1 =========================================
2 TopGit -- A different patch queue manager
3 =========================================
9 TopGit aims to make handling of large amounts of interdependent topic
10 branches easier. In fact, it is designed especially for the case where
11 you maintain a queue of third-party patches on top of another (perhaps
12 Git-controlled) project and want to easily organize, maintain and submit
13 them -- TopGit achieves that by keeping a separate topic branch for each
14 patch and providing some tools to maintain the branches.
20 See the file ``INSTALL``.
26 The TopGit git repository can be found at <http://repo.or.cz/topgit/pro>.
32 Why not use something like StGIT or Guilt or ``rebase -i`` for maintaining
33 your patch queue? The advantage of these tools is their simplicity;
34 they work with patch *series* and defer to the reflog facility for
35 version control of patches (reordering of patches is not
36 version-controlled at all). But there are several disadvantages -- for
37 one, these tools (especially StGIT) do not actually fit well with plain
38 Git at all: it is basically impossible to take advantage of the index
39 effectively when using StGIT. But more importantly, these tools
40 horribly fail in the face of a distributed environment.
42 TopGit has been designed around three main tenets:
44 (i) TopGit is as thin a layer on top of Git as possible. You
45 still maintain your index and commit using Git; TopGit will only
46 automate a few indispensable tasks.
48 (ii) TopGit is anxious about *keeping* your history. It will
49 never rewrite your history, and all metadata is also tracked
50 by Git, smoothly and non-obnoxiously. It is good to have a
51 *single* point when the history is cleaned up, and that is at
52 the point of inclusion in the upstream project; locally, you
53 can see how your patch has evolved and easily return to older
56 (iii) TopGit is specifically designed to work in a
57 distributed environment. You can have several instances of
58 TopGit-aware repositories and smoothly keep them all
59 up-to-date and transfer your changes between them.
61 As mentioned above, the main intended use-case for TopGit is tracking
62 third-party patches, where each patch is effectively a single topic
63 branch. In order to flexibly accommodate even complex scenarios when
64 you track many patches where many are independent but some depend on
65 others, TopGit ignores the ancient Quilt heritage of patch series and
66 instead allows the patches to freely form graphs (DAGs just like Git
67 history itself, only "one level higher"). For now, you have to manually
68 specify which patches the current one depends on, but TopGit might help
69 you with that in the future in a darcs-like fashion.
71 A glossary plug: The union (i.e. merge) of patch dependencies is called
72 a *base* of the patch (topic branch).
74 Of course, TopGit is perhaps not the right tool for you:
76 (i) TopGit is not complicated, but StGIT et al. are somewhat
77 simpler, conceptually. If you just want to make a linear
78 purely-local patch queue, deferring to StGIT instead might
81 (ii) When using TopGit, your history can get a little hairy
82 over time, especially with all the merges rippling through.
91 ## Create and evolve a topic branch
92 $ tg create t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
93 tg: Automatically marking dependency on master
94 tg: Creating t/gitweb/pathinfo-action base from master...
100 ## Create another topic branch on top of the former one
101 $ tg create t/gitweb/nifty-links
102 tg: Automatically marking dependency on t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
103 tg: Creating t/gitweb/nifty-links base from t/gitweb/pathinfo-action...
107 ## Create another topic branch on top of master and submit
108 ## the resulting patch upstream
109 $ tg create t/revlist/author-fixed master
110 tg: Creating t/revlist/author-fixed base from master...
114 tg: Sent t/revlist/author-fixed
116 To: git@vger.kernel.org
117 Cc: gitster@pobox.com
118 Subject: [PATCH] Fix broken revlist --author when --fixed-string
120 ## Create another topic branch depending on two others non-trivially
121 $ tg create t/whatever t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
122 tg: Creating t/whatever base from t/revlist/author-fixed...
123 tg: Merging t/whatever base with t/gitweb/nifty-links...
125 tg: Please commit merge resolution and call: tg create
126 tg: It is also safe to abort this operation using `git reset --hard`
127 tg: but please remember you are on the base branch now;
128 tg: you will want to switch to a different branch.
132 tg: Resuming t/whatever setup...
136 ## Update a single topic branch and propagate the changes to
138 $ git checkout t/gitweb/nifty-links
141 $ git checkout t/whatever
143 Topic Branch: t/whatever (1 commit)
144 Subject: [PATCH] Whatever patch
146 Depends: t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
148 t/gitweb/nifty-links (1 commit)
150 tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/nifty-links changes...
152 tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update` again.
153 tg: It is also safe to abort this operation using `git reset --hard`,
154 tg: but please remember you are on the base branch now;
155 tg: you will want to switch to a different branch.
159 tg: Updating t/whatever against new base...
161 tg: Please resolve the merge and commit. No need to do anything else.
162 tg: You can abort this operation using `git reset --hard` now
163 tg: and retry this merge later using `tg update`.
167 ## Update a single topic branch and propagate the changes
168 ## further through the dependency chain
169 $ git checkout t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
172 $ git checkout t/whatever
174 Topic Branch: t/whatever (1/2 commits)
175 Subject: [PATCH] Whatever patch
177 Depends: t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
179 t/gitweb/pathinfo-action (<= t/gitweb/nifty-links) (1 commit)
181 tg: Recursing to t/gitweb/nifty-links...
182 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/pathinfo-action changes...
184 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update` again.
185 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: It is also safe to abort this operation using `git reset --hard`,
186 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: but please remember you are on the base branch now;
187 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: you will want to switch to a different branch.
188 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: You are in a subshell. If you abort the merge,
189 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: use `exit` to abort the recursive update altogether.
190 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] $ ..resolve..
191 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] $ git commit
192 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] $ tg update
193 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Updating t/gitweb/nifty-links against new base...
195 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Please resolve the merge and commit.
196 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: You can abort this operation using `git reset --hard`.
197 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: You are in a subshell. After you either commit or abort
198 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: your merge, use `exit` to proceed with the recursive update.
199 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] $ ..resolve..
200 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] $ git commit
201 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] $ exit
202 tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/nifty-links changes...
203 tg: Updating t/whatever against new base...
205 ## Clone a TopGit-controlled repository
208 $ tg remote --populate origin
213 ## Add a TopGit remote to a repository and push to it
214 $ git remote add foo URL
218 ## Update from a non-default TopGit remote
226 ``tg [-C <dir>] [-r <remote> | -u] <subcommand> [<subcommand option/argument>...]``
228 -C <dir> Change directory to <dir> before doing anything
229 -r <remote> Pretend ``topgit.remote`` is set to <remote>
230 -u Pretend ``topgit.remote`` is not set
232 The ``tg`` tool has several subcommands:
236 Our sophisticated integrated help facility. Mostly duplicates
241 # to get help for a particular command:
243 # to get help for a particular command in a browser window:
244 $ tg help -w <command>
245 # to get help on TopGit itself
247 # to get help on TopGit itself in a browser
252 Create a new TopGit-controlled topic branch of the given name
253 (required argument) and switch to it. If no dependencies are
254 specified (by extra arguments passed after the first one), the
255 current branch is assumed to be the only dependency.
257 After ``tg create``, you should insert the patch description into
258 the ``.topmsg`` file, which will already contain some prefilled
259 bits. You can set the ``topgit.to``, ``topgit.cc`` and ``topgit.bcc``
260 git configuration variables (see ``man git-config``) in order to
261 have ``tg create`` add these headers with the given default values
264 The main task of ``tg create`` is to set up the topic branch base
265 from the dependencies. This may fail due to merge conflicts.
266 In that case, after you commit the conflict resolution, you
267 should call ``tg create`` again (without any arguments); it will
268 detect that you are on a topic branch base ref and resume the
269 topic branch creation operation.
271 In an alternative use case, if ``-r <branch>`` is given instead of a
272 dependency list, the topic branch is created based on the given
273 remote branch. With just ``-r`` the remote branch name is assumed
274 to be the same as the local topic branch being created.
278 Remove a TopGit-controlled topic branch of the given name
279 (required argument). Normally, this command will remove only an
280 empty branch (base == head) without dependendents; use ``-f`` to
281 remove a non-empty branch or a branch that is depended upon by
284 The ``-f`` option is also useful to force removal of a branch's
285 base, if you used ``git branch -D B`` to remove branch B, and then
286 certain TopGit commands complain, because the base of branch B
289 IMPORTANT: Currently, this command will *NOT* remove the branch
290 from the dependency list in other branches. You need to take
291 care of this *manually*. This is even more complicated in
292 combination with ``-f`` -- in that case, you need to manually
293 unmerge the removed branch's changes from the branches depending
296 See also ``tg annihilate``.
298 | TODO: ``-a`` to delete all empty branches, depfix, revert
302 Make a commit on the current TopGit-controlled topic branch
303 that makes it equal to its base, including the presence or
304 absence of .topmsg and .topdeps. Annihilated branches are not
305 displayed by ``tg summary``, so they effectively get out of your
306 way. However, the branch still exists, and ``tg push`` will
307 push it (except if given the ``-a`` option). This way, you can
308 communicate that the branch is no longer wanted.
310 When annihilating a branch that has dependents (i.e. branches
311 that depend on it), those dependents have the dependencies of
312 the branch being annihilated added to them if they do not already
313 have them as dependencies. Essentially the DAG is repaired to
314 skip over the annihilated branch.
316 Normally, this command will remove only an empty branch
317 (base == head, except for changes to the .top* files); use
318 ``-f`` to annihilate a non-empty branch.
322 Change the dependencies of a TopGit-controlled topic branch.
323 This should have several subcommands, but only ``add`` is
326 The ``add`` subcommand takes an argument naming a topic branch to
327 be added, adds it to ``.topdeps``, performs a commit and then
328 updates your topic branch accordingly. If you want to do other
329 things related to the dependency addition, like adjusting
330 ``.topmsg``, prepare them in the index before calling ``tg depend
333 | TODO: Subcommand for removing dependencies, obviously
337 List files changed by the current or specified topic branch.
340 -i list files based on index instead of branch
341 -w list files based on working tree instead of branch
345 Show summary information about the current or specified topic
348 Numbers in parenthesis after a branch name such as "(11/3 commits)"
349 indicate how many commits on the branch (11) and how many of those
350 are non-merge commits (3).
354 Generate a patch from the current or specified topic branch.
355 This means that the diff between the topic branch base and head
356 (latest commit) is shown, appended to the description found in
357 the ``.topmsg`` file.
359 The patch is simply dumped to stdout. In the future, ``tg patch``
360 will be able to automatically send the patches by mail or save
361 them to files. (TODO)
364 -i base patch generation on index instead of branch
365 -w base patch generation on working tree instead of branch
366 --binary pass --binary to ``git diff-tree`` to enable binary patches
370 Send a patch from the current or specified topic branch as
373 Takes the patch given on the command line and emails it out.
374 Destination addresses such as To, Cc and Bcc are taken from the
377 Since it actually boils down to ``git send-email``, please refer
378 to the documentation for that for details on how to setup email
379 for git. You can pass arbitrary options to this command through
380 the ``-s`` parameter, but you must double-quote everything. The
381 ``-r`` parameter with a msgid can be used to generate in-reply-to
382 and reference headers to an earlier mail.
384 WARNING: be careful when using this command. It easily sends
385 out several mails. You might want to run::
387 git config sendemail.confirm always
389 to let ``git send-email`` ask for confirmation before sending any
393 -i base patch generation on index instead of branch
394 -w base patch generation on working tree instead of branch
396 | TODO: ``tg mail patchfile`` to mail an already exported patch
397 | TODO: mailing patch series
398 | TODO: specifying additional options and addresses on command line
402 Register the given remote as TopGit-controlled. This will create
403 the namespace for the remote branch bases and teach ``git fetch``
404 to operate on them. However, from TopGit 0.8 onwards you need to
405 use ``tg push``, or ``git push --mirror``, for pushing
406 TopGit-controlled branches.
408 ``tg remote`` takes an optional remote name argument, and an
409 optional ``--populate`` switch. Use ``--populate`` for your
410 origin-style remotes: it will seed the local topic branch system
411 based on the remote topic branches. ``--populate`` will also make
412 ``tg remote`` automatically fetch the remote, and ``tg update`` look
413 at branches of this remote for updates by default.
415 Using ``--populate`` with a remote name causes the ``topgit.remote``
416 git configuration variable to be set to the given remote name.
420 Show overview of all TopGit-tracked topic branches and their
421 up-to-date status. With a branch name limit output to that branch.
422 Using ``--rdeps`` changes the default from all branches to just the
423 current ``HEAD`` branch but using ``--all`` as the branch name will
424 show ``--rdeps`` for all branches.
427 marks the current topic branch
430 indicates that it introduces no changes of its own
433 indicates respectively whether it is local-only
437 indicates respectively if it is ahead or out-of-date
438 with respect to its remote mate
441 indicates that it is out-of-date with respect to its
445 indicates that it has missing dependencies [even if
446 they are recursive ones]
449 indicates that it is out-of-date with respect to
452 This can take a long time to accurately determine all the
453 relevant information about each branch; you can pass ``-t`` to get
454 just a terse list of topic branch names quickly. Alternately,
455 you can pass ``--graphviz`` to get a dot-suitable output to draw a
456 dependency graph between the topic branches.
458 You can also use the ``--sort`` option to sort the branches using
459 a topological sort. This is especially useful if each
460 TopGit-tracked topic branch depends on a single parent branch,
461 since it will then print the branches in the dependency order.
462 In more complex scenarios, a text graph view would be much more
463 useful, but that has not yet been implemented.
465 The --deps option outputs dependency information between
466 branches in a machine-readable format. Feed this to ``tsort`` to
467 get the output from --sort.
469 The --rdeps option outputs dependency information in an indented
470 text format that clearly shows all the dependencies and their
471 relationships to one another. When --rdeps is given the default is
472 to just display information for HEAD, but that can be changed by using
473 --all as the branch name.
475 With --exclude branch, branch can be excluded from the output meaning
476 it will be skipped and its name will be omitted from any dependency
477 output. The --exclude option may be repeated to omit more than one
478 branch from the output. Limiting the output to a single branch that
479 has been excluded will result in no output at all.
481 Note that the branch name can be specified as ``HEAD`` as a shortcut for
482 the TopGit-controlled branch that ``HEAD`` is a symbolic ref to.
485 -i Use TopGit metadata from the index instead of the branch
486 -w Use TopGit metadata from the working tree instead of the branch
491 Switch to a topic branch. You can use ``git checkout <branch>``
492 to get the same effect, but this command helps you navigate
493 the dependency graph, or allows you to match the topic branch
494 name using a regular expression, so it can be more convenient.
496 There following subcommands are available:
499 Check out a branch that directly
500 depends on your current branch.
503 Check out a branch that this branch
506 ``tg checkout goto <pattern>``
507 Check out a topic branch that
508 matches ``<pattern>``. ``<pattern>``
509 is used as a sed pattern to filter
510 all the topic branches.
513 An alias for ``push``.
515 ``tg checkout child``
516 An alias for ``push``.
519 An alias for ``push``.
522 An alias for ``pop``.
524 ``tg checkout parent``
525 An alias for ``pop``.
528 An alias for ``pop``.
530 If any of the above commands can find more than one possible
531 branch to switch to, you will be presented with the matches
532 and ask to select one of them.
534 The ``<pattern>`` of ``tg checkout goto`` is optional. If you don't
535 supply it, all the available topic branches are listed and you
536 can select one of them.
538 Normally, the ``push`` and ``pop`` commands moves one step in
539 the dependency graph of the topic branches. The ``-a`` option
540 causes them (and their aliases) to move as far as possible.
541 That is, ``tg checkout push -a`` moves to a topic branch that
542 depends (directly or indirectly) on the current branch and
543 that no other branch depends on. ``tg checkout pop -a``
544 moves to a regular branch that the current topic branch
545 depends on (directly or indirectly). If there is more than
546 one possibility, you will be prompted for your selection.
550 Export a tidied-up history of the current topic branch and its
551 dependencies, suitable for feeding upstream. Each topic branch
552 corresponds to a single commit or patch in the cleaned up
553 history (corresponding basically exactly to ``tg patch`` output
554 for the topic branch).
556 The command has three possible outputs now -- either a Git branch
557 with the collapsed history, a Git branch with a linearized
558 history, or a quilt series in new directory.
560 In the case where you are producing collapsed history in a new
561 branch, you can use this collapsed structure either for
562 providing a pull source for upstream, or for further
563 linearization e.g. for creation of a quilt series using git log::
565 git log --pretty=email -p --topo-order origin..exported
567 To better understand the function of ``tg export``, consider this
568 dependency structure::
570 origin/master - t/foo/blue - t/foo/red - master
571 `- t/bar/good <,----------'
572 `- t/baz ------------'
574 (where each of the branches may have a hefty history). Then::
576 master$ tg export for-linus
578 will create this commit structure on the branch ``for-linus``::
580 origin/master - t/foo/blue -. merge - t/foo/red -.. merge - master
581 `- t/bar/good <,-------------------'/
582 `- t/baz ---------------------'
584 In this mode, ``tg export`` works on the current topic branch, and
585 can be called either without an option (in that case,
586 ``--collapse`` is assumed), or with the ``--collapse`` option, and
587 with one mandatory argument: the name of the branch where the
588 exported result will be stored.
590 When using the linearize mode::
592 master$ tg export --linearize for-linus
594 you get a linear history respecting the dependencies of your
595 patches in a new branch ``for-linus``. The result should be more
596 or less the same as using quilt mode and then reimporting it
597 into a Git branch. (More or less because the topological order
598 can usually be extended in more than one way into a total order,
599 and the two methods may choose different ones.) The result
600 might be more appropriate for merging upstream, as it contains
603 Note that you might get conflicts during linearization because
604 the patches are reordered to get a linear history. If linearization
605 would produce conflicts then using ``--quilt`` will also likely result
606 in conflicts when the exported quilt series is applied. Since the
607 ``--quilt`` mode simply runs a series of ``tg patch`` commands to
608 generate the patches in the exported quilt series and those patches
609 will end up being applied linearly, the same conflicts that would be
610 produced by the ``--linearize`` option will then occur at that time.
612 To avoid conflicts produced by ``--linearize`` (or by applying the
613 ``--quilt`` output), use the default ``--collapse`` mode and then use
614 ``git rebase -m`` on the collapsed branch (with a suitable <upstream>)
615 followed by ``git format-patch`` on the rebased result to produce a
616 conflict-free patch set.
618 When using the quilt mode::
620 master$ tg export --quilt for-linus
622 would create the following directory ``for-linus``::
624 for-linus/t/foo/blue.diff
625 for-linus/t/foo/red.diff
626 for-linus/t/bar/good.diff
634 With ``--quilt``, you can also pass the ``-b`` parameter followed
635 by a comma-separated explicit list of branches to export, or
636 the ``--all`` parameter (which can be shortened to ``-a``) to
637 export them all. The ``--binary`` option enables producing Git
638 binary patches. These options are currently only supported
641 In ``--quilt`` mode the patches are named like the originating
642 topgit branch. So usually they end up in subdirectories of the
643 output directory. With the ``--flatten`` option the names are
644 mangled so that they end up directly in the output dir (slashes
645 are substituted by underscores). With the ``--strip[=N]`` option
646 the first ``N`` subdirectories (all if no ``N`` is given) get
647 stripped off. Names are always ``--strip``'d before being
648 ``--flatten``'d. With the option ``--numbered`` (which implies
649 ``--flatten``) the patch names get a number as prefix to allow
650 getting the order without consulting the series file, which
651 eases sending out the patches.
653 | TODO: Make stripping of non-essential headers configurable
654 | TODO: Make stripping of [PATCH] and other prefixes configurable
655 | TODO: ``--mbox`` option to export instead as an mbox file
656 | TODO: support ``--all`` option in other modes of operation
657 | TODO: For quilt exporting, export the linearized history created in
658 a temporary branch--this would allow producing conflict-less
663 Import commits within the given revision range into TopGit,
664 creating one topic branch per commit. The dependencies are set
665 up to form a linear sequence starting on your current branch --
666 or a branch specified by the ``-d`` parameter, if present.
668 The branch names are auto-guessed from the commit messages and
669 prefixed by ``t/`` by default; use ``-p <prefix>`` to specify an
670 alternative prefix (even an empty one).
672 Alternatively, you can use the ``-s NAME`` parameter to specify
673 the name of the target branch; the command will then take one
674 more argument describing a *single* commit to import.
678 Update the current, specified or all topic branches with respect
679 to changes in the branches they depend on and remote branches.
680 This is performed in two phases -- first, changes within the
681 dependencies are merged to the base, then the base is merged
682 into the topic branch. The output will guide you on what to do
683 next in case of conflicts.
685 When ``-a`` is specifed, updates all topic branches matched by
686 ``<pattern>``'s (see ``git-for-each-ref(1)`` for details), or all
687 if no ``<pattern>`` is given. Any topic branches with missing
688 dependencies will be skipped entirely unless ``--skip`` is specified.
690 When ``--skip`` is specifed, an attempt is made to update topic
691 branches with missing dependencies by skipping only the dependencies
692 that are missing. Caveat utilitor
694 After the update, if a single topic branch was specified, it is
695 left as the current one; if ``-a`` was specified, it returns to
696 the branch which was current at the beginning.
698 If your dependencies are not up-to-date, ``tg update`` will first
699 recurse into them and update them.
701 If a remote branch update brings in dependencies on branches
702 that are not yet instantiated locally, you can either bring in
703 all the new branches from the remote using ``tg remote
704 --populate``, or only pick out the missing ones using ``tg create
705 -r`` (``tg summary`` will point out branches with incomplete
706 dependencies by showing an ``!`` next to them).
708 | TODO: ``tg update -a -c`` to autoremove (clean) up-to-date branches
712 If ``-a`` or ``--all`` was specified, pushes all non-annihilated
713 TopGit-controlled topic branches, to a remote repository.
714 Otherwise, pushes the specified topic branches -- or the
715 current branch, if you don't specify which. By default, the
716 remote gets all the dependencies (both TopGit-controlled and
717 non-TopGit-controlled) and bases pushed to it too. If
718 ``--tgish-only`` was specified, only TopGit-controlled
719 dependencies will be pushed, and if ``--no-deps`` was specified,
720 no dependencies at all will be pushed.
722 The ``--dry-run`` and ``--force`` options are passed directly to
723 ``git push`` if given.
725 The remote may be specified with the ``-r`` option. If no remote
726 was specified, the configured default TopGit remote will be
731 Prints the base commit of each of the named topic branches, or
732 the current branch if no branches are named. Prints an error
733 message and exits with exit code 1 if the named branch is not
738 Prints the git log of the named topgit branch -- or the current
739 branch, if you don't specify a name.
741 NOTE: if you have merged changes from a different repository, this
742 command might not list all interesting commits.
746 Outputs the direct dependencies for the current or named branch.
749 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
750 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
754 Outputs all branches which directly depend on the current or
758 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
759 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
767 TopGit stores all the topic branches in the regular ``refs/heads/``
768 namespace (so we recommend distinguishing them with the ``t/`` prefix).
769 Apart from that, TopGit also maintains a set of auxiliary refs in
770 ``refs/top-*``. Currently, only ``refs/top-bases/`` is used, containing the
771 current *base* of the given topic branch -- this is basically a merge of
772 all the branches the topic branch depends on; it is updated during ``tg
773 update`` and then merged to the topic branch, and it is the base of a
774 patch generated from the topic branch by ``tg patch``.
776 All the metadata is tracked within the source tree and history of the
777 topic branch itself, in ``.top*`` files; these files are kept isolated
778 within the topic branches during TopGit-controlled merges and are of
779 course omitted during ``tg patch``. The state of these files in base
780 commits is undefined; look at them only in the topic branches
781 themselves. Currently, two files are defined:
784 Contains the description of the topic branch in a
785 mail-like format, plus the author information, whatever
786 Cc headers you choose or the post-three-dashes message.
787 When mailing out your patch, basically only a few extra
788 mail headers are inserted and then the patch itself is
789 appended. Thus, as your patches evolve, you can record
790 nuances like whether the particular patch should have
791 To-list / Cc-maintainer or vice-versa and similar
792 nuances, if your project is into that. ``From`` is
793 prefilled from your current ``GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT``; other
794 headers can be prefilled from various optional
795 ``topgit.*`` git config options.
798 Contains the one-per-line list of branches this branch
799 depends on, pre-seeded by `tg create`. A (continuously
800 updated) merge of these branches will be the *base* of
803 IMPORTANT: DO NOT EDIT ``.topdeps`` MANUALLY!!! If you do so, you need to
804 know exactly what are you doing, since this file must stay in sync with
805 the Git history information, otherwise very bad things will happen.
807 TopGit also automagically installs a bunch of custom commit-related
808 hooks that will verify whether you are committing the ``.top*`` files in a
809 sane state. It will add the hooks to separate files within the ``hooks/``
810 subdirectory, and merely insert calls to them to the appropriate hooks
811 and make them executable (but will make sure the original hook's code is
812 not called if the hook was not executable beforehand).
814 Another automagically installed piece is a ``.git/info/attributes``
815 specifier for an ``ours`` merge strategy for the files ``.topmsg`` and
816 ``.topdeps``, and the (intuitive) ``ours`` merge strategy definition in
823 There are two remaining issues with accessing topic branches in remote
826 (i) Referring to remote topic branches from your local repository
827 (ii) Developing some of the remote topic branches locally
829 There are two somewhat contradictory design considerations here:
831 (a) Hacking on multiple independent TopGit remotes in a single
833 (b) Having a self-contained topic system in local refs space
835 To us, (a) does not appear to be very convincing, while (b) is quite
836 desirable for ``git-log topic`` etc. working, and increased conceptual
839 Thus, we choose to instantiate all the topic branches of given remote
840 locally; this is performed by ``tg remote --populate``. ``tg update``
841 will also check if a branch can be updated from its corresponding remote
842 branch. The logic needs to be somewhat involved if we are to "do the
843 right thing". First, we update the base, handling the remote branch as
844 if it was the first dependency; thus, conflict resolutions made in the
845 remote branch will be carried over to our local base automagically.
846 Then, the base is merged into the remote branch and the result is merged
847 to the local branch -- again, to carry over remote conflict resolutions.
848 In the future, this order might be adjustable on a per-update basis, in
849 case local changes happen to be diverging more than the remote ones.
851 All commands by default refer to the remote that ``tg remote --populate``
852 was called on the last time (stored in the ``topgit.remote`` git
853 configuration variable). You can manually run any command with a
854 different base remote by passing ``-r REMOTE`` *before* the subcommand
861 The following references are useful to understand the development of
862 topgit and its subcommands.
865 http://lists-archives.org/git/688698-add-list-and-rm-sub-commands-to-tg-depend.html
871 The following software understands TopGit branches:
873 * `magit <http://magit.github.io/>`_ -- a git mode for emacs
875 IMPORTANT: Magit requires its topgit mode to be enabled first, as
876 described in its documentation, in the "Activating extensions"
877 subsection. If this is not done, it will not push TopGit branches
878 correctly, so it's important to enable it even if you plan to mostly use
879 TopGit from the command line.