
jerojasro@336: \chapter{Adding functionality with extensions}
jerojasro@336: \label{chap:hgext}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: While the core of Mercurial is quite complete from a functionality
jerojasro@336: standpoint, it's deliberately shorn of fancy features.  This approach
jerojasro@336: of preserving simplicity keeps the software easy to deal with for both
jerojasro@336: maintainers and users.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: However, Mercurial doesn't box you in with an inflexible command set:
jerojasro@336: you can add features to it as \emph{extensions} (sometimes known as
jerojasro@336: \emph{plugins}).  We've already discussed a few of these extensions in
jerojasro@336: earlier chapters.
jerojasro@336: \begin{itemize}
jerojasro@336: \item Section~\ref{sec:tour-merge:fetch} covers the \hgext{fetch}
jerojasro@336:   extension; this combines pulling new changes and merging them with
jerojasro@336:   local changes into a single command, \hgxcmd{fetch}{fetch}.
jerojasro@336: \item In chapter~\ref{chap:hook}, we covered several extensions that
jerojasro@336:   are useful for hook-related functionality: \hgext{acl} adds access
jerojasro@336:   control lists; \hgext{bugzilla} adds integration with the Bugzilla
jerojasro@336:   bug tracking system; and \hgext{notify} sends notification emails on
jerojasro@336:   new changes.
jerojasro@336: \item The Mercurial Queues patch management extension is so invaluable
jerojasro@336:   that it merits two chapters and an appendix all to itself.
jerojasro@336:   Chapter~\ref{chap:mq} covers the basics;
jerojasro@336:   chapter~\ref{chap:mq-collab} discusses advanced topics; and
jerojasro@336:   appendix~\ref{chap:mqref} goes into detail on each command.
jerojasro@336: \end{itemize}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: In this chapter, we'll cover some of the other extensions that are
jerojasro@336: available for Mercurial, and briefly touch on some of the machinery
jerojasro@336: you'll need to know about if you want to write an extension of your
jerojasro@336: own.
jerojasro@336: \begin{itemize}
jerojasro@336: \item In section~\ref{sec:hgext:inotify}, we'll discuss the
jerojasro@336:   possibility of \emph{huge} performance improvements using the
jerojasro@336:   \hgext{inotify} extension.
jerojasro@336: \end{itemize}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: \section{Improve performance with the \hgext{inotify} extension}
jerojasro@336: \label{sec:hgext:inotify}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Are you interested in having some of the most common Mercurial
jerojasro@336: operations run as much as a hundred times faster?  Read on!
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Mercurial has great performance under normal circumstances.  For
jerojasro@336: example, when you run the \hgcmd{status} command, Mercurial has to
jerojasro@336: scan almost every directory and file in your repository so that it can
jerojasro@336: display file status.  Many other Mercurial commands need to do the
jerojasro@336: same work behind the scenes; for example, the \hgcmd{diff} command
jerojasro@336: uses the status machinery to avoid doing an expensive comparison
jerojasro@336: operation on files that obviously haven't changed.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Because obtaining file status is crucial to good performance, the
jerojasro@336: authors of Mercurial have optimised this code to within an inch of its
jerojasro@336: life.  However, there's no avoiding the fact that when you run
jerojasro@336: \hgcmd{status}, Mercurial is going to have to perform at least one
jerojasro@336: expensive system call for each managed file to determine whether it's
jerojasro@336: changed since the last time Mercurial checked.  For a sufficiently
jerojasro@336: large repository, this can take a long time.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: To put a number on the magnitude of this effect, I created a
jerojasro@336: repository containing 150,000 managed files.  I timed \hgcmd{status}
jerojasro@336: as taking ten seconds to run, even when \emph{none} of those files had
jerojasro@336: been modified.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Many modern operating systems contain a file notification facility.
jerojasro@336: If a program signs up to an appropriate service, the operating system
jerojasro@336: will notify it every time a file of interest is created, modified, or
jerojasro@336: deleted.  On Linux systems, the kernel component that does this is
jerojasro@336: called \texttt{inotify}.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Mercurial's \hgext{inotify} extension talks to the kernel's
jerojasro@336: \texttt{inotify} component to optimise \hgcmd{status} commands.  The
jerojasro@336: extension has two components.  A daemon sits in the background and
jerojasro@336: receives notifications from the \texttt{inotify} subsystem.  It also
jerojasro@336: listens for connections from a regular Mercurial command.  The
jerojasro@336: extension modifies Mercurial's behaviour so that instead of scanning
jerojasro@336: the filesystem, it queries the daemon.  Since the daemon has perfect
jerojasro@336: information about the state of the repository, it can respond with a
jerojasro@336: result instantaneously, avoiding the need to scan every directory and
jerojasro@336: file in the repository.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Recall the ten seconds that I measured plain Mercurial as taking to
jerojasro@336: run \hgcmd{status} on a 150,000 file repository.  With the
jerojasro@336: \hgext{inotify} extension enabled, the time dropped to 0.1~seconds, a
jerojasro@336: factor of \emph{one hundred} faster.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Before we continue, please pay attention to some caveats.
jerojasro@336: \begin{itemize}
jerojasro@336: \item The \hgext{inotify} extension is Linux-specific.  Because it
jerojasro@336:   interfaces directly to the Linux kernel's \texttt{inotify}
jerojasro@336:   subsystem, it does not work on other operating systems.
jerojasro@336: \item It should work on any Linux distribution that was released after
jerojasro@336:   early~2005.  Older distributions are likely to have a kernel that
jerojasro@336:   lacks \texttt{inotify}, or a version of \texttt{glibc} that does not
jerojasro@336:   have the necessary interfacing support.
jerojasro@336: \item Not all filesystems are suitable for use with the
jerojasro@336:   \hgext{inotify} extension.  Network filesystems such as NFS are a
jerojasro@336:   non-starter, for example, particularly if you're running Mercurial
jerojasro@336:   on several systems, all mounting the same network filesystem.  The
jerojasro@336:   kernel's \texttt{inotify} system has no way of knowing about changes
jerojasro@336:   made on another system.  Most local filesystems (e.g.~ext3, XFS,
jerojasro@336:   ReiserFS) should work fine.
jerojasro@336: \end{itemize}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: The \hgext{inotify} extension is not yet shipped with Mercurial as of
jerojasro@336: May~2007, so it's a little more involved to set up than other
jerojasro@336: extensions.  But the performance improvement is worth it!
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: The extension currently comes in two parts: a set of patches to the
jerojasro@336: Mercurial source code, and a library of Python bindings to the
jerojasro@336: \texttt{inotify} subsystem.
jerojasro@336: \begin{note}
jerojasro@336:   There are \emph{two} Python \texttt{inotify} binding libraries.  One
jerojasro@336:   of them is called \texttt{pyinotify}, and is packaged by some Linux
jerojasro@336:   distributions as \texttt{python-inotify}.  This is \emph{not} the
jerojasro@336:   one you'll need, as it is too buggy and inefficient to be practical.
jerojasro@336: \end{note}
jerojasro@336: To get going, it's best to already have a functioning copy of
jerojasro@336: Mercurial installed.
jerojasro@336: \begin{note}
jerojasro@336:   If you follow the instructions below, you'll be \emph{replacing} and
jerojasro@336:   overwriting any existing installation of Mercurial that you might
jerojasro@336:   already have, using the latest ``bleeding edge'' Mercurial code.
jerojasro@336:   Don't say you weren't warned!
jerojasro@336: \end{note}
jerojasro@336: \begin{enumerate}
jerojasro@336: \item Clone the Python \texttt{inotify} binding repository.  Build and
jerojasro@336:   install it.
jerojasro@336:   \begin{codesample4}
jerojasro@336:     hg clone http://hg.kublai.com/python/inotify
jerojasro@336:     cd inotify
jerojasro@336:     python setup.py build --force
jerojasro@336:     sudo python setup.py install --skip-build
jerojasro@336:   \end{codesample4}
jerojasro@336: \item Clone the \dirname{crew} Mercurial repository.  Clone the
jerojasro@336:   \hgext{inotify} patch repository so that Mercurial Queues will be
jerojasro@336:   able to apply patches to your cope of the \dirname{crew} repository.
jerojasro@336:   \begin{codesample4}
jerojasro@336:     hg clone http://hg.intevation.org/mercurial/crew
jerojasro@336:     hg clone crew inotify
jerojasro@336:     hg clone http://hg.kublai.com/mercurial/patches/inotify inotify/.hg/patches
jerojasro@336:   \end{codesample4}
jerojasro@336: \item Make sure that you have the Mercurial Queues extension,
jerojasro@336:   \hgext{mq}, enabled.  If you've never used MQ, read
jerojasro@336:   section~\ref{sec:mq:start} to get started quickly.
jerojasro@336: \item Go into the \dirname{inotify} repo, and apply all of the
jerojasro@336:   \hgext{inotify} patches using the \hgxopt{mq}{qpush}{-a} option to
jerojasro@336:   the \hgxcmd{mq}{qpush} command.
jerojasro@336:   \begin{codesample4}
jerojasro@336:     cd inotify
jerojasro@336:     hg qpush -a
jerojasro@336:   \end{codesample4}
jerojasro@336:   If you get an error message from \hgxcmd{mq}{qpush}, you should not
jerojasro@336:   continue.  Instead, ask for help.
jerojasro@336: \item Build and install the patched version of Mercurial.
jerojasro@336:   \begin{codesample4}
jerojasro@336:     python setup.py build --force
jerojasro@336:     sudo python setup.py install --skip-build
jerojasro@336:   \end{codesample4}
jerojasro@336: \end{enumerate}
jerojasro@336: Once you've build a suitably patched version of Mercurial, all you
jerojasro@336: need to do to enable the \hgext{inotify} extension is add an entry to
jerojasro@336: your \hgrc.
jerojasro@336: \begin{codesample2}
jerojasro@336:   [extensions]
jerojasro@336:   inotify =
jerojasro@336: \end{codesample2}
jerojasro@336: When the \hgext{inotify} extension is enabled, Mercurial will
jerojasro@336: automatically and transparently start the status daemon the first time
jerojasro@336: you run a command that needs status in a repository.  It runs one
jerojasro@336: status daemon per repository.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: The status daemon is started silently, and runs in the background.  If
jerojasro@336: you look at a list of running processes after you've enabled the
jerojasro@336: \hgext{inotify} extension and run a few commands in different
jerojasro@336: repositories, you'll thus see a few \texttt{hg} processes sitting
jerojasro@336: around, waiting for updates from the kernel and queries from
jerojasro@336: Mercurial.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: The first time you run a Mercurial command in a repository when you
jerojasro@336: have the \hgext{inotify} extension enabled, it will run with about the
jerojasro@336: same performance as a normal Mercurial command.  This is because the
jerojasro@336: status daemon needs to perform a normal status scan so that it has a
jerojasro@336: baseline against which to apply later updates from the kernel.
jerojasro@336: However, \emph{every} subsequent command that does any kind of status
jerojasro@336: check should be noticeably faster on repositories of even fairly
jerojasro@336: modest size.  Better yet, the bigger your repository is, the greater a
jerojasro@336: performance advantage you'll see.  The \hgext{inotify} daemon makes
jerojasro@336: status operations almost instantaneous on repositories of all sizes!
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: If you like, you can manually start a status daemon using the
jerojasro@336: \hgxcmd{inotify}{inserve} command.  This gives you slightly finer
jerojasro@336: control over how the daemon ought to run.  This command will of course
jerojasro@336: only be available when the \hgext{inotify} extension is enabled.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: When you're using the \hgext{inotify} extension, you should notice
jerojasro@336: \emph{no difference at all} in Mercurial's behaviour, with the sole
jerojasro@336: exception of status-related commands running a whole lot faster than
jerojasro@336: they used to.  You should specifically expect that commands will not
jerojasro@336: print different output; neither should they give different results.
jerojasro@336: If either of these situations occurs, please report a bug.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: \section{Flexible diff support with the \hgext{extdiff} extension}
jerojasro@336: \label{sec:hgext:extdiff}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Mercurial's built-in \hgcmd{diff} command outputs plaintext unified
jerojasro@336: diffs.
jerojasro@336: \interaction{extdiff.diff}
jerojasro@336: If you would like to use an external tool to display modifications,
jerojasro@336: you'll want to use the \hgext{extdiff} extension.  This will let you
jerojasro@336: use, for example, a graphical diff tool.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: The \hgext{extdiff} extension is bundled with Mercurial, so it's easy
jerojasro@336: to set up.  In the \rcsection{extensions} section of your \hgrc,
jerojasro@336: simply add a one-line entry to enable the extension.
jerojasro@336: \begin{codesample2}
jerojasro@336:   [extensions]
jerojasro@336:   extdiff =
jerojasro@336: \end{codesample2}
jerojasro@336: This introduces a command named \hgxcmd{extdiff}{extdiff}, which by
jerojasro@336: default uses your system's \command{diff} command to generate a
jerojasro@336: unified diff in the same form as the built-in \hgcmd{diff} command.
jerojasro@336: \interaction{extdiff.extdiff}
jerojasro@336: The result won't be exactly the same as with the built-in \hgcmd{diff}
jerojasro@336: variations, because the output of \command{diff} varies from one
jerojasro@336: system to another, even when passed the same options.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: As the ``\texttt{making snapshot}'' lines of output above imply, the
jerojasro@336: \hgxcmd{extdiff}{extdiff} command works by creating two snapshots of
jerojasro@336: your source tree.  The first snapshot is of the source revision; the
jerojasro@336: second, of the target revision or working directory.  The
jerojasro@336: \hgxcmd{extdiff}{extdiff} command generates these snapshots in a
jerojasro@336: temporary directory, passes the name of each directory to an external
jerojasro@336: diff viewer, then deletes the temporary directory.  For efficiency, it
jerojasro@336: only snapshots the directories and files that have changed between the
jerojasro@336: two revisions.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Snapshot directory names have the same base name as your repository.
jerojasro@336: If your repository path is \dirname{/quux/bar/foo}, then \dirname{foo}
jerojasro@336: will be the name of each snapshot directory.  Each snapshot directory
jerojasro@336: name has its changeset ID appended, if appropriate.  If a snapshot is
jerojasro@336: of revision \texttt{a631aca1083f}, the directory will be named
jerojasro@336: \dirname{foo.a631aca1083f}.  A snapshot of the working directory won't
jerojasro@336: have a changeset ID appended, so it would just be \dirname{foo} in
jerojasro@336: this example.  To see what this looks like in practice, look again at
jerojasro@336: the \hgxcmd{extdiff}{extdiff} example above.  Notice that the diff has
jerojasro@336: the snapshot directory names embedded in its header.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: The \hgxcmd{extdiff}{extdiff} command accepts two important options.
jerojasro@336: The \hgxopt{extdiff}{extdiff}{-p} option lets you choose a program to
jerojasro@336: view differences with, instead of \command{diff}.  With the
jerojasro@336: \hgxopt{extdiff}{extdiff}{-o} option, you can change the options that
jerojasro@336: \hgxcmd{extdiff}{extdiff} passes to the program (by default, these
jerojasro@336: options are ``\texttt{-Npru}'', which only make sense if you're
jerojasro@336: running \command{diff}).  In other respects, the
jerojasro@336: \hgxcmd{extdiff}{extdiff} command acts similarly to the built-in
jerojasro@336: \hgcmd{diff} command: you use the same option names, syntax, and
jerojasro@336: arguments to specify the revisions you want, the files you want, and
jerojasro@336: so on.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: As an example, here's how to run the normal system \command{diff}
jerojasro@336: command, getting it to generate context diffs (using the
jerojasro@336: \cmdopt{diff}{-c} option) instead of unified diffs, and five lines of
jerojasro@336: context instead of the default three (passing \texttt{5} as the
jerojasro@336: argument to the \cmdopt{diff}{-C} option).
jerojasro@336: \interaction{extdiff.extdiff-ctx}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Launching a visual diff tool is just as easy.  Here's how to launch
jerojasro@336: the \command{kdiff3} viewer.
jerojasro@336: \begin{codesample2}
jerojasro@336:   hg extdiff -p kdiff3 -o ''
jerojasro@336: \end{codesample2}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: If your diff viewing command can't deal with directories, you can
jerojasro@336: easily work around this with a little scripting.  For an example of
jerojasro@336: such scripting in action with the \hgext{mq} extension and the
jerojasro@336: \command{interdiff} command, see
jerojasro@336: section~\ref{mq-collab:tips:interdiff}.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: \subsection{Defining command aliases}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: It can be cumbersome to remember the options to both the
jerojasro@336: \hgxcmd{extdiff}{extdiff} command and the diff viewer you want to use,
jerojasro@336: so the \hgext{extdiff} extension lets you define \emph{new} commands
jerojasro@336: that will invoke your diff viewer with exactly the right options.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: All you need to do is edit your \hgrc, and add a section named
jerojasro@336: \rcsection{extdiff}.  Inside this section, you can define multiple
jerojasro@336: commands.  Here's how to add a \texttt{kdiff3} command.  Once you've
jerojasro@336: defined this, you can type ``\texttt{hg kdiff3}'' and the
jerojasro@336: \hgext{extdiff} extension will run \command{kdiff3} for you.
jerojasro@336: \begin{codesample2}
jerojasro@336:   [extdiff]
jerojasro@336:   cmd.kdiff3 =
jerojasro@336: \end{codesample2}
jerojasro@336: If you leave the right hand side of the definition empty, as above,
jerojasro@336: the \hgext{extdiff} extension uses the name of the command you defined
jerojasro@336: as the name of the external program to run.  But these names don't
jerojasro@336: have to be the same.  Here, we define a command named ``\texttt{hg
jerojasro@336:   wibble}'', which runs \command{kdiff3}.
jerojasro@336: \begin{codesample2}
jerojasro@336:   [extdiff]
jerojasro@336:   cmd.wibble = kdiff3
jerojasro@336: \end{codesample2}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: You can also specify the default options that you want to invoke your
jerojasro@336: diff viewing program with.  The prefix to use is ``\texttt{opts.}'',
jerojasro@336: followed by the name of the command to which the options apply.  This
jerojasro@336: example defines a ``\texttt{hg vimdiff}'' command that runs the
jerojasro@336: \command{vim} editor's \texttt{DirDiff} extension.
jerojasro@336: \begin{codesample2}
jerojasro@336:   [extdiff]  
jerojasro@336:   cmd.vimdiff = vim
jerojasro@336:   opts.vimdiff = -f '+next' '+execute "DirDiff" argv(0) argv(1)'
jerojasro@336: \end{codesample2}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: \section{Cherrypicking changes with the \hgext{transplant} extension}
jerojasro@336: \label{sec:hgext:transplant}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Need to have a long chat with Brendan about this.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: \section{Send changes via email with the \hgext{patchbomb} extension}
jerojasro@336: \label{sec:hgext:patchbomb}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Many projects have a culture of ``change review'', in which people
jerojasro@336: send their modifications to a mailing list for others to read and
jerojasro@336: comment on before they commit the final version to a shared
jerojasro@336: repository.  Some projects have people who act as gatekeepers; they
jerojasro@336: apply changes from other people to a repository to which those others
jerojasro@336: don't have access.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Mercurial makes it easy to send changes over email for review or
jerojasro@336: application, via its \hgext{patchbomb} extension.  The extension is so
jerojasro@336: namd because changes are formatted as patches, and it's usual to send
jerojasro@336: one changeset per email message.  Sending a long series of changes by
jerojasro@336: email is thus much like ``bombing'' the recipient's inbox, hence
jerojasro@336: ``patchbomb''.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: As usual, the basic configuration of the \hgext{patchbomb} extension
jerojasro@336: takes just one or two lines in your \hgrc.
jerojasro@336: \begin{codesample2}
jerojasro@336:   [extensions]
jerojasro@336:   patchbomb =
jerojasro@336: \end{codesample2}
jerojasro@336: Once you've enabled the extension, you will have a new command
jerojasro@336: available, named \hgxcmd{patchbomb}{email}.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: The safest and best way to invoke the \hgxcmd{patchbomb}{email}
jerojasro@336: command is to \emph{always} run it first with the
jerojasro@336: \hgxopt{patchbomb}{email}{-n} option.  This will show you what the
jerojasro@336: command \emph{would} send, without actually sending anything.  Once
jerojasro@336: you've had a quick glance over the changes and verified that you are
jerojasro@336: sending the right ones, you can rerun the same command, with the
jerojasro@336: \hgxopt{patchbomb}{email}{-n} option removed.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: The \hgxcmd{patchbomb}{email} command accepts the same kind of
jerojasro@336: revision syntax as every other Mercurial command.  For example, this
jerojasro@336: command will send every revision between 7 and \texttt{tip},
jerojasro@336: inclusive.
jerojasro@336: \begin{codesample2}
jerojasro@336:   hg email -n 7:tip
jerojasro@336: \end{codesample2}
jerojasro@336: You can also specify a \emph{repository} to compare with.  If you
jerojasro@336: provide a repository but no revisions, the \hgxcmd{patchbomb}{email}
jerojasro@336: command will send all revisions in the local repository that are not
jerojasro@336: present in the remote repository.  If you additionally specify
jerojasro@336: revisions or a branch name (the latter using the
jerojasro@336: \hgxopt{patchbomb}{email}{-b} option), this will constrain the
jerojasro@336: revisions sent.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: It's perfectly safe to run the \hgxcmd{patchbomb}{email} command
jerojasro@336: without the names of the people you want to send to: if you do this,
jerojasro@336: it will just prompt you for those values interactively.  (If you're
jerojasro@336: using a Linux or Unix-like system, you should have enhanced
jerojasro@336: \texttt{readline}-style editing capabilities when entering those
jerojasro@336: headers, too, which is useful.)
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: When you are sending just one revision, the \hgxcmd{patchbomb}{email}
jerojasro@336: command will by default use the first line of the changeset
jerojasro@336: description as the subject of the single email message it sends.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: If you send multiple revisions, the \hgxcmd{patchbomb}{email} command
jerojasro@336: will usually send one message per changeset.  It will preface the
jerojasro@336: series with an introductory message, in which you should describe the
jerojasro@336: purpose of the series of changes you're sending.
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: \subsection{Changing the behaviour of patchbombs}
jerojasro@336: 
jerojasro@336: Not every project has exactly the same conventions for sending changes
jerojasro@336: in email; the \hgext{patchbomb} extension tries to accommodate a
jerojasro@336: number of variations through command line options.
jerojasro@336: \begin{itemize}
jerojasro@336: \item You can write a subject for the introductory message on the
jerojasro@336:   command line using the \hgxopt{patchbomb}{email}{-s} option.  This
jerojasro@336:   takes one argument, the text of the subject to use.
jerojasro@336: \item To change the email address from which the messages originate,
jerojasro@336:   use the \hgxopt{patchbomb}{email}{-f} option.  This takes one
jerojasro@336:   argument, the email address to use.
jerojasro@336: \item The default behaviour is to send unified diffs (see
jerojasro@336:   section~\ref{sec:mq:patch} for a description of the format), one per
jerojasro@336:   message.  You can send a binary bundle instead with the
jerojasro@336:   \hgxopt{patchbomb}{email}{-b} option.  
jerojasro@336: \item Unified diffs are normally prefaced with a metadata header.  You
jerojasro@336:   can omit this, and send unadorned diffs, with the
jerojasro@336:   \hgxopt{patchbomb}{email}{--plain} option.
jerojasro@336: \item Diffs are normally sent ``inline'', in the same body part as the
jerojasro@336:   description of a patch.  This makes it easiest for the largest
jerojasro@336:   number of readers to quote and respond to parts of a diff, as some
jerojasro@336:   mail clients will only quote the first MIME body part in a message.
jerojasro@336:   If you'd prefer to send the description and the diff in separate
jerojasro@336:   body parts, use the \hgxopt{patchbomb}{email}{-a} option.
jerojasro@336: \item Instead of sending mail messages, you can write them to an
jerojasro@336:   \texttt{mbox}-format mail folder using the
jerojasro@336:   \hgxopt{patchbomb}{email}{-m} option.  That option takes one
jerojasro@336:   argument, the name of the file to write to.
jerojasro@336: \item If you would like to add a \command{diffstat}-format summary to
jerojasro@336:   each patch, and one to the introductory message, use the
jerojasro@336:   \hgxopt{patchbomb}{email}{-d} option.  The \command{diffstat}
jerojasro@336:   command displays a table containing the name of each file patched,
jerojasro@336:   the number of lines affected, and a histogram showing how much each
jerojasro@336:   file is modified.  This gives readers a qualitative glance at how
jerojasro@336:   complex a patch is.
jerojasro@336: \end{itemize}
jerojasro@336: 
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