that file, the
igor@402 513 ssh daemon will not trust or read it.
igor@402 514 \end{itemize}
igor@402 515
igor@402 516 In the ideal world, you should be able to run the following command
igor@402 517 successfully, and it should print exactly one line of output, the
igor@402 518 current date and time.
igor@402 519 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 520 ssh myserver date
igor@402 521 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 522
igor@402 523 If, on your server, you have login scripts that print banners or other
igor@402 524 junk even when running non-interactive commands like this, you should
igor@402 525 fix them before you continue, so that they only print output if
igor@402 526 they're run interactively. Otherwise these banners will at least
igor@402 527 clutter up Mercurial's output. Worse, they could potentially cause
igor@402 528 problems with running Mercurial commands remotely. Mercurial makes
igor@402 529 tries to detect and ignore banners in non-interactive \command{ssh}
igor@402 530 sessions, but it is not foolproof. (If you're editing your login
igor@402 531 scripts on your server, the usual way to see if a login script is
igor@402 532 running in an interactive shell is to check the return code from the
igor@402 533 command \Verb|tty -s|.)
igor@402 534
igor@402 535 Once you've verified that plain old ssh is working with your server,
igor@402 536 the next step is to ensure that Mercurial runs on the server. The
igor@402 537 following command should run successfully:
igor@402 538 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 539 ssh myserver hg version
igor@402 540 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 541 If you see an error message instead of normal \hgcmd{version} output,
igor@402 542 this is usually because you haven't installed Mercurial to
igor@402 543 \dirname{/usr/bin}. Don't worry if this is the case; you don't need
igor@402 544 to do that. But you should check for a few possible problems.
igor@402 545 \begin{itemize}
igor@402 546 \item Is Mercurial really installed on the server at all? I know this
igor@402 547 sounds trivial, but it's worth checking!
igor@402 548 \item Maybe your shell's search path (usually set via the \envar{PATH}
igor@402 549 environment variable) is simply misconfigured.
igor@402 550 \item Perhaps your \envar{PATH} environment variable is only being set
igor@402 551 to point to the location of the \command{hg} executable if the login
igor@402 552 session is interactive. This can happen if you're setting the path
igor@402 553 in the wrong shell login script. See your shell's documentation for
igor@402 554 details.
igor@402 555 \item The \envar{PYTHONPATH} environment variable may need to contain
igor@402 556 the path to the Mercurial Python modules. It might not be set at
igor@402 557 all; it could be incorrect; or it may be set only if the login is
igor@402 558 interactive.
igor@402 559 \end{itemize}
igor@402 560
igor@402 561 If you can run \hgcmd{version} over an ssh connection, well done!
igor@402 562 You've got the server and client sorted out. You should now be able
igor@402 563 to use Mercurial to access repositories hosted by that username on
igor@402 564 that server. If you run into problems with Mercurial and ssh at this
igor@402 565 point, try using the \hggopt{--debug} option to get a clearer picture
igor@402 566 of what's going on.
igor@402 567
igor@402 568 \subsection{Using compression with ssh}
igor@402 569
igor@402 570 Mercurial does not compress data when it uses the ssh protocol,
igor@402 571 because the ssh protocol can transparently compress data. However,
igor@402 572 the default behaviour of ssh clients is \emph{not} to request
igor@402 573 compression.
igor@402 574
igor@402 575 Over any network other than a fast LAN (even a wireless network),
igor@402 576 using compression is likely to significantly speed up Mercurial's
igor@402 577 network operations. For example, over a WAN, someone measured
igor@402 578 compression as reducing the amount of time required to clone a
igor@402 579 particularly large repository from~51 minutes to~17 minutes.
igor@402 580
igor@402 581 Both \command{ssh} and \command{plink} accept a \cmdopt{ssh}{-C}
igor@402 582 option which turns on compression. You can easily edit your \hgrc\ to
igor@402 583 enable compression for all of Mercurial's uses of the ssh protocol.
igor@402 584 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 585 [ui]
igor@402 586 ssh = ssh -C
igor@402 587 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 588
igor@402 589 If you use \command{ssh}, you can configure it to always use
igor@402 590 compression when talking to your server. To do this, edit your
igor@402 591 \sfilename{.ssh/config} file (which may not yet exist), as follows.
igor@402 592 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 593 Host hg
igor@402 594 Compression yes
igor@402 595 HostName hg.example.com
igor@402 596 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 597 This defines an alias, \texttt{hg}. When you use it on the
igor@402 598 \command{ssh} command line or in a Mercurial \texttt{ssh}-protocol
igor@402 599 URL, it will cause \command{ssh} to connect to \texttt{hg.example.com}
igor@402 600 and use compression. This gives you both a shorter name to type and
igor@402 601 compression, each of which is a good thing in its own right.
igor@402 602
igor@402 603 \section{Serving over HTTP using CGI}
igor@402 604 \label{sec:collab:cgi}
igor@402 605
igor@402 606 Depending on how ambitious you are, configuring Mercurial's CGI
igor@402 607 interface can take anything from a few moments to several hours.
igor@402 608
igor@402 609 We'll begin with the simplest of examples, and work our way towards a
igor@402 610 more complex configuration. Even for the most basic case, you're
igor@402 611 almost certainly going to need to read and modify your web server's
igor@402 612 configuration.
igor@402 613
igor@402 614 \begin{note}
igor@402 615 Configuring a web server is a complex, fiddly, and highly
igor@402 616 system-dependent activity. I can't possibly give you instructions
igor@402 617 that will cover anything like all of the cases you will encounter.
igor@402 618 Please use your discretion and judgment in following the sections
igor@402 619 below. Be prepared to make plenty of mistakes, and to spend a lot
igor@402 620 of time reading your server's error logs.
igor@402 621 \end{note}
igor@402 622
igor@402 623 \subsection{Web server configuration checklist}
igor@402 624
igor@402 625 Before you continue, do take a few moments to check a few aspects of
igor@402 626 your system's setup.
igor@402 627
igor@402 628 \begin{enumerate}
igor@402 629 \item Do you have a web server installed at all? Mac OS X ships with
igor@402 630 Apache, but many other systems may not have a web server installed.
igor@402 631 \item If you have a web server installed, is it actually running? On
igor@402 632 most systems, even if one is present, it will be disabled by
igor@402 633 default.
igor@402 634 \item Is your server configured to allow you to run CGI programs in
igor@402 635 the directory where you plan to do so? Most servers default to
igor@402 636 explicitly disabling the ability to run CGI programs.
igor@402 637 \end{enumerate}
igor@402 638
igor@402 639 If you don't have a web server installed, and don't have substantial
igor@402 640 experience configuring Apache, you should consider using the
igor@402 641 \texttt{lighttpd} web server instead of Apache. Apache has a
igor@402 642 well-deserved reputation for baroque and confusing configuration.
igor@402 643 While \texttt{lighttpd} is less capable in some ways than Apache, most
igor@402 644 of these capabilities are not relevant to serving Mercurial
igor@402 645 repositories. And \texttt{lighttpd} is undeniably \emph{much} easier
igor@402 646 to get started with than Apache.
igor@402 647
igor@402 648 \subsection{Basic CGI configuration}
igor@402 649
igor@402 650 On Unix-like systems, it's common for users to have a subdirectory
igor@402 651 named something like \dirname{public\_html} in their home directory,
igor@402 652 from which they can serve up web pages. A file named \filename{foo}
igor@402 653 in this directory will be accessible at a URL of the form
igor@402 654 \texttt{http://www.example.com/\~username/foo}.
igor@402 655
igor@402 656 To get started, find the \sfilename{hgweb.cgi} script that should be
igor@402 657 present in your Mercurial installation. If you can't quickly find a
igor@402 658 local copy on your system, simply download one from the master
igor@402 659 Mercurial repository at
igor@402 660 \url{http://www.selenic.com/repo/hg/raw-file/tip/hgweb.cgi}.
igor@402 661
igor@402 662 You'll need to copy this script into your \dirname{public\_html}
igor@402 663 directory, and ensure that it's executable.
igor@402 664 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 665 cp .../hgweb.cgi ~/public_html
igor@402 666 chmod 755 ~/public_html/hgweb.cgi
igor@402 667 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 668 The \texttt{755} argument to \command{chmod} is a little more general
igor@402 669 than just making the script executable: it ensures that the script is
igor@402 670 executable by anyone, and that ``group'' and ``other'' write
igor@402 671 permissions are \emph{not} set. If you were to leave those write
igor@402 672 permissions enabled, Apache's \texttt{suexec} subsystem would likely
igor@402 673 refuse to execute the script. In fact, \texttt{suexec} also insists
igor@402 674 that the \emph{directory} in which the script resides must not be
igor@402 675 writable by others.
igor@402 676 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 677 chmod 755 ~/public_html
igor@402 678 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 679
igor@402 680 \subsubsection{What could \emph{possibly} go wrong?}
igor@402 681 \label{sec:collab:wtf}
igor@402 682
igor@402 683 Once you've copied the CGI script into place, go into a web browser,
igor@402 684 and try to open the URL \url{http://myhostname/~myuser/hgweb.cgi},
igor@402 685 \emph{but} brace yourself for instant failure. There's a high
igor@402 686 probability that trying to visit this URL will fail, and there are
igor@402 687 many possible reasons for this. In fact, you're likely to stumble
igor@402 688 over almost every one of the possible errors below, so please read
igor@402 689 carefully. The following are all of the problems I ran into on a
igor@402 690 system running Fedora~7, with a fresh installation of Apache, and a
igor@402 691 user account that I created specially to perform this exercise.
igor@402 692
igor@402 693 Your web server may have per-user directories disabled. If you're
igor@402 694 using Apache, search your config file for a \texttt{UserDir}
igor@402 695 directive. If there's none present, per-user directories will be
igor@402 696 disabled. If one exists, but its value is \texttt{disabled}, then
igor@402 697 per-user directories will be disabled. Otherwise, the string after
igor@402 698 \texttt{UserDir} gives the name of the subdirectory that Apache will
igor@402 699 look in under your home directory, for example \dirname{public\_html}.
igor@402 700
igor@402 701 Your file access permissions may be too restrictive. The web server
igor@402 702 must be able to traverse your home directory and directories under
igor@402 703 your \dirname{public\_html} directory, and read files under the latter
igor@402 704 too. Here's a quick recipe to help you to make your permissions more
igor@402 705 appropriate.
igor@402 706 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 707 chmod 755 ~
igor@402 708 find ~/public_html -type d -print0 | xargs -0r chmod 755
igor@402 709 find ~/public_html -type f -print0 | xargs -0r chmod 644
igor@402 710 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 711
igor@402 712 The other possibility with permissions is that you might get a
igor@402 713 completely empty window when you try to load the script. In this
igor@402 714 case, it's likely that your access permissions are \emph{too
igor@402 715 permissive}. Apache's \texttt{suexec} subsystem won't execute a
igor@402 716 script that's group-~or world-writable, for example.
igor@402 717
igor@402 718 Your web server may be configured to disallow execution of CGI
igor@402 719 programs in your per-user web directory. Here's Apache's
igor@402 720 default per-user configuration from my Fedora system.
igor@402 721 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 722 <Directory /home/*/public_html>
igor@402 723 AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
igor@402 724 Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec
igor@402 725 <Limit GET POST OPTIONS>
igor@402 726 Order allow,deny
igor@402 727 Allow from all
igor@402 728 </Limit>
igor@402 729 <LimitExcept GET POST OPTIONS>
igor@402 730 Order deny,allow
igor@402 731 Deny from all
igor@402 732 </LimitExcept>
igor@402 733 </Directory>
igor@402 734 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 735 If you find a similar-looking \texttt{Directory} group in your Apache
igor@402 736 configuration, the directive to look at inside it is \texttt{Options}.
igor@402 737 Add \texttt{ExecCGI} to the end of this list if it's missing, and
igor@402 738 restart the web server.
igor@402 739
igor@402 740 If you find that Apache serves you the text of the CGI script instead
igor@402 741 of executing it, you may need to either uncomment (if already present)
igor@402 742 or add a directive like this.
igor@402 743 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 744 AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
igor@402 745 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 746
igor@402 747 The next possibility is that you might be served with a colourful
igor@402 748 Python backtrace claiming that it can't import a
igor@402 749 \texttt{mercurial}-related module. This is actually progress! The
igor@402 750 server is now capable of executing your CGI script. This error is
igor@402 751 only likely to occur if you're running a private installation of
igor@402 752 Mercurial, instead of a system-wide version. Remember that the web
igor@402 753 server runs the CGI program without any of the environment variables
igor@402 754 that you take for granted in an interactive session. If this error
igor@402 755 happens to you, edit your copy of \sfilename{hgweb.cgi} and follow the
igor@402 756 directions inside it to correctly set your \envar{PYTHONPATH}
igor@402 757 environment variable.
igor@402 758
igor@402 759 Finally, you are \emph{certain} to by served with another colourful
igor@402 760 Python backtrace: this one will complain that it can't find
igor@402 761 \dirname{/path/to/repository}. Edit your \sfilename{hgweb.cgi} script
igor@402 762 and replace the \dirname{/path/to/repository} string with the complete
igor@402 763 path to the repository you want to serve up.
igor@402 764
igor@402 765 At this point, when you try to reload the page, you should be
igor@402 766 presented with a nice HTML view of your repository's history. Whew!
igor@402 767
igor@402 768 \subsubsection{Configuring lighttpd}
igor@402 769
igor@402 770 To be exhaustive in my experiments, I tried configuring the
igor@402 771 increasingly popular \texttt{lighttpd} web server to serve the same
igor@402 772 repository as I described with Apache above. I had already overcome
igor@402 773 all of the problems I outlined with Apache, many of which are not
igor@402 774 server-specific. As a result, I was fairly sure that my file and
igor@402 775 directory permissions were good, and that my \sfilename{hgweb.cgi}
igor@402 776 script was properly edited.
igor@402 777
igor@402 778 Once I had Apache running, getting \texttt{lighttpd} to serve the
igor@402 779 repository was a snap (in other words, even if you're trying to use
igor@402 780 \texttt{lighttpd}, you should read the Apache section). I first had
igor@402 781 to edit the \texttt{mod\_access} section of its config file to enable
igor@402 782 \texttt{mod\_cgi} and \texttt{mod\_userdir}, both of which were
igor@402 783 disabled by default on my system. I then added a few lines to the end
igor@402 784 of the config file, to configure these modules.
igor@402 785 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 786 userdir.path = "public_html"
igor@402 787 cgi.assign = ( ".cgi" => "" )
igor@402 788 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 789 With this done, \texttt{lighttpd} ran immediately for me. If I had
igor@402 790 configured \texttt{lighttpd} before Apache, I'd almost certainly have
igor@402 791 run into many of the same system-level configuration problems as I did
igor@402 792 with Apache. However, I found \texttt{lighttpd} to be noticeably
igor@402 793 easier to configure than Apache, even though I've used Apache for over
igor@402 794 a decade, and this was my first exposure to \texttt{lighttpd}.
igor@402 795
igor@402 796 \subsection{Sharing multiple repositories with one CGI script}
igor@402 797
igor@402 798 The \sfilename{hgweb.cgi} script only lets you publish a single
igor@402 799 repository, which is an annoying restriction. If you want to publish
igor@402 800 more than one without wracking yourself with multiple copies of the
igor@402 801 same script, each with different names, a better choice is to use the
igor@402 802 \sfilename{hgwebdir.cgi} script.
igor@402 803
igor@402 804 The procedure to configure \sfilename{hgwebdir.cgi} is only a little
igor@402 805 more involved than for \sfilename{hgweb.cgi}. First, you must obtain
igor@402 806 a copy of the script. If you don't have one handy, you can download a
igor@402 807 copy from the master Mercurial repository at
igor@402 808 \url{http://www.selenic.com/repo/hg/raw-file/tip/hgwebdir.cgi}.
igor@402 809
igor@402 810 You'll need to copy this script into your \dirname{public\_html}
igor@402 811 directory, and ensure that it's executable.
igor@402 812 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 813 cp .../hgwebdir.cgi ~/public_html
igor@402 814 chmod 755 ~/public_html ~/public_html/hgwebdir.cgi
igor@402 815 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 816 With basic configuration out of the way, try to visit
igor@402 817 \url{http://myhostname/~myuser/hgwebdir.cgi} in your browser. It
igor@402 818 should display an empty list of repositories. If you get a blank
igor@402 819 window or error message, try walking through the list of potential
igor@402 820 problems in section~\ref{sec:collab:wtf}.
igor@402 821
igor@402 822 The \sfilename{hgwebdir.cgi} script relies on an external
igor@402 823 configuration file. By default, it searches for a file named
igor@402 824 \sfilename{hgweb.config} in the same directory as itself. You'll need
igor@402 825 to create this file, and make it world-readable. The format of the
igor@402 826 file is similar to a Windows ``ini'' file, as understood by Python's
igor@402 827 \texttt{ConfigParser}~\cite{web:configparser} module.
igor@402 828
igor@402 829 The easiest way to configure \sfilename{hgwebdir.cgi} is with a
igor@402 830 section named \texttt{collections}. This will automatically publish
igor@402 831 \emph{every} repository under the directories you name. The section
igor@402 832 should look like this:
igor@402 833 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 834 [collections]
igor@402 835 /my/root = /my/root
igor@402 836 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 837 Mercurial interprets this by looking at the directory name on the
igor@402 838 \emph{right} hand side of the ``\texttt{=}'' sign; finding
igor@402 839 repositories in that directory hierarchy; and using the text on the
igor@402 840 \emph{left} to strip off matching text from the names it will actually
igor@402 841 list in the web interface. The remaining component of a path after
igor@402 842 this stripping has occurred is called a ``virtual path''.
igor@402 843
igor@402 844 Given the example above, if we have a repository whose local path is
igor@402 845 \dirname{/my/root/this/repo}, the CGI script will strip the leading
igor@402 846 \dirname{/my/root} from the name, and publish the repository with a
igor@402 847 virtual path of \dirname{this/repo}. If the base URL for our CGI
igor@402 848 script is \url{http://myhostname/~myuser/hgwebdir.cgi}, the complete
igor@402 849 URL for that repository will be
igor@402 850 \url{http://myhostname/~myuser/hgwebdir.cgi/this/repo}.
igor@402 851
igor@402 852 If we replace \dirname{/my/root} on the left hand side of this example
igor@402 853 with \dirname{/my}, then \sfilename{hgwebdir.cgi} will only strip off
igor@402 854 \dirname{/my} from the repository name, and will give us a virtual
igor@402 855 path of \dirname{root/this/repo} instead of \dirname{this/repo}.
igor@402 856
igor@402 857 The \sfilename{hgwebdir.cgi} script will recursively search each
igor@402 858 directory listed in the \texttt{collections} section of its
igor@402 859 configuration file, but it will \texttt{not} recurse into the
igor@402 860 repositories it finds.
igor@402 861
igor@402 862 The \texttt{collections} mechanism makes it easy to publish many
igor@402 863 repositories in a ``fire and forget'' manner. You only need to set up
igor@402 864 the CGI script and configuration file one time. Afterwards, you can
igor@402 865 publish or unpublish a repository at any time by simply moving it
igor@402 866 into, or out of, the directory hierarchy in which you've configured
igor@402 867 \sfilename{hgwebdir.cgi} to look.
igor@402 868
igor@402 869 \subsubsection{Explicitly specifying which repositories to publish}
igor@402 870
igor@402 871 In addition to the \texttt{collections} mechanism, the
igor@402 872 \sfilename{hgwebdir.cgi} script allows you to publish a specific list
igor@402 873 of repositories. To do so, create a \texttt{paths} section, with
igor@402 874 contents of the following form.
igor@402 875 \begin{codesample2}
igor@402 876 [paths]
igor@402 877 repo1 = /my/path/to/some/repo
igor@402 878 repo2 = /some/path/to/another
igor@402 879 \end{codesample2}
igor@402 880 In this case, the virtual path (the component that will appear in a
igor@402 881 URL) is on the left hand side of each definition, while the path to
igor@402 882 the repository is on the right. Notice that there does not need to be
igor@402 883 any relationship between the virtual path you choose and the location
igor@402 884 of a repository in your filesystem.
igor@402 885
igor@402 886 If you wish, you can use both the \texttt{collections} and
igor@402 887 \texttt{paths} mechanisms simultaneously in a single configuration
igor@402 888 file.
igor@402 889
igor@402 890 \begin{note}
igor@402 891 If multiple repositories have the same virtual path,
igor@402 892 \sfilename{hgwebdir.cgi} will not report an error. Instead, it will
igor@402 893 behave unpredictably.
igor@402 894 \end{note}
igor@402 895
igor@402 896 \subsection{Downloading source archives}
igor@402 897
igor@402 898 Mercurial's web interface lets users download an archive of any
igor@402 899 revision. This archive will contain a snapshot of the working
igor@402 900 directory as of that revision, but it will not contain a copy of the
igor@402 901 repository data.
igor@402 902
igor@402 903 By default, this feature is not enabled. To enable it, you'll need to
igor@402 904 add an \rcitem{web}{allow\_archive} item to the \rcsection{web}
igor@402 905 section of your \hgrc.
igor@402 906
igor@402 907 \subsection{Web configuration options}
igor@402 908
igor@402 909 Mercurial's web interfaces (the \hgcmd{serve} command, and the
igor@402 910 \sfilename{hgweb.cgi} and \sfilename{hgwebdir.cgi} scripts) have a
igor@402 911 number of configuration options that you can set. These belong in a
igor@402 912 section named \rcsection{web}.
igor@402 913 \begin{itemize}
igor@402 914 \item[\rcitem{web}{allow\_archive}] Determines which (if any) archive
igor@402 915 download mechanisms Mercurial supports. If you enable this
igor@402 916 feature, users of the web interface will be able to download an
igor@402 917 archive of whatever revision of a repository they are viewing.
igor@402 918 To enable the archive feature, this item must take the form of a
igor@402 919 sequence of words drawn from the list below.
igor@402 920 \begin{itemize}
igor@402 921 \item[\texttt{bz2}] A \command{tar} archive, compressed using
igor@402 922 \texttt{bzip2} compression. This has the best compression ratio,
igor@402 923 but uses the most CPU time on the server.
igor@402 924 \item[\texttt{gz}] A \command{tar} archive, compressed using
igor@402 925 \texttt{gzip} compression.
igor@402 926 \item[\texttt{zip}] A \command{zip} archive, compressed using LZW
igor@402 927 compression. This format has the worst compression ratio, but is
igor@402 928 widely used in the Windows world.
igor@402 929 \end{itemize}
igor@402 930 If you provide an empty list, or don't have an
igor@402 931 \rcitem{web}{allow\_archive} entry at all, this feature will be
igor@402 932 disabled. Here is an example of how to enable all three supported
igor@402 933 formats.
igor@402 934 \begin{codesample4}
igor@402 935 [web]
igor@402 936 allow_archive = bz2 gz zip
igor@402 937 \end{codesample4}
igor@402 938 \item[\rcitem{web}{allowpull}] Boolean. Determines whether the web
igor@402 939 interface allows remote users to \hgcmd{pull} and \hgcmd{clone} this
igor@402 940 repository over~HTTP. If set to \texttt{no} or \texttt{false}, only
igor@402 941 the ``human-oriented'' portion of the web interface is available.
igor@402 942 \item[\rcitem{web}{contact}] String. A free-form (but preferably
igor@402 943 brief) string identifying the person or group in charge of the
igor@402 944 repository. This often contains the name and email address of a
igor@402 945 person or mailing list. It often makes sense to place this entry in
igor@402 946 a repository's own \sfilename{.hg/hgrc} file, but it can make sense
igor@402 947 to use in a global \hgrc\ if every repository has a single
igor@402 948 maintainer.
igor@402 949 \item[\rcitem{web}{maxchanges}] Integer. The default maximum number
igor@402 950 of changesets to display in a single page of output.
igor@402 951 \item[\rcitem{web}{maxfiles}] Integer. The default maximum number
igor@402 952 of modified files to display in a single page of output.
igor@402 953 \item[\rcitem{web}{stripes}] Integer. If the web interface displays
igor@402 954 alternating ``stripes'' to make it easier to visually align rows
igor@402 955 when you are looking at a table, this number controls the number of
igor@402 956 rows in each stripe.
igor@402 957 \item[\rcitem{web}{style}] Controls the template Mercurial uses to
igor@402 958 display the web interface. Mercurial ships with two web templates,
igor@402 959 named \texttt{default} and \texttt{gitweb} (the latter is much more
igor@402 960 visually attractive). You can also specify a custom template of
igor@402 961 your own; see chapter~\ref{chap:template} for details. Here, you
igor@402 962 can see how to enable the \texttt{gitweb} style.
igor@402 963 \begin{codesample4}
igor@402 964 [web]
igor@402 965 style = gitweb
igor@402 966 \end{codesample4}
igor@402 967 \item[\rcitem{web}{templates}] Path. The directory in which to search
igor@402 968 for template files. By default, Mercurial searches in the directory
igor@402 969 in which it was installed.
igor@402 970 \end{itemize}
igor@402 971 If you are using \sfilename{hgwebdir.cgi}, you can place a few
igor@402 972 configuration items in a \rcsection{web} section of the
igor@402 973 \sfilename{hgweb.config} file instead of a \hgrc\ file, for
igor@402 974 convenience. These items are \rcitem{web}{motd} and
igor@402 975 \rcitem{web}{style}.
igor@402 976
igor@402 977 \subsubsection{Options specific to an individual repository}
igor@402 978
igor@402 979 A few \rcsection{web} configuration items ought to be placed in a
igor@402 980 repository's local \sfilename{.hg/hgrc}, rather than a user's or
igor@402 981 global \hgrc.
igor@402 982 \begin{itemize}
igor@402 983 \item[\rcitem{web}{description}] String. A free-form (but preferably
igor@402 984 brief) string that describes the contents or purpose of the
igor@402 985 repository.
igor@402 986 \item[\rcitem{web}{name}] String. The name to use for the repository
igor@402 987 in the web interface. This overrides the default name, which is the
igor@402 988 last component of the repository's path.
igor@402 989 \end{itemize}
igor@402 990
igor@402 991 \subsubsection{Options specific to the \hgcmd{serve} command}
igor@402 992
igor@402 993 Some of the items in the \rcsection{web} section of a \hgrc\ file are
igor@402 994 only for use with the \hgcmd{serve} command.
igor@402 995 \begin{itemize}
igor@402 996 \item[\rcitem{web}{accesslog}] Path. The name of a file into which to
igor@402 997 write an access log. By default, the \hgcmd{serve} command writes
igor@402 998 this information to standard output, not to a file. Log entries are
igor@402 999 written in the standard ``combined'' file format used by almost all
igor@402 1000 web servers.
igor@402 1001 \item[\rcitem{web}{address}] String. The local address on which the
igor@402 1002 server should listen for incoming connections. By default, the
igor@402 1003 server listens on all addresses.
igor@402 1004 \item[\rcitem{web}{errorlog}] Path. The name of a file into which to
igor@402 1005 write an error log. By default, the \hgcmd{serve} command writes this
igor@402 1006 information to standard error, not to a file.
igor@402 1007 \item[\rcitem{web}{ipv6}] Boolean. Whether to use the IPv6 protocol.
igor@402 1008 By default, IPv6 is not used.
igor@402 1009 \item[\rcitem{web}{port}] Integer. The TCP~port number on which the
igor@402 1010 server should listen. The default port number used is~8000.
igor@402 1011 \end{itemize}
igor@402 1012
igor@402 1013 \subsubsection{Choosing the right \hgrc\ file to add \rcsection{web}
igor@402 1014 items to}
igor@402 1015
igor@402 1016 It is important to remember that a web server like Apache or
igor@402 1017 \texttt{lighttpd} will run under a user~ID that is different to yours.
igor@402 1018 CGI scripts run by your server, such as \sfilename{hgweb.cgi}, will
igor@402 1019 usually also run under that user~ID.
igor@402 1020
igor@402 1021 If you add \rcsection{web} items to your own personal \hgrc\ file, CGI
igor@402 1022 scripts won't read that \hgrc\ file. Those settings will thus only
igor@402 1023 affect the behaviour of the \hgcmd{serve} command when you run it. To
igor@402 1024 cause CGI scripts to see your settings, either create a \hgrc\ file in
igor@402 1025 the home directory of the user ID that runs your web server, or add
igor@402 1026 those settings to a system-wide \hgrc\ file.
igor@402 1027
igor@402 1028
igor@402 1029 %%% Local Variables:
igor@402 1030 %%% mode: latex
igor@402 1031 %%% TeX-master: "00book"
igor@402 1032 %%% End: