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] [-c <name>=<val>] <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
231 -c <name=val> Pass config option to git, may be repeated
233 The ``tg`` tool has several subcommands:
237 Our sophisticated integrated help facility. Mostly duplicates
242 # to get help for a particular command:
244 # to get help for a particular command in a browser window:
245 $ tg help -w <command>
246 # to get help on TopGit itself
248 # to get help on TopGit itself in a browser
253 Create a new TopGit-controlled topic branch of the given name
254 (required argument) and switch to it. If no dependencies are
255 specified (by extra arguments passed after the first one), the
256 current branch is assumed to be the only dependency.
258 By default ``tg create`` opens an editor on the new ``.topmsg`` file
259 and then commits the new ``.topmsg`` and ``.topdeps`` files
260 automatically with a suitable default commit message. The commit
261 message can be changed with the ``-m`` (or ``--message``) or ``-F``
262 (or ``--file``) option. The automatic commit can be suppressed by
263 using the ``--no-ccmmit`` option. Running the editor on the new
264 ``.topmsg`` file can be suppressed by using ``-n`` (or ``--no-edit``)
265 which also suppresses the automatic commit. If more than one
266 dependency is listed, the automatic commit will not take place until
267 AFTER all the listed dependencies have been merged into a base commit
268 which may require some manual merge resolutions if there are conflicts.
270 Previous versions of TopGit behaved as though the ``--no-edit`` option
271 was always given on the command line.
273 The default behavior has been changed to promote a separation between
274 commits that modify ``.topmsg`` and/or ``.topdeps`` and commits that
275 modify other files. This facilitates cleaner cherry picking and other
276 patch maintenance activities.
278 You should edit the patch description (contained in the ``.topmsg``
279 file) as appropriate. It will already contain some prefilled bits.
280 You can set the ``topgit.to``, ``topgit.cc`` and ``topgit.bcc``
281 git configuration variables (see ``man git-config``) in order to
282 have ``tg create`` add these headers with the given default values
283 to ``.topmsg`` before invoking the editor.
285 The main task of ``tg create`` is to set up the topic branch base
286 from the dependencies. This may fail due to merge conflicts.
287 In that case, after you commit the conflict resolution, you
288 should call ``tg create`` again (without any arguments or with the
289 single argument ``--continue``); it will then detect that you are on a
290 topic branch base ref and resume the topic branch creation operation.
292 In an alternative use case, if ``-r <branch>`` is given instead of a
293 dependency list, the topic branch is created based on the given
294 remote branch. With just ``-r`` the remote branch name is assumed
295 to be the same as the local topic branch being created. Since no
296 new commits are created in this mode (only two refs will be updated)
297 the editor will never be run for this use case.
301 Remove a TopGit-controlled topic branch of the given name
302 (required argument). Normally, this command will remove only an
303 empty branch (base == head) without dependendents; use ``-f`` to
304 remove a non-empty branch or a branch that is depended upon by
307 The ``-f`` option is also useful to force removal of a branch's
308 base, if you used ``git branch -D B`` to remove branch B, and then
309 certain TopGit commands complain, because the base of branch B
312 IMPORTANT: Currently, this command will *NOT* remove the branch
313 from the dependency list in other branches. You need to take
314 care of this *manually*. This is even more complicated in
315 combination with ``-f`` -- in that case, you need to manually
316 unmerge the removed branch's changes from the branches depending
319 See also ``tg annihilate``.
321 | TODO: ``-a`` to delete all empty branches, depfix, revert
325 Make a commit on the current TopGit-controlled topic branch
326 that makes it equal to its base, including the presence or
327 absence of .topmsg and .topdeps. Annihilated branches are not
328 displayed by ``tg summary``, so they effectively get out of your
329 way. However, the branch still exists, and ``tg push`` will
330 push it (except if given the ``-a`` option). This way, you can
331 communicate that the branch is no longer wanted.
333 When annihilating a branch that has dependents (i.e. branches
334 that depend on it), those dependents have the dependencies of
335 the branch being annihilated added to them if they do not already
336 have them as dependencies. Essentially the DAG is repaired to
337 skip over the annihilated branch.
339 Normally, this command will remove only an empty branch
340 (base == head, except for changes to the .top* files); use
341 ``-f`` to annihilate a non-empty branch.
345 Change the dependencies of a TopGit-controlled topic branch.
346 This should have several subcommands, but only ``add`` is
349 The ``add`` subcommand takes an argument naming a topic branch to
350 be added, adds it to ``.topdeps``, performs a commit and then
351 updates your topic branch accordingly. If you want to do other
352 things related to the dependency addition, like adjusting
353 ``.topmsg``, prepare them in the index before calling ``tg depend
356 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
358 | TODO: Subcommand for removing dependencies, obviously
362 List files changed by the current or specified topic branch.
365 -i list files based on index instead of branch
366 -w list files based on working tree instead of branch
370 Show summary information about the current or specified topic
373 Numbers in parenthesis after a branch name such as "(11/3 commits)"
374 indicate how many commits on the branch (11) and how many of those
375 are non-merge commits (3).
379 Generate a patch from the current or specified topic branch.
380 This means that the diff between the topic branch base and head
381 (latest commit) is shown, appended to the description found in
382 the ``.topmsg`` file.
384 The patch is simply dumped to stdout. In the future, ``tg patch``
385 will be able to automatically send the patches by mail or save
386 them to files. (TODO)
389 -i base patch generation on index instead of branch
390 -w base patch generation on working tree instead of branch
391 --binary pass --binary to ``git diff-tree`` to enable generation
393 --diff-opt options after the branch name (and an optional ``--``)
394 are passed directly to ``git diff-tree``
396 In order to pass a sole explicit ``-w`` through to ``git diff-tree`` it
397 must be separated from the ``tg`` options by an explicit ``--``.
398 Or it can be spelled as ``--ignore-all-space`` to distinguuish it from
399 ``tg``'s ``-w`` option.
401 If additional non-``tg`` options are passed through to
402 ``git diff-tree`` (other than ``--binary`` which is fully supported)
403 the resulting ``tg patch`` output may not be appliable.
407 Send a patch from the current or specified topic branch as
410 Takes the patch given on the command line and emails it out.
411 Destination addresses such as To, Cc and Bcc are taken from the
414 Since it actually boils down to ``git send-email``, please refer
415 to the documentation for that for details on how to setup email
416 for git. You can pass arbitrary options to this command through
417 the ``-s`` parameter, but you must double-quote everything. The
418 ``-r`` parameter with a msgid can be used to generate in-reply-to
419 and reference headers to an earlier mail.
421 WARNING: be careful when using this command. It easily sends
422 out several mails. You might want to run::
424 git config sendemail.confirm always
426 to let ``git send-email`` ask for confirmation before sending any
430 -i base patch generation on index instead of branch
431 -w base patch generation on working tree instead of branch
433 | TODO: ``tg mail patchfile`` to mail an already exported patch
434 | TODO: mailing patch series
435 | TODO: specifying additional options and addresses on command line
439 Register the given remote as TopGit-controlled. This will create
440 the namespace for the remote branch bases and teach ``git fetch``
441 to operate on them. However, from TopGit 0.8 onwards you need to
442 use ``tg push``, or ``git push --mirror``, for pushing
443 TopGit-controlled branches.
445 ``tg remote`` takes an optional remote name argument, and an
446 optional ``--populate`` switch. Use ``--populate`` for your
447 origin-style remotes: it will seed the local topic branch system
448 based on the remote topic branches. ``--populate`` will also make
449 ``tg remote`` automatically fetch the remote, and ``tg update`` look
450 at branches of this remote for updates by default.
452 Using ``--populate`` with a remote name causes the ``topgit.remote``
453 git configuration variable to be set to the given remote name.
457 Show overview of all TopGit-tracked topic branches and their
458 up-to-date status. With a branch name limit output to that branch.
459 Using ``--rdeps`` changes the default from all branches to just the
460 current ``HEAD`` branch but using ``--all`` as the branch name will
461 show ``--rdeps`` for all branches.
464 marks the current topic branch
467 indicates that it introduces no changes of its own
470 indicates respectively whether it is local-only
474 indicates respectively if it is ahead or out-of-date
475 with respect to its remote mate
478 indicates that it is out-of-date with respect to its
482 indicates that it has missing dependencies [even if
483 they are recursive ones]
486 indicates that it is out-of-date with respect to
489 This can take a long time to accurately determine all the
490 relevant information about each branch; you can pass ``-t`` to get
491 just a terse list of topic branch names quickly. Alternately,
492 you can pass ``--graphviz`` to get a dot-suitable output to draw a
493 dependency graph between the topic branches.
495 You can also use the ``--sort`` option to sort the branches using
496 a topological sort. This is especially useful if each
497 TopGit-tracked topic branch depends on a single parent branch,
498 since it will then print the branches in the dependency order.
499 In more complex scenarios, a text graph view would be much more
500 useful, but that has not yet been implemented.
502 The --deps option outputs dependency information between
503 branches in a machine-readable format. Feed this to ``tsort`` to
504 get the output from --sort.
506 The --rdeps option outputs dependency information in an indented
507 text format that clearly shows all the dependencies and their
508 relationships to one another. When --rdeps is given the default is
509 to just display information for HEAD, but that can be changed by using
510 --all as the branch name.
512 With --exclude branch, branch can be excluded from the output meaning
513 it will be skipped and its name will be omitted from any dependency
514 output. The --exclude option may be repeated to omit more than one
515 branch from the output. Limiting the output to a single branch that
516 has been excluded will result in no output at all.
518 Note that the branch name can be specified as ``HEAD`` as a shortcut for
519 the TopGit-controlled branch that ``HEAD`` is a symbolic ref to.
522 -i Use TopGit metadata from the index instead of the branch
523 -w Use TopGit metadata from the working tree instead of the branch
528 Switch to a topic branch. You can use ``git checkout <branch>``
529 to get the same effect, but this command helps you navigate
530 the dependency graph, or allows you to match the topic branch
531 name using a regular expression, so it can be more convenient.
533 There following subcommands are available:
536 Check out a branch that directly
537 depends on your current branch.
540 Check out a branch that this branch
543 ``tg checkout goto <pattern>``
544 Check out a topic branch that
545 matches ``<pattern>``. ``<pattern>``
546 is used as a sed pattern to filter
547 all the topic branches.
550 An alias for ``push``.
552 ``tg checkout child``
553 An alias for ``push``.
556 An alias for ``push``.
559 An alias for ``pop``.
561 ``tg checkout parent``
562 An alias for ``pop``.
565 An alias for ``pop``.
567 If any of the above commands can find more than one possible
568 branch to switch to, you will be presented with the matches
569 and asked to select one of them.
571 The ``<pattern>`` of ``tg checkout goto`` is optional. If you don't
572 supply it, all the available topic branches are listed and you
573 can select one of them.
575 Normally, the ``push`` and ``pop`` commands moves one step in
576 the dependency graph of the topic branches. The ``-a`` option
577 causes them (and their aliases) to move as far as possible.
578 That is, ``tg checkout push -a`` moves to a topic branch that
579 depends (directly or indirectly) on the current branch and
580 that no other branch depends on. ``tg checkout pop -a``
581 moves to a regular branch that the current topic branch
582 depends on (directly or indirectly). If there is more than
583 one possibility, you will be prompted for your selection.
587 Export a tidied-up history of the current topic branch and its
588 dependencies, suitable for feeding upstream. Each topic branch
589 corresponds to a single commit or patch in the cleaned up
590 history (corresponding basically exactly to ``tg patch`` output
591 for the topic branch).
593 The command has three possible outputs now -- either a Git branch
594 with the collapsed history, a Git branch with a linearized
595 history, or a quilt series in new directory.
597 In the case where you are producing collapsed history in a new
598 branch, you can use this collapsed structure either for
599 providing a pull source for upstream, or for further
600 linearization e.g. for creation of a quilt series using git log::
602 git log --pretty=email -p --topo-order origin..exported
604 To better understand the function of ``tg export``, consider this
605 dependency structure::
607 origin/master - t/foo/blue - t/foo/red - master
608 `- t/bar/good <,----------'
609 `- t/baz ------------'
611 (where each of the branches may have a hefty history). Then::
613 master$ tg export for-linus
615 will create this commit structure on the branch ``for-linus``::
617 origin/master - t/foo/blue -. merge - t/foo/red -.. merge - master
618 `- t/bar/good <,-------------------'/
619 `- t/baz ---------------------'
621 In this mode, ``tg export`` works on the current topic branch, and
622 can be called either without an option (in that case,
623 ``--collapse`` is assumed), or with the ``--collapse`` option, and
624 with one mandatory argument: the name of the branch where the
625 exported result will be stored.
627 When using the linearize mode::
629 master$ tg export --linearize for-linus
631 you get a linear history respecting the dependencies of your
632 patches in a new branch ``for-linus``. The result should be more
633 or less the same as using quilt mode and then reimporting it
634 into a Git branch. (More or less because the topological order
635 can usually be extended in more than one way into a total order,
636 and the two methods may choose different ones.) The result
637 might be more appropriate for merging upstream, as it contains
640 Note that you might get conflicts during linearization because
641 the patches are reordered to get a linear history. If linearization
642 would produce conflicts then using ``--quilt`` will also likely result
643 in conflicts when the exported quilt series is applied. Since the
644 ``--quilt`` mode simply runs a series of ``tg patch`` commands to
645 generate the patches in the exported quilt series and those patches
646 will end up being applied linearly, the same conflicts that would be
647 produced by the ``--linearize`` option will then occur at that time.
649 To avoid conflicts produced by ``--linearize`` (or by applying the
650 ``--quilt`` output), use the default ``--collapse`` mode and then use
651 ``tg rebase`` (or ``git rebase -m`` directly) on the collapsed branch
652 (with a suitable <upstream>) followed by ``git format-patch`` on the
653 rebased result to produce a conflict-free patch set.
655 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
657 When using the quilt mode::
659 master$ tg export --quilt for-linus
661 would create the following directory ``for-linus``::
663 for-linus/t/foo/blue.diff
664 for-linus/t/foo/red.diff
665 for-linus/t/bar/good.diff
673 With ``--quilt``, you can also pass the ``-b`` parameter followed
674 by a comma-separated explicit list of branches to export, or
675 the ``--all`` parameter (which can be shortened to ``-a``) to
676 export them all. The ``--binary`` option enables producing Git
677 binary patches. These options are currently only supported
680 In ``--quilt`` mode the patches are named like the originating
681 topgit branch. So usually they end up in subdirectories of the
682 output directory. With the ``--flatten`` option the names are
683 mangled so that they end up directly in the output dir (slashes
684 are replaced with underscores). With the ``--strip[=N]`` option
685 the first ``N`` subdirectories (all if no ``N`` is given) get
686 stripped off. Names are always ``--strip``'d before being
687 ``--flatten``'d. With the option ``--numbered`` (which implies
688 ``--flatten``) the patch names get a number as prefix to allow
689 getting the order without consulting the series file, which
690 eases sending out the patches.
692 | TODO: Make stripping of non-essential headers configurable
693 | TODO: Make stripping of [PATCH] and other prefixes configurable
694 | TODO: ``--mbox`` option to export instead as an mbox file
695 | TODO: support ``--all`` option in other modes of operation
696 | TODO: For quilt exporting, export the linearized history created in
697 a temporary branch--this would allow producing conflict-less
702 Import commits within the given revision range into TopGit,
703 creating one topic branch per commit. The dependencies are set
704 up to form a linear sequence starting on your current branch --
705 or a branch specified by the ``-d`` parameter, if present.
707 The branch names are auto-guessed from the commit messages and
708 prefixed by ``t/`` by default; use ``-p <prefix>`` to specify an
709 alternative prefix (even an empty one).
711 Alternatively, you can use the ``-s NAME`` parameter to specify
712 the name of the target branch; the command will then take one
713 more argument describing a *single* commit to import.
717 Update the current, specified or all topic branches with respect
718 to changes in the branches they depend on and remote branches.
719 This is performed in two phases -- first, changes within the
720 dependencies are merged to the base, then the base is merged
721 into the topic branch. The output will guide you on what to do
722 next in case of conflicts.
724 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
726 When ``-a`` is specifed, updates all topic branches matched by
727 ``<pattern>``'s (see ``git-for-each-ref(1)`` for details), or all
728 if no ``<pattern>`` is given. Any topic branches with missing
729 dependencies will be skipped entirely unless ``--skip`` is specified.
731 When ``--skip`` is specifed, an attempt is made to update topic
732 branches with missing dependencies by skipping only the dependencies
733 that are missing. Caveat utilitor
735 After the update, if a single topic branch was specified, it is
736 left as the current one; if ``-a`` was specified, it returns to
737 the branch which was current at the beginning.
739 If your dependencies are not up-to-date, ``tg update`` will first
740 recurse into them and update them.
742 If a remote branch update brings in dependencies on branches
743 that are not yet instantiated locally, you can either bring in
744 all the new branches from the remote using ``tg remote
745 --populate``, or only pick out the missing ones using ``tg create
746 -r`` (``tg summary`` will point out branches with incomplete
747 dependencies by showing an ``!`` next to them).
749 | TODO: ``tg update -a -c`` to autoremove (clean) up-to-date branches
753 If ``-a`` or ``--all`` was specified, pushes all non-annihilated
754 TopGit-controlled topic branches, to a remote repository.
755 Otherwise, pushes the specified topic branches -- or the
756 current branch, if you don't specify which. By default, the
757 remote gets all the dependencies (both TopGit-controlled and
758 non-TopGit-controlled) and bases pushed to it too. If
759 ``--tgish-only`` was specified, only TopGit-controlled
760 dependencies will be pushed, and if ``--no-deps`` was specified,
761 no dependencies at all will be pushed.
763 The ``--dry-run`` and ``--force`` options are passed directly to
764 ``git push`` if given.
766 The remote may be specified with the ``-r`` option. If no remote
767 was specified, the configured default TopGit remote will be
772 Prints the base commit of each of the named topic branches, or
773 the current branch if no branches are named. Prints an error
774 message and exits with exit code 1 if the named branch is not
779 Prints the git log of the named topgit branch -- or the current
780 branch, if you don't specify a name.
782 NOTE: if you have merged changes from a different repository, this
783 command might not list all interesting commits.
787 Creates a TopGit annotated/signed tag or lists the reflog of one.
789 A TopGit annotated tag records the current state of one or more TopGit
790 branches and their dependencies and may be used to revert to the tagged
791 state at any point in the future.
793 When reflogs are enabled (the default in a non-bare repository) and
794 combined with the ``--force`` option a single tag name may be used as a
795 sort of TopGit branch state stash. The special branch name ``--all``
796 may be used to tag the state of all current TopGit branches to
797 facilitate this function and has the side-effect of surpressing the
798 out-of-date check allowing out-of-date branches to be included.
800 As a special feature, ``--stash`` may be used as the tag name in which
801 case ``--all`` is implied if no branch name is listed (instead of the
802 normal default of ``HEAD``), ``--force`` and ``--no-edit`` (use
803 ``--edit`` to change that) are automatically activated and the tag will
804 be saved to ``refs/tgstash`` instead of ``refs/tags/<tagname>``.
805 The ``--stash`` tag name may also be used with the ``-g``/``--reflog``
808 A TopGit annotated/signed tag is simply a Git annotated/signed tag with
809 a "TOPGIT REFS" section appended to the end of the tag message (and
810 preceding the signature for signed tags). PEM-style begin and end
811 lines surround one line per ref where the format of each line is
812 full-hash SP ref-name. A line will be included for each branch given
813 on the command line and each ref they depend on either directly or
816 If more than one TopGit branch is given on the command line, a new
817 commit will be created that has an empty tree and all of the given
818 TopGit branches as parents and that commit will be tagged. If a single
819 TopGit branch is given, then it will be tagged.
821 All the options for creating a tag serve the same purpose as their Git
822 equivalents except for two. The ``--refs`` option suppresses tag
823 creation entirely and emits the "TOPGIT REFS" section that would have
824 been included with the tag. If the ``--no-edit`` option is given and
825 no message is supplied (via the ``-m`` or ``-F`` option) then the
826 default message created by TopGit will be used without running the
829 With ``-g`` or ``--reflog`` show the reflog for a tag. Unlike
830 ``git log -g``, ``tg tag --reflog`` normally shows the message from the
831 tag (if a tag) or the commit (if a commit) if available rather than
832 the message from the reflog itself. With ``--reflog-message`` only
833 show the message (if any) from the reflog. Non-tag entries are
834 annotated with their type unless ``--no-type`` is given. TopGit tags
835 are created with a reflog if core.logallrefupdates is enabled (the
836 default for non-bare repositories). Unfortunately Git is incapable
837 of showing a tag's reflog (using git log -g) as it will first resolve
838 the tag before checking to see if it has a reflog. Git can, however,
839 show reflogs for lightweight tags (using git log -g) just fine but
840 that's not helpful here. Use the ``-g`` or ``--reflog`` option to see
841 the reflog for an actual tag object. This also works on non-TopGit
842 annotated/signed tags as well provided they have a reflog. The number
843 of entries shown may be limited with the ``-n`` option. If the tagname
844 is omitted then ``--stash`` is assumed and ``--reflog-message`` will
845 be implied (use ``--no-reflog-message`` to change that).
849 Provides a ``git rebase`` rerere auto continue function. It may be
850 used as a drop-in replacement front-end for ``git rebase -m`` that
851 automatically continues the rebase when ``git rerere`` information is
852 sufficient to resolve all conflicts.
854 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
856 If the ``-m`` or ``--merge`` option is not present then ``tg rebase``
857 will complain and not do anything.
859 When ``git rerere`` is enabled, previously resolved conflicts are
860 remembered and can be automatically staged (see ``rerere.autoUpdate``).
862 However, even with auto staging, ``git rebase`` still stops and
863 requires an explicit ``git rebase --continue`` to keep going.
865 In the case where ``git rebase -m`` is being used to flatten history
866 (such as after a ``tg export --collapse`` prior to a
867 ``git format-patch``), there's a good chance all conflicts have already
868 been resolved during normal merge maintenance operations so there's no
869 reason ``git rebase`` could not automatically continue, but there's no
870 option to make it do so.
872 The ``tg rebase`` command provides a ``git rebase --auto-continue``
875 All the same rebase options can be used (they are simply passed through
876 to Git unchanged). However, the ``rerere.autoUpdate`` option is
877 automatically temporarily enabled while running ``git rebase`` and
878 should ``git rebase`` stop asking one to resolve and continue, but all
879 conflicts have already been resolved and staged using rerere
880 information, then ``git rebase --continue`` will be automatically run.
884 Provides the ability to revert one or more TopGit branches and their
885 dependents to a previous state contained within a tag created using the
886 ``tg tag`` command. In addition to the actual revert mode operation a
887 list mode operation is also provided to examine a tag's ref contents.
889 The default mode (``-l`` or ``--list``) shows the state of one or more
890 of the refs/branches stored in the tag data. When no refs are given on
891 the command line, all refs in the tag data are shown. With the special
892 ref name ``--heads`` then the indepedent heads contained in the tag
893 data are shown. The ``--deps`` option shows the specified refs and all
894 of their dependents in single list with no duplicates. The ``--rdeps``
895 option shows a display similar to ``tg summary --rdeps`` for each ref
896 or all independent heads if no ref is given on the command line.
898 The revert mode has three submodes, dry-run mode (``-n`` or
899 ``--dry-run``), force mode (``-f`` or ``--force``) and interactive mode
900 (``-i`` or ``--interactive``). If ``--dry-run`` (or ``-n``) is given
901 no ref updates will actually be performed but what would have been
902 updated is shown instead. If ``--interactive`` (or ``-i``) is given
903 then the editor is invoked on an instruction sheet allowing manual
904 selection of the refs to be updated before proceeding. Since revert is
905 potentially a destructive operation, at least one of the submodes must
906 be specified explicitly. If no refs are listed on the command line
907 then all refs in the tag data are reverted. Otherwise the listed refs
908 and all of their dependents (unless ``--no-deps`` is given) are
909 reverted. Unless ``--no-stash`` is given a new stash will be created
910 using ``tg tag --stash`` (except, of course, in dry-run mode) just
911 before actually performing the updates to facilitate recovery from
914 Both modes accept fully-qualified (i.e. starts with ``refs/``) ref
915 names as well as unqualified names (which will be assumed to be located
916 under ``refs/heads/``). In revert mode a tgish ref will always have
917 both its ``refs/heads/`` and ``refs/top-bases/`` values included no
918 matter how it's listed unless ``--no-deps`` is given and the ref is
919 fully qualified (i.e. starts with ``refs/``) or one or the other of its
920 values was removed from the instruction sheet in interactive mode. In
921 list mode a tgish ref will always have both its ``refs/heads/`` and
922 ``refs/top-bases/`` values included only when using the ``--deps`` or
925 The ``--tgish-only`` option excludes non-tgish refs (i.e. refs that do
926 not have a ``refs/heads/<name>``, ``refs/top-bases/<name>`` pair).
928 The ``--exclude`` option (which can be repeated) excludes specific
929 refs. If the name given to ``--exclude`` is not fully-qualified (i.e.
930 starts with ``refs/``) then it will exclude both members of a tgish ref
933 The ``--quiet`` (or ``-q``) option may be used in revert mode to
934 suppress non-dry-run ref change status messages.
936 The special tag name ``--stash`` (as well as with ``@{n}`` suffixes)
937 can be used to refer to ``refs/tgstash``.
939 NOTE: If HEAD points to a ref that is updated by a revert operation
940 then NO WARNING whatsoever will be issued, but the index and working
941 tree will always be left completely untouched (and the reflog for
942 the pointed-to ref can always be used to find the previous value).
946 Outputs the direct dependencies for the current or named branch.
949 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
950 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
954 Outputs all branches which directly depend on the current or
958 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
959 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
967 TopGit stores all the topic branches in the regular ``refs/heads/``
968 namespace (so we recommend distinguishing them with the ``t/`` prefix).
969 Apart from that, TopGit also maintains a set of auxiliary refs in
970 ``refs/top-*``. Currently, only ``refs/top-bases/`` is used, containing the
971 current *base* of the given topic branch -- this is basically a merge of
972 all the branches the topic branch depends on; it is updated during ``tg
973 update`` and then merged to the topic branch, and it is the base of a
974 patch generated from the topic branch by ``tg patch``.
976 All the metadata is tracked within the source tree and history of the
977 topic branch itself, in ``.top*`` files; these files are kept isolated
978 within the topic branches during TopGit-controlled merges and are of
979 course omitted during ``tg patch``. The state of these files in base
980 commits is undefined; look at them only in the topic branches
981 themselves. Currently, two files are defined:
984 Contains the description of the topic branch in a
985 mail-like format, plus the author information, whatever
986 Cc headers you choose or the post-three-dashes message.
987 When mailing out your patch, basically only a few extra
988 mail headers are inserted and then the patch itself is
989 appended. Thus, as your patches evolve, you can record
990 nuances like whether the particular patch should have
991 To-list / Cc-maintainer or vice-versa and similar
992 nuances, if your project is into that. ``From`` is
993 prefilled from your current ``GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT``; other
994 headers can be prefilled from various optional
995 ``topgit.*`` git config options.
998 Contains the one-per-line list of branches this branch
999 depends on, pre-seeded by `tg create`. A (continuously
1000 updated) merge of these branches will be the *base* of
1003 IMPORTANT: DO NOT EDIT ``.topdeps`` MANUALLY!!! If you do so, you need to
1004 know exactly what are you doing, since this file must stay in sync with
1005 the Git history information, otherwise very bad things will happen.
1007 TopGit also automagically installs a bunch of custom commit-related
1008 hooks that will verify whether you are committing the ``.top*`` files in a
1009 sane state. It will add the hooks to separate files within the ``hooks/``
1010 subdirectory, and merely insert calls to them to the appropriate hooks
1011 and make them executable (but will make sure the original hook's code is
1012 not called if the hook was not executable beforehand).
1014 Another automagically installed piece is a ``.git/info/attributes``
1015 specifier for an ``ours`` merge strategy for the files ``.topmsg`` and
1016 ``.topdeps``, and the (intuitive) ``ours`` merge strategy definition in
1023 There are two remaining issues with accessing topic branches in remote
1026 (i) Referring to remote topic branches from your local repository
1027 (ii) Developing some of the remote topic branches locally
1029 There are two somewhat contradictory design considerations here:
1031 (a) Hacking on multiple independent TopGit remotes in a single
1033 (b) Having a self-contained topic system in local refs space
1035 To us, (a) does not appear to be very convincing, while (b) is quite
1036 desirable for ``git-log topic`` etc. working, and increased conceptual
1039 Thus, we choose to instantiate all the topic branches of given remote
1040 locally; this is performed by ``tg remote --populate``. ``tg update``
1041 will also check if a branch can be updated from its corresponding remote
1042 branch. The logic needs to be somewhat involved if we are to "do the
1043 right thing". First, we update the base, handling the remote branch as
1044 if it was the first dependency; thus, conflict resolutions made in the
1045 remote branch will be carried over to our local base automagically.
1046 Then, the base is merged into the remote branch and the result is merged
1047 to the local branch -- again, to carry over remote conflict resolutions.
1048 In the future, this order might be adjustable on a per-update basis, in
1049 case local changes happen to be diverging more than the remote ones.
1051 All commands by default refer to the remote that ``tg remote --populate``
1052 was called on the last time (stored in the ``topgit.remote`` git
1053 configuration variable). You can manually run any command with a
1054 different base remote by passing ``-r REMOTE`` *before* the subcommand
1061 The following references are useful to understand the development of
1062 topgit and its subcommands.
1065 http://lists-archives.org/git/688698-add-list-and-rm-sub-commands-to-tg-depend.html
1068 THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE
1069 --------------------
1071 The following software understands TopGit branches:
1073 * `magit <http://magit.github.io/>`_ -- a git mode for emacs
1075 IMPORTANT: Magit requires its topgit mode to be enabled first, as
1076 described in its documentation, in the "Activating extensions"
1077 subsection. If this is not done, it will not push TopGit branches
1078 correctly, so it's important to enable it even if you plan to mostly use
1079 TopGit from the command line.