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.
18 :REQUIREMENTS_: Installation requirements
19 :USAGE_: Command Line details
20 :`NO UNDO`_: Where's the undo!!!
21 :CONVENTIONS_: Suggestions for organizing your TopGit branches
22 :`EXTRA SETTINGS`_: Various possible "topgit.*" config settings
23 :ALIASES_: Git-like TopGit command aliases
24 :GLOSSARY_: All the TopGit vocabulary in one place
25 :TECHNICAL_: How it works behind the scenes
31 TopGit is a collection of POSIX shell scripts so a POSIX-compliant shell is
32 required along with some standard POSIX-compliant utilities (e.g. sed, awk,
33 cat, etc.). Git version 1.8.5 or later is also required.
35 To use TopGit with linked working trees (the ``git worktree add`` command),
36 at least Git version 2.5.0 (obviously, since that's when the ``git worktree``
37 command first appeared) is needed in which case linked working trees are then
38 fully supported for use with TopGit.
40 The scripts need to be preprocessed and installed and currently the Makefile
41 that does this requires GNU make, but that's an install-time-only requirement.
43 It is possible, however, to use the DESTDIR functionality to install TopGit to
44 a staging area on one machine, archive that and then unarchive it on another
45 machine to perform an install (provided the build prefix and other options are
46 compatible with the final installed location).
52 See the file ``INSTALL``.
58 The TopGit git repository can be found at <http://repo.or.cz/topgit/pro>.
64 Why not use something like StGIT or Guilt or ``rebase -i`` for maintaining
65 your patch queue? The advantage of these tools is their simplicity;
66 they work with patch *series* and defer to the reflog facility for
67 version control of patches (reordering of patches is not
68 version-controlled at all). But there are several disadvantages -- for
69 one, these tools (especially StGIT) do not actually fit well with plain
70 Git at all: it is basically impossible to take advantage of the index
71 effectively when using StGIT. But more importantly, these tools
72 horribly fail in the face of a distributed environment.
74 TopGit has been designed around three main tenets:
76 (i) TopGit is as thin a layer on top of Git as possible. You
77 still maintain your index and commit using Git; TopGit will only
78 automate a few indispensable tasks.
80 (ii) TopGit is anxious about *keeping* your history. It will
81 never rewrite your history, and all metadata is also tracked
82 by Git, smoothly and non-obnoxiously. It is good to have a
83 *single* point when the history is cleaned up, and that is at
84 the point of inclusion in the upstream project; locally, you
85 can see how your patch has evolved and easily return to older
88 (iii) TopGit is specifically designed to work in a
89 distributed environment. You can have several instances of
90 TopGit-aware repositories and smoothly keep them all
91 up-to-date and transfer your changes between them.
93 As mentioned above, the main intended use-case for TopGit is tracking
94 third-party patches, where each patch is effectively a single topic
95 branch. In order to flexibly accommodate even complex scenarios when
96 you track many patches where many are independent but some depend on
97 others, TopGit ignores the ancient Quilt heritage of patch series and
98 instead allows the patches to freely form graphs (DAGs just like Git
99 history itself, only "one level higher"). For now, you have to manually
100 specify which patches the current one depends on, but TopGit might help
101 you with that in the future in a darcs-like fashion.
103 A glossary_ plug: The union (i.e. merge) of patch dependencies is called
104 a *base* of the patch (topic branch).
106 Of course, TopGit is perhaps not the right tool for you:
108 (i) TopGit is not complicated, but StGIT et al. are somewhat
109 simpler, conceptually. If you just want to make a linear
110 purely-local patch queue, deferring to StGIT instead might
113 (ii) When using TopGit, your history can get a little hairy
114 over time, especially with all the merges rippling through.
123 ## Create and evolve a topic branch
124 $ tg create t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
125 tg: Automatically marking dependency on master
126 tg: Creating t/gitweb/pathinfo-action base from master...
132 ## Create another topic branch on top of the former one
133 $ tg create t/gitweb/nifty-links
134 tg: Automatically marking dependency on t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
135 tg: Creating t/gitweb/nifty-links base from t/gitweb/pathinfo-action...
139 ## Create another topic branch on top of master and submit
140 ## the resulting patch upstream
141 $ tg create t/revlist/author-fixed master
142 tg: Creating t/revlist/author-fixed base from master...
146 tg: Sent t/revlist/author-fixed
148 To: git@vger.kernel.org
149 Cc: gitster@pobox.com
150 Subject: [PATCH] Fix broken revlist --author when --fixed-string
152 ## Create another topic branch depending on two others non-trivially
153 $ tg create t/whatever t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
154 tg: Creating t/whatever base from t/revlist/author-fixed...
155 tg: Merging t/whatever base with t/gitweb/nifty-links...
157 tg: Please commit merge resolution and call: tg update --continue
158 tg: It is also safe to abort this operation using `git reset --hard`
159 tg: but please remember you are on the base branch now;
160 tg: you will want to switch to a different branch.
163 $ tg update --continue
167 ## Update a single topic branch and propagate the changes to
169 $ git checkout t/gitweb/nifty-links
172 $ git checkout t/whatever
174 Topic Branch: t/whatever (1 commit)
175 Subject: [PATCH] Whatever patch
177 Depends: t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
179 t/gitweb/nifty-links (1 commit)
181 tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/nifty-links changes...
183 tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update --continue`
184 tg: (use `tg status` to see more options)
187 $ tg update --continue
188 tg: Updating t/whatever against new base...
190 tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update --continue`
191 tg: (use `tg status` to see more options)
194 $ tg update --continue
196 ## Update a single topic branch and propagate the changes
197 ## further through the dependency chain
198 $ git checkout t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
201 $ git checkout t/whatever
203 Topic Branch: t/whatever (1/2 commits)
204 Subject: [PATCH] Whatever patch
206 Depends: t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
208 t/gitweb/pathinfo-action (<= t/gitweb/nifty-links) (1 commit)
210 tg: Recursing to t/gitweb/nifty-links...
211 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/pathinfo-action changes...
213 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update --continue`
214 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: (use `tg status` to see more options)
217 $ tg update --continue
218 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Updating t/gitweb/nifty-links against new base...
220 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update --continue`
221 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: (use `tg status` to see more options)
224 $ tg update --continue
225 tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/nifty-links changes...
226 tg: Updating t/whatever against new base...
228 ## Clone a TopGit-controlled repository
231 $ tg remote --populate origin
236 ## Add a TopGit remote to a repository and push to it
237 $ git remote add foo URL
241 ## Update from a non-default TopGit remote
250 When using TopGit there are several common conventions used when working with
251 TopGit branches. None of them are enforced, they are only suggestions.
253 There are three typical uses for a TopGit branch:
256 Normal TopGit branches that represent a single patch. These are known
257 as "patch" TopGit branches.
259 Empty TopGit branches with no dependencies (an empty ``.topdeps`` file)
260 that represent a base upon which other "normal" TopGit branches depend.
261 These are known as "base" TopGit branches (not to be confused with
262 the refs/top-bases/... refs).
264 Empty TopGit branches that serve as a staging area to bring together
265 several other TopGit branches into one place so they can be used/tested
266 all together. These are known as "stage" TopGit branches.
268 An "empty" TopGit branch is one that does not have any changes of its own --
269 it may still have dependencies though ("stage" branches do, "base" branches do
270 not). The ``tg summary`` output shows empty branches with a ``0`` in the
271 listing. Normal "patch" branches that have not been annihilated, "base" and
272 "stage" branches fall into this category. (Annihilated branches are normally
273 omitted from the ``tg summary`` output but can be shown if given explicitly as
274 an argument to the ``tg summary`` command. However, the message line will be
275 incorrect since an annihilated branch has no ``.topmsg`` file of its own.)
277 A "patch" branch name typically starts with ``t/`` whereas "base" and "stage"
278 branch names often do not.
280 A "base" branch is created by using the ``--no-deps`` option of ``tg create``
281 which will automatically suggest a "[BASE]" message prefix rather than
282 "[PATCH]". A "stage" branch is created like a normal patch branch except that
283 the only changes that will ever be made to it are typically to add/remove
284 dependencies. Its subject prefix must be manually changed to "[STAGE]" to
287 Since both "base" and "stage" branches typically only have a use for the
288 "Subject:" ilne from their ``.topmsg`` file, they are quite easily created
289 using the ``--topmsg`` option of ``tg create``.
291 Use of "stage" and "base" branches is completely optional. However, without
292 use of a "stage" branch it will be difficult to test multiple independent
293 patches together all at once. A "base" branch is merely a convenience that
294 provides more explicit control over when a common base for a set of patches
295 gets updated as well as providing a branch that shows in ``tg summary`` output
296 and participates in ``tg remote --populate`` setup.
298 Another advantage to using a "stage" branch is that if a new "patch" branch
299 is created remotely and that new branch is added to a pre-existing "stage"
300 branch on the remote then when the local version of the "stage" branch is
301 updated (after fetching remote updates of course), that new dependency will
302 be merged into the local "stage" branch and the local version of the new remote
303 "patch" branch will be automatically set up at "tg update" time.
305 When using the ``tg tag`` command to create tags that record the current state
306 of one or more TopGit branches, the tags are often created with a name that
309 One last thing, you have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
315 Beware, there is no "undo" after running a ``tg update``!
317 Well, that's not entirely correct. Since ``tg update`` never discards commits
318 an "undo" operation is technically feasible provided the old values of all the
319 refs that were affected by the ``tg update`` operation can be determined and
320 then they are simply changed back to their previous values.
322 In practice though, it can be extremely tedious and error prone looking through
323 log information to try and determine what the correct previous values were.
324 Although, since TopGit tries to make sure reflogs are enabled for top-bases
325 refs, using Git's ``@{date}`` notation on all the refs dumped out by a
326 ``tg tag --refs foo``, where "foo" is the branch that was updated whose update
327 needs to be undone, may work.
329 Alternatively, ``tg tag --stash`` can be used prior to the update and then
330 ``tg revert`` used after the update to restore the previous state. This
331 assumes, of course, that you remember to run ``tg tag --stash`` first.
333 The ``tg update`` command understands a ``--stash`` option that tells it to
334 automatically run ``tg tag --stash`` before it starts making changes (if
335 everything is up-to-date it won't run the stash command at all).
337 The ``--stash`` option is the default nowadays when running ``tg update``,
338 add the ``--no-stash`` option to turn it off.
340 There is a preference for this. Setting the config value ``topgit.autostash``
341 to ``false`` will implicitly add the ``--no-stash`` option to any ``tg update``
342 command unless an explicit ``--stash`` option is given.
344 If you are likely to ever want to undo a ``tg update``, setting
345 ``topgit.autostash`` to ``false`` is highly discouraged!
347 Note that the tags saved by ``tg tag --stash`` are stored in the
348 ``refs/tgstash`` ref and its reflog. Unfortunately, while Git is happy to
349 maintain the reflog (once it's been enabled which ``tg tag`` guarantees for
350 ``refs/tgstash``), Git is unable to view an annotated/signed tag's reflog!
351 Instead Git dereferences the tag and shows the wrong thing. Use the
352 ``tg tag -g`` command to view the ``refs/tgstash`` reflog instead.
358 TopGit supports various config settings:
360 :ALIASES_: ``topgit.alias.*`` for Git-like command aliases
361 :SEQUESTRATION_: ``topgit.sequester`` for sequestration control
362 :`tg migrate-bases`_: ``topgit.top-bases`` for refs bases location
363 :`tg update`_: ``topgit.autostash`` automatic stash control
364 :`REMOTE HANDLING`_: ``topgit.remote`` TopGit's default remote
370 These work exactly like Git's aliases except they are stored under
371 ``topgit.alias.*`` instead. See the ``git help config`` output under
372 the ``alias.*`` section for details. Do note that while alias nesting is
373 explicitly permitted, a maximum nesting depth of 10 is enforced to help
374 detect accidental aliasing loops from wedging the machine.
380 No, this is not a section about budget nonsense. ;)
382 TopGit keeps its metadata in ``.topdeps`` and ``.topmsg`` files. In an effort
383 to facilitate cherry-picking and other Git activities on the patch changes
384 themselves while ignoring the TopGit metadata, TopGit attempts to keep all
385 changes to ``.topdeps`` and ``.topmsg`` files limited to commits that do NOT
386 contain changes to any other files.
388 This is a departure from previous TopGit versions that made no such effort.
390 Primarily this affects ``tg create`` and ``tg import`` (which makes use of
391 ``tg create``) as ``tg create`` will commit the initial versions of
392 ``.topdeps`` and ``.topmsg`` for a new TopGit-controlled branch in their own
393 commit instead of mixing them in with changes to other files.
395 The ``pre-commit`` hook will also attempt to separate out any ``.topdeps`` and
396 ``.topmsg`` changes from commits that include changes to other files.
398 It is possible to defeat these checks without much effort (``pre-commit`` hooks
399 can easily be bypassed, ``tg create`` has a ``--no-commit`` option, many Git
400 commands simply do not run the ``pre-commit`` hook, etc.).
402 If you really, really, really, really want to change the default back to the
403 old behavior of previous TopGit versions where no such sequestration took
404 place, then set the ``topgit.sequester`` config variable explicitly to the
405 value ``false``. But this is not recommended.
408 AMENDING AND REBASING AND UPDATE-REF'ING
409 ----------------------------------------
413 It is okay to manually update a top-bases/... ref when a) it has no depedencies
414 (i.e. it was created with the ``tg create`` ``--no-deps`` option) and b) the
415 old top-bases/... ref value can be fast-forwarded to the new top-bases/...
416 value OR the new value contains ALL of the changes in the old value through
417 some other mechanism (perhaps they were cherry-picked or otherwise applied to
418 the new top-bases/... ref). The same rules apply to non-TopGit-controlled
421 Ignoring this rule and proceeding anyway with a non-fast-forward update to a
422 top-bases/... ref will result in changes present in the new value being merged
423 into the branch (at ``tg update`` time) as expected (possibly with conflicts),
424 but any changes that were contained in the old version of the top-bases/... ref
425 which have been dropped (i.e. are NOT contained in the new version of the
426 top-bases/... ref) will continue to be present in the branch! To get rid of
427 the dropped commits, one or more "revert" commits will have to be manually
428 applied to the tip of the new top-bases/... value (which will then be merged
429 into the branch at next ``tg update`` time).
431 The only time it's safe to amend, rebase, filter or otherwise rewrite commits
432 contained in a TopGit controlled branch or non-TopGit branch is when those
433 commits are NOT reachable via any other ref!
435 Furthermore, while it is safe to rewrite merge commits (provided they meet the
436 same conditions) the merge commits themselves and the branches they are merging
437 in must be preserved during the rewrite and that can be rather tricky to get
438 right so it's not recommended.
440 For example, if, while working on a TopGit-controlled branch ``foo``, a bad
441 typo is noticed, it's okay to ammend/rebase to fix that provided neither
442 ``tg update`` nor ``tg create`` has already been used to cause some other ref
443 to be able to reach the commit with the typo.
445 If an amend or rerwite is done anyway even though the commit with the typo is
446 reachable from some other ref, the typo won't really be removed. What will
447 happen instead is that the new version without the typo will ultimately be
448 merged into the other ref(s) (at ``tg update`` time) likely causing a conflict
449 that will have to be manually resolved and the commit with the typo will
450 continue to be reachable from those other refs!
452 Instead just make a new commit to fix the typo. The end result will end up
453 being the same but without the merge conflicts.
455 See also the discussion in the `NO UNDO`_ section.
461 TopGit needs to check many things to determine whether a TopGit branch is
462 up-to-date or not. This can involve a LOT of git commands for a complex
463 dependency tree. In order to speed things up, TopGit keeps a cache of results
464 in a ``tg-cache`` subdirectory in the ``.git`` directory.
466 Results are tagged with the original hash values used to get that result so
467 that items which have not been changed return their results quickly and items
468 which have been changed compute their new result and cache it for future use.
470 The ``.git/tg-cache`` directory may be removed at any time and the cache will
471 simply be recreated in an on-demand fashion as needed, at some speed penalty,
472 until it's fully rebuilt.
474 To force the cache to be fully pre-loaded, run the ``tg summary`` command
475 without any arguments. Otherwise, normal day-to-day TopGit operations should
476 keep it more-or-less up-to-date.
478 While each TopGit command is running, it uses a temporary subdirectory also
479 located in the ``.git`` directory. These directories are named
480 ``tg-tmp.XXXXXX`` where the ``XXXXXX`` part will be random letters and digits.
482 These temporary directories should always be removed automatically after each
483 TopGit command finishes running. As long as you are not in a subshell as a
484 result of a TopGit command stopping and waiting for a manual merge resolution,
485 it's safe to remove any of these directories that may have somehow accidentally
486 been left behind as a result of some failure that occurred while running a
487 TopGit command (provided, of course, it's not actually being used by a TopGit
488 command currently running in another terminal window or by another user on the
494 ``tg [-C <dir>] [-r <remote> | -u] [-c <name>=<val>] <subcommand> [<subcommand option/argument>...]``
496 -C <dir> Change directory to <dir> before doing anything
497 -r <remote> Pretend ``topgit.remote`` is set to <remote>
498 -u Pretend ``topgit.remote`` is not set
499 -c <name=val> Pass config option to git, may be repeated
501 The ``tg`` tool has several subcommands:
503 :`tg annihilate`_: Mark a TopGit-controlled branch as defunct
504 :`tg base`_: Show base commit for one or more TopGit branches
505 :`tg checkout`_: Shortcut for git checkout with name matching
506 :`tg contains`_: Which TopGit-controlled branch contains the commit
507 :`tg create`_: Create a new TopGit-controlled branch
508 :`tg delete`_: Delete a TopGit-controlled branch cleanly
509 :`tg depend`_: Add a new dependency to a TopGit-controlled branch
510 :`tg export`_: Export TopGit branch patches to files or a branch
511 :`tg files`_: Show files changed by a TopGit branch
512 :`tg help`_: Show TopGit help optionally using a browser
513 :`tg import`_: Import commit(s) to separate TopGit branches
514 :`tg info`_: Show status information about a TopGit branch
515 :`tg log`_: Run git log limiting revisions to a TopGit branch
516 :`tg mail`_: Shortcut for git send-email with ``tg patch`` output
517 :`tg migrate-bases`_: Transition top-bases to new location
518 :`tg next`_: Show branches directly depending on a TopGit branch
519 :`tg patch`_: Generate a patch file for a TopGit branch
520 :`tg prev`_: Show non-annihilated TopGit dependencies for a branch
521 :`tg push`_: Run git push on TopGit branch(es) and depedencies
522 :`tg rebase`_: Auto continue git rebase if rerere resolves conflicts
523 :`tg remote`_: Set up remote for fetching/pushing TopGit branches
524 :`tg revert`_: Revert ref(s) to a state stored in a ``tg tag``
525 :`tg status`_: Show current TopGit status (e.g. in-progress update)
526 :`tg summary`_: Show various information about TopGit branches
527 :`tg tag`_: Create tag that records current TopGit branch state
528 :`tg update`_: Update TopGit branch(es) with respect to dependencies
532 Our sophisticated integrated help facility. Mostly duplicates
537 # to get help for a particular command:
539 # to get help for a particular command in a browser window:
540 $ tg help -w <command>
541 # to get help on TopGit itself
543 # to get help on TopGit itself in a browser
548 Our sophisticated status facility. Similar to Git's status command
549 but shows any in-progress update that's awaiting a merge resolution
550 or any other on-going TopGit activity (such as a branch creation).
552 With a single ``--verbose`` (or ``-v``) option include a short status
553 display for any dirty (but not untracked) files. This also causes all
554 non file status lines to be prefixed with "## ".
556 With two (or more) ``--verbose`` (or ``-v``) options, additionally
557 show full symbolic ref names and unabbreviated hash values.
559 With the ``--exit-code`` option the exit code will be non-zero if any
560 TopGit or Git operation is currently in progress or the working
565 Create a new TopGit-controlled topic branch of the given name
566 (required argument) and switch to it. If no dependencies are
567 specified (by extra arguments passed after the first one), the
568 current branch is assumed to be the only dependency.
570 By default ``tg create`` opens an editor on the new ``.topmsg`` file
571 and then commits the new ``.topmsg`` and ``.topdeps`` files
572 automatically with a suitable default commit message.
574 The commit message can be changed with the ``-m`` (or ``--message``) or
575 ``-F`` (or ``--file``) option. The automatic commit can be suppressed
576 by using the ``--no-ccmmit`` option. Running the editor on the new
577 ``.topmsg`` file can be suppressed by using ``-n`` (or ``--no-edit``)
578 (which also suppresses the automatic commit) or by providing an
579 explicit value for the new ``.topmsg`` file using the ``--topmsg`` or
580 ``--topmsg-file`` option. In any case the ``.topmsg`` content will be
581 automatically reformated to have a ``Subject:`` header line if needed.
583 If more than one dependency is listed, the automatic commit will not
584 take place until AFTER all the listed dependencies have been merged
585 into a base commit which will require some manual merge resolutions if
586 conflicts occur during the merge operations.
588 Previous versions of TopGit behaved as though the ``--no-edit`` option
589 was always given on the command line.
591 The default behavior has been changed to promote a separation between
592 commits that modify ``.topmsg`` and/or ``.topdeps`` and commits that
593 modify other files. This facilitates cleaner cherry picking and other
594 patch maintenance activities.
596 You should edit the patch description (contained in the ``.topmsg``
597 file) as appropriate. It will already contain some prefilled bits.
598 You can set the ``topgit.to``, ``topgit.cc`` and ``topgit.bcc``
599 git configuration variables (see ``man git-config``) in order to
600 have ``tg create`` add these headers with the given default values
601 to ``.topmsg`` before invoking the editor.
603 The main task of ``tg create`` is to set up the topic branch base
604 from the dependencies. This may fail due to merge conflicts if more
605 than one dependency is given. In that case, after you commit the
606 conflict resolution, you should call ``tg update --continue`` to
607 finish merging the dependencies into the new topic branch base.
609 With the ``--no-deps`` option at most one dependency may be listed
610 which may be any valid committish (instead of just refs/heads/...) and
611 the newly created TopGit-controlled branch will have an empty
612 ``.topdeps`` file. This may be desirable in order to create a TopGit-
613 controlled branch that has no changes of its own and serves merely to
614 mark the common dependency that all other TopGit-controlled branches
615 in some set of TopGit-controlled branches depend on. A plain,
616 non-TopGit-controlled branch can be used for the same purpose, but the
617 advantage of a TopGit-controlled branch with no dependencies is that it
618 will be pushed with ``tg push``, it will show up in the ``tg summary``
619 and ``tg info`` output with the subject from its ``.topmsg`` file
620 thereby documenting what it's for and finally it can be set up with
621 ``tg create -r`` and/or ``tg remote --populate`` to facilitate sharing.
623 For example, ``tg create --no-deps release v2.1`` will create a TopGit-
624 controlled ``release`` branch based off the ``v2.1`` tag that can then
625 be used as a base for creation of other TopGit-controlled branches.
626 Then when the time comes to move the base for an entire set of changes
627 up to ``v2.2`` the command ``git update-ref top-bases/release v2.2^0``
628 can be used followed by ``tg update --all``. Note that it's only safe
629 to update ``top-bases/release`` directly in this manner because a) it
630 has no depedencies since it was created with the ``--no-deps`` option
631 and b) the old ``top-bases/release`` value can be fast-forwarded to the
632 new ``top-bases/release`` value.
634 Using ``--no-deps`` it's also possible to use ``tg create`` on an
635 unborn branch (omit the dependency name or specify ``HEAD``). The
636 unborn branch itself can be made into the new TopGit branch (rather
637 than being born empty and then having the new TopGit branch based off
638 that) by specifying ``HEAD`` as the new branch's name (which is
639 probably what you normally want to do in this case anyway so you can
640 just run ``tg create --no-deps HEAD`` to accomplish that).
642 In an alternative use case, if ``-r <branch>`` is given instead of a
643 dependency list, the topic branch is created based on the given
644 remote branch. With just ``-r`` the remote branch name is assumed
645 to be the same as the local topic branch being created. Since no
646 new commits are created in this mode (only two refs will be updated)
647 the editor will never be run for this use case. Note that no other
648 options may be combined with ``-r``.
650 The ``--quiet`` (or ``-q``) option suppresses most informational
655 Remove a TopGit-controlled topic branch of the given name
656 (required argument). Normally, this command will remove only an
657 empty branch (base == head) without dependendents; use ``-f`` to
658 remove a non-empty branch or a branch that is depended upon by
661 The ``-f`` option is also useful to force removal of a branch's
662 base, if you used ``git branch -D B`` to remove branch B, and then
663 certain TopGit commands complain, because the base of branch B
666 Normally ``tg delete`` will refuse to delete the current branch.
667 However, giving ``-f`` twice (or more) will force it to do so but it
668 will first detach your HEAD.
670 IMPORTANT: Currently, this command will *NOT* remove the branch
671 from the dependency list in other branches. You need to take
672 care of this *manually*. This is even more complicated in
673 combination with ``-f`` -- in that case, you need to manually
674 unmerge the removed branch's changes from the branches depending
677 See also ``tg annihilate``.
679 | TODO: ``-a`` to delete all empty branches, depfix, revert
683 Make a commit on the current TopGit-controlled topic branch
684 that makes it equal to its base, including the presence or
685 absence of .topmsg and .topdeps. Annihilated branches are not
686 displayed by ``tg summary``, so they effectively get out of your
687 way. However, the branch still exists, and ``tg push`` will
688 push it (except if given the ``-a`` option). This way, you can
689 communicate that the branch is no longer wanted.
691 When annihilating a branch that has dependents (i.e. branches
692 that depend on it), those dependents have the dependencies of
693 the branch being annihilated added to them if they do not already
694 have them as dependencies. Essentially the DAG is repaired to
695 skip over the annihilated branch.
697 Normally, this command will remove only an empty branch
698 (base == head, except for changes to the .top* files); use
699 ``-f`` to annihilate a non-empty branch.
701 After completing the annihilation itself, normally ``tg update``
702 is run on any modified dependents. Use the ``--no-update`` option
703 to suppress running ``tg update``.
707 Change the dependencies of a TopGit-controlled topic branch.
708 This should have several subcommands, but only ``add`` is
711 The ``add`` subcommand takes an argument naming a topic branch to
712 be added, adds it to ``.topdeps``, performs a commit and then
713 updates your topic branch accordingly. If you want to do other
714 things related to the dependency addition, like adjusting
715 ``.topmsg``, use the option ``--no-commit``. Adding the
716 ``--no-update`` (or ``--no-commit``) option will suppress the
717 ``tg update`` normally performed after committing the change.
719 It is safe to run ``tg depend add`` in a dirty worktree, but the
720 normally performed ``tg update`` will be suppressed in that case
721 (even if neither ``--no-update`` nor ``--no-commit`` is given).
723 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
725 | TODO: Subcommand for removing dependencies, obviously
729 List files changed by the current or specified topic branch.
732 -i list files based on index instead of branch
733 -w list files based on working tree instead of branch
737 Show summary information about the current or specified topic
740 Numbers in parenthesis after a branch name such as "(11/3 commits)"
741 indicate how many commits on the branch (11) and how many of those
742 are non-merge commits (3).
744 With ``--verbose`` (or ``-v``) include a list of dependents (i.e. other
745 branches that depend on this one). Another ``--verbose`` annotates
746 them with "[needs merge]" if the current tip of branch for which info
747 is being shown has not yet been merged into the base of the dependent.
749 Alternatively, if ``--heads`` is used then which of the independent
750 TopGit branch heads (as output by ``tg summary --topgit-heads``)
751 logically contains the specified commit (which may be any committish --
752 defaults to ``HEAD`` if not given). Zero or more results will be
753 output. Note that "logically" means with regard to the TopGit
754 dependency relationships as established by the ``.topdeps`` file(s).
755 It's the answer that would be given when all the TopGit branches are
756 up-to-date (even though they need not be to use this option) and the
757 ``git branch --contains`` command is run and the output then filtered
758 to only those branches that appear in ``tg summary --topgit-heads``.
759 This computation may require several seconds on complex repositories.
761 If ``--leaves`` is used then the unique list of leaves of the current
762 or specified topic branch is shown as one fully-qualified ref per line.
763 Duplicates are suppressed and a tag name will be used when appropriate.
764 A "leaf" is any dependency that is either not a TopGit branch or is
765 the base of a non-annihilated TopGit branch with no non-annihilated
768 A linearized patch series can only be automatically created for a
769 TopGit topic branch (including its recursive dependencies) when exactly
770 one line is output by ``tg info --leaves <topic-branch>``.
774 Generate a patch from the current or specified topic branch.
775 This means that the diff between the topic branch base and head
776 (latest commit) is shown, appended to the description found in
777 the ``.topmsg`` file.
779 The patch is simply dumped to stdout. In the future, ``tg patch``
780 will be able to automatically send the patches by mail or save
781 them to files. (TODO)
784 -i base patch generation on index instead of branch
785 -w base patch generation on working tree instead of branch
786 --binary pass --binary to ``git diff-tree`` to enable generation
788 --diff-opt options after the branch name (and an optional ``--``)
789 are passed directly to ``git diff-tree``
791 In order to pass a sole explicit ``-w`` through to ``git diff-tree`` it
792 must be separated from the ``tg`` options by an explicit ``--``.
793 Or it can be spelled as ``--ignore-all-space`` to distinguuish it from
794 ``tg``'s ``-w`` option.
796 If additional non-``tg`` options are passed through to
797 ``git diff-tree`` (other than ``--binary`` which is fully supported)
798 the resulting ``tg patch`` output may not be appliable.
802 Send a patch from the current or specified topic branch as
805 Takes the patch given on the command line and emails it out.
806 Destination addresses such as To, Cc and Bcc are taken from the
809 Since it actually boils down to ``git send-email``, please refer
810 to the documentation for that for details on how to setup email
811 for git. You can pass arbitrary options to this command through
812 the ``-s`` parameter, but you must double-quote everything. The
813 ``-r`` parameter with a msgid can be used to generate in-reply-to
814 and reference headers to an earlier mail.
816 WARNING: be careful when using this command. It easily sends
817 out several mails. You might want to run::
819 git config sendemail.confirm always
821 to let ``git send-email`` ask for confirmation before sending any
825 -i base patch generation on index instead of branch
826 -w base patch generation on working tree instead of branch
828 | TODO: ``tg mail patchfile`` to mail an already exported patch
829 | TODO: mailing patch series
830 | TODO: specifying additional options and addresses on command line
834 Register the given remote as TopGit-controlled. This will create
835 the namespace for the remote branch bases and teach ``git fetch``
836 to operate on them. However, from TopGit 0.8 onwards you need to
837 use ``tg push``, or ``git push --mirror``, for pushing
838 TopGit-controlled branches.
840 ``tg remote`` takes an optional remote name argument, and an
841 optional ``--populate`` switch. Use ``--populate`` for your
842 origin-style remotes: it will seed the local topic branch system
843 based on the remote topic branches. ``--populate`` will also make
844 ``tg remote`` automatically fetch the remote, and ``tg update`` look
845 at branches of this remote for updates by default.
847 Using ``--populate`` with a remote name causes the ``topgit.remote``
848 git configuration variable to be set to the given remote name.
852 Show overview of all TopGit-tracked topic branches and their
853 up-to-date status. With a branch name limit output to that branch.
854 Using ``--deps-only`` or ``--rdeps`` changes the default from all
855 branches to just the current ``HEAD`` branch but using ``--all`` as
856 the branch name will show results for all branches instead of ``HEAD``.
859 marks the current topic branch
862 indicates that it introduces no changes of its own
865 indicates respectively whether it is local-only
869 indicates respectively if it is ahead or out-of-date
870 with respect to its remote mate
873 indicates that it is out-of-date with respect to its
877 indicates that it has missing dependencies [even if
878 they are recursive ones]
881 indicates that it is out-of-date with respect to
885 indicates it is ahead of (and needs to be merged into)
886 at least one of its dependents -- only computed when
887 showing all branches or using the (possibly implied)
888 ``--with-deps`` option.
890 This can take a longish time to accurately determine all the
891 relevant information about each branch; you can pass ``-t`` (or ``-l``
892 or ``--list``) to get just a terse list of topic branch names quickly.
894 Passing ``--heads`` shows independent topic branch names and when
895 combined with ``--rdeps`` behaves as though ``--rdeps`` were run with
896 the output of ``--heads``.
898 The ``--heads-independent`` option works just like ``--heads`` except
899 that it computes the heads using ``git merge-base --independent``
900 rather than examining the TopGit ``.topdeps`` relationships. If the
901 TopGit branches are all up-to-date (as shown in ``tg summary``) then
902 both ``--heads`` and ``--heads-independent`` should compute the same
903 list of heads (unless some overlapping TopGit branches have been
904 manually created). If not all the TopGit branches are up-to-date then
905 the ``--heads-independent`` results may have extra items in it, but
906 occasionally that's what's needed; usually it's the wrong answer.
907 (Note that ``--topgit-heads`` is accepted as an alias for ``--heads``
910 Using ``--heads-only`` behaves as though the output of ``--heads`` was
911 passed as the list of branches along with ``--without-deps``.
913 Alternatively, you can pass ``--graphviz`` to get a dot-suitable output
914 for drawing a dependency graph between the topic branches.
916 You can also use the ``--sort`` option to sort the branches using
917 a topological sort. This is especially useful if each
918 TopGit-tracked topic branch depends on a single parent branch,
919 since it will then print the branches in the dependency order.
920 In more complex scenarios, a text graph view would be much more
921 useful, but that has not yet been implemented.
923 The ``--deps`` option outputs dependency information between
924 branches in a machine-readable format. Feed this to ``tsort`` to
925 get the output from --sort.
927 The ``--deps-only`` option outputs a sorted list of the unique branch
928 names given on the command line plus all of their recursive
929 dependencies (subject to ``--exclude`` of course). When
930 ``--deps-only`` is given the default is to just display information for
931 ``HEAD``, but that can be changed by using ``--all`` as the branch
932 name. Each branch name will appear only once in the output no matter
933 how many times it's visited while tracing the dependency graph or how
934 many branch names are given on the command line to process.
936 The ``--rdeps`` option outputs dependency information in an indented
937 text format that clearly shows all the dependencies and their
938 relationships to one another. When ``--rdeps`` is given the default is
939 to just display information for ``HEAD``, but that can be changed by
940 using ``--all`` as the branch name or by adding the ``--heads`` option.
941 Note that ``tg summary --rdeps --heads`` can be particularly helpful in
942 seeing all the TopGit-controlled branches in the repository and their
943 relationships to one another.
945 Adding ``--with-deps`` replaces the given list of branches (which will
946 default to ``HEAD`` if none are given) with the result of running
947 ``tg summary --deps-only --tgish`` on the list of branches. This can
948 be helpful in limiting ``tg summary`` output to only the list of given
949 branches and their dependencies when many TopGit-controlled branches
950 are present in the repository. When it would be allowed,
951 ``--with-deps`` is now the default. Use ``--without-deps`` to switch
952 back to the old behavior.
954 With ``--exclude branch``, branch can be excluded from the output
955 meaning it will be skipped and its name will be omitted from any
956 dependency output. The ``--exclude`` option may be repeated to omit
957 more than one branch from the output. Limiting the output to a single
958 branch that has been excluded will result in no output at all.
960 The ``--tgish-only`` option behaves as though any non-TopGit-controlled
961 dependencies encountered during processing had been listed after an
962 ``--exclude`` option.
964 Note that the branch name can be specified as ``HEAD`` or ``@`` as a
965 shortcut for the TopGit-controlled branch that ``HEAD`` is a
966 symbolic ref to. The ``tg summary @`` command can be quite useful.
969 -i Use TopGit metadata from the index instead of the branch
970 -w Use TopGit metadata from the working tree instead of the branch
974 Search all TopGit-controlled branches (and optionally their remotes)
975 to find which TopGit-controlled branch contains the specified commit.
977 This is more than just basic branch containment as provided for by the
978 ``git branch --contains`` command. While the shown branch name(s)
979 will, indeed, be one (or more) of those output by the
980 ``git branch --contains`` command, the result(s) will exclude any
981 TopGit-controlled branches from the result(s) that have one (or more)
982 of their TopGit dependencies (either direct or indirect) appearing in
983 the ``git branch --contains`` output.
985 Normally the result will be only the one, single TopGit-controlled
986 branch for which the specified committish appears in the ``tg log``
987 output for that branch (unless the committish lies outside the
988 TopGit-controlled portion of the DAG and ``--no-strict`` was used).
990 Unless ``--annihilated-okay`` (or ``--ann`` or ``--annihilated``) is
991 used then annihilated branches will be immediately removed from the
992 ``git branch --contains`` output before doing anything else. This
993 means a committish that was originally located in a now-annihilated
994 branch will show up in whatever branch picked up the annihilated
995 branch's changes (if there is one). This is usually the correct
996 answer, but occasionally it's not; hence this option. If this option
997 is used together with ``--verbose`` then annihilated branches will
998 be shown as "[:annihilated:]".
1000 In other words, if a ``tg patch`` is generated for the found branch
1001 (assuming one was found and a subsequent commit in the same branch
1002 didn't then revert or otherwise back out the change), then that patch
1003 will include the changes introduced by the specified committish
1004 (unless, of course, that committish is outside the TopGit-controlled
1005 portion of the DAG and ``--no-strict`` was given).
1007 This can be very helpful when, for example, a bug is discovered and
1008 then after using ``git bisect`` (or some other tool) to find the
1009 offending commit it's time to commit the fix. But because the
1010 TopGit merging history can be quite complicated and maybe the one
1011 doing the fix wasn't the bug's author (or the author's memory is just
1012 going), it can sometimes be rather tedious to figure out which
1013 TopGit branch the fix belongs in. The ``tg contains`` command can
1014 quickly tell you the answer to that question.
1016 With the ``--remotes`` (or ``-r``) option a TopGit-controlled remote
1017 branch name may be reported as the result but only if there is no
1018 non-remote branch containing the committish (this can only happen
1019 if at least one of the TopGit-controlled local branches are not yet
1020 up-to-date with their remotes).
1022 With the ``--verbose`` option show which TopGit DAG head(s) (one or
1023 more of the TopGit-controlled branch names output by
1024 ``tg summary --heads``) have the result as a dependency (either direct
1025 or indirect). Using this option will noticeably increase running time.
1027 With the default ``--strict`` option, results for which the base of the
1028 TopGit-controlled branch contains the committish will be suppressed.
1029 For example, if the committish was deep-down in the master branch
1030 history somewhere far outside of the TopGit-controlled portion of
1031 the DAG, with ``--no-strict``, whatever TopGit-controlled branch(es)
1032 first picked up history containing that committish will be shown.
1033 While this is a useful result it's usually not the desired result
1034 which is why it's not the default.
1036 To summarize, even with ``--remotes``, remote results are only shown
1037 if there are no non-remote results. Without ``--no-strict`` (because
1038 ``--strict`` is the default) results outside the TopGit-controlled
1039 portion of the DAG are never shown and even with ``--no-strict`` they
1040 will only be shown if there are no ``--strict`` results. Finally,
1041 the TopGit head info shown with ``--verbose`` only ever appears for
1042 local (i.e. not a remote branch) results. Annihilated branches are
1043 never considered possible matches without ``--annihilated-okay``.
1047 Switch to a topic branch. You can use ``git checkout <branch>``
1048 to get the same effect, but this command helps you navigate
1049 the dependency graph, or allows you to match the topic branch
1050 name using a regular expression, so it can be more convenient.
1052 There following subcommands are available:
1054 ``tg checkout push``
1055 Check out a branch that directly
1056 depends on your current branch.
1059 Check out a branch that this branch
1060 directly depends on.
1062 ``tg checkout [goto] [--] <pattern>``
1063 Check out a topic branch that
1064 matches ``<pattern>``. ``<pattern>``
1065 is used as a sed pattern to filter
1066 all the topic branches. Both ``goto`` and
1067 ``--`` may be omitted provided ``<pattern>``
1068 is not ``push``, ``pop``, ``-a``, ``--all``,
1069 ``goto``, ``..``, ``--``, ``next``, ``child``,
1070 ``prev``, ``parent``, ``-h`` or ``--help``.
1072 ``tg checkout next``
1073 An alias for ``push``.
1075 ``tg checkout child``
1076 An alias for ``push``.
1079 An alias for ``push``.
1081 ``tg checkout prev``
1082 An alias for ``pop``.
1084 ``tg checkout parent``
1085 An alias for ``pop``.
1088 An alias for ``pop``.
1090 If any of the above commands can find more than one possible
1091 branch to switch to, you will be presented with the matches
1092 and asked to select one of them.
1094 If the ``--ignore-other-worktrees`` (or ``--iow``) option is given and
1095 the current Git version is at least 2.5.0 then the full
1096 ``--ignore-other-worktrees`` option will be passed along to the
1097 ``git checkout`` command when it's run (otherwise the option will be
1098 silently ignored and not passed to Git as it would cause an error).
1100 The ``--force`` (or ``-f``) option, when given, gets passed through to
1101 the ``git checkout`` command.
1103 The ``<pattern>`` of ``tg checkout goto`` is optional. If you don't
1104 supply it, all the available topic branches are listed and you
1105 can select one of them.
1107 Normally, the ``push`` and ``pop`` commands moves one step in
1108 the dependency graph of the topic branches. The ``-a`` option
1109 causes them (and their aliases) to move as far as possible.
1110 That is, ``tg checkout push -a`` moves to a topic branch that
1111 depends (directly or indirectly) on the current branch and
1112 that no other branch depends on. ``tg checkout pop -a``
1113 moves to a regular branch that the current topic branch
1114 depends on (directly or indirectly). If there is more than
1115 one possibility, you will be prompted for your selection.
1119 Export a tidied-up history of the current topic branch and its
1120 dependencies, suitable for feeding upstream. Each topic branch
1121 corresponds to a single commit or patch in the cleaned up
1122 history (corresponding basically exactly to ``tg patch`` output
1123 for the topic branch).
1125 The command has three possible outputs now -- either a Git branch
1126 with the collapsed history, a Git branch with a linearized
1127 history, or a quilt series in new directory.
1129 In the case where you are producing collapsed history in a new
1130 branch, you can use this collapsed structure either for
1131 providing a pull source for upstream, or for further
1132 linearization e.g. for creation of a quilt series using git log::
1134 git log --pretty=email -p --topo-order origin..exported
1136 To better understand the function of ``tg export``, consider this
1137 dependency structure::
1139 origin/master - t/foo/blue - t/foo/red - master
1140 `- t/bar/good <,----------'
1141 `- t/baz ------------'
1143 (where each of the branches may have a hefty history). Then::
1145 master$ tg export for-linus
1147 will create this commit structure on the branch ``for-linus``::
1149 origin/master - t/foo/blue -. merge - t/foo/red -.. merge - master
1150 `- t/bar/good <,-------------------'/
1151 `- t/baz ---------------------'
1153 In this mode, ``tg export`` works on the current topic branch, and
1154 can be called either without an option (in that case,
1155 ``--collapse`` is assumed), or with the ``--collapse`` option, and
1156 with one mandatory argument: the name of the branch where the
1157 exported result will be stored.
1159 When using the linearize mode::
1161 master$ tg export --linearize for-linus
1163 you get a linear history respecting the dependencies of your
1164 patches in a new branch ``for-linus``. The result should be more
1165 or less the same as using quilt mode and then reimporting it
1166 into a Git branch. (More or less because the topological order
1167 can usually be extended in more than one way into a total order,
1168 and the two methods may choose different ones.) The result
1169 might be more appropriate for merging upstream, as it contains
1172 Note that you might get conflicts during linearization because
1173 the patches are reordered to get a linear history. If linearization
1174 would produce conflicts then using ``--quilt`` will also likely result
1175 in conflicts when the exported quilt series is applied. Since the
1176 ``--quilt`` mode simply runs a series of ``tg patch`` commands to
1177 generate the patches in the exported quilt series and those patches
1178 will end up being applied linearly, the same conflicts that would be
1179 produced by the ``--linearize`` option will then occur at that time.
1181 To avoid conflicts produced by ``--linearize`` (or by applying the
1182 ``--quilt`` output), use the default ``--collapse`` mode and then use
1183 ``tg rebase`` (or ``git rebase -m`` directly) on the collapsed branch
1184 (with a suitable <upstream>) followed by ``git format-patch`` on the
1185 rebased result to produce a conflict-free patch set. A suitable
1186 upstream may be determined with the ``tg info --leaves`` command (if
1187 it outputs more than one line, linearization will be problematic).
1189 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
1191 When using the quilt mode::
1193 master$ tg export --quilt for-linus
1195 would create the following directory ``for-linus``::
1197 for-linus/t/foo/blue.diff
1198 for-linus/t/foo/red.diff
1199 for-linus/t/bar/good.diff
1200 for-linus/t/baz.diff
1207 With ``--quilt``, you can also pass the ``-b`` parameter followed
1208 by a comma-separated explicit list of branches to export, or
1209 the ``--all`` parameter (which can be shortened to ``-a``) to
1210 export them all. The ``--binary`` option enables producing Git
1211 binary patches. These options are currently only supported
1214 In ``--quilt`` mode the patches are named like the originating
1215 topgit branch. So usually they end up in subdirectories of the
1216 output directory. With the ``--flatten`` option the names are
1217 mangled so that they end up directly in the output dir (slashes
1218 are replaced with underscores). With the ``--strip[=N]`` option
1219 the first ``N`` subdirectories (all if no ``N`` is given) get
1220 stripped off. Names are always ``--strip``'d before being
1221 ``--flatten``'d. With the option ``--numbered`` (which implies
1222 ``--flatten``) the patch names get a number as prefix to allow
1223 getting the order without consulting the series file, which
1224 eases sending out the patches.
1226 | TODO: Make stripping of non-essential headers configurable
1227 | TODO: Make stripping of [PATCH] and other prefixes configurable
1228 | TODO: ``--mbox`` option to export instead as an mbox file
1229 | TODO: support ``--all`` option in other modes of operation
1230 | TODO: For quilt exporting, export the linearized history created in
1231 a temporary branch--this would allow producing conflict-less
1236 Import commits within the given revision range into TopGit,
1237 creating one topic branch per commit. The dependencies are set
1238 up to form a linear sequence starting on your current branch --
1239 or a branch specified by the ``-d`` parameter, if present.
1241 The branch names are auto-guessed from the commit messages and
1242 prefixed by ``t/`` by default; use ``-p <prefix>`` to specify an
1243 alternative prefix (even an empty one).
1245 Alternatively, you can use the ``-s NAME`` parameter to specify
1246 the name of the target branch; the command will then take one
1247 more argument describing a *single* commit to import.
1251 Update the current, specified or all topic branches with respect
1252 to changes in the branches they depend on and remote branches.
1253 This is performed in two phases -- first, changes within the
1254 dependencies are merged to the base, then the base is merged
1255 into the topic branch. The output will guide you on what to do
1256 next in case of conflicts.
1258 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
1260 When ``-a`` (or ``--all``) is specifed, updates all topic branches
1261 matched by ``<pattern>``'s (see ``git-for-each-ref(1)`` for details),
1262 or all if no ``<pattern>`` is given. Any topic branches with missing
1263 dependencies will be skipped entirely unless ``--skip-missing`` is
1266 When ``--skip-missing`` is specifed, an attempt is made to update topic
1267 branches with missing dependencies by skipping only the dependencies
1268 that are missing. Caveat utilitor.
1270 When ``--stash`` is specified (or the ``topgit.autostash`` config
1271 value is set to ``true``), a ref stash will be automatically created
1272 just before beginning updates if any are needed. The ``--no-stash``
1273 option may be used to disable a ``topgit.autostash=true`` setting.
1274 See the ``tg tag`` ``--stash`` option for details.
1276 After the update, if a single topic branch was specified, it is
1277 left as the current one; if ``-a`` was specified, it returns to
1278 the branch which was current at the beginning.
1280 If your dependencies are not up-to-date, ``tg update`` will first
1281 recurse into them and update them.
1283 If a remote branch update brings in dependencies on branches
1284 that are not yet instantiated locally, you can either bring in
1285 all the new branches from the remote using ``tg remote
1286 --populate``, or only pick out the missing ones using ``tg create
1287 -r`` (``tg summary`` will point out branches with incomplete
1288 dependencies by showing an ``!`` next to them).
1290 | TODO: ``tg update -a -c`` to autoremove (clean) up-to-date branches
1294 If ``-a`` or ``--all`` was specified, pushes all non-annihilated
1295 TopGit-controlled topic branches, to a remote repository.
1296 Otherwise, pushes the specified topic branches -- or the
1297 current branch, if you don't specify which. By default, the
1298 remote gets all the dependencies (both TopGit-controlled and
1299 non-TopGit-controlled) and bases pushed to it too. If
1300 ``--tgish-only`` was specified, only TopGit-controlled
1301 dependencies will be pushed, and if ``--no-deps`` was specified,
1302 no dependencies at all will be pushed.
1304 The ``--dry-run`` and ``--force`` options are passed directly to
1305 ``git push`` if given.
1307 The remote may be specified with the ``-r`` option. If no remote
1308 was specified, the configured default TopGit remote will be
1313 Prints the base commit of each of the named topic branches, or
1314 the current branch if no branches are named. Prints an error
1315 message and exits with exit code 1 if the named branch is not
1320 Prints the git log of the named topgit branch -- or the current
1321 branch, if you don't specify a name.
1323 This is really just a convenient shortcut for:
1325 ``git log --first-parent --no-merges $(tg base <name>)..<name>``
1327 where ``<name>`` is the name of the TopGit topic branch (or omitted
1328 for the current branch).
1330 NOTE: if you have merged changes from a different repository, this
1331 command might not list all interesting commits.
1335 Creates a TopGit annotated/signed tag or lists the reflog of one.
1337 A TopGit annotated tag records the current state of one or more TopGit
1338 branches and their dependencies and may be used to revert to the tagged
1339 state at any point in the future.
1341 When reflogs are enabled (the default in a non-bare repository) and
1342 combined with the ``--force`` option a single tag name may be used as a
1343 sort of TopGit branch state stash. The special branch name ``--all``
1344 may be used to tag the state of all current TopGit branches to
1345 facilitate this function and has the side-effect of suppressing the
1346 out-of-date check allowing out-of-date branches to be included.
1348 As a special feature, ``--stash`` may be used as the tag name in which
1349 case ``--all`` is implied if no branch name is listed (instead of the
1350 normal default of ``HEAD``), ``--force`` and ``--no-edit`` (use
1351 ``--edit`` to change that) are automatically activated and the tag will
1352 be saved to ``refs/tgstash`` instead of ``refs/tags/<tagname>``.
1353 The ``--stash`` tag name may also be used with the ``-g``/``--reflog``
1356 The mostly undocumented option ``--allow-outdated`` will bypass the
1357 out-of-date check and is implied when ``--stash`` or ``--all`` is used.
1359 A TopGit annotated/signed tag is simply a Git annotated/signed tag with
1360 a "TOPGIT REFS" section appended to the end of the tag message (and
1361 preceding the signature for signed tags). PEM-style begin and end
1362 lines surround one line per ref where the format of each line is
1363 full-hash SP ref-name. A line will be included for each branch given
1364 on the command line and each ref they depend on either directly or
1367 If more than one TopGit branch is given on the command line, a new
1368 commit will be created that has an empty tree and all of the given
1369 TopGit branches as parents and that commit will be tagged. If a single
1370 TopGit branch is given, then it will be tagged. If the ``--tree``
1371 option is used then it will be used instead of an empty tree (a new
1372 commit will be created if necessary to guarantee the specified tree is
1373 what's in the commit the newly created tag refers to). The argument to
1374 the ``--tree`` option may be any valid treeish.
1376 All the options for creating a tag serve the same purpose as their Git
1377 equivalents except for two. The ``--refs`` option suppresses tag
1378 creation entirely and emits the "TOPGIT REFS" section that would have
1379 been included with the tag. If the ``--no-edit`` option is given and
1380 no message is supplied (via the ``-m`` or ``-F`` option) then the
1381 default message created by TopGit will be used without running the
1384 With ``-g`` or ``--reflog`` show the reflog for a tag. With the
1385 ``--reflog-message`` option the message from the reflog is shown.
1386 With the ``--commit-message`` option the first line of the tag's
1387 message (if the object is a tag) or the commit message (if the object
1388 is a commit) falling back to the reflog message for tree and blob
1389 objects is shown. The default is ``--reflog-message`` unless the
1390 ``--stash`` (``refs/tgstash``) is being shown in which case the default
1391 is then ``--commit-message``. Just add either option explicitly to
1392 override the default.
1394 When showing reflogs, non-tag entries are annotated with their type
1395 unless ``--no-type`` is given.
1397 TopGit tags are created with a reflog if core.logallrefupdates is
1398 enabled (the default for non-bare repositories). Unfortunately Git
1399 is incapable of showing an annotated/signed tag's reflog
1400 (using git log -g) as it will first resolve the tag before checking to
1401 see if it has a reflog. Git can, however, show reflogs for lightweight
1402 tags (using git log -g) just fine but that's not helpful here. Use
1403 ``tg tag`` with the ``-g`` or ``--reflog`` option to see the reflog for
1404 an actual tag object. This also works on non-TopGit annotated/signed
1405 tags as well provided they have a reflog.
1407 The number of entries shown may be limited with the ``-n`` option. If
1408 the tagname is omitted then ``--stash`` is assumed.
1410 The ``--delete`` option is a convenience option that runs the
1411 ``git update-ref -d`` command on the specified tag removing it and its
1412 reflog (if it has one).
1414 The ``--clear`` option clears all but the most recent (the ``@{0}``)
1415 reflog entries from the reflog for the specified tag. It's equivalent
1416 to dropping all the higher numbered reflog entries.
1418 The ``--drop`` option drops the specified reflog entry and requires the
1419 given tagname to have an ``@{n}`` suffix where ``n`` is the reflog
1420 entry number to be dropped. This is really just a convenience option
1421 that runs the appropriate ``git reflog delete`` command.
1423 Note that when combined with ``tg revert``, a tag created by ``tg tag``
1424 can be used to transfer TopGit branches. Simply create the tag, push
1425 it somewhere and then have the recipient run ``tg revert`` to recreate
1426 the TopGit branches. This may be helpful in situations where it's not
1427 feasible to push all the refs corresponding to the TopGit-controlled
1428 branches and their top-bases.
1432 Provides a ``git rebase`` rerere auto continue function. It may be
1433 used as a drop-in replacement front-end for ``git rebase -m`` that
1434 automatically continues the rebase when ``git rerere`` information is
1435 sufficient to resolve all conflicts.
1437 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
1439 If the ``-m`` or ``--merge`` option is not present then ``tg rebase``
1440 will complain and not do anything.
1442 When ``git rerere`` is enabled, previously resolved conflicts are
1443 remembered and can be automatically staged (see ``rerere.autoUpdate``).
1445 However, even with auto staging, ``git rebase`` still stops and
1446 requires an explicit ``git rebase --continue`` to keep going.
1448 In the case where ``git rebase -m`` is being used to flatten history
1449 (such as after a ``tg export --collapse`` prior to a
1450 ``git format-patch``), there's a good chance all conflicts have already
1451 been resolved during normal merge maintenance operations so there's no
1452 reason ``git rebase`` could not automatically continue, but there's no
1453 option to make it do so.
1455 The ``tg rebase`` command provides a ``git rebase --auto-continue``
1458 All the same rebase options can be used (they are simply passed through
1459 to Git unchanged). However, the ``rerere.autoUpdate`` option is
1460 automatically temporarily enabled while running ``git rebase`` and
1461 should ``git rebase`` stop asking one to resolve and continue, but all
1462 conflicts have already been resolved and staged using rerere
1463 information, then ``git rebase --continue`` will be automatically run.
1467 Provides the ability to revert one or more TopGit branches and their
1468 dependencies to a previous state contained within a tag created using
1469 the ``tg tag`` command. In addition to the actual revert mode
1470 operation a list mode operation is also provided to examine a tag's ref
1473 The default mode (``-l`` or ``--list``) shows the state of one or more
1474 of the refs/branches stored in the tag data. When no refs are given on
1475 the command line, all refs in the tag data are shown. With the special
1476 ref name ``--heads`` then the indepedent heads contained in the tag
1477 data are shown. The ``--deps`` option shows the specified refs and all
1478 of their dependencies in a single list with no duplicates. The
1479 ``--rdeps`` option shows a display similar to ``tg summary --rdeps``
1480 for each ref or all TopGit heads if no ref is given on the command
1481 line. The standard ``--no-short``, ``--short=n`` etc. options may be
1482 used to override the default ``--short`` output. With ``--hash`` (or
1483 ``--hash-only``) show only the hash in ``--list`` mode in which case
1484 the default is ``--no-short``. The ``--hash`` option can be used much
1485 like the ``git rev-parse --verify`` command to extract a specific hash
1486 value out of a TopGit tag.
1488 Note that unlike `tg summary`_, here ``--heads`` actually does mean the
1489 ``git merge-base --independent`` heads of the stored refs from the tag
1490 data. To see only the independent TopGit topic branch heads stored in
1491 the tag data use the ``--topgit-heads`` option instead. The default
1492 for the ``--rdeps`` option is ``--topgit-heads`` but ``--heads`` can
1493 be given explicitly to change that. (Note that ``--heads-independent``
1494 is accepted as an alias for ``--heads`` as well.)
1496 The revert mode has three submodes, dry-run mode (``-n`` or
1497 ``--dry-run``), force mode (``-f`` or ``--force``) and interactive mode
1498 (``-i`` or ``--interactive``). If ``--dry-run`` (or ``-n``) is given
1499 no ref updates will actually be performed but what would have been
1500 updated is shown instead. If ``--interactive`` (or ``-i``) is given
1501 then the editor is invoked on an instruction sheet allowing manual
1502 selection of the refs to be updated before proceeding. Since revert is
1503 potentially a destructive operation, at least one of the submodes must
1504 be specified explicitly. If no refs are listed on the command line
1505 then all refs in the tag data are reverted. Otherwise the listed refs
1506 and all of their dependencies (unless ``--no-deps`` is given) are
1507 reverted. Unless ``--no-stash`` is given a new stash will be created
1508 using ``tg tag --stash`` (except, of course, in dry-run mode) just
1509 before actually performing the updates to facilitate recovery from
1512 Both modes accept fully-qualified (i.e. starts with ``refs/``) ref
1513 names as well as unqualified names (which will be assumed to be located
1514 under ``refs/heads/``). In revert mode a tgish ref will always have
1515 both its ``refs/heads/`` and ``refs/top-bases/`` values included no
1516 matter how it's listed unless ``--no-deps`` is given and the ref is
1517 fully qualified (i.e. starts with ``refs/``) or one or the other of its
1518 values was removed from the instruction sheet in interactive mode. In
1519 list mode a tgish ref will always have both its ``refs/heads/`` and
1520 ``refs/top-bases/`` values included only when using the ``--deps`` or
1521 ``--rdeps`` options.
1523 The ``--tgish-only`` option excludes non-tgish refs (i.e. refs that do
1524 not have a ``refs/heads/<name>``, ``refs/top-bases/<name>`` pair).
1526 The ``--exclude`` option (which can be repeated) excludes specific
1527 refs. If the name given to ``--exclude`` is not fully-qualified (i.e.
1528 starts with ``refs/``) then it will exclude both members of a tgish ref
1531 The ``--quiet`` (or ``-q``) option may be used in revert mode to
1532 suppress non-dry-run ref change status messages.
1534 The special tag name ``--stash`` (as well as with ``@{n}`` suffixes)
1535 can be used to refer to ``refs/tgstash``.
1537 The ``tg revert`` command supports tags of tags that contains TopGit
1538 refs. So, for example, if you do this::
1541 git tag -f -a -m "tag the tag" newtag newtag
1543 Then ``newtag`` will be a tag of a tag containing a ``TOPGIT REFS``
1544 section. ``tg revert`` knows how to dereference the outermost
1545 tag to get to the next (and the next etc.) tag to find the
1546 ``TOPGIT REFS`` section so after the above sequence, the tag ``newtag``
1547 can still be used successfully with ``tg revert``.
1549 NOTE: If HEAD points to a ref that is updated by a revert operation
1550 then NO WARNING whatsoever will be issued, but the index and working
1551 tree will always be left completely untouched (and the reflog for
1552 the pointed-to ref can always be used to find the previous value).
1556 Outputs the direct dependencies for the current or named branch.
1559 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
1560 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
1564 Outputs all branches which directly depend on the current or
1568 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
1569 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
1573 Transition top-bases from old location to new location.
1575 Beginning with TopGit release 0.19.4, TopGit has the ability to store
1576 the top-bases refs in either the old ``ref/top-bases/...`` location or
1577 the new ``refs/heads/{top-bases}/...`` location. Starting with TopGit
1578 release 0.20.0, the default is the new location.
1580 By storing the top-bases under heads, Git is less likely to complain
1581 when manipulating them, hosting providers are more likely to provide
1582 access to them and Git prevents them from pointing at anything other
1583 than a commit object. All in all a win for everyone.
1585 TopGit attempts to automatically detect whether the new or old location
1586 is being used for the top-bases and just do the right thing. However,
1587 by explicitly setting the config value ``topgit.top-bases`` to either
1588 ``refs`` for the old location or ``heads`` for the new location the
1589 auto-detection can be bypassed. If no top-bases refs are present in
1590 the repository the default prior to TopGit release 0.20.0 is to use the
1591 old location but starting with TopGit release 0.20.0 the default is to
1592 use the new location.
1594 The ``tg migrate-bases`` command may be used to migrate top-bases refs
1595 from the old location to the new location (or, by using the
1596 undocumented ``--reverse`` option, vice versa).
1598 With few exceptions (``tg create -r`` and ``tg revert``), all top-bases
1599 refs (both local *and* remote refs) are expected to be stored in the
1600 same location (either new or old). A repository's current location for
1601 storing top-bases refs may be shown with the ``tg --top-bases`` command.
1609 TopGit stores all the topic branches in the regular ``refs/heads/``
1610 namespace (so we recommend distinguishing them with the ``t/`` prefix).
1611 Apart from that, TopGit also maintains a set of auxiliary refs in
1612 ``refs/top-*``. Currently, only ``refs/top-bases/`` is used, containing the
1613 current *base* of the given topic branch -- this is basically a merge of
1614 all the branches the topic branch depends on; it is updated during ``tg
1615 update`` and then merged to the topic branch, and it is the base of a
1616 patch generated from the topic branch by ``tg patch``.
1618 All the metadata is tracked within the source tree and history of the
1619 topic branch itself, in ``.top*`` files; these files are kept isolated
1620 within the topic branches during TopGit-controlled merges and are of
1621 course omitted during ``tg patch``. The state of these files in base
1622 commits is undefined; look at them only in the topic branches
1623 themselves. Currently, two files are defined:
1626 Contains the description of the topic branch in a
1627 mail-like format, plus the author information, whatever
1628 Cc headers you choose or the post-three-dashes message.
1629 When mailing out your patch, basically only a few extra
1630 mail headers are inserted and then the patch itself is
1631 appended. Thus, as your patches evolve, you can record
1632 nuances like whether the particular patch should have
1633 To-list / Cc-maintainer or vice-versa and similar
1634 nuances, if your project is into that. ``From`` is
1635 prefilled from your current ``GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT``; other
1636 headers can be prefilled from various optional
1637 ``topgit.*`` git config options.
1640 Contains the one-per-line list of branches this branch
1641 depends on, pre-seeded by ``tg create``. A (continuously
1642 updated) merge of these branches will be the *base* of
1645 IMPORTANT: DO NOT EDIT ``.topdeps`` MANUALLY!!! If you do so, you need to
1646 know exactly what you are doing, since this file must stay in sync with
1647 the Git history information, otherwise very bad things will happen.
1649 TopGit also automagically installs a bunch of custom commit-related
1650 hooks that will verify whether you are committing the ``.top*`` files in a
1651 sane state. It will add the hooks to separate files within the ``hooks/``
1652 subdirectory, and merely insert calls to them to the appropriate hooks
1653 and make them executable (but will make sure the original hook's code is
1654 not called if the hook was not executable beforehand).
1656 Another automagically installed piece is a ``.git/info/attributes``
1657 specifier for an ``ours`` merge strategy for the files ``.topmsg`` and
1658 ``.topdeps``, and the (intuitive) ``ours`` merge strategy definition in
1665 There are two remaining issues with accessing topic branches in remote
1668 (i) Referring to remote topic branches from your local repository
1669 (ii) Developing some of the remote topic branches locally
1671 There are two somewhat contradictory design considerations here:
1673 (a) Hacking on multiple independent TopGit remotes in a single
1675 (b) Having a self-contained topic system in local refs space
1677 To us, (a) does not appear to be very convincing, while (b) is quite
1678 desirable for ``git-log topic`` etc. working, and increased conceptual
1681 Thus, we choose to instantiate all the topic branches of given remote
1682 locally; this is performed by ``tg remote --populate``. ``tg update``
1683 will also check if a branch can be updated from its corresponding remote
1684 branch. The logic needs to be somewhat involved if we are to "do the
1685 right thing". First, we update the base, handling the remote branch as
1686 if it was the first dependency; thus, conflict resolutions made in the
1687 remote branch will be carried over to our local base automagically.
1688 Then, the base is merged into the remote branch and the result is merged
1689 to the local branch -- again, to carry over remote conflict resolutions.
1690 In the future, this order might be adjustable on a per-update basis, in
1691 case local changes happen to be diverging more than the remote ones.
1692 (See the details in `The Update Process`_ for more in depth coverage.)
1694 All commands by default refer to the remote that ``tg remote --populate``
1695 was called on the last time (stored in the ``topgit.remote`` git
1696 configuration variable). You can manually run any command with a
1697 different base remote by passing ``-r REMOTE`` *before* the subcommand
1698 name or passing ``-u`` *before* the subcommand to run without one.
1704 A familiarity with the terms in the GLOSSARY_ is helpful for understanding the
1705 content of this sections. See also the IMPLEMENTATION_ section.
1710 When a branch is "updated" using the ``tg update`` command the following steps
1713 1) The branch and all of its dependencies (and theirs recursively)
1714 are checked to see which ones are *out-of-date*. See glossary_.
1716 2) Each of the branch's direct dependencies (i.e. they are listed in
1717 the branch's ``.topdeps`` file) which is out of date is updated
1718 before proceeding (yup, this is a recursive process).
1720 3) Each of the branch's direct dependencies (i.e. they are listed in
1721 the branch's ``.topdes`` file) that was updated in the previous
1722 step is now merged into the branch's corresponding base. If a
1723 remote is involved, and the branch's corresponding base does NOT
1724 contain the remote branch's corresponding base that remote base is
1725 also merged into the branch's base at this time as well (it will be
1726 the first item merged into the branch's base).
1728 4) If the branch has a corresponding remote branch and the branch
1729 does not already contain it, it's merged into the branch's base
1730 (which was possibly already updated in step (3) to contain the
1731 remote branch's base but not the remote branch itself) on a detached
1732 HEAD. Yup, this step can be a bit confusing and no, the updated
1733 base from step (3) has not yet been merged into the branch itself
1734 yet either. If there is no remote branch this step does not apply.
1735 Using a detached HEAD allows the remote branch to be merged into the
1736 contents of the base without actually perturbing the base's ref.
1738 5) If there is a remote branch present then use the result of step (4)
1739 otherwise use the branch's base and merge that into the branch
1742 That's it! Simple, right? ;)
1744 Unless the auto stash option has been disabled (see `no undo`_, `tg update`_
1745 and `tg tag`_), a copy of all the old refs values will be stashed away
1746 immediately after step (1) before starting step (2), but only if anything is
1747 actually found to be out-of-date.
1752 The ``tg update`` command regularly performs merges while executing an update
1753 operation. In order to speed things up, it attempts to do in-index merges
1754 where possible. It accomplishes this by using a separate, temporary index
1755 file and the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command possibly assisted by
1756 the ``git merge-index`` and ``git merge-file`` commands. This combination may
1757 be repeated more than once to perform an octopus in-index merge. If this
1758 fails, the files are checked out and a normal ``git merge`` three-way merge is
1759 performed (possily multiple times). If the normal ``git merge`` fails then
1760 user intervention is required to resolve the merge conflict(s) and continue.
1762 Since the ``tg annihilate``, ``tg create`` and ``tg depend add`` commands may
1763 end up running the ``tg update`` machinery behind the scenes to complete their
1764 operation they may also result in any of these merge strategies being used.
1766 In addition to the normal Git merge strategies (if the in-index merging fails),
1767 there are four possible TopGit merge strategies that may be shown. Since they
1768 all involve use of the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command they are all
1769 variations of a "trivial aggressive" merge. The "trivial" part because all of
1770 the merges done by ``git read-tree -m`` are described as "trivial" and the
1771 "aggressive" part because the ``--aggressive`` option is always used.
1773 1) "trivial aggressive"
1774 Only two heads were involved and all merging was completed by
1775 the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command.
1777 2) "trivial aggressive automatic"
1778 Only two heads were involved but after the
1779 ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command completed there were
1780 still unresolved items and ``git merge-index`` had to be run
1781 (using the ``tg index-merge-one-file`` driver) which ultimately
1782 ran ``git merge-file`` at least once to perform a simple
1783 automatic three-way merge. Hence the "automatic" description
1784 and the "Auto-merging ..." output line(s).
1786 3) "trivial aggressive octopus"
1787 This is the same as a "trivial aggressive" merge except that
1788 more than two heads were involved and after merging the first
1789 two heads, the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` step was
1790 repeated again on the result for each additional head. All
1791 merging was completed via multiple
1792 ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` commands only.
1793 This beast is relatively rare in the wild.
1795 4) "trivial aggressive automatic octopus"
1796 This is very similar to the "trivial aggressive octopus"
1797 except that at least one of the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive``
1798 commands left unresolved items that were handled the same way
1799 as the "trivial aggressive automatic" strategy. This species
1800 is commonly seen in the wild.
1807 Version-controlled file stored at the root level of each
1808 TopGit branch that contains the patch header for a TopGit
1809 branch. See also IMPLEMENTATION_;
1812 Version-controlled file stored at the root level of each
1813 TopGit branch that lists the branch's dependencies one per
1814 line omitting the leading ``refs/heads/`` part. See also
1818 Given two Git commit identifiers (e.g. hashes) C1 and C2,
1819 commit C1 "contains" commit C2 if either they are the same
1820 commit or C2 can be reached from C1 by following one or more
1821 parent links from C1 (perhaps via one or more intermediate
1822 commits along the way). In other words, if C1 contains C2
1823 then C2 is an ancestor of C1 or conversely C1 is a descendant
1824 of C2. Since a TopGit branch name is also the name of a Git
1825 branch (something located under the ``refs/heads`` Git
1826 namespace) and similarly for a TopGit base, they can both be
1827 resolved to a Git commit identifier and then participate in
1828 a branch containment test. An easy mnemonic for this is
1829 "children contain the genes of their parents."
1832 See branch containment.
1835 Excellent system for managing a history of changes to one
1836 or more possibly interrelated patches.
1839 A Git branch that has an associated TopGit base. Conceptually
1840 it represents a single patch that is the difference between
1841 the associated TopGit base and the TopGit branch. In other
1842 words ``git diff-tree <TopGit base> <TopGit branch>`` except
1843 that any ``.topdeps`` and/or ``.topmsg`` files are excluded
1844 from the result and the contents of the ``.topmsg`` file from
1845 the TopGit branch is prefixed to the result.
1848 A Git branch that records the base upon which a TopGit branch's
1849 single conceptual "patch" is built. The name of the Git branch
1850 is derived from the TopGit branch name by stripping off the
1851 leading ``refs/heads/`` and appending the correct prefix where
1852 all TopGit bases are stored (typically either
1853 ``refs/top-bases/`` or ``refs/heads/{top-bases}/`` -- the
1854 prefix for any given repository can be shown by using the
1855 ``tg --top-bases`` command and updated using the
1856 ``tg migrate-bases`` command).
1858 All of a TopGit branch's dependencies are merged into the
1859 corresponding TopGit base during a ``tg update`` of a branch.
1864 TopGit ``[PATCH]`` branch
1865 A TopGit branch whose subject starts with ``[PATCH]``. By
1866 convention these TopGit branches contain a single patch
1867 (equivalent to a single patch file) and have at least one
1868 dependency (i.e. their ``.topdeps`` files are never empty).
1870 TopGit ``[BASE]`` branch
1871 A TopGit branch whose subject starts with ``[BASE]``. By
1872 convention these TopGit branches do not actually contain
1873 any changes and their ``.topdeps`` files are empty. They
1874 are used to control a base dependency that another set of
1875 branches depends on.
1877 TopGit ``[STAGE]`` branch
1878 A TopGit branch whose subject starts with ``[STAGE]``. By
1879 convention these TopGit branches do not actually contain any
1880 changes of their own but do have one or (typically) more
1881 dependencies in their ``.topdeps`` file. These branches are
1882 used to bring together one or (typically) more independent
1883 TopGit ``[PATCH]`` branches into a single branch so that
1884 testing and/or evaluation can be performed on the result.
1887 When merging two (or more) heads that touch the same lines in
1888 the file but in different ways the result is a merge conflict
1889 that requires manual intervention. If a merge conflict occurs
1890 with more than two heads (an octopus merge) it's generally
1891 replaced by multiple three-way merges so that by the time a
1892 user sees a merge conflict needing manual resolution, there
1893 will be only two heads involved.
1896 A Git merge strategy (see the "MERGE STRATEGIES" section of
1897 ``git help merge``) or one of the TopGit `merge strategies`_
1898 used to merge two or more heads.
1900 TopGit merge strategy
1901 See the `Merge Strategies`_ section above for details but
1902 basically these are just in-index merges done using the
1903 ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command one or more times
1904 possibily assisted by the ``git merge-index`` and the
1905 ``git merge-file`` commands.
1908 A merge involving more than two heads. Note that if there are
1909 less than three independent heads the resulting merge that
1910 started out as an octopus will end up not actually being an
1914 A TopGit branch is considered to be "out-of-date" when ANY of
1915 the following are true:
1917 a) The TopGit branch does NOT contain its
1920 b) The TopGit branch does NOT contain its
1921 corresponding remote branch (there may not be
1922 a remote branch in which case this does not apply)
1924 c) The TopGit branch's base does NOT contain its
1925 corresponding remote branch's base (there may not be
1926 a remote branch in which case this does not apply)
1928 d) Any of the TopGit branches listed in the branch's
1929 ``.topdeps`` file are NOT contained by the branch.
1930 (See "branch containment" above.)
1932 e) Any of the TopGit branches listed in the branch's
1933 ``.topdeps`` file are out-of-date.
1935 Note that if a remote branch is present and is NOT out-of-date
1936 then it will contain its own base and (c) is mostly redundant.
1938 remote TopGit branch
1939 A Git branch with the same branch name as a TopGit branch
1940 but living under ``refs/remotes/<some remote>/`` instead
1941 of just ``refs/heads/``.
1944 The TopGit base branch corresponding to a remote TopGit branch,
1945 which lives under ``refs/remotes/`` somewhere (depending on
1946 what the output of ``tg --top-bases`` is for that remote).
1949 A three-way merge takes a common base and two heads (call them
1950 A and B) and creates a new file that is the common base plus
1951 all of the changes made between the common base and head A
1952 *AND* all of the changes made between the common base and
1953 head B. The technique used to accomplish this is called a
1960 The following references are useful to understand the development of
1961 topgit and its subcommands.
1964 http://public-inbox.org/git/36ca99e90904091034m4d4d31dct78acb333612e678@mail.gmail.com/T/#u
1967 THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE
1968 --------------------
1970 The following software understands TopGit branches:
1972 * `magit <http://magit.github.io/>`_ -- a git mode for emacs
1974 IMPORTANT: Magit requires its topgit mode to be enabled first, as
1975 described in its documentation, in the "Activating extensions"
1976 subsection. If this is not done, it will not push TopGit branches
1977 correctly, so it's important to enable it even if you plan to mostly use
1978 TopGit from the command line.