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