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 :GLOSSARY_: All the TopGit vocabulary in one place
23 :TECHNICAL_: How it works behind the scenes
29 TopGit is a collection of POSIX shell scripts so a POSIX-compliant shell is
30 required along with some standard POSIX-compliant utilities (e.g. sed, awk,
31 cat, etc.). Git version 1.8.5 or later is also required.
33 To use TopGit with linked working trees (the ``git worktree add`` command),
34 at least Git version 2.5.0 (obviously, since that's when the ``git worktree``
35 command first appeared) is needed in which case linked working trees are then
36 fully supported for use with TopGit.
38 The scripts need to be preprocessed and installed and currently the Makefile
39 that does this requires GNU make, but that's an install-time-only requirement.
41 It is possible, however, to use the DESTDIR functionality to install TopGit to
42 a staging area on one machine, archive that and then unarchive it on another
43 machine to perform an install (provided the build prefix and other options are
44 compatible with the final installed location).
50 See the file ``INSTALL``.
56 The TopGit git repository can be found at <http://repo.or.cz/topgit/pro>.
62 Why not use something like StGIT or Guilt or ``rebase -i`` for maintaining
63 your patch queue? The advantage of these tools is their simplicity;
64 they work with patch *series* and defer to the reflog facility for
65 version control of patches (reordering of patches is not
66 version-controlled at all). But there are several disadvantages -- for
67 one, these tools (especially StGIT) do not actually fit well with plain
68 Git at all: it is basically impossible to take advantage of the index
69 effectively when using StGIT. But more importantly, these tools
70 horribly fail in the face of a distributed environment.
72 TopGit has been designed around three main tenets:
74 (i) TopGit is as thin a layer on top of Git as possible. You
75 still maintain your index and commit using Git; TopGit will only
76 automate a few indispensable tasks.
78 (ii) TopGit is anxious about *keeping* your history. It will
79 never rewrite your history, and all metadata is also tracked
80 by Git, smoothly and non-obnoxiously. It is good to have a
81 *single* point when the history is cleaned up, and that is at
82 the point of inclusion in the upstream project; locally, you
83 can see how your patch has evolved and easily return to older
86 (iii) TopGit is specifically designed to work in a
87 distributed environment. You can have several instances of
88 TopGit-aware repositories and smoothly keep them all
89 up-to-date and transfer your changes between them.
91 As mentioned above, the main intended use-case for TopGit is tracking
92 third-party patches, where each patch is effectively a single topic
93 branch. In order to flexibly accommodate even complex scenarios when
94 you track many patches where many are independent but some depend on
95 others, TopGit ignores the ancient Quilt heritage of patch series and
96 instead allows the patches to freely form graphs (DAGs just like Git
97 history itself, only "one level higher"). For now, you have to manually
98 specify which patches the current one depends on, but TopGit might help
99 you with that in the future in a darcs-like fashion.
101 A glossary_ plug: The union (i.e. merge) of patch dependencies is called
102 a *base* of the patch (topic branch).
104 Of course, TopGit is perhaps not the right tool for you:
106 (i) TopGit is not complicated, but StGIT et al. are somewhat
107 simpler, conceptually. If you just want to make a linear
108 purely-local patch queue, deferring to StGIT instead might
111 (ii) When using TopGit, your history can get a little hairy
112 over time, especially with all the merges rippling through.
121 ## Create and evolve a topic branch
122 $ tg create t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
123 tg: Automatically marking dependency on master
124 tg: Creating t/gitweb/pathinfo-action base from master...
130 ## Create another topic branch on top of the former one
131 $ tg create t/gitweb/nifty-links
132 tg: Automatically marking dependency on t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
133 tg: Creating t/gitweb/nifty-links base from t/gitweb/pathinfo-action...
137 ## Create another topic branch on top of master and submit
138 ## the resulting patch upstream
139 $ tg create t/revlist/author-fixed master
140 tg: Creating t/revlist/author-fixed base from master...
144 tg: Sent t/revlist/author-fixed
146 To: git@vger.kernel.org
147 Cc: gitster@pobox.com
148 Subject: [PATCH] Fix broken revlist --author when --fixed-string
150 ## Create another topic branch depending on two others non-trivially
151 $ tg create t/whatever t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
152 tg: Creating t/whatever base from t/revlist/author-fixed...
153 tg: Merging t/whatever base with t/gitweb/nifty-links...
155 tg: Please commit merge resolution and call: tg update --continue
156 tg: It is also safe to abort this operation using `git reset --hard`
157 tg: but please remember you are on the base branch now;
158 tg: you will want to switch to a different branch.
161 $ tg update --continue
165 ## Update a single topic branch and propagate the changes to
167 $ git checkout t/gitweb/nifty-links
170 $ git checkout t/whatever
172 Topic Branch: t/whatever (1 commit)
173 Subject: [PATCH] Whatever patch
175 Depends: t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
177 t/gitweb/nifty-links (1 commit)
179 tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/nifty-links changes...
181 tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update --continue`
182 tg: (use `tg status` to see more options)
185 $ tg update --continue
186 tg: Updating t/whatever against new base...
188 tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update --continue`
189 tg: (use `tg status` to see more options)
192 $ tg update --continue
194 ## Update a single topic branch and propagate the changes
195 ## further through the dependency chain
196 $ git checkout t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
199 $ git checkout t/whatever
201 Topic Branch: t/whatever (1/2 commits)
202 Subject: [PATCH] Whatever patch
204 Depends: t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
206 t/gitweb/pathinfo-action (<= t/gitweb/nifty-links) (1 commit)
208 tg: Recursing to t/gitweb/nifty-links...
209 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/pathinfo-action changes...
211 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update --continue`
212 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: (use `tg status` to see more options)
215 $ tg update --continue
216 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Updating t/gitweb/nifty-links against new base...
218 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update --continue`
219 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: (use `tg status` to see more options)
222 $ tg update --continue
223 tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/nifty-links changes...
224 tg: Updating t/whatever against new base...
226 ## Clone a TopGit-controlled repository
229 $ tg remote --populate origin
234 ## Add a TopGit remote to a repository and push to it
235 $ git remote add foo URL
239 ## Update from a non-default TopGit remote
248 When using TopGit there are several common conventions used when working with
249 TopGit branches. None of them are enforced, they are only suggestions.
251 There are three typical uses for a TopGit branch:
254 Normal TopGit branches that represent a single patch. These are known
255 as "patch" TopGit branches.
257 Empty TopGit branches with no dependencies (an empty ``.topdeps`` file)
258 that represent a base upon which other "normal" TopGit branches depend.
259 These are known as "base" TopGit branches (not to be confused with
260 the refs/top-bases/... refs).
262 Empty TopGit branches that serve as a staging area to bring together
263 several other TopGit branches into one place so they can be used/tested
264 all together. These are known as "stage" TopGit branches.
266 An "empty" TopGit branch is one that does not have any changes of its own --
267 it may still have dependencies though ("stage" branches do, "base" branches do
268 not). The ``tg summary`` output shows empty branches with a ``0`` in the
269 listing. Normal "patch" branches that have not been annihilated, "base" and
270 "stage" branches fall into this category. (Annihilated branches are normally
271 omitted from the ``tg summary`` output but can be shown if given explicitly as
272 an argument to the ``tg summary`` command. However, the message line will be
273 incorrect since an annihilated branch has no ``.topmsg`` file of its own.)
275 A "patch" branch name typically starts with ``t/`` whereas "base" and "stage"
276 branch names often do not.
278 A "base" branch is created by using the ``--no-deps`` option of ``tg create``
279 which will automatically suggest a "[BASE]" message prefix rather than
280 "[PATCH]". A "stage" branch is created like a normal patch branch except that
281 the only changes that will ever be made to it are typically to add/remove
282 dependencies. Its subject prefix must be manually changed to "[STAGE]" to
285 Since both "base" and "stage" branches typically only have a use for the
286 "Subject:" ilne from their ``.topmsg`` file, they are quite easily created
287 using the ``--topmsg`` option of ``tg create``.
289 Use of "stage" and "base" branches is completely optional. However, without
290 use of a "stage" branch it will be difficult to test multiple independent
291 patches together all at once. A "base" branch is merely a convenience that
292 provides more explicit control over when a common base for a set of patches
293 gets updated as well as providing a branch that shows in ``tg summary`` output
294 and participates in ``tg remote --populate`` setup.
296 When using the ``tg tag`` command to create tags that record the current state
297 of one or more TopGit branches, the tags are often created with a name that
300 One last thing, you have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
306 Beware, there is no "undo" after running a ``tg update``!
308 Well, that's not entirely correct. Since ``tg update`` never discards commits
309 an "undo" operation is technically feasible provided the old values of all the
310 refs that were affected by the ``tg update`` operation can be determined and
311 then they are simply changed back to their previous values.
313 In practice though, it can be extremely tedious and error prone looking through
314 log information to try and determine what the correct previous values were.
315 Although, since TopGit tries to make sure reflogs are enabled for top-bases
316 refs, using Git's ``@{date}`` notation on all the refs dumped out by a
317 ``tg tag --refs foo``, where "foo" is the branch that was updated whose update
318 needs to be undone, may work.
320 Alternatively, ``tg tag --stash`` can be used prior to the update and then
321 ``tg revert`` used after the update to restore the previous state. This
322 assumes, of course, that you remember to run ``tg tag --stash`` first.
324 The ``tg update`` command understands a ``--stash`` option that tells it to
325 automatically run ``tg tag --stash`` before it starts making changes (if
326 everything is up-to-date it won't run the stash command at all).
328 The ``--stash`` option is the default nowadays when running ``tg update``,
329 add the ``--no-stash`` option to turn it off.
331 There is a preference for this. Setting the config value ``topgit.autostash``
332 to ``false`` will implicitly add the ``--no-stash`` option to any ``tg update``
333 command unless an explicit ``--stash`` option is given.
335 If you are likely to ever want to undo a ``tg update``, setting
336 ``topgit.autostash`` to ``false`` is highly discouraged!
338 Note that the tags saved by ``tg tag --stash`` are stored in the
339 ``refs/tgstash`` ref and its reflog. Unfortunately, while Git is happy to
340 maintain the reflog (once it's been enabled which ``tg tag`` guarantees for
341 ``refs/tgstash``), Git is unable to view an annotated/signed tag's reflog!
342 Instead Git dereferences the tag and shows the wrong thing. Use the
343 ``tg tag -g`` command to view the ``refs/tgstash`` reflog instead.
349 No, this is not a section about budget nonsense. ;)
351 TopGit keeps its metadata in ``.topdeps`` and ``.topmsg`` files. In an effort
352 to facilitate cherry-picking and other Git activities on the patch changes
353 themselves while ignoring the TopGit metadata, TopGit attempts to keep all
354 changes to ``.topdeps`` and ``.topmsg`` files limited to commits that do NOT
355 contain changes to any other files.
357 This is a departure from previous TopGit versions that made no such effort.
359 Primarily this affects ``tg create`` and ``tg import`` (which makes use of
360 ``tg create``) as ``tg create`` will commit the initial versions of
361 ``.topdeps`` and ``.topmsg`` for a new TopGit-controlled branch in their own
362 commit instead of mixing them in with changes to other files.
364 The ``pre-commit`` hook will also attempt to separate out any ``.topdeps`` and
365 ``.topmsg`` changes from commits that include changes to other files.
367 It is possible to defeat these checks without much effort (``pre-commit`` hooks
368 can easily be bypassed, ``tg create`` has a ``--no-commit`` option, many Git
369 commands simply do not run the ``pre-commit`` hook, etc.).
371 If you really, really, really, really want to change the default back to the
372 old behavior of previous TopGit versions where no such sequestration took
373 place, then set the ``topgit.sequester`` config variable explicitly to the
374 value ``false``. But this is not recommended.
377 AMENDING AND REBASING AND UPDATE-REF'ING
378 ----------------------------------------
382 It is okay to manually update a top-bases/... ref when a) it has no depedencies
383 (i.e. it was created with the ``tg create`` ``--no-deps`` option) and b) the
384 old top-bases/... ref value can be fast-forwarded to the new top-bases/...
385 value OR the new value contains ALL of the changes in the old value through
386 some other mechanism (perhaps they were cherry-picked or otherwise applied to
387 the new top-bases/... ref). The same rules apply to non-TopGit-controlled
390 Ignoring this rule and proceeding anyway with a non-fast-forward update to a
391 top-bases/... ref will result in changes present in the new value being merged
392 into the branch (at ``tg update`` time) as expected (possibly with conflicts),
393 but any changes that were contained in the old version of the top-bases/... ref
394 which have been dropped (i.e. are NOT contained in the new version of the
395 top-bases/... ref) will continue to be present in the branch! To get rid of
396 the dropped commits, one or more "revert" commits will have to be manually
397 applied to the tip of the new top-bases/... value (which will then be merged
398 into the branch at next ``tg update`` time).
400 The only time it's safe to amend, rebase, filter or otherwise rewrite commits
401 contained in a TopGit controlled branch or non-TopGit branch is when those
402 commits are NOT reachable via any other ref!
404 Furthermore, while it is safe to rewrite merge commits (provided they meet the
405 same conditions) the merge commits themselves and the branches they are merging
406 in must be preserved during the rewrite and that can be rather tricky to get
407 right so it's not recommended.
409 For example, if, while working on a TopGit-controlled branch ``foo``, a bad
410 typo is noticed, it's okay to ammend/rebase to fix that provided neither
411 ``tg update`` nor ``tg create`` has already been used to cause some other ref
412 to be able to reach the commit with the typo.
414 If an amend or rerwite is done anyway even though the commit with the typo is
415 reachable from some other ref, the typo won't really be removed. What will
416 happen instead is that the new version without the typo will ultimately be
417 merged into the other ref(s) (at ``tg update`` time) likely causing a conflict
418 that will have to be manually resolved and the commit with the typo will
419 continue to be reachable from those other refs!
421 Instead just make a new commit to fix the typo. The end result will end up
422 being the same but without the merge conflicts.
424 See also the discussion in the `NO UNDO`_ section.
430 TopGit needs to check many things to determine whether a TopGit branch is
431 up-to-date or not. This can involve a LOT of git commands for a complex
432 dependency tree. In order to speed things up, TopGit keeps a cache of results
433 in a ``tg-cache`` subdirectory in the ``.git`` directory.
435 Results are tagged with the original hash values used to get that result so
436 that items which have not been changed return their results quickly and items
437 which have been changed compute their new result and cache it for future use.
439 The ``.git/tg-cache`` directory may be removed at any time and the cache will
440 simply be recreated in an on-demand fashion as needed, at some speed penalty,
441 until it's fully rebuilt.
443 To force the cache to be fully pre-loaded, run the ``tg summary`` command
444 without any arguments. Otherwise, normal day-to-day TopGit operations should
445 keep it more-or-less up-to-date.
447 While each TopGit command is running, it uses a temporary subdirectory also
448 located in the ``.git`` directory. These directories are named
449 ``tg-tmp.XXXXXX`` where the ``XXXXXX`` part will be random letters and digits.
451 These temporary directories should always be removed automatically after each
452 TopGit command finishes running. As long as you are not in a subshell as a
453 result of a TopGit command stopping and waiting for a manual merge resolution,
454 it's safe to remove any of these directories that may have somehow accidentally
455 been left behind as a result of some failure that occurred while running a
456 TopGit command (provided, of course, it's not actually being used by a TopGit
457 command currently running in another terminal window or by another user on the
463 ``tg [-C <dir>] [-r <remote> | -u] [-c <name>=<val>] <subcommand> [<subcommand option/argument>...]``
465 -C <dir> Change directory to <dir> before doing anything
466 -r <remote> Pretend ``topgit.remote`` is set to <remote>
467 -u Pretend ``topgit.remote`` is not set
468 -c <name=val> Pass config option to git, may be repeated
470 The ``tg`` tool has several subcommands:
472 :`tg annihilate`_: Mark a TopGit-controlled branch as defunct
473 :`tg base`_: Show base commit for one or more TopGit branches
474 :`tg checkout`_: Shortcut for git checkout with name matching
475 :`tg create`_: Create a new TopGit-controlled branch
476 :`tg delete`_: Delete a TopGit-controlled branch cleanly
477 :`tg depend`_: Add a new dependency to a TopGit-controlled branch
478 :`tg export`_: Export TopGit branch patches to files or a branch
479 :`tg files`_: Show files changed by a TopGit branch
480 :`tg help`_: Show TopGit help optionally using a browser
481 :`tg import`_: Import commit(s) to separate TopGit branches
482 :`tg info`_: Show status information about a TopGit branch
483 :`tg log`_: Run git log limiting revisions to a TopGit branch
484 :`tg mail`_: Shortcut for git send-email with ``tg patch`` output
485 :`tg migrate-bases`_: Transition top-bases to new location
486 :`tg next`_: Show branches directly depending on a TopGit branch
487 :`tg patch`_: Generate a patch file for a TopGit branch
488 :`tg prev`_: Show non-annihilated TopGit dependencies for a branch
489 :`tg push`_: Run git push on TopGit branch(es) and depedencies
490 :`tg rebase`_: Auto continue git rebase if rerere resolves conflicts
491 :`tg remote`_: Set up remote for fetching/pushing TopGit branches
492 :`tg revert`_: Revert ref(s) to a state stored in a ``tg tag``
493 :`tg status`_: Show current TopGit status (e.g. in-progress update)
494 :`tg summary`_: Show various information about TopGit branches
495 :`tg tag`_: Create tag that records current TopGit branch state
496 :`tg update`_: Update TopGit branch(es) with respect to dependencies
500 Our sophisticated integrated help facility. Mostly duplicates
505 # to get help for a particular command:
507 # to get help for a particular command in a browser window:
508 $ tg help -w <command>
509 # to get help on TopGit itself
511 # to get help on TopGit itself in a browser
516 Our sophisticated status facility. Similar to Git's status command
517 but shows any in-progress update that's awaiting a merge resolution
518 or any other on-going TopGit activity (such as a branch creation).
520 With a single ``--verbose`` (or ``-v``) option include a short status
521 display for any dirty (but not untracked) files. This also causes all
522 non file status lines to be prefixed with "## ".
524 With two (or more) ``--verbose`` (or ``-v``) options, additionally
525 show full symbolic ref names and unabbreviated hash values.
527 With the ``--exit-code`` option the exit code will be non-zero if any
528 TopGit or Git operation is currently in progress or the working
533 Create a new TopGit-controlled topic branch of the given name
534 (required argument) and switch to it. If no dependencies are
535 specified (by extra arguments passed after the first one), the
536 current branch is assumed to be the only dependency.
538 By default ``tg create`` opens an editor on the new ``.topmsg`` file
539 and then commits the new ``.topmsg`` and ``.topdeps`` files
540 automatically with a suitable default commit message.
542 The commit message can be changed with the ``-m`` (or ``--message``) or
543 ``-F`` (or ``--file``) option. The automatic commit can be suppressed
544 by using the ``--no-ccmmit`` option. Running the editor on the new
545 ``.topmsg`` file can be suppressed by using ``-n`` (or ``--no-edit``)
546 (which also suppresses the automatic commit) or by providing an
547 explicit value for the new ``.topmsg`` file using the ``--topmsg`` or
548 ``--topmsg-file`` option. In any case the ``.topmsg`` content will be
549 automatically reformated to have a ``Subject:`` header line if needed.
551 If more than one dependency is listed, the automatic commit will not
552 take place until AFTER all the listed dependencies have been merged
553 into a base commit which will require some manual merge resolutions if
554 conflicts occur during the merge operations.
556 Previous versions of TopGit behaved as though the ``--no-edit`` option
557 was always given on the command line.
559 The default behavior has been changed to promote a separation between
560 commits that modify ``.topmsg`` and/or ``.topdeps`` and commits that
561 modify other files. This facilitates cleaner cherry picking and other
562 patch maintenance activities.
564 You should edit the patch description (contained in the ``.topmsg``
565 file) as appropriate. It will already contain some prefilled bits.
566 You can set the ``topgit.to``, ``topgit.cc`` and ``topgit.bcc``
567 git configuration variables (see ``man git-config``) in order to
568 have ``tg create`` add these headers with the given default values
569 to ``.topmsg`` before invoking the editor.
571 The main task of ``tg create`` is to set up the topic branch base
572 from the dependencies. This may fail due to merge conflicts if more
573 than one dependency is given. In that case, after you commit the
574 conflict resolution, you should call ``tg update --continue`` to
575 finish merging the dependencies into the new topic branch base.
577 With the ``--no-deps`` option at most one dependency may be listed
578 which may be any valid committish (instead of just refs/heads/...) and
579 the newly created TopGit-controlled branch will have an empty
580 ``.topdeps`` file. This may be desirable in order to create a TopGit-
581 controlled branch that has no changes of its own and serves merely to
582 mark the common dependency that all other TopGit-controlled branches
583 in some set of TopGit-controlled branches depend on. A plain,
584 non-TopGit-controlled branch can be used for the same purpose, but the
585 advantage of a TopGit-controlled branch with no dependencies is that it
586 will be pushed with ``tg push``, it will show up in the ``tg summary``
587 and ``tg info`` output with the subject from its ``.topmsg`` file
588 thereby documenting what it's for and finally it can be set up with
589 ``tg create -r`` and/or ``tg remote --populate`` to facilitate sharing.
591 For example, ``tg create --no-deps release v2.1`` will create a TopGit-
592 controlled ``release`` branch based off the ``v2.1`` tag that can then
593 be used as a base for creation of other TopGit-controlled branches.
594 Then when the time comes to move the base for an entire set of changes
595 up to ``v2.2`` the command ``git update-ref top-bases/release v2.2^0``
596 can be used followed by ``tg update --all``. Note that it's only safe
597 to update ``top-bases/release`` directly in this manner because a) it
598 has no depedencies since it was created with the ``--no-deps`` option
599 and b) the old ``top-bases/release`` value can be fast-forwarded to the
600 new ``top-bases/release`` value.
602 Using ``--no-deps`` it's also possible to use ``tg create`` on an
603 unborn branch (omit the dependency name or specify ``HEAD``). The
604 unborn branch itself can be made into the new TopGit branch (rather
605 than being born empty and then having the new TopGit branch based off
606 that) by specifying ``HEAD`` as the new branch's name (which is
607 probably what you normally want to do in this case anyway so you can
608 just run ``tg create --no-deps HEAD`` to accomplish that).
610 In an alternative use case, if ``-r <branch>`` is given instead of a
611 dependency list, the topic branch is created based on the given
612 remote branch. With just ``-r`` the remote branch name is assumed
613 to be the same as the local topic branch being created. Since no
614 new commits are created in this mode (only two refs will be updated)
615 the editor will never be run for this use case. Note that no other
616 options may be combined with ``-r``.
618 The ``--quiet`` (or ``-q``) option suppresses most informational
623 Remove a TopGit-controlled topic branch of the given name
624 (required argument). Normally, this command will remove only an
625 empty branch (base == head) without dependendents; use ``-f`` to
626 remove a non-empty branch or a branch that is depended upon by
629 The ``-f`` option is also useful to force removal of a branch's
630 base, if you used ``git branch -D B`` to remove branch B, and then
631 certain TopGit commands complain, because the base of branch B
634 Normally ``tg delete`` will refuse to delete the current branch.
635 However, giving ``-f`` twice (or more) will force it to do so but it
636 will first detach your HEAD.
638 IMPORTANT: Currently, this command will *NOT* remove the branch
639 from the dependency list in other branches. You need to take
640 care of this *manually*. This is even more complicated in
641 combination with ``-f`` -- in that case, you need to manually
642 unmerge the removed branch's changes from the branches depending
645 See also ``tg annihilate``.
647 | TODO: ``-a`` to delete all empty branches, depfix, revert
651 Make a commit on the current TopGit-controlled topic branch
652 that makes it equal to its base, including the presence or
653 absence of .topmsg and .topdeps. Annihilated branches are not
654 displayed by ``tg summary``, so they effectively get out of your
655 way. However, the branch still exists, and ``tg push`` will
656 push it (except if given the ``-a`` option). This way, you can
657 communicate that the branch is no longer wanted.
659 When annihilating a branch that has dependents (i.e. branches
660 that depend on it), those dependents have the dependencies of
661 the branch being annihilated added to them if they do not already
662 have them as dependencies. Essentially the DAG is repaired to
663 skip over the annihilated branch.
665 Normally, this command will remove only an empty branch
666 (base == head, except for changes to the .top* files); use
667 ``-f`` to annihilate a non-empty branch.
669 After completing the annihilation itself, normally ``tg update``
670 is run on any modified dependents. Use the ``--no-update`` option
671 to suppress running ``tg update``.
675 Change the dependencies of a TopGit-controlled topic branch.
676 This should have several subcommands, but only ``add`` is
679 The ``add`` subcommand takes an argument naming a topic branch to
680 be added, adds it to ``.topdeps``, performs a commit and then
681 updates your topic branch accordingly. If you want to do other
682 things related to the dependency addition, like adjusting
683 ``.topmsg``, use the option ``--no-commit``. Adding the
684 ``--no-update`` (or ``--no-commit``) option will suppress the
685 ``tg update`` normally performed after committing the change.
687 It is safe to run ``tg depend add`` in a dirty worktree, but the
688 normally performed ``tg update`` will be suppressed in that case
689 (even if neither ``--no-update`` nor ``--no-commit`` is given).
691 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
693 | TODO: Subcommand for removing dependencies, obviously
697 List files changed by the current or specified topic branch.
700 -i list files based on index instead of branch
701 -w list files based on working tree instead of branch
705 Show summary information about the current or specified topic
708 Numbers in parenthesis after a branch name such as "(11/3 commits)"
709 indicate how many commits on the branch (11) and how many of those
710 are non-merge commits (3).
712 Alternatively, if ``--heads`` is used then which of the independent
713 TopGit branch heads (as output by ``tg summary --topgit-heads``)
714 logically contains the specified commit (which may be any committish --
715 defaults to ``HEAD`` if not given). Zero or more results will be
716 output. Note that "logically" means with regard to the TopGit
717 dependency relationships as established by the ``.topdeps`` file(s).
718 It's the answer that would be given when all the TopGit branches are
719 up-to-date (even though they need not be to use this option) and the
720 ``git branch --contains`` command is run and the output then filtered
721 to only those branches that appear in ``tg summary --topgit-heads``.
722 This computation may require several seconds on complex repositories.
724 If ``--leaves`` is used then the unique list of leaves of the current
725 or specified topic branch is shown as one fully-qualified ref per line.
726 Duplicates are suppressed and a tag name will be used when appropriate.
727 A "leaf" is any dependency that is either not a TopGit branch or is
728 the base of a non-annihilated TopGit branch with no non-annihilated
731 A linearized patch series can only be automatically created for a
732 TopGit topic branch (including its recursive dependencies) when exactly
733 one line is output by ``tg info --leaves <topic-branch>``.
737 Generate a patch from the current or specified topic branch.
738 This means that the diff between the topic branch base and head
739 (latest commit) is shown, appended to the description found in
740 the ``.topmsg`` file.
742 The patch is simply dumped to stdout. In the future, ``tg patch``
743 will be able to automatically send the patches by mail or save
744 them to files. (TODO)
747 -i base patch generation on index instead of branch
748 -w base patch generation on working tree instead of branch
749 --binary pass --binary to ``git diff-tree`` to enable generation
751 --diff-opt options after the branch name (and an optional ``--``)
752 are passed directly to ``git diff-tree``
754 In order to pass a sole explicit ``-w`` through to ``git diff-tree`` it
755 must be separated from the ``tg`` options by an explicit ``--``.
756 Or it can be spelled as ``--ignore-all-space`` to distinguuish it from
757 ``tg``'s ``-w`` option.
759 If additional non-``tg`` options are passed through to
760 ``git diff-tree`` (other than ``--binary`` which is fully supported)
761 the resulting ``tg patch`` output may not be appliable.
765 Send a patch from the current or specified topic branch as
768 Takes the patch given on the command line and emails it out.
769 Destination addresses such as To, Cc and Bcc are taken from the
772 Since it actually boils down to ``git send-email``, please refer
773 to the documentation for that for details on how to setup email
774 for git. You can pass arbitrary options to this command through
775 the ``-s`` parameter, but you must double-quote everything. The
776 ``-r`` parameter with a msgid can be used to generate in-reply-to
777 and reference headers to an earlier mail.
779 WARNING: be careful when using this command. It easily sends
780 out several mails. You might want to run::
782 git config sendemail.confirm always
784 to let ``git send-email`` ask for confirmation before sending any
788 -i base patch generation on index instead of branch
789 -w base patch generation on working tree instead of branch
791 | TODO: ``tg mail patchfile`` to mail an already exported patch
792 | TODO: mailing patch series
793 | TODO: specifying additional options and addresses on command line
797 Register the given remote as TopGit-controlled. This will create
798 the namespace for the remote branch bases and teach ``git fetch``
799 to operate on them. However, from TopGit 0.8 onwards you need to
800 use ``tg push``, or ``git push --mirror``, for pushing
801 TopGit-controlled branches.
803 ``tg remote`` takes an optional remote name argument, and an
804 optional ``--populate`` switch. Use ``--populate`` for your
805 origin-style remotes: it will seed the local topic branch system
806 based on the remote topic branches. ``--populate`` will also make
807 ``tg remote`` automatically fetch the remote, and ``tg update`` look
808 at branches of this remote for updates by default.
810 Using ``--populate`` with a remote name causes the ``topgit.remote``
811 git configuration variable to be set to the given remote name.
815 Show overview of all TopGit-tracked topic branches and their
816 up-to-date status. With a branch name limit output to that branch.
817 Using ``--deps-only`` or ``--rdeps`` changes the default from all
818 branches to just the current ``HEAD`` branch but using ``--all`` as
819 the branch name will show results for all branches instead of ``HEAD``.
822 marks the current topic branch
825 indicates that it introduces no changes of its own
828 indicates respectively whether it is local-only
832 indicates respectively if it is ahead or out-of-date
833 with respect to its remote mate
836 indicates that it is out-of-date with respect to its
840 indicates that it has missing dependencies [even if
841 they are recursive ones]
844 indicates that it is out-of-date with respect to
847 This can take a longish time to accurately determine all the
848 relevant information about each branch; you can pass ``-t`` (or ``-l``
849 or ``--list``) to get just a terse list of topic branch names quickly.
851 Passing ``--heads`` shows independent topic branch names and when
852 combined with ``--rdeps`` behaves as though ``--rdeps`` were run with
853 the output of ``--heads``.
855 The ``--heads-independent`` option works just like ``--heads`` except
856 that it computes the heads using ``git merge-base --independent``
857 rather than examining the TopGit ``.topdeps`` relationships. If the
858 TopGit branches are all up-to-date (as shown in ``tg summary``) then
859 both ``--heads`` and ``--heads-independent`` should compute the same
860 list of heads (unless some overlapping TopGit branches have been
861 manually created). If not all the TopGit branches are up-to-date then
862 the ``--heads-independent`` results may have extra items in it, but
863 occasionally that's what's needed; usually it's the wrong answer.
864 (Note that ``--topgit-heads`` is accepted as an alias for ``--heads``
867 Using ``--heads-only`` behaves as though the output of ``--heads`` was
868 passed as the list of branches along with ``--without-deps``.
870 Alternatively, you can pass ``--graphviz`` to get a dot-suitable output
871 for drawing a dependency graph between the topic branches.
873 You can also use the ``--sort`` option to sort the branches using
874 a topological sort. This is especially useful if each
875 TopGit-tracked topic branch depends on a single parent branch,
876 since it will then print the branches in the dependency order.
877 In more complex scenarios, a text graph view would be much more
878 useful, but that has not yet been implemented.
880 The ``--deps`` option outputs dependency information between
881 branches in a machine-readable format. Feed this to ``tsort`` to
882 get the output from --sort.
884 The ``--deps-only`` option outputs a sorted list of the unique branch
885 names given on the command line plus all of their recursive
886 dependencies (subject to ``--exclude`` of course). When
887 ``--deps-only`` is given the default is to just display information for
888 ``HEAD``, but that can be changed by using ``--all`` as the branch
889 name. Each branch name will appear only once in the output no matter
890 how many times it's visited while tracing the dependency graph or how
891 many branch names are given on the command line to process.
893 The ``--rdeps`` option outputs dependency information in an indented
894 text format that clearly shows all the dependencies and their
895 relationships to one another. When ``--rdeps`` is given the default is
896 to just display information for ``HEAD``, but that can be changed by
897 using ``--all`` as the branch name or by adding the ``--heads`` option.
898 Note that ``tg summary --rdeps --heads`` can be particularly helpful in
899 seeing all the TopGit-controlled branches in the repository and their
900 relationships to one another.
902 Adding ``--with-deps`` replaces the given list of branches (which will
903 default to ``HEAD`` if none are given) with the result of running
904 ``tg summary --deps-only --tgish`` on the list of branches. This can
905 be helpful in limiting ``tg summary`` output to only the list of given
906 branches and their dependencies when many TopGit-controlled branches
907 are present in the repository. When it would be allowed,
908 ``--with-deps`` is now the default. Use ``--without-deps`` to switch
909 back to the old behavior.
911 With ``--exclude branch``, branch can be excluded from the output
912 meaning it will be skipped and its name will be omitted from any
913 dependency output. The ``--exclude`` option may be repeated to omit
914 more than one branch from the output. Limiting the output to a single
915 branch that has been excluded will result in no output at all.
917 The ``--tgish-only`` option behaves as though any non-TopGit-controlled
918 dependencies encountered during processing had been listed after an
919 ``--exclude`` option.
921 Note that the branch name can be specified as ``HEAD`` or ``@`` as a
922 shortcut for the TopGit-controlled branch that ``HEAD`` is a
923 symbolic ref to. The ``tg summary @`` command can be quite useful.
926 -i Use TopGit metadata from the index instead of the branch
927 -w Use TopGit metadata from the working tree instead of the branch
932 Switch to a topic branch. You can use ``git checkout <branch>``
933 to get the same effect, but this command helps you navigate
934 the dependency graph, or allows you to match the topic branch
935 name using a regular expression, so it can be more convenient.
937 There following subcommands are available:
940 Check out a branch that directly
941 depends on your current branch.
944 Check out a branch that this branch
947 ``tg checkout [goto] [--] <pattern>``
948 Check out a topic branch that
949 matches ``<pattern>``. ``<pattern>``
950 is used as a sed pattern to filter
951 all the topic branches. Both ``goto`` and
952 ``--`` may be omitted provided ``<pattern>``
953 is not ``push``, ``pop``, ``-a``, ``--all``,
954 ``goto``, ``..``, ``--``, ``next``, ``child``,
955 ``prev``, ``parent``, ``-h`` or ``--help``.
958 An alias for ``push``.
960 ``tg checkout child``
961 An alias for ``push``.
964 An alias for ``push``.
967 An alias for ``pop``.
969 ``tg checkout parent``
970 An alias for ``pop``.
973 An alias for ``pop``.
975 If any of the above commands can find more than one possible
976 branch to switch to, you will be presented with the matches
977 and asked to select one of them.
979 If the ``--ignore-other-worktrees`` (or ``--iow``) option is given and
980 the current Git version is at least 2.5.0 then the full
981 ``--ignore-other-worktrees`` option will be passed along to the
982 ``git checkout`` command when it's run (otherwise the option will be
983 silently ignored and not passed to Git as it would cause an error).
985 The ``--force`` (or ``-f``) option, when given, gets passed through to
986 the ``git checkout`` command.
988 The ``<pattern>`` of ``tg checkout goto`` is optional. If you don't
989 supply it, all the available topic branches are listed and you
990 can select one of them.
992 Normally, the ``push`` and ``pop`` commands moves one step in
993 the dependency graph of the topic branches. The ``-a`` option
994 causes them (and their aliases) to move as far as possible.
995 That is, ``tg checkout push -a`` moves to a topic branch that
996 depends (directly or indirectly) on the current branch and
997 that no other branch depends on. ``tg checkout pop -a``
998 moves to a regular branch that the current topic branch
999 depends on (directly or indirectly). If there is more than
1000 one possibility, you will be prompted for your selection.
1004 Export a tidied-up history of the current topic branch and its
1005 dependencies, suitable for feeding upstream. Each topic branch
1006 corresponds to a single commit or patch in the cleaned up
1007 history (corresponding basically exactly to ``tg patch`` output
1008 for the topic branch).
1010 The command has three possible outputs now -- either a Git branch
1011 with the collapsed history, a Git branch with a linearized
1012 history, or a quilt series in new directory.
1014 In the case where you are producing collapsed history in a new
1015 branch, you can use this collapsed structure either for
1016 providing a pull source for upstream, or for further
1017 linearization e.g. for creation of a quilt series using git log::
1019 git log --pretty=email -p --topo-order origin..exported
1021 To better understand the function of ``tg export``, consider this
1022 dependency structure::
1024 origin/master - t/foo/blue - t/foo/red - master
1025 `- t/bar/good <,----------'
1026 `- t/baz ------------'
1028 (where each of the branches may have a hefty history). Then::
1030 master$ tg export for-linus
1032 will create this commit structure on the branch ``for-linus``::
1034 origin/master - t/foo/blue -. merge - t/foo/red -.. merge - master
1035 `- t/bar/good <,-------------------'/
1036 `- t/baz ---------------------'
1038 In this mode, ``tg export`` works on the current topic branch, and
1039 can be called either without an option (in that case,
1040 ``--collapse`` is assumed), or with the ``--collapse`` option, and
1041 with one mandatory argument: the name of the branch where the
1042 exported result will be stored.
1044 When using the linearize mode::
1046 master$ tg export --linearize for-linus
1048 you get a linear history respecting the dependencies of your
1049 patches in a new branch ``for-linus``. The result should be more
1050 or less the same as using quilt mode and then reimporting it
1051 into a Git branch. (More or less because the topological order
1052 can usually be extended in more than one way into a total order,
1053 and the two methods may choose different ones.) The result
1054 might be more appropriate for merging upstream, as it contains
1057 Note that you might get conflicts during linearization because
1058 the patches are reordered to get a linear history. If linearization
1059 would produce conflicts then using ``--quilt`` will also likely result
1060 in conflicts when the exported quilt series is applied. Since the
1061 ``--quilt`` mode simply runs a series of ``tg patch`` commands to
1062 generate the patches in the exported quilt series and those patches
1063 will end up being applied linearly, the same conflicts that would be
1064 produced by the ``--linearize`` option will then occur at that time.
1066 To avoid conflicts produced by ``--linearize`` (or by applying the
1067 ``--quilt`` output), use the default ``--collapse`` mode and then use
1068 ``tg rebase`` (or ``git rebase -m`` directly) on the collapsed branch
1069 (with a suitable <upstream>) followed by ``git format-patch`` on the
1070 rebased result to produce a conflict-free patch set. A suitable
1071 upstream may be determined with the ``tg info --leaves`` command (if
1072 it outputs more than one line, linearization will be problematic).
1074 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
1076 When using the quilt mode::
1078 master$ tg export --quilt for-linus
1080 would create the following directory ``for-linus``::
1082 for-linus/t/foo/blue.diff
1083 for-linus/t/foo/red.diff
1084 for-linus/t/bar/good.diff
1085 for-linus/t/baz.diff
1092 With ``--quilt``, you can also pass the ``-b`` parameter followed
1093 by a comma-separated explicit list of branches to export, or
1094 the ``--all`` parameter (which can be shortened to ``-a``) to
1095 export them all. The ``--binary`` option enables producing Git
1096 binary patches. These options are currently only supported
1099 In ``--quilt`` mode the patches are named like the originating
1100 topgit branch. So usually they end up in subdirectories of the
1101 output directory. With the ``--flatten`` option the names are
1102 mangled so that they end up directly in the output dir (slashes
1103 are replaced with underscores). With the ``--strip[=N]`` option
1104 the first ``N`` subdirectories (all if no ``N`` is given) get
1105 stripped off. Names are always ``--strip``'d before being
1106 ``--flatten``'d. With the option ``--numbered`` (which implies
1107 ``--flatten``) the patch names get a number as prefix to allow
1108 getting the order without consulting the series file, which
1109 eases sending out the patches.
1111 | TODO: Make stripping of non-essential headers configurable
1112 | TODO: Make stripping of [PATCH] and other prefixes configurable
1113 | TODO: ``--mbox`` option to export instead as an mbox file
1114 | TODO: support ``--all`` option in other modes of operation
1115 | TODO: For quilt exporting, export the linearized history created in
1116 a temporary branch--this would allow producing conflict-less
1121 Import commits within the given revision range into TopGit,
1122 creating one topic branch per commit. The dependencies are set
1123 up to form a linear sequence starting on your current branch --
1124 or a branch specified by the ``-d`` parameter, if present.
1126 The branch names are auto-guessed from the commit messages and
1127 prefixed by ``t/`` by default; use ``-p <prefix>`` to specify an
1128 alternative prefix (even an empty one).
1130 Alternatively, you can use the ``-s NAME`` parameter to specify
1131 the name of the target branch; the command will then take one
1132 more argument describing a *single* commit to import.
1136 Update the current, specified or all topic branches with respect
1137 to changes in the branches they depend on and remote branches.
1138 This is performed in two phases -- first, changes within the
1139 dependencies are merged to the base, then the base is merged
1140 into the topic branch. The output will guide you on what to do
1141 next in case of conflicts.
1143 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
1145 When ``-a`` (or ``--all``) is specifed, updates all topic branches
1146 matched by ``<pattern>``'s (see ``git-for-each-ref(1)`` for details),
1147 or all if no ``<pattern>`` is given. Any topic branches with missing
1148 dependencies will be skipped entirely unless ``--skip-missing`` is
1151 When ``--skip-missing`` is specifed, an attempt is made to update topic
1152 branches with missing dependencies by skipping only the dependencies
1153 that are missing. Caveat utilitor.
1155 When ``--stash`` is specified (or the ``topgit.autostash`` config
1156 value is set to ``true``), a ref stash will be automatically created
1157 just before beginning updates if any are needed. The ``--no-stash``
1158 option may be used to disable a ``topgit.autostash=true`` setting.
1159 See the ``tg tag`` ``--stash`` option for details.
1161 After the update, if a single topic branch was specified, it is
1162 left as the current one; if ``-a`` was specified, it returns to
1163 the branch which was current at the beginning.
1165 If your dependencies are not up-to-date, ``tg update`` will first
1166 recurse into them and update them.
1168 If a remote branch update brings in dependencies on branches
1169 that are not yet instantiated locally, you can either bring in
1170 all the new branches from the remote using ``tg remote
1171 --populate``, or only pick out the missing ones using ``tg create
1172 -r`` (``tg summary`` will point out branches with incomplete
1173 dependencies by showing an ``!`` next to them).
1175 | TODO: ``tg update -a -c`` to autoremove (clean) up-to-date branches
1179 If ``-a`` or ``--all`` was specified, pushes all non-annihilated
1180 TopGit-controlled topic branches, to a remote repository.
1181 Otherwise, pushes the specified topic branches -- or the
1182 current branch, if you don't specify which. By default, the
1183 remote gets all the dependencies (both TopGit-controlled and
1184 non-TopGit-controlled) and bases pushed to it too. If
1185 ``--tgish-only`` was specified, only TopGit-controlled
1186 dependencies will be pushed, and if ``--no-deps`` was specified,
1187 no dependencies at all will be pushed.
1189 The ``--dry-run`` and ``--force`` options are passed directly to
1190 ``git push`` if given.
1192 The remote may be specified with the ``-r`` option. If no remote
1193 was specified, the configured default TopGit remote will be
1198 Prints the base commit of each of the named topic branches, or
1199 the current branch if no branches are named. Prints an error
1200 message and exits with exit code 1 if the named branch is not
1205 Prints the git log of the named topgit branch -- or the current
1206 branch, if you don't specify a name.
1208 This is really just a convenient shortcut for:
1210 ``git log --first-parent --no-merges $(tg base <name>)..<name>``
1212 where ``<name>`` is the name of the TopGit topic branch (or omitted
1213 for the current branch).
1215 NOTE: if you have merged changes from a different repository, this
1216 command might not list all interesting commits.
1220 Creates a TopGit annotated/signed tag or lists the reflog of one.
1222 A TopGit annotated tag records the current state of one or more TopGit
1223 branches and their dependencies and may be used to revert to the tagged
1224 state at any point in the future.
1226 When reflogs are enabled (the default in a non-bare repository) and
1227 combined with the ``--force`` option a single tag name may be used as a
1228 sort of TopGit branch state stash. The special branch name ``--all``
1229 may be used to tag the state of all current TopGit branches to
1230 facilitate this function and has the side-effect of suppressing the
1231 out-of-date check allowing out-of-date branches to be included.
1233 As a special feature, ``--stash`` may be used as the tag name in which
1234 case ``--all`` is implied if no branch name is listed (instead of the
1235 normal default of ``HEAD``), ``--force`` and ``--no-edit`` (use
1236 ``--edit`` to change that) are automatically activated and the tag will
1237 be saved to ``refs/tgstash`` instead of ``refs/tags/<tagname>``.
1238 The ``--stash`` tag name may also be used with the ``-g``/``--reflog``
1241 The mostly undocumented option ``--allow-outdated`` will bypass the
1242 out-of-date check and is implied when ``--stash`` or ``--all`` is used.
1244 A TopGit annotated/signed tag is simply a Git annotated/signed tag with
1245 a "TOPGIT REFS" section appended to the end of the tag message (and
1246 preceding the signature for signed tags). PEM-style begin and end
1247 lines surround one line per ref where the format of each line is
1248 full-hash SP ref-name. A line will be included for each branch given
1249 on the command line and each ref they depend on either directly or
1252 If more than one TopGit branch is given on the command line, a new
1253 commit will be created that has an empty tree and all of the given
1254 TopGit branches as parents and that commit will be tagged. If a single
1255 TopGit branch is given, then it will be tagged. If the ``--tree``
1256 option is used then it will be used instead of an empty tree (a new
1257 commit will be created if necessary to guarantee the specified tree is
1258 what's in the commit the newly created tag refers to). The argument to
1259 the ``--tree`` option may be any valid treeish.
1261 All the options for creating a tag serve the same purpose as their Git
1262 equivalents except for two. The ``--refs`` option suppresses tag
1263 creation entirely and emits the "TOPGIT REFS" section that would have
1264 been included with the tag. If the ``--no-edit`` option is given and
1265 no message is supplied (via the ``-m`` or ``-F`` option) then the
1266 default message created by TopGit will be used without running the
1269 With ``-g`` or ``--reflog`` show the reflog for a tag. With the
1270 ``--reflog-message`` option the message from the reflog is shown.
1271 With the ``--commit-message`` option the first line of the tag's
1272 message (if the object is a tag) or the commit message (if the object
1273 is a commit) falling back to the reflog message for tree and blob
1274 objects is shown. The default is ``--reflog-message`` unless the
1275 ``--stash`` (``refs/tgstash``) is being shown in which case the default
1276 is then ``--commit-message``. Just add either option explicitly to
1277 override the default.
1279 When showing reflogs, non-tag entries are annotated with their type
1280 unless ``--no-type`` is given.
1282 TopGit tags are created with a reflog if core.logallrefupdates is
1283 enabled (the default for non-bare repositories). Unfortunately Git
1284 is incapable of showing an annotated/signed tag's reflog
1285 (using git log -g) as it will first resolve the tag before checking to
1286 see if it has a reflog. Git can, however, show reflogs for lightweight
1287 tags (using git log -g) just fine but that's not helpful here. Use
1288 ``tg tag`` with the ``-g`` or ``--reflog`` option to see the reflog for
1289 an actual tag object. This also works on non-TopGit annotated/signed
1290 tags as well provided they have a reflog.
1292 The number of entries shown may be limited with the ``-n`` option. If
1293 the tagname is omitted then ``--stash`` is assumed.
1295 The ``--delete`` option is a convenience option that runs the
1296 ``git update-ref -d`` command on the specified tag removing it and its
1297 reflog (if it has one).
1299 The ``--clear`` option clears all but the most recent (the ``@{0}``)
1300 reflog entries from the reflog for the specified tag. It's equivalent
1301 to dropping all the higher numbered reflog entries.
1303 The ``--drop`` option drops the specified reflog entry and requires the
1304 given tagname to have an ``@{n}`` suffix where ``n`` is the reflog
1305 entry number to be dropped. This is really just a convenience option
1306 that runs the appropriate ``git reflog delete`` command.
1308 Note that when combined with ``tg revert``, a tag created by ``tg tag``
1309 can be used to transfer TopGit branches. Simply create the tag, push
1310 it somewhere and then have the recipient run ``tg revert`` to recreate
1311 the TopGit branches. This may be helpful in situations where it's not
1312 feasible to push all the refs corresponding to the TopGit-controlled
1313 branches and their top-bases.
1317 Provides a ``git rebase`` rerere auto continue function. It may be
1318 used as a drop-in replacement front-end for ``git rebase -m`` that
1319 automatically continues the rebase when ``git rerere`` information is
1320 sufficient to resolve all conflicts.
1322 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
1324 If the ``-m`` or ``--merge`` option is not present then ``tg rebase``
1325 will complain and not do anything.
1327 When ``git rerere`` is enabled, previously resolved conflicts are
1328 remembered and can be automatically staged (see ``rerere.autoUpdate``).
1330 However, even with auto staging, ``git rebase`` still stops and
1331 requires an explicit ``git rebase --continue`` to keep going.
1333 In the case where ``git rebase -m`` is being used to flatten history
1334 (such as after a ``tg export --collapse`` prior to a
1335 ``git format-patch``), there's a good chance all conflicts have already
1336 been resolved during normal merge maintenance operations so there's no
1337 reason ``git rebase`` could not automatically continue, but there's no
1338 option to make it do so.
1340 The ``tg rebase`` command provides a ``git rebase --auto-continue``
1343 All the same rebase options can be used (they are simply passed through
1344 to Git unchanged). However, the ``rerere.autoUpdate`` option is
1345 automatically temporarily enabled while running ``git rebase`` and
1346 should ``git rebase`` stop asking one to resolve and continue, but all
1347 conflicts have already been resolved and staged using rerere
1348 information, then ``git rebase --continue`` will be automatically run.
1352 Provides the ability to revert one or more TopGit branches and their
1353 dependencies to a previous state contained within a tag created using
1354 the ``tg tag`` command. In addition to the actual revert mode
1355 operation a list mode operation is also provided to examine a tag's ref
1358 The default mode (``-l`` or ``--list``) shows the state of one or more
1359 of the refs/branches stored in the tag data. When no refs are given on
1360 the command line, all refs in the tag data are shown. With the special
1361 ref name ``--heads`` then the indepedent heads contained in the tag
1362 data are shown. The ``--deps`` option shows the specified refs and all
1363 of their dependencies in a single list with no duplicates. The
1364 ``--rdeps`` option shows a display similar to ``tg summary --rdeps``
1365 for each ref or all TopGit heads if no ref is given on the command
1366 line. The standard ``--no-short``, ``--short=n`` etc. options may be
1367 used to override the default ``--short`` output. With ``--hash`` (or
1368 ``--hash-only``) show only the hash in ``--list`` mode in which case
1369 the default is ``--no-short``. The ``--hash`` option can be used much
1370 like the ``git rev-parse --verify`` command to extract a specific hash
1371 value out of a TopGit tag.
1373 Note that unlike `tg summary`_, here ``--heads`` actually does mean the
1374 ``git merge-base --independent`` heads of the stored refs from the tag
1375 data. To see only the independent TopGit topic branch heads stored in
1376 the tag data use the ``--topgit-heads`` option instead. The default
1377 for the ``--rdeps`` option is ``--topgit-heads`` but ``--heads`` can
1378 be given explicitly to change that. (Note that ``--heads-independent``
1379 is accepted as an alias for ``--heads`` as well.)
1381 The revert mode has three submodes, dry-run mode (``-n`` or
1382 ``--dry-run``), force mode (``-f`` or ``--force``) and interactive mode
1383 (``-i`` or ``--interactive``). If ``--dry-run`` (or ``-n``) is given
1384 no ref updates will actually be performed but what would have been
1385 updated is shown instead. If ``--interactive`` (or ``-i``) is given
1386 then the editor is invoked on an instruction sheet allowing manual
1387 selection of the refs to be updated before proceeding. Since revert is
1388 potentially a destructive operation, at least one of the submodes must
1389 be specified explicitly. If no refs are listed on the command line
1390 then all refs in the tag data are reverted. Otherwise the listed refs
1391 and all of their dependencies (unless ``--no-deps`` is given) are
1392 reverted. Unless ``--no-stash`` is given a new stash will be created
1393 using ``tg tag --stash`` (except, of course, in dry-run mode) just
1394 before actually performing the updates to facilitate recovery from
1397 Both modes accept fully-qualified (i.e. starts with ``refs/``) ref
1398 names as well as unqualified names (which will be assumed to be located
1399 under ``refs/heads/``). In revert mode a tgish ref will always have
1400 both its ``refs/heads/`` and ``refs/top-bases/`` values included no
1401 matter how it's listed unless ``--no-deps`` is given and the ref is
1402 fully qualified (i.e. starts with ``refs/``) or one or the other of its
1403 values was removed from the instruction sheet in interactive mode. In
1404 list mode a tgish ref will always have both its ``refs/heads/`` and
1405 ``refs/top-bases/`` values included only when using the ``--deps`` or
1406 ``--rdeps`` options.
1408 The ``--tgish-only`` option excludes non-tgish refs (i.e. refs that do
1409 not have a ``refs/heads/<name>``, ``refs/top-bases/<name>`` pair).
1411 The ``--exclude`` option (which can be repeated) excludes specific
1412 refs. If the name given to ``--exclude`` is not fully-qualified (i.e.
1413 starts with ``refs/``) then it will exclude both members of a tgish ref
1416 The ``--quiet`` (or ``-q``) option may be used in revert mode to
1417 suppress non-dry-run ref change status messages.
1419 The special tag name ``--stash`` (as well as with ``@{n}`` suffixes)
1420 can be used to refer to ``refs/tgstash``.
1422 The ``tg revert`` command supports tags of tags that contains TopGit
1423 refs. So, for example, if you do this::
1426 git tag -f -a -m "tag the tag" newtag newtag
1428 Then ``newtag`` will be a tag of a tag containing a ``TOPGIT REFS``
1429 section. ``tg revert`` knows how to dereference the outermost
1430 tag to get to the next (and the next etc.) tag to find the
1431 ``TOPGIT REFS`` section so after the above sequence, the tag ``newtag``
1432 can still be used successfully with ``tg revert``.
1434 NOTE: If HEAD points to a ref that is updated by a revert operation
1435 then NO WARNING whatsoever will be issued, but the index and working
1436 tree will always be left completely untouched (and the reflog for
1437 the pointed-to ref can always be used to find the previous value).
1441 Outputs the direct dependencies for the current or named branch.
1444 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
1445 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
1449 Outputs all branches which directly depend on the current or
1453 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
1454 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
1458 Transition top-bases from old location to new location.
1460 Beginning with TopGit release 0.19.4, TopGit has the ability to store
1461 the top-bases refs in either the old ``ref/top-bases/...`` location or
1462 the new ``refs/heads/{top-bases}/...`` location. Starting with TopGit
1463 release 0.20.0, the default is the new location.
1465 By storing the top-bases under heads, Git is less likely to complain
1466 when manipulating them, hosting providers are more likely to provide
1467 access to them and Git prevents them from pointing at anything other
1468 than a commit object. All in all a win for everyone.
1470 TopGit attempts to automatically detect whether the new or old location
1471 is being used for the top-bases and just do the right thing. However,
1472 by explicitly setting the config value ``topgit.top-bases`` to either
1473 ``refs`` for the old location or ``heads`` for the new location the
1474 auto-detection can be bypassed. If no top-bases refs are present in
1475 the repository the default prior to TopGit release 0.20.0 is to use the
1476 old location but starting with TopGit release 0.20.0 the default is to
1477 use the new location.
1479 The ``tg migrate-bases`` command may be used to migrate top-bases refs
1480 from the old location to the new location (or, by using the
1481 undocumented ``--reverse`` option, vice versa).
1483 With few exceptions (``tg create -r`` and ``tg revert``), all top-bases
1484 refs (both local *and* remote refs) are expected to be stored in the
1485 same location (either new or old). A repository's current location for
1486 storing top-bases refs may be shown with the ``tg --top-bases`` command.
1494 TopGit stores all the topic branches in the regular ``refs/heads/``
1495 namespace (so we recommend distinguishing them with the ``t/`` prefix).
1496 Apart from that, TopGit also maintains a set of auxiliary refs in
1497 ``refs/top-*``. Currently, only ``refs/top-bases/`` is used, containing the
1498 current *base* of the given topic branch -- this is basically a merge of
1499 all the branches the topic branch depends on; it is updated during ``tg
1500 update`` and then merged to the topic branch, and it is the base of a
1501 patch generated from the topic branch by ``tg patch``.
1503 All the metadata is tracked within the source tree and history of the
1504 topic branch itself, in ``.top*`` files; these files are kept isolated
1505 within the topic branches during TopGit-controlled merges and are of
1506 course omitted during ``tg patch``. The state of these files in base
1507 commits is undefined; look at them only in the topic branches
1508 themselves. Currently, two files are defined:
1511 Contains the description of the topic branch in a
1512 mail-like format, plus the author information, whatever
1513 Cc headers you choose or the post-three-dashes message.
1514 When mailing out your patch, basically only a few extra
1515 mail headers are inserted and then the patch itself is
1516 appended. Thus, as your patches evolve, you can record
1517 nuances like whether the particular patch should have
1518 To-list / Cc-maintainer or vice-versa and similar
1519 nuances, if your project is into that. ``From`` is
1520 prefilled from your current ``GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT``; other
1521 headers can be prefilled from various optional
1522 ``topgit.*`` git config options.
1525 Contains the one-per-line list of branches this branch
1526 depends on, pre-seeded by ``tg create``. A (continuously
1527 updated) merge of these branches will be the *base* of
1530 IMPORTANT: DO NOT EDIT ``.topdeps`` MANUALLY!!! If you do so, you need to
1531 know exactly what you are doing, since this file must stay in sync with
1532 the Git history information, otherwise very bad things will happen.
1534 TopGit also automagically installs a bunch of custom commit-related
1535 hooks that will verify whether you are committing the ``.top*`` files in a
1536 sane state. It will add the hooks to separate files within the ``hooks/``
1537 subdirectory, and merely insert calls to them to the appropriate hooks
1538 and make them executable (but will make sure the original hook's code is
1539 not called if the hook was not executable beforehand).
1541 Another automagically installed piece is a ``.git/info/attributes``
1542 specifier for an ``ours`` merge strategy for the files ``.topmsg`` and
1543 ``.topdeps``, and the (intuitive) ``ours`` merge strategy definition in
1550 There are two remaining issues with accessing topic branches in remote
1553 (i) Referring to remote topic branches from your local repository
1554 (ii) Developing some of the remote topic branches locally
1556 There are two somewhat contradictory design considerations here:
1558 (a) Hacking on multiple independent TopGit remotes in a single
1560 (b) Having a self-contained topic system in local refs space
1562 To us, (a) does not appear to be very convincing, while (b) is quite
1563 desirable for ``git-log topic`` etc. working, and increased conceptual
1566 Thus, we choose to instantiate all the topic branches of given remote
1567 locally; this is performed by ``tg remote --populate``. ``tg update``
1568 will also check if a branch can be updated from its corresponding remote
1569 branch. The logic needs to be somewhat involved if we are to "do the
1570 right thing". First, we update the base, handling the remote branch as
1571 if it was the first dependency; thus, conflict resolutions made in the
1572 remote branch will be carried over to our local base automagically.
1573 Then, the base is merged into the remote branch and the result is merged
1574 to the local branch -- again, to carry over remote conflict resolutions.
1575 In the future, this order might be adjustable on a per-update basis, in
1576 case local changes happen to be diverging more than the remote ones.
1577 (See the details in `The Update Process`_ for more in depth coverage.)
1579 All commands by default refer to the remote that ``tg remote --populate``
1580 was called on the last time (stored in the ``topgit.remote`` git
1581 configuration variable). You can manually run any command with a
1582 different base remote by passing ``-r REMOTE`` *before* the subcommand
1589 A familiarity with the terms in the GLOSSARY_ is helpful for understanding the
1590 content of this sections. See also the IMPLEMENTATION_ section.
1595 When a branch is "updated" using the ``tg update`` command the following steps
1598 1) The branch and all of its dependencies (and theirs recursively)
1599 are checked to see which ones are *out-of-date*. See glossary_.
1601 2) Each of the branch's direct dependencies (i.e. they are listed in
1602 the branch's ``.topdeps`` file) which is out of date is updated
1603 before proceeding (yup, this is a recursive process).
1605 3) Each of the branch's direct dependencies (i.e. they are listed in
1606 the branch's ``.topdes`` file) that was updated in the previous
1607 step is now merged into the branch's corresponding base. If a
1608 remote is involved, and the branch's corresponding base does NOT
1609 contain the remote branch's corresponding base that remote base is
1610 also merged into the branch's base at this time as well (it will be
1611 the first item merged into the branch's base).
1613 4) If the branch has a corresponding remote branch and the branch
1614 does not already contain it, it's merged into the branch's base
1615 (which was possibly already updated in step (3) to contain the
1616 remote branch's base but not the remote branch itself) on a detached
1617 HEAD. Yup, this step can be a bit confusing and no, the updated
1618 base from step (3) has not yet been merged into the branch itself
1619 yet either. If there is no remote branch this step does not apply.
1620 Using a detached HEAD allows the remote branch to be merged into the
1621 contents of the base without actually perturbing the base's ref.
1623 5) If there is a remote branch present then use the result of step (4)
1624 otherwise use the branch's base and merge that into the branch
1627 That's it! Simple, right? ;)
1629 Unless the auto stash option has been disabled (see `no undo`_, `tg update`_
1630 and `tg tag`_), a copy of all the old refs values will be stashed away
1631 immediately after step (1) before starting step (2), but only if anything is
1632 actually found to be out-of-date.
1637 The ``tg update`` command regularly performs merges while executing an update
1638 operation. In order to speed things up, it attempts to do in-index merges
1639 where possible. It accomplishes this by using a separate, temporary index
1640 file and the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command possibly assisted by
1641 the ``git merge-index`` and ``git merge-file`` commands. This combination may
1642 be repeated more than once to perform an octopus in-index merge. If this
1643 fails, the files are checked out and a normal ``git merge`` three-way merge is
1644 performed (possily multiple times). If the normal ``git merge`` fails then
1645 user intervention is required to resolve the merge conflict(s) and continue.
1647 Since the ``tg annihilate``, ``tg create`` and ``tg depend add`` commands may
1648 end up running the ``tg update`` machinery behind the scenes to complete their
1649 operation they may also result in any of these merge strategies being used.
1651 In addition to the normal Git merge strategies (if the in-index merging fails),
1652 there are four possible TopGit merge strategies that may be shown. Since they
1653 all involve use of the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command they are all
1654 variations of a "trivial aggressive" merge. The "trivial" part because all of
1655 the merges done by ``git read-tree -m`` are described as "trivial" and the
1656 "aggressive" part because the ``--aggressive`` option is always used.
1658 1) "trivial aggressive"
1659 Only two heads were involved and all merging was completed by
1660 the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command.
1662 2) "trivial aggressive automatic"
1663 Only two heads were involved but after the
1664 ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command completed there were
1665 still unresolved items and ``git merge-index`` had to be run
1666 (using the ``tg index-merge-one-file`` driver) which ultimately
1667 ran ``git merge-file`` at least once to perform a simple
1668 automatic three-way merge. Hence the "automatic" description
1669 and the "Auto-merging ..." output line(s).
1671 3) "trivial aggressive octopus"
1672 This is the same as a "trivial aggressive" merge except that
1673 more than two heads were involved and after merging the first
1674 two heads, the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` step was
1675 repeated again on the result for each additional head. All
1676 merging was completed via multiple
1677 ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` commands only.
1678 This beast is relatively rare in the wild.
1680 4) "trivial aggressive automatic octopus"
1681 This is very similar to the "trivial aggressive octopus"
1682 except that at least one of the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive``
1683 commands left unresolved items that were handled the same way
1684 as the "trivial aggressive automatic" strategy. This species
1685 is commonly seen in the wild.
1692 Version-controlled file stored at the root level of each
1693 TopGit branch that contains the patch header for a TopGit
1694 branch. See also IMPLEMENTATION_;
1697 Version-controlled file stored at the root level of each
1698 TopGit branch that lists the branch's dependencies one per
1699 line omitting the leading ``refs/heads/`` part. See also
1703 Given two Git commit identifiers (e.g. hashes) C1 and C2,
1704 commit C1 "contains" commit C2 if either they are the same
1705 commit or C2 can be reached from C1 by following one or more
1706 parent links from C1 (perhaps via one or more intermediate
1707 commits along the way). In other words, if C1 contains C2
1708 then C2 is an ancestor of C1 or conversely C1 is a descendant
1709 of C2. Since a TopGit branch name is also the name of a Git
1710 branch (something located under the ``refs/heads`` Git
1711 namespace) and similarly for a TopGit base, they can both be
1712 resolved to a Git commit identifier and then participate in
1713 a branch containment test. An easy mnemonic for this is
1714 "children contain the genes of their parents."
1717 See branch containment.
1720 Excellent system for managing a history of changes to one
1721 or more possibly interrelated patches.
1724 A Git branch that has an associated TopGit base. Conceptually
1725 it represents a single patch that is the difference between
1726 the associated TopGit base and the TopGit branch. In other
1727 words ``git diff-tree <TopGit base> <TopGit branch>`` except
1728 that any ``.topdeps`` and/or ``.topmsg`` files are excluded
1729 from the result and the contents of the ``.topmsg`` file from
1730 the TopGit branch is prefixed to the result.
1733 A Git branch that records the base upon which a TopGit branch's
1734 single conceptual "patch" is built. The name of the Git branch
1735 is derived from the TopGit branch name by stripping off the
1736 leading ``refs/heads/`` and appending the correct prefix where
1737 all TopGit bases are stored (typically either
1738 ``refs/top-bases/`` or ``refs/heads/{top-bases}/`` -- the
1739 prefix for any given repository can be shown by using the
1740 ``tg --top-bases`` command and updated using the
1741 ``tg migrate-bases`` command).
1743 All of a TopGit branch's dependencies are merged into the
1744 corresponding TopGit base during a ``tg update`` of a branch.
1749 TopGit ``[PATCH]`` branch
1750 A TopGit branch whose subject starts with ``[PATCH]``. By
1751 convention these TopGit branches contain a single patch
1752 (equivalent to a single patch file) and have at least one
1753 dependency (i.e. their ``.topdeps`` files are never empty).
1755 TopGit ``[BASE]`` branch
1756 A TopGit branch whose subject starts with ``[BASE]``. By
1757 convention these TopGit branches do not actually contain
1758 any changes and their ``.topdeps`` files are empty. They
1759 are used to control a base dependency that another set of
1760 branches depends on.
1762 TopGit ``[STAGE]`` branch
1763 A TopGit branch whose subject starts with ``[STAGE]``. By
1764 convention these TopGit branches do not actually contain any
1765 changes of their own but do have one or (typically) more
1766 dependencies in their ``.topdeps`` file. These branches are
1767 used to bring together one or (typically) more independent
1768 TopGit ``[PATCH]`` branches into a single branch so that
1769 testing and/or evaluation can be performed on the result.
1772 When merging two (or more) heads that touch the same lines in
1773 the file but in different ways the result is a merge conflict
1774 that requires manual intervention. If a merge conflict occurs
1775 with more than two heads (an octopus merge) it's generally
1776 replaced by multiple three-way merges so that by the time a
1777 user sees a merge conflict needing manual resolution, there
1778 will be only two heads involved.
1781 A Git merge strategy (see the "MERGE STRATEGIES" section of
1782 ``git help merge``) or one of the TopGit `merge strategies`_
1783 used to merge two or more heads.
1785 TopGit merge strategy
1786 See the `Merge Strategies`_ section above for details but
1787 basically these are just in-index merges done using the
1788 ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command one or more times
1789 possibily assisted by the ``git merge-index`` and the
1790 ``git merge-file`` commands.
1793 A merge involving more than two heads. Note that if there are
1794 less than three independent heads the resulting merge that
1795 started out as an octopus will end up not actually being an
1799 A TopGit branch is considered to be "out-of-date" when ANY of
1800 the following are true:
1802 a) The TopGit branch does NOT contain its
1805 b) The TopGit branch does NOT contain its
1806 corresponding remote branch (there may not be
1807 a remote branch in which case this does not apply)
1809 c) The TopGit branch's base does NOT contain its
1810 corresponding remote branch's base (there may not be
1811 a remote branch in which case this does not apply)
1813 d) Any of the TopGit branches listed in the branch's
1814 ``.topdeps`` file are NOT contained by the branch.
1815 (See "branch containment" above.)
1817 e) Any of the TopGit branches listed in the branch's
1818 ``.topdeps`` file are out-of-date.
1820 Note that if a remote branch is present and is NOT out-of-date
1821 then it will contain its own base and (c) is mostly redundant.
1823 remote TopGit branch
1824 A Git branch with the same branch name as a TopGit branch
1825 but living under ``refs/remotes/<some remote>/`` instead
1826 of just ``refs/heads/``.
1829 The TopGit base branch corresponding to a remote TopGit branch,
1830 which lives under ``refs/remotes/`` somewhere (depending on
1831 what the output of ``tg --top-bases`` is for that remote).
1834 A three-way merge takes a common base and two heads (call them
1835 A and B) and creates a new file that is the common base plus
1836 all of the changes made between the common base and head A
1837 *AND* all of the changes made between the common base and
1838 head B. The technique used to accomplish this is called a
1845 The following references are useful to understand the development of
1846 topgit and its subcommands.
1849 http://public-inbox.org/git/36ca99e90904091034m4d4d31dct78acb333612e678@mail.gmail.com/T/#u
1852 THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE
1853 --------------------
1855 The following software understands TopGit branches:
1857 * `magit <http://magit.github.io/>`_ -- a git mode for emacs
1859 IMPORTANT: Magit requires its topgit mode to be enabled first, as
1860 described in its documentation, in the "Activating extensions"
1861 subsection. If this is not done, it will not push TopGit branches
1862 correctly, so it's important to enable it even if you plan to mostly use
1863 TopGit from the command line.