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 :SYNOPSIS_: Command line example session
20 :USAGE_: Command line details
21 :`NO UNDO`_: Where's the undo!!!
22 :CONVENTIONS_: Suggestions for organizing your TopGit branches
23 :`EXTRA SETTINGS`_: Various possible "topgit.*" config settings
24 :ALIASES_: Git-like TopGit command aliases
25 :NAVIGATION_: Getting around with "next" and "prev"
26 :`WAYBACK MACHINE`_: Turn back the clock and then come back
27 :GLOSSARY_: All the TopGit vocabulary in one place
28 :TECHNICAL_: How it works behind the scenes
29 :`TESTING TOPGIT`_: How to run the TopGit test suite
35 TopGit is a collection of POSIX shell scripts so a POSIX-compliant shell is
36 required along with some standard POSIX-compliant utilities (e.g. sed, awk,
37 cat, etc.). Git version 1.8.5 or later is also required.
39 To use TopGit with linked working trees (the ``git worktree add`` command),
40 at least Git version 2.5.0 (obviously, since that's when the ``git worktree``
41 command first appeared) is needed in which case linked working trees are then
42 fully supported for use with TopGit.
44 The scripts need to be preprocessed and installed. The Makefile that does
45 this requires a POSIX make utility (using "``make``" and "``make install``")
46 and some version of ``perl`` in the ``PATH`` somewhere (the ``perl`` binary
47 is needed for correct help text file generation prior to the actual install).
49 Once installed, TopGit uses only POSIX-compliant utilities (except that it
50 also requires, obviously, Git).
52 Running the tests (see `TESTING TOPGIT`_) has the same requirements as for
53 installation (i.e. POSIX plus Perl).
55 It is possible to use the DESTDIR functionality to install TopGit to a
56 staging area on one machine, archive that and then unarchive it on another
57 machine to perform an install (provided the build prefix and other options are
58 compatible with the final installed location).
64 See the file ``INSTALL``.
70 The TopGit git repository can be found at <http://repo.or.cz/topgit/pro>.
76 Why not use something like StGIT or Guilt or ``rebase -i`` for maintaining
77 your patch queue? The advantage of these tools is their simplicity;
78 they work with patch *series* and defer to the reflog facility for
79 version control of patches (reordering of patches is not
80 version-controlled at all). But there are several disadvantages -- for
81 one, these tools (especially StGIT) do not actually fit well with plain
82 Git at all: it is basically impossible to take advantage of the index
83 effectively when using StGIT. But more importantly, these tools
84 horribly fail in the face of a distributed environment.
86 TopGit has been designed around three main tenets:
88 (i) TopGit is as thin a layer on top of Git as possible. You
89 still maintain your index and commit using Git; TopGit will only
90 automate a few indispensable tasks.
92 (ii) TopGit is anxious about *keeping* your history. It will
93 never rewrite your history, and all metadata is also tracked
94 by Git, smoothly and non-obnoxiously. It is good to have a
95 *single* point when the history is cleaned up, and that is at
96 the point of inclusion in the upstream project; locally, you
97 can see how your patch has evolved and easily return to older
100 (iii) TopGit is specifically designed to work in a
101 distributed environment. You can have several instances of
102 TopGit-aware repositories and smoothly keep them all
103 up-to-date and transfer your changes between them.
105 As mentioned above, the main intended use-case for TopGit is tracking
106 third-party patches, where each patch is effectively a single topic
107 branch. In order to flexibly accommodate even complex scenarios when
108 you track many patches where many are independent but some depend on
109 others, TopGit ignores the ancient Quilt heritage of patch series and
110 instead allows the patches to freely form graphs (DAGs just like Git
111 history itself, only "one level higher"). For now, you have to manually
112 specify which patches the current one depends on, but TopGit might help
113 you with that in the future in a darcs-like fashion.
115 A glossary_ plug: The union (i.e. merge) of patch dependencies is called
116 a *base* of the patch (topic branch).
118 Of course, TopGit is perhaps not the right tool for you:
120 (i) TopGit is not complicated, but StGIT et al. are somewhat
121 simpler, conceptually. If you just want to make a linear
122 purely-local patch queue, deferring to StGIT instead might
125 (ii) When using TopGit, your history can get a little hairy
126 over time, especially with all the merges rippling through.
135 ## Create and evolve a topic branch
136 $ tg create t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
137 tg: Automatically marking dependency on master
138 tg: Creating t/gitweb/pathinfo-action base from master...
144 ## Create another topic branch on top of the former one
145 $ tg create t/gitweb/nifty-links
146 tg: Automatically marking dependency on t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
147 tg: Creating t/gitweb/nifty-links base from t/gitweb/pathinfo-action...
151 ## Create another topic branch on top of master and submit
152 ## the resulting patch upstream
153 $ tg create t/revlist/author-fixed master
154 tg: Creating t/revlist/author-fixed base from master...
158 tg: Sent t/revlist/author-fixed
160 To: git@vger.kernel.org
161 Cc: gitster@pobox.com
162 Subject: [PATCH] Fix broken revlist --author when --fixed-string
164 ## Create another topic branch depending on two others non-trivially
165 $ tg create t/whatever t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
166 tg: Creating t/whatever base from t/revlist/author-fixed...
167 tg: Merging t/whatever base with t/gitweb/nifty-links...
169 tg: Please commit merge resolution and call: tg update --continue
170 tg: It is also safe to abort this operation using `git reset --hard`
171 tg: but please remember you are on the base branch now;
172 tg: you will want to switch to a different branch.
175 $ tg update --continue
179 ## Update a single topic branch and propagate the changes to
181 $ git checkout t/gitweb/nifty-links
184 $ git checkout t/whatever
186 Topic Branch: t/whatever (1 commit)
187 Subject: [PATCH] Whatever patch
189 Depends: t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
191 t/gitweb/nifty-links (1 commit)
193 tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/nifty-links changes...
195 tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update --continue`
196 tg: (use `tg status` to see more options)
199 $ tg update --continue
200 tg: Updating t/whatever against new base...
202 tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update --continue`
203 tg: (use `tg status` to see more options)
206 $ tg update --continue
208 ## Update a single topic branch and propagate the changes
209 ## further through the dependency chain
210 $ git checkout t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
213 $ git checkout t/whatever
215 Topic Branch: t/whatever (1/2 commits)
216 Subject: [PATCH] Whatever patch
218 Depends: t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
220 t/gitweb/pathinfo-action (<= t/gitweb/nifty-links) (1 commit)
222 tg: Recursing to t/gitweb/nifty-links...
223 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/pathinfo-action changes...
225 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update --continue`
226 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: (use `tg status` to see more options)
229 $ tg update --continue
230 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Updating t/gitweb/nifty-links against new base...
232 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update --continue`
233 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: (use `tg status` to see more options)
236 $ tg update --continue
237 tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/nifty-links changes...
238 tg: Updating t/whatever against new base...
240 ## Clone a TopGit-controlled repository
243 $ tg remote --populate origin
248 ## Add a TopGit remote to a repository and push to it
249 $ git remote add foo URL
253 ## Update from a non-default TopGit remote
262 When using TopGit there are several common conventions used when working with
263 TopGit branches. None of them are enforced, they are only suggestions.
265 There are three typical uses for a TopGit branch:
268 Normal TopGit branches that represent a single patch. These are known
269 as "patch" TopGit branches.
271 Empty TopGit branches with no dependencies (an empty ``.topdeps`` file)
272 that represent a base upon which other "normal" TopGit branches depend.
273 These are known as "base" TopGit branches (not to be confused with
274 the refs/top-bases/... refs).
276 Empty TopGit branches that serve as a staging area to bring together
277 several other TopGit branches into one place so they can be used/tested
278 all together. These are known as "stage" TopGit branches.
280 An "empty" TopGit branch is one that does not have any changes of its own --
281 it may still have dependencies though ("stage" branches do, "base" branches do
282 not). The ``tg summary`` output shows empty branches with a ``0`` in the
283 listing. Normal "patch" branches that have not been annihilated, "base" and
284 "stage" branches fall into this category. (Annihilated branches are normally
285 omitted from the ``tg summary`` output but can be shown if given explicitly as
286 an argument to the ``tg summary`` command. However, the message line will be
287 incorrect since an annihilated branch has no ``.topmsg`` file of its own.)
289 A "patch" branch name typically starts with ``t/`` whereas "base" and "stage"
290 branch names often do not.
292 A "base" branch is created by using the ``--base`` option of ``tg create``
293 (aka ``--no-deps``) which will automatically suggest a "[BASE]" message prefix
294 rather than "[PATCH]". A "stage" branch is created like a normal patch branch
295 except that the only changes that will ever be made to it are typically to
296 add/remove dependencies. Its subject prefix must be manually changed to
297 "[STAGE]" to reflect its purpose.
299 Since both "base" and "stage" branches typically only have a use for the
300 "Subject:" line from their ``.topmsg`` file, they are quite easily created
301 using the ``--topmsg`` option of ``tg create``.
303 Use of "stage" and "base" branches is completely optional. However, without
304 use of a "stage" branch it will be difficult to test multiple independent
305 patches together all at once. A "base" branch is merely a convenience that
306 provides more explicit control over when a common base for a set of patches
307 gets updated as well as providing a branch that shows in ``tg summary`` output
308 and participates in ``tg remote --populate`` setup.
310 Occasionally the functionality of a "base" branch is needed but it may not
311 be possible to add any ``.topdeps`` or ``.topmsg`` files to the desired branch
312 (perhaps it's externally controlled). `BARE BRANCHES`_ can be used in this
313 case, but while TopGit allows them it deliberately does not provide assistance
316 Another advantage to using a "stage" branch is that if a new "patch" branch
317 is created remotely and that new branch is added to a pre-existing "stage"
318 branch on the remote then when the local version of the "stage" branch is
319 updated (after fetching remote updates of course), that new dependency will
320 be merged into the local "stage" branch and the local version of the new remote
321 "patch" branch will be automatically set up at "tg update" time.
323 When using the ``tg tag`` command to create tags that record the current state
324 of one or more TopGit branches, the tags are often created with a name that
327 One last thing, you have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
333 Beware, there is no "undo" after running a ``tg update``!
335 Well, that's not entirely correct. Since ``tg update`` never discards commits
336 an "undo" operation is technically feasible provided the old values of all the
337 refs that were affected by the ``tg update`` operation can be determined and
338 then they are simply changed back to their previous values.
340 In practice though, it can be extremely tedious and error prone looking through
341 log information to try and determine what the correct previous values were.
342 Although, since TopGit tries to make sure reflogs are enabled for top-bases
343 refs, using Git's ``@{date}`` notation on all the refs dumped out by a
344 ``tg tag --refs foo``, where "foo" is the branch that was updated whose update
345 needs to be undone, may work.
347 Alternatively, ``tg tag --stash`` can be used prior to the update and then
348 ``tg revert`` used after the update to restore the previous state. This
349 assumes, of course, that you remember to run ``tg tag --stash`` first.
351 The ``tg update`` command understands a ``--stash`` option that tells it to
352 automatically run ``tg tag --stash`` before it starts making changes (if
353 everything is up-to-date it won't run the stash command at all).
355 The ``--stash`` option is the default nowadays when running ``tg update``,
356 add the ``--no-stash`` option to turn it off.
358 There is a preference for this. Setting the config value ``topgit.autostash``
359 to ``false`` will implicitly add the ``--no-stash`` option to any ``tg update``
360 command unless an explicit ``--stash`` option is given.
362 If you are likely to ever want to undo a ``tg update``, setting
363 ``topgit.autostash`` to ``false`` is highly discouraged!
365 Note that if you have foolishly disabled the autostash functionality and
366 suddenly find yourself in an emergency "WHERE'S THE UNDO???" situation you
367 *may* be able to use the special ``TG_STASH`` ref. But only if you're quick.
368 It's only set if you've foolishly disabled autostash and it always overwrites
369 the previous ``TG_STASH`` value if there was one (there's no reflog for it)
370 and it will most likely *not* survive a ``git gc`` (even an automatic one) no
371 matter what gc expiration values are used. However, as a last gasp attempt
372 to save your butt, a previously existing ``TG_STASH`` will first be renamed
373 to ``ORIG_TG_STASH`` immediately before a new ``TG_STASH`` gets written
374 (stepping on any previously existing ``ORIG_TG_STASH`` at that point).
376 Note that the tags saved by ``tg tag --stash`` are stored in the
377 ``refs/tgstash`` ref and its reflog. Unfortunately, while Git is happy to
378 maintain the reflog (once it's been enabled which ``tg tag`` guarantees for
379 ``refs/tgstash``), Git is unable to view an annotated/signed tag's reflog!
380 Instead Git dereferences the tag and shows the wrong thing.
382 Use the ``tg tag -g`` command to view the ``refs/tgstash`` reflog instead.
388 After reading about `NO UNDO`_ and the `tg tag`_ command used to provide a
389 semblance of undo in some cases, you have the foundation to understand the
392 The "wayback machine" provides a way to go back to a previous ref state as
393 stored in a TopGit tag created by `tg tag`_. It actually normally returns to a
394 hybrid state as it does not prune (unless you prefix the wayback tag with
395 a ``:``). In other words, any refs that have been newly created since the
396 target tag was made will continue to exist in the "wayback" view of things
397 (unless you used a pruning wayback tag -- one prefixed with a ``:``).
399 Any operations that are read-only and do not require working tree files (e.g.
400 the ``-i`` or ``-w`` options of `tg patch`_) are allowed using the wayback
401 machine. Simply add a global ``-w <tgtag>`` option to the command.
403 This functionality can be extremely useful for quickly examining/querying a
404 previous state recorded some time ago with a `tg tag`_.
406 As the wayback machine uses a separate caching area, expect initial operations
407 to be less speedy, but repeated wayback operations on the same wayback tag
408 should happen at normal speed.
410 One new command exists expressly for use with the wayback machine.
412 The `tg shell`_ command will spawn an interactive shell or run a specific shell
413 command in a temporary writable and non-bare repository that has its ref
414 namespace set to the (possibly pruned if it's a pruning wayback tag) wayback
415 tag's view of the world. This pretty much lifts all wayback restrictions, but
416 read the description for `tg shell`_ for more details. There is an option
417 available to specify the location where this "temporary" directory is created
418 thereby allowing it to persist, but the same warnings then apply as using the
419 ``git clone --shared`` command.
425 TopGit supports various config settings:
427 :`tg create`_: ``format.signoff`` template Signed-off-by line
428 :ALIASES_: ``topgit.alias.*`` for Git-like command aliases
429 :`tg update`_: ``topgit.autostash`` automatic stash control
430 :`tg create`_: ``topgit.bcc`` default "Bcc:" value for create
431 :`tg create`_: ``topgit.cc`` default "Cc:" value for create
432 :`tg patch`_: ``topgit.from`` "From:" fixups by ``tg patch``
433 :`REMOTE HANDLING`_: ``topgit.remote`` TopGit's default remote
434 :SEQUESTRATION_: ``topgit.sequester`` for sequestration control
435 :`tg update`_: ``topgit.setAutoUpdate`` => ``rerere.autoUpdate``
436 :`tg export`_: ``topgit.subjectMode`` export [...] tag removal
437 :`tg create`_: ``topgit.subjectPrefix`` "[$prefix PATCH] foo"
438 :`tg create`_: ``topgit.to`` default "To:" value for create
439 :`tg migrate-bases`_: ``topgit.top-bases`` for refs bases location
445 These work exactly like Git's aliases except they are stored under
446 ``topgit.alias.*`` instead. See the ``git help config`` output under
447 the ``alias.*`` section for details. Do note that while alias nesting is
448 explicitly permitted, a maximum nesting depth of 10 is enforced to help
449 detect accidental aliasing loops and keep them from wedging the machine.
451 For example, to create an ``lc`` alias for the ``tg log --compact`` command
452 this command may be used:
456 git config --global topgit.alias.lc "log --compact"
458 To make it specific to a particular repository just omit the ``--global``
459 option from the command.
464 From Previous to Next
465 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
467 For this section, consider the following patch series, to be applied
468 in numerical order as shown:
472 0001-F_first-patch.diff
473 0002-G_second-builds-on-F.diff
474 0003-H_third-builds-on-G.diff
475 0004-I_fourth-builds-on-H.diff
476 0005-J_fifth-builds-on-I.diff
477 0006-K_sixth-builds-on-J.diff
478 0007-L_last-patch-needs-K.diff
480 If these were applied to some commit in a Git repository, say commit "A"
481 then a history that looks like this would be created:
485 A---F---G---H---I---J---K---L
487 Where the parent of commit "F" is "A" and so on to where the parent of
488 commit "L" is commit "K".
490 If that commit history, from A through L, was then imported into TopGit, one
491 TopGit branch would be created corresponding to each of the commits F
492 through L. This way, for example, if the fourth patch in the series
493 (``0004-I_...diff``) needs work, the TopGit branch corresponding to its patch
494 can be checked out and changes made and then a new version of its patch
495 created (using ``tg patch``) without disturbing the other patches in the series
496 and when ``tg update`` is run, the patches that "follow" the fourth patch
497 (i.e. 5, 6 and 7) will have their corresponding TopGit branches automatically
498 updated to take into account the changes made to the fourth patch.
500 Okay, enough with the review of TopGit systemology
501 ``````````````````````````````````````````````````
503 Imagine then that you are working on the fourth patch (i.e. you have its
504 branch checked out into the working tree) and you want to move to the following
505 patch in the series because you have a nit to pick with it too.
507 If you can't remember the exact name you might have to fumble around or, you
508 can display the name of the following or "next" patch's branch with the, you
509 guessed it, ``tg next`` command. Think of "next" as the "next" logical patch
510 in the series or the next following patch. If the patches are numbered as in
511 the list above, "next" corresponds to the "+1" (plus one) patch.
513 You might have already guessed there's a corresponding ``tg prev`` command
514 which displays the "-1" (minus one) patch. If these commands (``tg next``
515 and ``tg prev``) are not given a branch name to start at they start at the
516 patch corresponding to the current ``HEAD``.
518 Displaying, however, is not so helpful as actually going there. That's where
519 the ``tg checkout`` command comes in. ``tg checkout next`` does a
520 ``git checkout`` of the ``tg next`` branch and, not surprisingly,
521 ``tg checkout prev`` does a ``git checkout`` of the ``tg prev`` branch. For
522 the lazy a single ``n`` or ``p`` can be used with ``tg checkout`` instead of
523 typing out the entire ``next`` or ``prev``. Or, for the anal, ``previous``
524 will also be accepted for ``prev``.
526 Referring to the A...L commit graph shown above, I is the parent of J and,
527 conversely, J is the child of I. (Git only explicitly records the child to
528 parent links, in other words a "child" points to zero or more "parents", but
529 parents are completely clueless about their own children.)
531 For historical reasons, the ``tg checkout`` command accepts ``child`` as a
532 synonym for ``next`` and ``parent`` as a synonym for ``prev``. However, this
533 terminology can be confusing since Git has "parent" links but ``tg checkout``
534 is referring to the TopGit DAG, not Git's. Best to just avoid using ``child``
535 or ``parent`` to talk about navigating the TopGit DAG and reserve them
536 strictly for discussing the Git DAG.
538 There may be more than one
539 ``````````````````````````
541 In a simple linear history as shown above there's always only one "next" or
542 "prev" patch. However, TopGit does not restrict one to only a linear
543 history (although that can make patch exports just a bushel of fun).
545 Suffice it to say that there is always a single linearized ordering for any
546 TopGit patch series since it's always a DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph), but it
547 may not be immediately obvious to the casual observer what that is.
549 The ``tg checkout`` command will display a list to choose from if ``next``
550 or ``prev`` would be ambiguous.
552 Use the ``tg info/checkout --series`` command
553 `````````````````````````````````````````````
555 To see the full, linearized, list of patches with their summary displayed in
556 order from first to last patch in the series, just run the ``tg info --series``
557 command. It takes the name of any patch in the series automatically using
558 ``HEAD`` if none is given. It even provides a nice "YOU ARE HERE" mark in
559 the output list helpful to those who have been absent for a time engaging in
560 otherwise distracting activities and need to be reminded where they are.
562 Using ``tg checkout --series`` can take you there (picking from a list) if
563 you've forgotten the way back to wherever you're supposed to be.
565 Don't get pushy, there's just one more thing
566 ````````````````````````````````````````````
568 For historical reasons, ``tg checkout`` with no arguments whatsoever behaves
569 like ``tg checkout next``. For the same historical reasons, ``tg checkout ..``
570 behaves like ``tg checkout prev`` (think of ``..`` as the "parent" directory
571 and since "parent" means "prev" in this context it will then make sense).
573 Now, for that one more thing. Consider that you have a pristine "upstream"
574 tarball, repository, source dump or otherwise obtained set of unmodified
575 source files that need to be patched. View them like so:
579 +-------------------------------+
580 | Unmodified "upstream" source |
581 | files represented with "A" |
582 +-------------------------------+
584 Now, add the first patch, 0001, to them and view the result like so:
588 +--------------------------+----+
589 | Patch 0001 represented by "F" |
590 +-------------------------------+
591 | Unmodified "upstream" source |
592 | files represented with "A" |
593 +-------------------------------+
595 Not stopping there, "push" patches 2, 3 and 4 onto the stack as well like so:
599 +--------------------------+----+
600 | Patch 0004 represented by "I" |
601 +--------------------------+----+
602 | Patch 0003 represented by "H" |
603 +--------------------------+----+
604 | Patch 0002 represented by "G" |
605 +--------------------------+----+
606 | Patch 0001 represented by "F" |
607 +-------------------------------+
608 | Unmodified "upstream" source |
609 | files represented with "A" |
610 +-------------------------------+
612 In other words, to go to the "next" patch in the series it needs to be "push"ed
613 onto the stack. ``tg checkout`` accepts ``push`` as an alias for ``next``.
615 Similarly to go to the "previous" patch in the series the current one needs
616 to be "pop"ped off the stack. ``tg checkout`` accepts ``pop`` as an alias
619 Unfortunately for these aliases, in Git terminology a "push" has quite a
620 different meaning and the ``tg push`` command does something quite different
621 from ``tg checkout push``. Then there's the matter of using a single letter
622 abbreviation for the lazy -- ``p`` would mean what exactly?
624 ``tg checkout`` continues to accept the ``push`` and ``pop`` aliases for
625 ``next`` and ``prev`` respectively, but it's best to avoid them since
626 ``push`` has an alternate meaning everywhere else in TopGit and Git and that
627 leaves ``pop`` all alone in the dark.
633 No, this is not a section about budget nonsense. ;)
635 TopGit keeps its metadata in ``.topdeps`` and ``.topmsg`` files. In an effort
636 to facilitate cherry-picking and other Git activities on the patch changes
637 themselves while ignoring the TopGit metadata, TopGit attempts to keep all
638 changes to ``.topdeps`` and ``.topmsg`` files limited to commits that do NOT
639 contain changes to any other files.
641 This is a departure from previous TopGit versions that made no such effort.
643 Primarily this affects ``tg create`` and ``tg import`` (which makes use of
644 ``tg create``) as ``tg create`` will commit the initial versions of
645 ``.topdeps`` and ``.topmsg`` for a new TopGit-controlled branch in their own
646 commit instead of mixing them in with changes to other files.
648 The ``pre-commit`` hook will also attempt to separate out any ``.topdeps`` and
649 ``.topmsg`` changes from commits that include changes to other files.
651 It is possible to defeat these checks without much effort (``pre-commit`` hooks
652 can easily be bypassed, ``tg create`` has a ``--no-commit`` option, many Git
653 commands simply do not run the ``pre-commit`` hook, etc.).
655 If you really, really, really, really want to change the default back to the
656 old behavior of previous TopGit versions where no such sequestration took
657 place, then set the ``topgit.sequester`` config variable explicitly to the
658 value ``false``. But this is not recommended.
661 AMENDING AND REBASING AND UPDATE-REF'ING
662 ----------------------------------------
666 It is okay to manually update a top-bases/... ref when a) it has no depedencies
667 (i.e. it was created with the ``tg create`` ``--base`` option) and b) the
668 old top-bases/... ref value can be fast-forwarded to the new top-bases/...
669 value OR the new value contains ALL of the changes in the old value through
670 some other mechanism (perhaps they were cherry-picked or otherwise applied to
671 the new top-bases/... ref). The same rules apply to non-TopGit-controlled
672 dependencies. Use the ``tg update --base <branch> <new-ref>`` command to
673 safely make such an update while making it easy to set the merge commit
674 message at the same time.
676 Ignoring this rule and proceeding anyway with a non-fast-forward update to a
677 top-bases/... ref will result in changes present in the new value being merged
678 into the branch (at ``tg update`` time) as expected (possibly with conflicts),
679 but any changes that were contained in the old version of the top-bases/... ref
680 which have been dropped (i.e. are NOT contained in the new version of the
681 top-bases/... ref) will continue to be present in the branch! To get rid of
682 the dropped commits, one or more "revert" commits will have to be manually
683 applied to the tip of the new top-bases/... value (which will then be merged
684 into the branch at next ``tg update`` time).
686 The only time it's safe to amend, rebase, filter or otherwise rewrite commits
687 contained in a TopGit controlled branch or non-TopGit branch is when those
688 commits are NOT reachable via any other ref!
690 Furthermore, while it is safe to rewrite merge commits (provided they meet the
691 same conditions) the merge commits themselves and the branches they are merging
692 in must be preserved during the rewrite and that can be rather tricky to get
693 right so it's not recommended.
695 For example, if, while working on a TopGit-controlled branch ``foo``, a bad
696 typo is noticed, it's okay to ammend/rebase to fix that provided neither
697 ``tg update`` nor ``tg create`` has already been used to cause some other ref
698 to be able to reach the commit with the typo.
700 If an amend or rewrite is done anyway even though the commit with the typo is
701 reachable from some other ref, the typo won't really be removed. What will
702 happen instead is that the new version without the typo will ultimately be
703 merged into the other ref(s) (at ``tg update`` time) likely causing a conflict
704 that will have to be manually resolved and the commit with the typo will
705 continue to be reachable from those other refs!
707 Instead just make a new commit to fix the typo. The end result will end up
708 being the same but without the merge conflicts.
710 See also the discussion in the `NO UNDO`_ section.
716 A "TopGit bare branch" (or just "bare branch" for short), refers to a TopGit
717 branch that has neither a ``.topdeps`` nor a ``.topmsg`` file stored in it.
718 And it's neither a new, still-empty empty branch nor an annihilated branch.
720 Such branches are not recommended but are reluctantly accomodated.
722 There are three situtations in which TopGit may encounter a TopGit branch
723 that has neither a ``.topdeps`` nor a ``.topmsg`` file.
725 1. Branch creation with ``--no-commit``
726 Before the initial commit is made, the branch will still be
727 pointing to the same commit as its "top-bases" ref. Branches
728 in this condition (where the branch and top-bases ref point to
729 the same commit) show up as having "No commits" in listings.
731 2. Annihilated branches
732 A branch is annihilated by making a new commit on the branch
733 that makes its tree identical to the tree of its corresponding
734 top-bases ref. Although the trees will be the same, the
735 commits will be different and annihilated branches are
736 distinguished from "No commits" branches in this way.
737 Annihilated branches are generally invisible and do not show up
738 in listings or other status displays. Intentionally so.
741 Any TopGit branch with neither a ``.topdeps`` file nor a
742 ``.topmsg`` file whose branch and top-bases trees differ falls
743 into this category. TopGit will not create such a branch
744 itself nor does it provide any commands to do so.
746 Whenever possible, a TopGit "[BASE]" branch should be preferred to using a
747 "bare branch" because a) it can never be mistaken for an annihilated branch,
748 b) it has a nice subject attached (via its ``.topmsg`` file) that shows
749 up in listings and c) exactly when and which updates are taken can be planned.
751 Nevertheless, situations may arise where it's useful to have TopGit treat a
752 branch as a "TopGit branch" so that it fully participates in all update
753 activities (such as updating local branches based on their remote branches),
754 but it's not feasible to turn it into a real "TopGit branch" as it comes from
755 an external source and rather than controlling exactly when and what updates
756 are picked up from it by TopGit (the precise use case of a "[BASE]" branch),
757 all updates that appear on it are to be assimilated as soon as they occur.
759 For this reason, TopGit will accomodate such "bare branches" but it will not
760 create (nor provide the means to create) them itself.
762 In order to create a "bare branch" all that's required is to create the
763 necessary top-bases ref. The choice of commit for the top-bases ref will
764 affect the output of the "files", "log" and "patch" commands most directly
765 (but all commands will be affected).
767 To work properly as a "bare branch", the commit the "bare branch"'s base points
768 to should be contained within the branch, be a different commit than the branch
769 tip itself and have a different tree than the branch tip. Simply setting the
770 base to the parent commit of the "bare branch" will usually work, but should
771 that commit at the tip of the "bare branch" end up getting reverted as the next
772 commit, the trees would match and it would appear to be an annihilated branch
773 rather than a "bare branch". That is one of the reasons these branches are not
774 recommended in the first place.
776 Setting the base to the root commit of the branch is more reliable and may
777 be accomplished like so for a local branch named "mybranch":
781 git update-ref $(tg --top-bases)/mybranch \
782 $(git rev-list --first-parent --max-parents=0 mybranch) ""
784 Typically though it's more likely a remote bare branch will be needed. For
785 a remote named "origin" and a remote branch name of "vendor" this will do it:
789 git update-ref $(tg --top-bases -r origin)/vendor \
790 $(git rev-list --first-parent --max-parents=0 origin/vendor) ""
792 Such "bare branches" are not likely ever to receive any more direct support in
793 TopGit than acknowleging they can be useful in some situations and tolerating
794 their existence by functioning properly with them even to the point of the
795 ``pre-commit`` hook tacitly allowing continued commits on such branches without
796 complaints about missing ``.topdeps`` and ``.topmsg`` files.
798 Note, however, that creating a regular TopGit branch that has no changes of its
799 own with the "bare branch" as its single dependency provides a means to supply
800 some kind of documentation if all other uses of the "bare branch" depend on
801 this "wrapper" branch instead of directly on the "bare branch".
807 TopGit needs to check many things to determine whether a TopGit branch is
808 up-to-date or not. This can involve a LOT of git commands for a complex
809 dependency tree. In order to speed things up, TopGit keeps a cache of results
810 in a ``tg-cache`` subdirectory in the ``.git`` directory.
812 Results are tagged with the original hash values used to get that result so
813 that items which have not been changed return their results quickly and items
814 which have been changed compute their new result and cache it for future use.
816 The ``.git/tg-cache`` directory may be removed at any time and the cache will
817 simply be recreated in an on-demand fashion as needed, at some speed penalty,
818 until it's fully rebuilt.
820 To force the cache to be fully pre-loaded, run the ``tg summary`` command
821 without any arguments. Otherwise, normal day-to-day TopGit operations should
822 keep it more-or-less up-to-date.
824 While each TopGit command is running, it uses a temporary subdirectory also
825 located in the ``.git`` directory. These directories are named
826 ``tg-tmp.XXXXXX`` where the ``XXXXXX`` part will be random letters and digits.
828 These temporary directories should always be removed automatically after each
829 TopGit command finishes running. As long as you are not in a subshell as a
830 result of a TopGit command stopping and waiting for a manual merge resolution,
831 it's safe to remove any of these directories that may have somehow accidentally
832 been left behind as a result of some failure that occurred while running a
833 TopGit command (provided, of course, it's not actually being used by a TopGit
834 command currently running in another terminal window or by another user on the
840 ``tg [global options] <subcommand> [<subcommand option/argument>...]``
844 ``[-C <dir>]... [-r <remote> | -u] [-c <name>=<val>]... [--[no-]pager]``
846 -C <dir> Change directory to <dir> before doing anything more
847 -r <remote> Pretend ``topgit.remote`` is set to <remote>
848 -u Pretend ``topgit.remote`` is not set
849 -c <name=val> Pass config option to git, may be repeated
850 -w <tgtag> Activate `wayback machine`_ using the `tg tag`_ <tgtag>
851 --no-pager Disable use of any pager (by both TopGit and Git)
852 --pager Enable use of a pager (aka ``-p``)
853 --top-bases Show full ``top-bases`` ref prefix and exit
854 --exec-path Show path to subcommand scripts location and exit
855 --help Show brief usage help and exit (aka ``-h``)
857 The ``tg`` tool has several subcommands:
859 :`tg annihilate`_: Mark a TopGit-controlled branch as defunct
860 :`tg base`_: Show base commit for one or more TopGit branches
861 :`tg checkout`_: Shortcut for git checkout with name matching
862 :`tg contains`_: Which TopGit-controlled branch contains the commit
863 :`tg create`_: Create a new TopGit-controlled branch
864 :`tg delete`_: Delete a TopGit-controlled branch cleanly
865 :`tg depend`_: Add a new dependency to a TopGit-controlled branch
866 :`tg export`_: Export TopGit branch patches to files or a branch
867 :`tg files`_: Show files changed by a TopGit branch
868 :`tg help`_: Show TopGit help optionally using a browser
869 :`tg import`_: Import commit(s) to separate TopGit branches
870 :`tg info`_: Show status information about a TopGit branch
871 :`tg log`_: Run git log limiting revisions to a TopGit branch
872 :`tg mail`_: Shortcut for git send-email with ``tg patch`` output
873 :`tg migrate-bases`_: Transition top-bases to new location
874 :`tg next`_: Show branches directly depending on a TopGit branch
875 :`tg patch`_: Generate a patch file for a TopGit branch
876 :`tg prev`_: Show non-annihilated TopGit dependencies for a branch
877 :`tg push`_: Run git push on TopGit branch(es) and depedencies
878 :`tg rebase`_: Auto continue git rebase if rerere resolves conflicts
879 :`tg remote`_: Set up remote for fetching/pushing TopGit branches
880 :`tg revert`_: Revert ref(s) to a state stored in a ``tg tag``
881 :`tg shell`_: Extended `wayback machine`_ mode
882 :`tg status`_: Show current TopGit status (e.g. in-progress update)
883 :`tg summary`_: Show various information about TopGit branches
884 :`tg tag`_: Create tag that records current TopGit branch state
885 :`tg update`_: Update TopGit branch(es) with respect to dependencies
889 Our sophisticated integrated help facility. Mostly duplicates
894 # to get help for a particular command:
896 # to get help for a particular command in a browser window:
897 $ tg help -w <command>
898 # to get help on TopGit itself
900 # to get help on TopGit itself in a browser
905 Our sophisticated status facility. Similar to Git's status command
906 but shows any in-progress update that's awaiting a merge resolution
907 or any other on-going TopGit activity (such as a branch creation).
909 With a single ``--verbose`` (or ``-v``) option include a short status
910 display for any dirty (but not untracked) files. This also causes all
911 non file status lines to be prefixed with "## ".
913 With two (or more) ``--verbose`` (or ``-v``) options, additionally
914 show full symbolic ref names and unabbreviated hash values.
916 With the ``--exit-code`` option the exit code will be non-zero if any
917 TopGit or Git operation is currently in progress or the working
922 Create a new TopGit-controlled topic branch of the given name
923 (required argument) and switch to it. If no dependencies are
924 specified (by extra arguments passed after the first one), the
925 current branch is assumed to be the only dependency.
927 By default ``tg create`` opens an editor on the new ``.topmsg`` file
928 and then commits the new ``.topmsg`` and ``.topdeps`` files
929 automatically with a suitable default commit message.
931 The commit message can be changed with the ``-m`` (or ``--message``) or
932 ``-F`` (or ``--file``) option. The automatic commit can be suppressed
933 by using the ``--no-ccmmit`` (or ``-n``) option. Running the editor on
934 the new ``.topmsg`` file can be suppressed by using ``--no-edit``
935 (which does *NOT* suppress the automatic commit unless ``--no-commit``
936 is also given) or by providing an explicit value for the new
937 ``.topmsg`` file using the ``--topmsg`` or ``--topmsg-file`` option.
938 In any case the ``.topmsg`` content will be automatically reformated to
939 have a ``Subject:`` header line if needed.
941 If the ``format.signoff`` config variable (see ``git help config``)
942 has been set to true then the ``Signed-off-by:`` header line added to
943 the end of the initial version of the ``.topmsg`` file will be
944 uncommented by default. Otherwise it will still be there but will be
945 commented out and will be automatically stripped if no action is taken
946 to remove the comment character.
948 If more than one dependency is listed an automatic ``tg update`` runs
949 after the branch has been created to merge in the additional
950 dependencies and bring the branch up-to-date. This can be suppressed
951 with the ``--no-commit`` option (which also suppresses the initial
952 commit) or the ``--no-update`` option (which allows the initial commit
953 while suppressing only the update operation portion).
955 Previous versions of TopGit behaved as though both the ``--no-edit``
956 and ``--no-commit`` options were always given on the command line.
958 The default behavior has been changed to promote a separation between
959 commits that modify ``.topmsg`` and/or ``.topdeps`` and commits that
960 modify other files. This facilitates cleaner cherry picking and other
961 patch maintenance activities.
963 You should edit the patch description (contained in the ``.topmsg``
964 file) as appropriate. It will already contain some prefilled bits.
965 You can set the ``topgit.to``, ``topgit.cc`` and ``topgit.bcc``
966 git configuration variables (see ``man git-config``) in order to
967 have ``tg create`` add these headers with the given default values
968 to ``.topmsg`` before invoking the editor. If the configuration
969 variable ``topgit.subjectPrefix`` is set its value will be inserted
970 *between* the initial ``[`` and the word ``PATCH`` in the subject
971 line (with a space added before the word ``PATCH`` of course).
973 The main task of ``tg create`` is to set up the topic branch base
974 from the dependencies. This may fail due to merge conflicts if more
975 than one dependency is given. In that case, after you commit the
976 conflict resolution, you should call ``tg update --continue`` to
977 finish merging the dependencies into the new topic branch base.
979 With the ``--base`` (aka ``--no-deps``) option at most one dependency
980 may be listed which may be any valid committish (instead of just
981 refs/heads/...) and the newly created TopGit-controlled branch will
982 have an empty ``.topdeps`` file. This may be desirable in order to
983 create a TopGit-controlled branch that has no changes of its own and
984 serves merely to mark the common dependency that all other
985 TopGit-controlled branches in some set of TopGit-controlled branches
986 depend on. A plain, non-TopGit-controlled branch can be used for the
987 same purpose, but the advantage of a TopGit-controlled branch with no
988 dependencies is that it will be pushed with ``tg push``, it will show
989 up in the ``tg summary`` and ``tg info`` output with the subject from
990 its ``.topmsg`` file thereby documenting what it's for and finally it
991 can be set up with ``tg create -r`` and/or ``tg remote --populate`` to
994 For example, ``tg create --base release v2.1`` will create a TopGit-
995 controlled ``release`` branch based off the ``v2.1`` tag that can then
996 be used as a base for creation of other TopGit-controlled branches.
997 Then when the time comes to move the base for an entire set of changes
998 up to ``v2.2`` the command ``tg update --base release v2.2`` can be
999 used followed by ``tg update --all``.
1001 Using ``--base`` it's also possible to use ``tg create`` on an
1002 unborn branch (omit the dependency name or specify ``HEAD``). The
1003 unborn branch itself can be made into the new TopGit branch (rather
1004 than being born empty and then having the new TopGit branch based off
1005 that) by specifying ``HEAD`` as the new branch's name (which is
1006 probably what you normally want to do in this case anyway so you can
1007 just run ``tg create --base HEAD`` to accomplish that).
1009 In an alternative use case, if ``-r <branch>`` is given instead of a
1010 dependency list, the topic branch is created based on the given
1011 remote branch. With just ``-r`` the remote branch name is assumed
1012 to be the same as the local topic branch being created. Since no
1013 new commits are created in this mode (only two refs will be updated)
1014 the editor will never be run for this use case. Note that no other
1015 options may be combined with ``-r``.
1017 The ``--quiet`` (or ``-q``) option suppresses most informational
1022 Remove a TopGit-controlled topic branch of the given name
1023 (required argument). Normally, this command will remove only an
1024 empty branch (base == head) without dependents; use ``-f`` to
1025 remove a non-empty branch or a branch that is depended upon by
1028 The ``-f`` option is also useful to force removal of a branch's
1029 base, if you used ``git branch -D B`` to remove branch B, and then
1030 certain TopGit commands complain, because the base of branch B
1033 Normally ``tg delete`` will refuse to delete the current branch.
1034 However, giving ``-f`` twice (or more) will force it to do so but it
1035 will first detach your HEAD.
1037 IMPORTANT: Currently, this command will *NOT* remove the branch
1038 from the dependency list in other branches. You need to take
1039 care of this *manually*. This is even more complicated in
1040 combination with ``-f`` -- in that case, you need to manually
1041 unmerge the removed branch's changes from the branches depending
1044 The same ``--stash`` and ``--no-stash`` options are accepted with
1045 the same exact semantics as for `tg update`_.
1047 See also ``tg annihilate``.
1049 | TODO: ``-a`` to delete all empty branches, depfix, revert
1053 Make a commit on the current or given TopGit-controlled topic
1054 branch that makes it equal to its base, including the presence or
1055 absence of .topmsg and .topdeps. Annihilated branches are not
1056 displayed by ``tg summary``, so they effectively get out of your
1057 way. However, the branch still exists, and ``tg push`` will
1058 push it (except if given the ``-a`` option). This way, you can
1059 communicate that the branch is no longer wanted.
1061 When annihilating a branch that has dependents (i.e. branches
1062 that depend on it), those dependents have the dependencies of
1063 the branch being annihilated added to them if they do not already
1064 have them as dependencies. Essentially the DAG is repaired to
1065 skip over the annihilated branch.
1067 Normally, this command will remove only an empty branch
1068 (base == head, except for changes to the .top* files); use
1069 ``-f`` to annihilate a non-empty branch.
1071 After completing the annihilation itself, normally ``tg update``
1072 is run on any modified dependents. Use the ``--no-update`` option
1073 to suppress running ``tg update``.
1075 The same ``--stash`` and ``--no-stash`` options are accepted with
1076 the same exact semantics as for `tg update`_.
1080 Change the dependencies of a TopGit-controlled topic branch.
1081 This should have several subcommands, but only ``add`` is
1082 supported right now.
1084 The ``add`` subcommand takes an argument naming a topic branch to
1085 be added, adds it to ``.topdeps``, performs a commit and then
1086 updates your topic branch accordingly. If you want to do other
1087 things related to the dependency addition, like adjusting
1088 ``.topmsg``, use the option ``--no-commit``. Adding the
1089 ``--no-update`` (or ``--no-commit``) option will suppress the
1090 ``tg update`` normally performed after committing the change.
1092 It is safe to run ``tg depend add`` in a dirty worktree, but the
1093 normally performed ``tg update`` will be suppressed in that case
1094 (even if neither ``--no-update`` nor ``--no-commit`` is given).
1096 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
1098 | TODO: Subcommand for removing dependencies, obviously
1102 List files changed by the current or specified topic branch.
1105 -i list files based on index instead of branch
1106 -w list files based on working tree instead of branch
1110 Show summary information about the current or specified topic
1113 Numbers in parenthesis after a branch name such as "(11/3 commits)"
1114 indicate how many commits on the branch (11) and how many of those
1115 are non-merge commits (3).
1117 With ``--verbose`` (or ``-v``) include a list of dependents (i.e. other
1118 branches that depend on this one). Another ``--verbose`` annotates
1119 them with "[needs merge]" if the current tip of branch for which info
1120 is being shown has not yet been merged into the base of the dependent.
1122 Alternatively, if ``--heads`` is used then which of the independent
1123 TopGit branch heads (as output by ``tg summary --topgit-heads``)
1124 logically contains the specified commit (which may be any committish --
1125 defaults to ``HEAD`` if not given). Zero or more results will be
1126 output. Note that "logically" means with regard to the TopGit
1127 dependency relationships as established by the ``.topdeps`` file(s).
1128 It's the answer that would be given when all the TopGit branches are
1129 up-to-date (even though they need not be to use this option) and the
1130 ``git branch --contains`` command is run and the output then filtered
1131 to only those branches that appear in ``tg summary --topgit-heads``.
1132 This computation may require several seconds on complex repositories.
1134 If ``--leaves`` is used then the unique list of leaves of the current
1135 or specified topic branch is shown as one fully-qualified ref per line.
1136 Duplicates are suppressed and a tag name will be used when appropriate.
1137 A "leaf" is any dependency that is either not a TopGit branch or is
1138 the base of a non-annihilated TopGit branch with no non-annihilated
1141 The ``--deps`` option shows non-annihilated TopGit dependencies of the
1142 specified branch (default is ``HEAD``). (It can also be spelled out
1143 as ``--dependencies`` for the pedantically inclined.)
1145 The ``--dependents`` option shows non-annihilated TopGit dependents
1146 (i.e. branches that depend on the specified branch). The default
1147 branch to operate on is again ``HEAD``.
1149 A linearized patch series can only be automatically created for a
1150 TopGit topic branch (including its recursive dependencies) when exactly
1151 one line is output by ``tg info --leaves <topic-branch>``.
1153 With ``--series`` the list of TopGit branches in the order they would
1154 be linearized into a patch series is shown along with the description
1155 of each branch. If the branch name passed to ``tg info`` is not the
1156 last branch in the series a marker column will be provided to quickly
1157 locate it in the list. This same option can be used with `tg checkout`_.
1159 Some patches shown in the list may not actually end up introducing any
1160 changes if exported and be therefore end up being omitted. The ``0``
1161 indicator in ``tg summary`` output can help to identify some of these.
1163 The patches shown in the series in the order they are shown form the
1164 basis for the ``tg next`` and ``tg prev`` operations with the first
1165 patch shown being considered the first and so on up to the last.
1168 -i Use TopGit metadata from the index instead of the branch
1169 -w Use TopGit metadata from the working tree instead of the branch
1173 Generate a patch from the current or specified topic branch.
1174 This means that the diff between the topic branch base and head
1175 (latest commit) is shown, appended to the description found in
1176 the ``.topmsg`` file.
1178 The patch is simply dumped to stdout. In the future, ``tg patch``
1179 will be able to automatically send the patches by mail or save
1180 them to files. (TODO)
1183 -i base patch generation on index instead of branch
1184 -w base patch generation on working tree instead of branch
1185 --binary pass --binary to ``git diff-tree`` to enable generation
1187 --quiet be quiet (aka ``-q``) about missing and unfixed From:
1188 --from make sure patch has a From: line, if not add one
1189 --from=<a> <a> or Signed-off-by value or ident value; ``git am``
1190 really gets unhappy with patches missing From: lines;
1191 will NOT replace an existing non-empty From: header
1192 --no-from leave all From: lines alone, missing or not (default)
1193 --diff-opt options after the branch name (and an optional ``--``)
1194 are passed directly to ``git diff-tree``
1196 In order to pass a sole explicit ``-w`` through to ``git diff-tree`` it
1197 must be separated from the ``tg`` options by an explicit ``--``.
1198 Or it can be spelled as ``--ignore-all-space`` to distinguuish it from
1199 ``tg``'s ``-w`` option.
1201 If the config variable ``topgit.from`` is set to a boolean it can be
1202 used to enable or disable the ``--from`` option by default. If it's
1203 set to the special value ``quiet`` the ``--quiet`` option is enabled
1204 and From: lines are left alone by default. Any other non-empty value
1205 is taken as a default ``--from=<value>`` option. The ``--no-from``
1206 option will temporarily disable use of the config value.
1208 If additional non-``tg`` options are passed through to
1209 ``git diff-tree`` (other than ``--binary`` which is fully supported)
1210 the resulting ``tg patch`` output may not be appliable.
1214 Send a patch from the current or specified topic branch as
1217 Takes the patch given on the command line and emails it out.
1218 Destination addresses such as To, Cc and Bcc are taken from the
1221 Since it actually boils down to ``git send-email``, please refer
1222 to the documentation for that for details on how to setup email
1223 for git. You can pass arbitrary options to this command through
1224 the ``-s`` parameter, but you must double-quote everything. The
1225 ``-r`` parameter with a msgid can be used to generate in-reply-to
1226 and reference headers to an earlier mail.
1228 WARNING: be careful when using this command. It easily sends
1229 out several mails. You might want to run::
1231 git config sendemail.confirm always
1233 to let ``git send-email`` ask for confirmation before sending any
1237 -i base patch generation on index instead of branch
1238 -w base patch generation on working tree instead of branch
1240 | TODO: ``tg mail patchfile`` to mail an already exported patch
1241 | TODO: mailing patch series
1242 | TODO: specifying additional options and addresses on command line
1246 Register the given remote as TopGit-controlled. This will create
1247 the namespace for the remote branch bases and teach ``git fetch``
1248 to operate on them. However, from TopGit 0.8 onwards you need to
1249 use ``tg push``, or ``git push --mirror``, for pushing
1250 TopGit-controlled branches.
1252 ``tg remote`` takes an optional remote name argument, and an
1253 optional ``--populate`` switch. Use ``--populate`` for your
1254 origin-style remotes: it will seed the local topic branch system
1255 based on the remote topic branches. ``--populate`` will also make
1256 ``tg remote`` automatically fetch the remote, and ``tg update`` look
1257 at branches of this remote for updates by default.
1259 Using ``--populate`` with a remote name causes the ``topgit.remote``
1260 git configuration variable to be set to the given remote name.
1264 Show overview of all TopGit-tracked topic branches and their
1265 up-to-date status. With a branch name limit output to that branch.
1266 Using ``--deps-only`` or ``--rdeps`` changes the default from all
1267 branches to just the current ``HEAD`` branch but using ``--all`` as
1268 the branch name will show results for all branches instead of ``HEAD``.
1271 marks the current topic branch
1274 indicates that it introduces no changes of its own
1277 indicates respectively whether it is local-only
1278 or has a remote mate
1281 indicates respectively if it is ahead or out-of-date
1282 with respect to its remote mate
1285 indicates that it is out-of-date with respect to its
1289 indicates that it has missing dependencies [even if
1290 they are recursive ones]
1293 indicates that it is out-of-date with respect to
1297 indicates it is ahead of (and needs to be merged into)
1298 at least one of its dependents -- only computed when
1299 showing all branches or using the (possibly implied)
1300 ``--with-deps`` option.
1302 This can take a longish time to accurately determine all the
1303 relevant information about each branch; you can pass ``-t`` (or ``-l``
1304 or ``--list``) to get just a terse list of topic branch names quickly.
1305 Also adding ``--verbose`` (or ``-v``) includes the subjects too.
1306 Adding a second ``--verbose`` includes annihilated branches as well.
1308 Passing ``--heads`` shows independent topic branch names and when
1309 combined with ``--rdeps`` behaves as though ``--rdeps`` were run with
1310 the output of ``--heads``.
1312 The ``--heads-independent`` option works just like ``--heads`` except
1313 that it computes the heads using ``git merge-base --independent``
1314 rather than examining the TopGit ``.topdeps`` relationships. If the
1315 TopGit branches are all up-to-date (as shown in ``tg summary``) then
1316 both ``--heads`` and ``--heads-independent`` should compute the same
1317 list of heads (unless some overlapping TopGit branches have been
1318 manually created). If not all the TopGit branches are up-to-date then
1319 the ``--heads-independent`` results may have extra items in it, but
1320 occasionally that's what's needed; usually it's the wrong answer.
1321 (Note that ``--topgit-heads`` is accepted as an alias for ``--heads``
1324 Using ``--heads-only`` behaves as though the output of ``--heads`` was
1325 passed as the list of branches along with ``--without-deps``.
1327 Alternatively, you can pass ``--graphviz`` to get a dot-suitable output
1328 for drawing a dependency graph between the topic branches.
1330 You can also use the ``--sort`` option to sort the branches using
1331 a topological sort. This is especially useful if each
1332 TopGit-tracked topic branch depends on a single parent branch,
1333 since it will then print the branches in the dependency order.
1334 In more complex scenarios, a text graph view would be much more
1335 useful, but that has not yet been implemented.
1337 The ``--deps`` option outputs dependency information between
1338 branches in a machine-readable format. Feed this to ``tsort`` to
1339 get the output from --sort.
1341 The ``--deps-only`` option outputs a sorted list of the unique branch
1342 names given on the command line plus all of their recursive
1343 dependencies (subject to ``--exclude`` of course). When
1344 ``--deps-only`` is given the default is to just display information for
1345 ``HEAD``, but that can be changed by using ``--all`` as the branch
1346 name. Each branch name will appear only once in the output no matter
1347 how many times it's visited while tracing the dependency graph or how
1348 many branch names are given on the command line to process.
1350 The ``--rdeps`` option outputs dependency information in an indented
1351 text format that clearly shows all the dependencies and their
1352 relationships to one another. When ``--rdeps`` is given the default is
1353 to just display information for ``HEAD``, but that can be changed by
1354 using ``--all`` as the branch name or by adding the ``--heads`` option.
1355 Note that ``tg summary --rdeps --heads`` can be particularly helpful in
1356 seeing all the TopGit-controlled branches in the repository and their
1357 relationships to one another.
1359 Note that ``--rdeps`` has two flavors. The first (and default) is
1360 ``--rdeps-once`` which only shows the dependencies of a branch when
1361 it's first visited. For example, if D depends on several other
1362 branches perhaps recursively and both branch A and B depend on D, then
1363 whichever of A or B is shown first will show the entire dependency
1364 chain for D underneath it and the other one will just show a line for
1365 D itself with a "^" appended to indicate that the rest of the deps for
1366 D can be found above. This can make the output a bit more compact
1367 without actually losing any information which is why it's the default.
1368 However, using the ``--rdeps-full`` variant will repeat the full
1369 dependency chain every time it's encountered.
1371 Adding ``--with-deps`` replaces the given list of branches (which will
1372 default to ``HEAD`` if none are given) with the result of running
1373 ``tg summary --deps-only --tgish`` on the list of branches. This can
1374 be helpful in limiting ``tg summary`` output to only the list of given
1375 branches and their dependencies when many TopGit-controlled branches
1376 are present in the repository. Use ``--without-deps`` to switch back
1377 to the old behavior.
1379 The ``--with-related`` option extends (and therefore implies)
1380 ``--with-deps``. First the list of branches (which will default to
1381 ``HEAD`` if none are given) is replaced with the result of running
1382 ``tg summary --heads`` (aka ``--topgit-heads``) and the result is then
1383 processed as though it had been specified using ``--with-deps``.
1385 When it would be allowed, ``--with-deps`` is now the default. But,
1386 if in addition, exactly one branch is specified (either explicitly
1387 or implicitly) and it's spelled *exactly* as ``HEAD`` or ``@`` then
1388 the default ``--with-deps`` will be promoted to a default
1389 ``--with-related`` instead. Since duplicate branches are removed
1390 before processing, explicitly listing ``@`` twice provides an easy way
1391 to defeat this automatic promotion and ask for ``--with-deps`` on the
1392 ``HEAD`` symbolic ref with minimal typing when ``--with-related`` isn't
1393 really wanted and typing the full ``--with-deps`` option is too hard.
1395 With ``--exclude branch``, branch can be excluded from the output
1396 meaning it will be skipped and its name will be omitted from any
1397 dependency output. The ``--exclude`` option may be repeated to omit
1398 more than one branch from the output. Limiting the output to a single
1399 branch that has been excluded will result in no output at all.
1401 The ``--tgish-only`` option behaves as though any non-TopGit-controlled
1402 dependencies encountered during processing had been listed after an
1403 ``--exclude`` option.
1405 Note that the branch name can be specified as ``HEAD`` or ``@`` as a
1406 shortcut for the TopGit-controlled branch that ``HEAD`` is a
1407 symbolic ref to. The ``tg summary @`` and ``tg summary @ @`` commands
1408 can be quite useful.
1411 -i Use TopGit metadata from the index instead of the branch
1412 -w Use TopGit metadata from the working tree instead of the branch
1416 Search all TopGit-controlled branches (and optionally their remotes)
1417 to find which TopGit-controlled branch contains the specified commit.
1419 This is more than just basic branch containment as provided for by the
1420 ``git branch --contains`` command. While the shown branch name(s)
1421 will, indeed, be one (or more) of those output by the
1422 ``git branch --contains`` command, the result(s) will exclude any
1423 TopGit-controlled branches from the result(s) that have one (or more)
1424 of their TopGit dependencies (either direct or indirect) appearing in
1425 the ``git branch --contains`` output.
1427 Normally the result will be only the one, single TopGit-controlled
1428 branch for which the specified committish appears in the ``tg log``
1429 output for that branch (unless the committish lies outside the
1430 TopGit-controlled portion of the DAG and ``--no-strict`` was used).
1432 Unless ``--annihilated-okay`` (or ``--ann`` or ``--annihilated``) is
1433 used then annihilated branches will be immediately removed from the
1434 ``git branch --contains`` output before doing anything else. This
1435 means a committish that was originally located in a now-annihilated
1436 branch will show up in whatever branch picked up the annihilated
1437 branch's changes (if there is one). This is usually the correct
1438 answer, but occasionally it's not; hence this option. If this option
1439 is used together with ``--verbose`` then annihilated branches will
1440 be shown as "[:annihilated:]".
1442 In other words, if a ``tg patch`` is generated for the found branch
1443 (assuming one was found and a subsequent commit in the same branch
1444 didn't then revert or otherwise back out the change), then that patch
1445 will include the changes introduced by the specified committish
1446 (unless, of course, that committish is outside the TopGit-controlled
1447 portion of the DAG and ``--no-strict`` was given).
1449 This can be very helpful when, for example, a bug is discovered and
1450 then after using ``git bisect`` (or some other tool) to find the
1451 offending commit it's time to commit the fix. But because the
1452 TopGit merging history can be quite complicated and maybe the one
1453 doing the fix wasn't the bug's author (or the author's memory is just
1454 going), it can sometimes be rather tedious to figure out which
1455 TopGit branch the fix belongs in. The ``tg contains`` command can
1456 quickly tell you the answer to that question.
1458 With the ``--remotes`` (or ``-r``) option a TopGit-controlled remote
1459 branch name may be reported as the result but only if there is no
1460 non-remote branch containing the committish (this can only happen
1461 if at least one of the TopGit-controlled local branches are not yet
1462 up-to-date with their remotes).
1464 With the ``--verbose`` option show which TopGit DAG head(s) (one or
1465 more of the TopGit-controlled branch names output by
1466 ``tg summary --heads``) have the result as a dependency (either direct
1467 or indirect). Using this option will noticeably increase running time.
1469 With the default ``--strict`` option, results for which the base of the
1470 TopGit-controlled branch contains the committish will be suppressed.
1471 For example, if the committish was deep-down in the master branch
1472 history somewhere far outside of the TopGit-controlled portion of
1473 the DAG, with ``--no-strict``, whatever TopGit-controlled branch(es)
1474 first picked up history containing that committish will be shown.
1475 While this is a useful result it's usually not the desired result
1476 which is why it's not the default.
1478 To summarize, even with ``--remotes``, remote results are only shown
1479 if there are no non-remote results. Without ``--no-strict`` (because
1480 ``--strict`` is the default) results outside the TopGit-controlled
1481 portion of the DAG are never shown and even with ``--no-strict`` they
1482 will only be shown if there are no ``--strict`` results. Finally,
1483 the TopGit head info shown with ``--verbose`` only ever appears for
1484 local (i.e. not a remote branch) results. Annihilated branches are
1485 never considered possible matches without ``--annihilated-okay``.
1489 Switch to a topic branch. You can use ``git checkout <branch>``
1490 to get the same effect, but this command helps you navigate
1491 the dependency graph, or allows you to match the topic branch
1492 name using a regular expression, so it can be more convenient.
1494 The ``--branch`` (or ``-b`` or ``--branch=<name>``) option changes
1495 the default starting point from ``HEAD`` to the specified branch.
1497 For the "next" and "previous" commands, the ``<steps>`` value may
1498 be ``--all`` (or ``-a``) to take "As many steps As possible" or
1499 "step ALL the way" or "ALL steps at once" (or make something better
1502 The following subcommands are available:
1504 ``tg checkout next [<steps>]``
1505 Check out a branch that directly
1506 depends on your current branch.
1507 Move ``<steps>`` (default 1) step(s) in
1508 the "next" direction (AKA ``n``).
1510 ``tg checkout prev [<steps>]``
1511 Check out a branch that this branch
1512 directly depends on. Move ``<steps>``
1513 (default 1) step(s) in the "previous"
1514 direction (AKA ``p`` or ``previous``).
1516 ``tg checkout [goto] [--] <pattern>``
1517 Check out a topic branch that
1518 matches ``<pattern>``. ``<pattern>``
1519 is used as a grep ERE pattern to filter
1520 all the topic branches. Both ``goto`` and
1521 ``--`` may be omitted provided ``<pattern>``
1522 is not ``-a``, ``--all``, ``-h``, ``--help``,
1523 ``goto``, ``--``, ``n``, ``next``, ``push``,
1524 ``child``, ``p``, ``prev``, ``previous``,
1525 ``pop``, ``parent``, ``+``, ``-`` or ``..``.
1527 ``tg checkout [goto] [--] --series[=<head>]``
1528 Check out a topic branch that belongs to
1529 the current (or ``<head>``) patch series.
1530 A list with descriptions (``tg info --series``)
1531 will be shown to choose from if more than one.
1533 ``tg checkout + [<steps>]``
1534 An alias for ``next``.
1536 ``tg checkout push [<steps>]``
1537 An alias for ``next``.
1539 ``tg checkout child [<steps>]``
1540 Deprecated alias for ``next``.
1543 Semi-deprecated alias for ``next``.
1545 ``tg checkout - [<steps>]``
1546 An alias for ``prev``.
1548 ``tg checkout pop [<steps>]``
1549 An alias for ``prev``.
1551 ``tg checkout parent [<steps>]``
1552 Deprecated alias for ``prev``.
1554 ``tg checkout .. [<steps>]``
1555 Semi-deprecated alias for ``prev``.
1557 If any of the above commands can find more than one possible
1558 branch to switch to, you will be presented with the matches
1559 and asked to select one of them.
1561 If the ``--ignore-other-worktrees`` (or ``--iow``) option is given and
1562 the current Git version is at least 2.5.0 then the full
1563 ``--ignore-other-worktrees`` option will be passed along to the
1564 ``git checkout`` command when it's run (otherwise the option will be
1565 silently ignored and not passed to Git as it would cause an error).
1567 The ``--force`` (or ``-f``) option, when given, gets passed through to
1568 the ``git checkout`` command.
1570 The ``--merge`` (or ``-m``) option, when given, gets passed through to
1571 the ``git checkout`` command.
1573 The ``--quiet`` (or ``-q``) option, when given, gets passed through to
1574 the ``git checkout`` command.
1576 The ``<pattern>`` of ``tg checkout goto`` is optional. If you don't
1577 supply it, all the available topic branches are listed and you
1578 can select one of them.
1580 Normally, the ``next`` and ``prev`` commands move one step in
1581 the dependency graph of the topic branches. The ``-a`` option
1582 causes them (and their aliases) to move as far as possible.
1583 That is, ``tg checkout next -a`` moves to a topic branch that
1584 depends (directly or indirectly) on the current branch and
1585 that no other branch depends on. ``tg checkout prev -a``
1586 moves to a topic branch that the current topic branch
1587 depends on (directly or indirectly). If there is more than
1588 one possibility, you will be prompted for your selection.
1590 See also NAVIGATION_.
1594 Export a tidied-up history of the current topic branch and its
1595 dependencies, suitable for feeding upstream. Each topic branch
1596 corresponds to a single commit or patch in the cleaned up
1597 history (corresponding basically exactly to ``tg patch`` output
1598 for the topic branch).
1600 The command has three possible outputs now -- either a Git branch
1601 with the collapsed history, a Git branch with a linearized
1602 history, or a quilt series in new directory.
1604 In the case where you are producing collapsed history in a new
1605 branch, you can use this collapsed structure either for
1606 providing a pull source for upstream, or for further
1607 linearization e.g. for creation of a quilt series using git log::
1609 git log --pretty=email -p --topo-order origin..exported
1611 To better understand the function of ``tg export``, consider this
1612 dependency structure::
1614 origin/master - t/foo/blue - t/foo/red - master
1615 `- t/bar/good <,----------'
1616 `- t/baz ------------'
1618 (where each of the branches may have a hefty history). Then::
1620 master$ tg export for-linus
1622 will create this commit structure on the branch ``for-linus``::
1624 origin/master - t/foo/blue -. merge - t/foo/red -.. merge - master
1625 `- t/bar/good <,-------------------'/
1626 `- t/baz ---------------------'
1628 In this mode, ``tg export`` works on the current topic branch, and
1629 can be called either without an option (in that case,
1630 ``--collapse`` is assumed), or with the ``--collapse`` option, and
1631 with one mandatory argument: the name of the branch where the
1632 exported result will be stored.
1634 Both the ``--collapse`` and ``--linearize`` modes also accept a
1635 ``-s <mode>`` option to specify subject handling behavior for the
1636 freshly created commits. There are five possible modes:
1638 :keep: Like ``git mailinfo -k``
1639 :mailinfo: Like ``git mailinfo``
1640 :patch: Remove first ``[PATCH*]`` if any
1641 :topgit: Remove first [PATCH*], [BASE], [ROOT] or [STAGE]
1642 :trim: Trim runs of spaces/tabs to a single space
1644 The ``topgit`` (aka ``tg``) mode is the default (quelle surprise) and
1645 like the ``patch`` mode will only strip the first square brackets tag
1646 (if there is one) provided it's a TopGit-known tag (the ``patch``
1647 variation will only strip a PATCH tag but still just the first one).
1648 Note that TopGit does understand ``[RELEASE]`` in ``topgit`` mode.
1649 With ``trim`` (aka ``ws``) internal runs of spaces/tabs are converted
1650 to a single space, but no square brackets tags are removed. The ``ws``
1651 mode should generally be preferred instead of using ``keep`` mode.
1652 All modes always remove leading/trailing spaces and tabs and if the
1653 ``topgit.subjectPrefix`` value (see `tg create`_) has been set both the
1654 ``topgit`` and ``patch`` modes will match tags with that prefix too.
1656 Setting the config variable ``topgit.subjectMode`` to one of the mode
1657 values shown above will change the default to that mode.
1659 When using the linearize mode::
1661 master$ tg export --linearize for-linus
1663 you get a linear history respecting the dependencies of your
1664 patches in a new branch ``for-linus``. The result should be more
1665 or less the same as using quilt mode and then reimporting it
1666 into a Git branch. (More or less because the topological order
1667 can usually be extended in more than one way into a total order,
1668 and the two methods may choose different ones.) The result
1669 might be more appropriate for merging upstream, as it contains
1672 Note that you might get conflicts during linearization because
1673 the patches are reordered to get a linear history. If linearization
1674 would produce conflicts then using ``--quilt`` will also likely result
1675 in conflicts when the exported quilt series is applied. Since the
1676 ``--quilt`` mode simply runs a series of ``tg patch`` commands to
1677 generate the patches in the exported quilt series and those patches
1678 will end up being applied linearly, the same conflicts that would be
1679 produced by the ``--linearize`` option will then occur at that time.
1681 To avoid conflicts produced by ``--linearize`` (or by applying the
1682 ``--quilt`` output), use the default ``--collapse`` mode and then use
1683 ``tg rebase`` (or ``git rebase -m`` directly) on the collapsed branch
1684 (with a suitable <upstream>) followed by ``git format-patch`` on the
1685 rebased result to produce a conflict-free patch set. A suitable
1686 upstream may be determined with the ``tg info --leaves`` command (if
1687 it outputs more than one line, linearization will be problematic).
1689 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
1691 When using the quilt mode::
1693 master$ tg export --quilt for-linus
1695 would create the following directory ``for-linus``::
1697 for-linus/t/foo/blue.diff
1698 for-linus/t/foo/red.diff
1699 for-linus/t/bar/good.diff
1700 for-linus/t/baz.diff
1707 With ``--quilt``, you can also pass the ``-b`` parameter followed
1708 by a comma-separated explicit list of branches to export, or
1709 the ``--all`` parameter (which can be shortened to ``-a``) to
1710 export them all. The ``--binary`` option enables producing Git
1711 binary patches. These options are currently only supported
1714 In ``--quilt`` mode the patches are named like the originating
1715 topgit branch. So usually they end up in subdirectories of the
1716 output directory. With the ``--flatten`` option the names are
1717 mangled so that they end up directly in the output dir (slashes
1718 are replaced with underscores). With the ``--strip[=N]`` option
1719 the first ``N`` subdirectories (all if no ``N`` is given) get
1720 stripped off. Names are always ``--strip``'d before being
1721 ``--flatten``'d. With the option ``--numbered`` (which implies
1722 ``--flatten``) the patch names get a number as prefix to allow
1723 getting the order without consulting the series file, which
1724 eases sending out the patches.
1726 Note that ``tg export`` is fully compatible with the `wayback machine`_
1727 and when used with the ``--collapse`` or ``--linearize`` options will
1728 "push" the resulting branch back into the main repository when used in
1731 | TODO: Make stripping of non-essential headers configurable
1732 | TODO: ``--mbox`` option to export instead as an mbox file
1733 | TODO: support ``--all`` option in other modes of operation
1734 | TODO: For quilt exporting, export the linearized history created in
1735 a temporary branch--this would allow producing conflict-less
1740 Import commits within the given revision range(s) into TopGit,
1741 creating one topic branch per commit. The dependencies are set
1742 up to form a linear sequence starting on your current branch --
1743 or a branch specified by the ``-d`` parameter, if present.
1745 The branch names are auto-guessed from the commit messages and
1746 prefixed by ``t/`` by default; use ``-p <prefix>`` to specify an
1747 alternative prefix (even an empty one).
1749 Each "<range>" must be of the form <rev1>..<rev2> where either
1750 <rev1> or <rev2> can be omitted to mean HEAD. Additionally the
1751 shortcut <rev>^! (see ``git help revisions``) is permitted as a
1752 "<range>" to select the single commit <rev> but only if the
1753 commit <rev> has *exactly* one parent. This is really just a
1754 shortcut for <rev>^..<rev> but somewhat safer since it will fail
1755 if <rev> has other than one parent.
1757 Alternatively, you can use the ``-s NAME`` parameter to specify
1758 the name of the target branch; the command will then take one
1759 more argument describing a *single* commit to import (which may
1760 have any number of parents).
1764 Update the current, specified or all topic branches with respect
1765 to changes in the branches they depend on and remote branches.
1766 This is performed in two phases -- first, changes within the
1767 dependencies are merged to the base, then the base is merged
1768 into the topic branch. The output will guide you on what to do
1769 next in case of conflicts.
1771 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
1773 The ``--[no-]auto[-update]`` options together with the
1774 ``topgit.setAutoUpdate`` config item control whether or not TopGit
1775 will automatically temporarily set ``rerere.autoUpdate`` to true while
1776 running ``tg update``. The default is true. Note that this does not
1777 enable Git's ``rerere`` feature, it merely makes it automatically stage
1778 any previously resolved conflicts. The ``rerere.enabled`` setting must
1779 still be separately enabled (i.e. set to ``true``) for the ``rerere``
1780 feature to do anything at all.
1782 Using ``--auto[-update]`` makes ``tg update`` always temporarily set
1783 ``rerere.autoUpdate`` to ``true`` while running ``tg update``. The
1784 ``--no-auto[-update]`` option prevents ``tg update`` from changing the
1785 ``rerere.autoUpdate`` setting, but if ``rerere.autoUpdate`` has already
1786 been enabled in a config file, ``tg update`` never disables it even
1787 with ``--no-auto``. If ``topgit.setAutoUpdate`` is unset or set to
1788 ``true`` then ``tg update`` implicitly does ``--auto``, otherwise it
1789 does ``--no-auto``. An explicit command line ``--[no-]auto[-update]``
1790 option causes the ``topgit.setAutoUpdate`` setting to be ignored.
1792 When both ``rerere.enabled`` and ``rerere.autoUpdate`` are set to true
1793 then ``tg update`` will be able to automatically continue an update
1794 whenever ``git rerere`` resolves all the conflicts during a merge.
1795 This can be such a huge time saver. That's why the default is to have
1796 TopGit automatically set ``rerere.autoUpdate`` to true while
1797 ``tg update`` is running (but remember, unless ``rerere.enabled`` has
1798 been set to ``true`` it won't make any difference).
1800 When ``-a`` (or ``--all``) is specified, updates all topic branches
1801 matched by ``<pattern>``'s (see ``git-for-each-ref(1)`` for details),
1802 or all if no ``<pattern>`` is given. Any topic branches with missing
1803 dependencies will be skipped entirely unless ``--skip-missing`` is
1806 When ``--skip-missing`` is specified, an attempt is made to update topic
1807 branches with missing dependencies by skipping only the dependencies
1808 that are missing. Caveat utilitor.
1810 When ``--stash`` is specified (or the ``topgit.autostash`` config
1811 value is set to ``true``), a ref stash will be automatically created
1812 just before beginning updates if any are needed. The ``--no-stash``
1813 option may be used to disable a ``topgit.autostash=true`` setting.
1814 See the ``tg tag`` ``--stash`` option for details.
1816 After the update, if a single topic branch was specified, it is
1817 left as the current one; if ``-a`` was specified, it returns to
1818 the branch which was current at the beginning.
1820 If your dependencies are not up-to-date, ``tg update`` will first
1821 recurse into them and update them.
1823 If a remote branch update brings in dependencies on branches
1824 that are not yet instantiated locally, you can either bring in
1825 all the new branches from the remote using ``tg remote
1826 --populate``, or only pick out the missing ones using ``tg create
1827 -r`` (``tg summary`` will point out branches with incomplete
1828 dependencies by showing an ``!`` next to them). TopGit will attempt to
1829 instantiate just the missing ones automatically for you, if possible,
1830 when ``tg update`` merges in the new dependencies from the remote.
1832 Using the alternative ``--base`` mode, ``tg update`` will update
1833 the base of a specified ``[BASE]`` branch (which is a branch created
1834 by ``tg create`` using the ``--base`` option) to the specified
1835 committish (the second argument) and then immediately merge that into
1836 the branch itself using the specified message for the merge commit.
1837 If no message is specified on the command line, an editor will open.
1838 Unless ``--force`` is used the new value for the base must contain
1839 the old value (i.e. be a fast-forward update). This is for safety.
1841 This mode makes updates to ``[BASE]`` branches quick and easy.
1843 | TODO: ``tg update -a -c`` to autoremove (clean) up-to-date branches
1847 If ``-a`` or ``--all`` was specified, pushes all non-annihilated
1848 TopGit-controlled topic branches, to a remote repository.
1849 Otherwise, pushes the specified topic branches -- or the
1850 current branch, if you don't specify which. By default, the
1851 remote gets all the dependencies (both TopGit-controlled and
1852 non-TopGit-controlled) and bases pushed to it too. If
1853 ``--tgish-only`` was specified, only TopGit-controlled
1854 dependencies will be pushed, and if ``--no-deps`` was specified,
1855 no dependencies at all will be pushed.
1857 The ``--dry-run`` and ``--force`` options are passed directly to
1858 ``git push`` if given.
1860 The remote may be specified with the ``-r`` option. If no remote
1861 was specified, the configured default TopGit remote will be
1866 Prints the base commit of each of the named topic branches, or
1867 the current branch if no branches are named. Prints an error
1868 message and exits with exit code 1 if the named branch is not
1873 Prints the git log of the named topgit branch -- or the current
1874 branch, if you don't specify a name.
1876 This is really just a convenient shortcut for:
1878 ``git log --first-parent --no-merges $(tg base <name>)..<name>``
1880 where ``<name>`` is the name of the TopGit topic branch (or omitted
1881 for the current branch).
1883 However, if ``<name>`` is a ``[BASE]`` branch the ``--no-merges``
1886 If ``--compact`` is used then ``git log-compact`` will be used instead
1887 of ``git log``. The ``--command=<git-alias>`` option can be used to
1888 replace "log" with any non-whitespace-containing command alias name,
1889 ``--compact`` is just a shortcut for ``--command=log-compact``. The
1890 ``git-log-compact`` tool may be found on its project page located at:
1892 https://mackyle.github.io/git-log-compact
1894 Note that the ``--compact`` or ``--command=`` option must be used
1895 before any ``--`` or ``git log`` options to be recognized.
1897 NOTE: if you have merged changes from a different repository, this
1898 command might not list all interesting commits.
1902 Creates a TopGit annotated/signed tag or lists the reflog of one.
1904 A TopGit annotated tag records the current state of one or more TopGit
1905 branches and their dependencies and may be used to revert to the tagged
1906 state at any point in the future.
1908 When reflogs are enabled (the default in a non-bare repository) and
1909 combined with the ``--force`` option a single tag name may be used as a
1910 sort of TopGit branch state stash. The special branch name ``--all``
1911 may be used to tag the state of all current TopGit branches to
1912 facilitate this function and has the side-effect of suppressing the
1913 out-of-date check allowing out-of-date branches to be included.
1915 As a special feature, ``--stash`` may be used as the tag name in which
1916 case ``--all`` is implied if no branch name is listed (instead of the
1917 normal default of ``HEAD``), ``--force`` and ``--no-edit`` (use
1918 ``--edit`` to change that) are automatically activated and the tag will
1919 be saved to ``refs/tgstash`` instead of ``refs/tags/<tagname>``.
1920 The ``--stash`` tag name may also be used with the ``-g``/``--reflog``
1923 The mostly undocumented option ``--allow-outdated`` will bypass the
1924 out-of-date check and is implied when ``--stash`` or ``--all`` is used.
1926 A TopGit annotated/signed tag is simply a Git annotated/signed tag with
1927 a "TOPGIT REFS" section appended to the end of the tag message (and
1928 preceding the signature for signed tags). PEM-style begin and end
1929 lines surround one line per ref where the format of each line is
1930 full-hash SP ref-name. A line will be included for each branch given
1931 on the command line and each ref they depend on either directly or
1934 If more than one TopGit branch is given on the command line, a new
1935 commit will be created that has an empty tree and all of the given
1936 TopGit branches as parents and that commit will be tagged. If a single
1937 TopGit branch is given, then it will be tagged. If the ``--tree``
1938 option is used then it will be used instead of an empty tree (a new
1939 commit will be created if necessary to guarantee the specified tree is
1940 what's in the commit the newly created tag refers to). The argument to
1941 the ``--tree`` option may be any valid treeish.
1943 If exactly one of the branches to be tagged is prefixed with a tilde
1944 (``~``) it will be made the first parent of a consolidation commit if
1945 it is not already the sole commit needing to be tagged. If ``--tree``
1946 is NOT used, its tree will also be used instead of the empty tree for
1947 any new consolidation commit if one is created. Note that if
1948 ``--tree`` is given explicitly its tree is always used but that does
1949 not in any way affect the choice of first parent. Beware that the
1950 ``~`` may need to be quoted to prevent the shell from misinterpreting
1951 it into something else.
1953 All the options for creating a tag serve the same purpose as their Git
1954 equivalents except for two. The ``--refs`` option suppresses tag
1955 creation entirely and emits the "TOPGIT REFS" section that would have
1956 been included with the tag. If the ``--no-edit`` option is given and
1957 no message is supplied (via the ``-m`` or ``-F`` option) then the
1958 default message created by TopGit will be used without running the
1961 With ``-g`` or ``--reflog`` show the reflog for a tag. With the
1962 ``--reflog-message`` option the message from the reflog is shown.
1963 With the ``--commit-message`` option the first line of the tag's
1964 message (if the object is a tag) or the commit message (if the object
1965 is a commit) falling back to the reflog message for tree and blob
1966 objects is shown. The default is ``--reflog-message`` unless the
1967 ``--stash`` (``refs/tgstash``) is being shown in which case the default
1968 is then ``--commit-message``. Just add either option explicitly to
1969 override the default.
1971 When showing reflogs, non-tag entries are annotated with their type
1972 unless ``--no-type`` is given.
1974 TopGit tags are created with a reflog if core.logallrefupdates is
1975 enabled (the default for non-bare repositories). Unfortunately Git
1976 is incapable of showing an annotated/signed tag's reflog
1977 (using git log -g) as it will first resolve the tag before checking to
1978 see if it has a reflog. Git can, however, show reflogs for lightweight
1979 tags (using git log -g) just fine but that's not helpful here. Use
1980 ``tg tag`` with the ``-g`` or ``--reflog`` option to see the reflog for
1981 an actual tag object. This also works on non-TopGit annotated/signed
1982 tags as well provided they have a reflog.
1984 The number of entries shown may be limited with the ``-n`` option. If
1985 the tagname is omitted then ``--stash`` is assumed.
1987 The ``--delete`` option is a convenience option that runs the
1988 ``git update-ref --no-deref -d`` command on the specified tag removing
1989 it and its reflog (if it has one). Note that `HEAD` cannot be removed.
1991 The ``--clear`` option clears all but the most recent (the ``@{0}``)
1992 reflog entries from the reflog for the specified tag. It's equivalent
1993 to dropping all the higher numbered reflog entries.
1995 The ``--drop`` option drops the specified reflog entry and requires the
1996 given tagname to have an ``@{n}`` suffix where ``n`` is the reflog
1997 entry number to be dropped. This is really just a convenience option
1998 that runs the appropriate ``git reflog delete`` command. Note that
1999 even dropping the ...@{0} entry when it's the last entry of a
2000 non-symbolic ref will NOT delete the ref itself (unless the ref was
2001 already somehow set to an invalid object hash); but dropping @{0} of
2002 a non-symbolic ref may have the side effect of removing some stale
2003 reflog entries that were present in the reflog.
2005 Note that when combined with ``tg revert``, a tag created by ``tg tag``
2006 can be used to transfer TopGit branches. Simply create the tag, push
2007 it somewhere and then have the recipient run ``tg revert`` to recreate
2008 the TopGit branches. This may be helpful in situations where it's not
2009 feasible to push all the refs corresponding to the TopGit-controlled
2010 branches and their top-bases.
2014 Provides a ``git rebase`` rerere auto continue function. It may be
2015 used as a drop-in replacement front-end for ``git rebase -m`` that
2016 automatically continues the rebase when ``git rerere`` information is
2017 sufficient to resolve all conflicts.
2019 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
2021 If the ``-m`` or ``--merge`` option is not present then ``tg rebase``
2022 will complain and not do anything.
2024 When ``git rerere`` is enabled, previously resolved conflicts are
2025 remembered and can be automatically staged (see ``rerere.autoUpdate``).
2027 However, even with auto staging, ``git rebase`` still stops and
2028 requires an explicit ``git rebase --continue`` to keep going.
2030 In the case where ``git rebase -m`` is being used to flatten history
2031 (such as after a ``tg export --collapse`` prior to a
2032 ``git format-patch``), there's a good chance all conflicts have already
2033 been resolved during normal merge maintenance operations so there's no
2034 reason ``git rebase`` could not automatically continue, but there's no
2035 option to make it do so.
2037 The ``tg rebase`` command provides a ``git rebase --auto-continue``
2040 All the same rebase options can be used (they are simply passed through
2041 to Git unchanged). However, the ``rerere.autoUpdate`` option is
2042 automatically temporarily enabled while running ``git rebase`` and
2043 should ``git rebase`` stop asking one to resolve and continue, but all
2044 conflicts have already been resolved and staged using rerere
2045 information, then ``git rebase --continue`` will be automatically run.
2049 Provides the ability to revert one or more TopGit branches and their
2050 dependencies to a previous state contained within a tag created using
2051 the ``tg tag`` command. In addition to the actual revert mode
2052 operation a list mode operation is also provided to examine a tag's ref
2055 The default mode (``-l`` or ``--list``) shows the state of one or more
2056 of the refs/branches stored in the tag data. When no refs are given on
2057 the command line, all refs in the tag data are shown. With the special
2058 ref name ``--heads`` then the indepedent heads contained in the tag
2059 data are shown. The ``--deps`` option shows the specified refs and all
2060 of their dependencies in a single list with no duplicates. The
2061 ``--rdeps`` option shows a display similar to ``tg summary --rdeps``
2062 for each ref or all TopGit heads if no ref is given on the command
2063 line. The standard ``--no-short``, ``--short=n`` etc. options may be
2064 used to override the default ``--short`` output. With ``--hash`` (or
2065 ``--hash-only``) show only the hash in ``--list`` mode in which case
2066 the default is ``--no-short``. The ``--hash`` option can be used much
2067 like the ``git rev-parse --verify`` command to extract a specific hash
2068 value out of a TopGit tag.
2070 Note that unlike `tg summary`_, here ``--heads`` actually does mean the
2071 ``git merge-base --independent`` heads of the stored refs from the tag
2072 data. To see only the independent TopGit topic branch heads stored in
2073 the tag data use the ``--topgit-heads`` option instead. The default
2074 for the ``--rdeps`` option is ``--topgit-heads`` but ``--heads`` can
2075 be given explicitly to change that. (Note that ``--heads-independent``
2076 is accepted as an alias for ``--heads`` as well.)
2078 The revert mode has three submodes, dry-run mode (``-n`` or
2079 ``--dry-run``), force mode (``-f`` or ``--force``) and interactive mode
2080 (``-i`` or ``--interactive``). If ``--dry-run`` (or ``-n``) is given
2081 no ref updates will actually be performed but what would have been
2082 updated is shown instead. If ``--interactive`` (or ``-i``) is given
2083 then the editor is invoked on an instruction sheet allowing manual
2084 selection of the refs to be updated before proceeding. Since revert is
2085 potentially a destructive operation, at least one of the submodes must
2086 be specified explicitly. If no refs are listed on the command line
2087 then all refs in the tag data are reverted. Otherwise the listed refs
2088 and all of their dependencies (unless ``--no-deps`` is given) are
2089 reverted. Unless ``--no-stash`` is given a new stash will be created
2090 using ``tg tag --stash`` (except, of course, in dry-run mode) just
2091 before actually performing the updates to facilitate recovery from
2094 Both modes accept fully-qualified (i.e. starts with ``refs/``) ref
2095 names as well as unqualified names (which will be assumed to be located
2096 under ``refs/heads/``). In revert mode a tgish ref will always have
2097 both its ``refs/heads/`` and ``refs/top-bases/`` values included no
2098 matter how it's listed unless ``--no-deps`` is given and the ref is
2099 fully qualified (i.e. starts with ``refs/``) or one or the other of its
2100 values was removed from the instruction sheet in interactive mode. In
2101 list mode a tgish ref will always have both its ``refs/heads/`` and
2102 ``refs/top-bases/`` values included only when using the ``--deps`` or
2103 ``--rdeps`` options.
2105 The ``--tgish-only`` option excludes non-tgish refs (i.e. refs that do
2106 not have a ``refs/heads/<name>``, ``refs/top-bases/<name>`` pair).
2108 The ``--exclude`` option (which can be repeated) excludes specific
2109 refs. If the name given to ``--exclude`` is not fully-qualified (i.e.
2110 starts with ``refs/``) then it will exclude both members of a tgish ref
2113 The ``--quiet`` (or ``-q``) option may be used in revert mode to
2114 suppress non-dry-run ref change status messages.
2116 The special tag name ``--stash`` (as well as with ``@{n}`` suffixes)
2117 can be used to refer to ``refs/tgstash``.
2119 The ``tg revert`` command supports tags of tags that contains TopGit
2120 refs. So, for example, if you do this::
2123 git tag -f -a -m "tag the tag" newtag newtag
2125 Then ``newtag`` will be a tag of a tag containing a ``TOPGIT REFS``
2126 section. ``tg revert`` knows how to dereference the outermost
2127 tag to get to the next (and the next etc.) tag to find the
2128 ``TOPGIT REFS`` section so after the above sequence, the tag ``newtag``
2129 can still be used successfully with ``tg revert``.
2131 NOTE: If HEAD points to a ref that is updated by a revert operation
2132 then NO WARNING whatsoever will be issued, but the index and working
2133 tree will always be left completely untouched (and the reflog for
2134 the pointed-to ref can always be used to find the previous value).
2138 Enter extended `wayback machine`_ mode.
2140 The global ``-w <tgtag>`` option must be specified (but as a special
2141 case for the ``shell`` subcommand a <tgtag> destination of ``:`` may be
2142 used to get a shell with no wayback ref changes).
2144 The "<tgtag>" value must be the name of a tag created by (or known to)
2145 `tg tag`_. However, it may also have a ``:`` prefixed to it to
2146 indicate that it should prune (making it into a "pruning wayback tag").
2147 Use of a "pruning wayback tag" results in a repository that contains
2148 exclusively those refs listed in the specified tag. Otherwise the
2149 wayback repository will just revert those refs while keeping the others
2150 untouched (the default behavior).
2152 The `wayback machine`_ activates as normal for the specified
2153 destination but then a new ``${SHELL:-/bin/sh}`` is spawned in a
2154 temporary non-bare repository directory that shares all the same
2155 objects from the repository but has its own copy of the ref namespace
2156 where the refs specified in the wayback destination have all been
2157 changed to have their wayback values.
2159 If any arguments are given a POSIX shell will be spawned instead
2160 concatenating all the arguments together with a space and passing
2161 them to it via a ``-c`` option. If ``-q`` (or ``--quote``) is given
2162 then each argument will first be separately "quoted" to protect it from
2163 the shell allowing something like this::
2165 tg -w <tgtag> shell -q git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)"
2167 to work without needing to manually add the extra level of quoting that
2168 would otherwise be required due to the parentheses.
2170 Most of the repository configuration will be inherited, but some
2171 will be overridden for safety and for convenience. All "gc" activity
2172 within the wayback repository will be suppressed to avoid accidents
2173 (i.e. no auto gc will run and "gc" commands will complain and not run).
2175 Override and/or bypass this safety protection at your own peril!
2176 Especially *do not run* the ``git prune`` plumbing command in the
2177 wayback repository! If you do so (or bypass any of the other safeties)
2178 be prepared for corruption and loss of data in the repository.
2179 Just *don't do that* in the first place!
2181 Using ``git wayback-tag`` will show the tag used to enter the wayback
2182 machine. Using ``git wayback-updates`` will show ref changes that have
2183 occurred since the wayback tag was created (it will not show refs that
2184 have since been created unless a pruning wayback tag was used).
2185 Finally, ``git wayback-repository`` will show the home repository but
2186 so will ``git remote -v`` in the output displayed for the ``wayback``
2189 The special ``wayback`` remote refers to the original repository and
2190 can be used to push ref changes back to it. Note, however, that all
2191 default push refspecs are disabled for safety and an explicit refspec
2192 will need to be used to do so.
2194 Unlike the normal `wayback machine`_ mode, ``HEAD`` will be detached
2195 to a new commit with an empty tree that contains the message and author
2196 from the wayback tag used. This prevents ugly status displays while
2197 avoiding the need to checkout any files into the temporary working
2198 tree. The parent of this commit will, however, be set to the wayback
2199 tag's commit making it easy to access if desired.
2201 Also unlike the normal `wayback machine`_ mode, there are no
2202 limitations on what can be done in the temporary repository.
2203 And since it will be non-bare and writable, commands that may not have
2204 been allowed in the original repository will work too.
2206 When the shell spawned by this subcommand exits, the temporary wayback
2207 repository and all newly created objects and ref changes made in it, if
2208 any, *will be lost*. If work has been done in it that needs to be
2209 saved, it must be pushed somewhere (even if only back to the original
2210 repository using the special ``wayback`` remote).
2212 Lastly there's the ``--directory`` option. If the ``--directory``
2213 option is used the temporary "wayback repository" will be created at
2214 the specified location (which must either not exist or must be an empty
2215 directory -- no force option available this time as too many things
2216 could easily go wrong in that case). If the ``--directory`` option is
2217 used then the "wayback repository" *will persist* after ``tg shell``
2218 completes allowing it to continue to be used! Be warned though, all
2219 the same warnings that apply to ``git clone --shared`` apply to such
2220 a repository. If it's created using a ``tgstash`` tag those warnings
2221 are especially salient. Use a single argument of either ``:`` (to
2222 just create with no output) or ``pwd`` (to show the full absolute path
2223 to the new "wayback repository") when using the ``--directory`` option
2224 if the sole purpose is just to create the wayback repository for use.
2225 Note that the ``--directory`` option *must* be listed as the first
2226 option after the ``shell`` subcommand name if used.
2230 Output the "previous" branch(es) in the patch series containing the
2231 current or named branch. The "previous" branch(es) being one step
2235 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
2236 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
2237 -n <steps> take ``<steps>`` "previous" steps (default 1)
2238 --all take as many "previous" steps as possible (aka ``-a``)
2239 --verbose show containing series name(s) (aka ``-v``)
2241 The ``-n`` option may also be given as ``--count`` or ``--count=<n>``.
2243 To list all dependencies of a branch see the ``--deps`` option of
2244 the `tg info`_ command.
2246 See also NAVIGATION_ for full details on "previous" steps.
2250 Output tne "next" branch(es) in the patch series containing the current
2251 or named branch. The "next" branch(es) being one step away by default.
2254 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
2255 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
2256 -n <steps> take ``<steps>`` "next" steps (default 1)
2257 --all take as many "next" steps as possible (aka ``-a``)
2258 --verbose show containing series name(s) (aka ``-v``)
2260 The ``-n`` option may also be given as ``--count`` or ``--count=<n>``.
2262 To list all dependents of a branch see the ``--dependents`` option of
2263 the `tg info`_ command.
2265 See also NAVIGATION_ for full details on "next" steps.
2269 Transition top-bases from old location to new location.
2271 Beginning with TopGit release 0.19.4, TopGit has the ability to store
2272 the top-bases refs in either the old ``ref/top-bases/...`` location or
2273 the new ``refs/heads/{top-bases}/...`` location. Starting with TopGit
2274 release 0.20.0, the default is the new location.
2276 By storing the top-bases under heads, Git is less likely to complain
2277 when manipulating them, hosting providers are more likely to provide
2278 access to them and Git prevents them from pointing at anything other
2279 than a commit object. All in all a win for everyone.
2281 TopGit attempts to automatically detect whether the new or old location
2282 is being used for the top-bases and just do the right thing. However,
2283 by explicitly setting the config value ``topgit.top-bases`` to either
2284 ``refs`` for the old location or ``heads`` for the new location the
2285 auto-detection can be bypassed. If no top-bases refs are present in
2286 the repository the default prior to TopGit release 0.20.0 is to use the
2287 old location but starting with TopGit release 0.20.0 the default is to
2288 use the new location.
2290 The ``tg migrate-bases`` command may be used to migrate top-bases refs
2291 from the old location to the new location (or, by using the
2292 undocumented ``--reverse`` option, vice versa).
2294 With few exceptions (``tg create -r`` and ``tg revert``), all top-bases
2295 refs (both local *and* remote refs) are expected to be stored in the
2296 same location (either new or old). A repository's current location for
2297 storing top-bases refs may be shown with the ``tg --top-bases`` command.
2305 TopGit stores all the topic branches in the regular ``refs/heads/``
2306 namespace (so we recommend distinguishing them with the ``t/`` prefix).
2307 Apart from that, TopGit also maintains a set of auxiliary refs in
2308 ``refs/top-*``. Currently, only ``refs/top-bases/`` is used, containing the
2309 current *base* of the given topic branch -- this is basically a merge of
2310 all the branches the topic branch depends on; it is updated during ``tg
2311 update`` and then merged to the topic branch, and it is the base of a
2312 patch generated from the topic branch by ``tg patch``.
2314 All the metadata is tracked within the source tree and history of the
2315 topic branch itself, in ``.top*`` files; these files are kept isolated
2316 within the topic branches during TopGit-controlled merges and are of
2317 course omitted during ``tg patch``. The state of these files in base
2318 commits is undefined; look at them only in the topic branches
2319 themselves. Currently, two files are defined:
2322 Contains the description of the topic branch in a
2323 mail-like format, plus the author information, whatever
2324 Cc headers you choose or the post-three-dashes message.
2325 When mailing out your patch, basically only a few extra
2326 mail headers are inserted and then the patch itself is
2327 appended. Thus, as your patches evolve, you can record
2328 nuances like whether the particular patch should have
2329 To-list / Cc-maintainer or vice-versa and similar
2330 nuances, if your project is into that. ``From`` is
2331 prefilled from your current ``GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT``; other
2332 headers can be prefilled from various optional
2333 ``topgit.*`` git config options.
2336 Contains the one-per-line list of branches this branch
2337 depends on, pre-seeded by ``tg create``. A (continuously
2338 updated) merge of these branches will be the *base* of
2341 IMPORTANT: DO NOT EDIT ``.topdeps`` MANUALLY!!! If you do so, you need to
2342 know exactly what you are doing, since this file must stay in sync with
2343 the Git history information, otherwise very bad things will happen.
2345 TopGit also automagically installs a bunch of custom commit-related
2346 hooks that will verify whether you are committing the ``.top*`` files in a
2347 sane state. It will add the hooks to separate files within the ``hooks/``
2348 subdirectory, and merely insert calls to them to the appropriate hooks
2349 and make them executable (but will make sure the original hook's code is
2350 not called if the hook was not executable beforehand).
2352 Another automagically installed piece is a ``.git/info/attributes``
2353 specifier for an ``ours`` merge strategy for the files ``.topmsg`` and
2354 ``.topdeps``, and the (intuitive) ``ours`` merge strategy definition in
2361 There are two remaining issues with accessing topic branches in remote
2364 (i) Referring to remote topic branches from your local repository
2365 (ii) Developing some of the remote topic branches locally
2367 There are two somewhat contradictory design considerations here:
2369 (a) Hacking on multiple independent TopGit remotes in a single
2371 (b) Having a self-contained topic system in local refs space
2373 To us, (a) does not appear to be very convincing, while (b) is quite
2374 desirable for ``git-log topic`` etc. working, and increased conceptual
2377 Thus, we choose to instantiate all the topic branches of given remote
2378 locally; this is performed by ``tg remote --populate``. ``tg update``
2379 will also check if a branch can be updated from its corresponding remote
2380 branch. The logic needs to be somewhat involved if we are to "do the
2381 right thing". First, we update the base, handling the remote branch as
2382 if it was the first dependency; thus, conflict resolutions made in the
2383 remote branch will be carried over to our local base automagically.
2384 Then, the base is merged into the remote branch and the result is merged
2385 to the local branch -- again, to carry over remote conflict resolutions.
2386 In the future, this order might be adjustable on a per-update basis, in
2387 case local changes happen to be diverging more than the remote ones.
2388 (See the details in `The Update Process`_ for more in depth coverage.)
2390 All commands by default refer to the remote that ``tg remote --populate``
2391 was called on the last time (stored in the ``topgit.remote`` git
2392 configuration variable). You can manually run any command with a
2393 different base remote by passing ``-r REMOTE`` *before* the subcommand
2394 name or passing ``-u`` *before* the subcommand to run without one.
2400 Running the TopGit test suite only requires POSIX compatibile utilities (just
2401 a POSIX compatibile ``make`` will do) AND a ``perl`` binary.
2403 It is *not* necessary to install TopGit in order to run the TopGit test suite.
2405 To run the TopGit test suite, simply execute this from the top-level of a
2406 TopGit checkout or expanded release tarball:
2412 Yup, that's it. But you're probably thinking, "Why have a whole section just
2413 to say 'run make test'?" Am I right?
2415 The simple ``make test`` command produces a lot of output and while it is
2416 summarized at the end there's a better way.
2418 Do you have the ``prove`` utility available? You need ``perl`` to run the
2419 tests and ``prove`` comes with ``perl`` so you almost cerainly do.
2421 Try running the tests like so:
2425 make DEFAULT_TEST_TARGET=prove test
2428 (For reference, the default value of ``DEFAULT_TEST_TARGET`` is ``test`` which
2429 can be used to override a setting that's been altered using the instructions
2430 shown later on below.)
2432 If that works (you can interrupt it with ``Ctrl-C``), try this next:
2436 make DEFAULT_TEST_TARGET=prove TESTLIB_PROVE_OPTS="-j 4 --timer" test
2438 If that one works (again, you can interrupt it with ``Ctrl-C``) that may end
2439 up being the keeper for running the tests.
2441 However, if you don't have ``prove`` for some reason even though you do have
2442 ``perl``, there's still an alternative for briefer output. Try this:
2446 make TESTLIB_TEST_OPTS=-q test
2448 Much of the normal testing output will be suppressed and there's still a
2449 summary at the end. If you're stuck with this version but your make supports
2450 parallel operation (the ``-j`` *<n>*) option, then you might try this:
2454 make -j 4 TESTLIB_TEST_OPTS=-q test
2456 If your make *does* support the parallel ``-j`` option but still seems to be
2457 only running one test at a time try it like this instead:
2461 make TESTLIB_MAKE_OPTS="-j 4" TESTLIB_TEST_OPTS=-q test
2463 The difference is that ``make -j 4`` relies on make to properly pass down the
2464 parallel job option all the way down to the sub-make that runs the individual
2465 tests when not using prove. Putting the options in ``TESTLIB_MAKE_OPTS``
2466 passes them directly to that (and only that) particular invocation of make.
2468 The final bit of advice for running the tests is that any of those ``make``
2469 variable settings can be enabled by default in a top-level ``config.mak`` file.
2471 For example, to make the ``prove -j 4 --timer`` (my personal favorite) the
2472 default when running the tests, add these lines (creating the file if it does
2473 not already exist) to the ``config.mak`` file located in the top-level of the
2474 TopGit checkout (or expanded release tarball):
2479 # comments are allowed (if preceded by '#')
2480 # so are blank lines
2482 DEFAULT_TEST_TARGET = prove
2483 TESTLIB_PROVE_OPTS = -j 4 --timer
2484 #TESTLIB_TEST_OPTS = --color # force colorized test output
2486 Now simply doing ``make test`` will use those options by default.
2488 There is copious documentation on the testing library and other options in
2489 the various ``README`` files located in the ``t`` subdirectory. The
2490 ``Makefile.mak`` file in the ``t`` subdirectory contains plenty of comments
2491 about possible makefile variable settings as well.
2498 A familiarity with the terms in the GLOSSARY_ is helpful for understanding the
2499 content of this section. See also the IMPLEMENTATION_ section.
2504 When a branch is "updated" using the ``tg update`` command the following steps
2507 1) The branch and all of its dependencies (and theirs recursively)
2508 are checked to see which ones are *out-of-date*. See glossary_.
2510 2) Each of the branch's direct dependencies (i.e. they are listed in
2511 the branch's ``.topdeps`` file) which is out of date is updated
2512 before proceeding (yup, this is a recursive process).
2514 3) Each of the branch's direct dependencies (i.e. they are listed in
2515 the branch's ``.topdeps`` file) that was updated in the previous
2516 step is now merged into the branch's corresponding base. If a
2517 remote is involved, and the branch's corresponding base does NOT
2518 contain the remote branch's corresponding base that remote base is
2519 also merged into the branch's base at this time as well (it will be
2520 the first item merged into the branch's base).
2522 4) If the branch has a corresponding remote branch and the branch
2523 does not already contain it, the branch's base (which was possibly
2524 already updated in step (3) to contain the remote branch's base but
2525 not the remote branch itself) is merged into the remote branch on a
2526 detached HEAD. Yup, this step can be a bit confusing and no, the
2527 updated base from step (3) has not yet been merged into the branch
2528 itself yet either. If there is no remote branch this step does not
2529 apply. Using a detached HEAD allows the contents of the base to be
2530 merged into the remote branch without actually perturbing the base's
2531 or remote branch's refs.
2533 5) If there is a remote branch present then use the result of step (4)
2534 otherwise use the branch's base and merge that into the branch
2537 That's it! Simple, right? ;)
2539 Unless the auto stash option has been disabled (see `no undo`_, `tg update`_
2540 and `tg tag`_), a copy of all the old refs values will be stashed away
2541 immediately after step (1) before starting step (2), but only if anything is
2542 actually found to be out-of-date.
2547 The ``tg update`` command regularly performs merges while executing an update
2548 operation. In order to speed things up, it attempts to do in-index merges
2549 where possible. It accomplishes this by using a separate, temporary index
2550 file and the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command possibly assisted by
2551 the ``git merge-index`` and ``git merge-file`` commands. This combination may
2552 be repeated more than once to perform an octopus in-index merge. If this
2553 fails, the files are checked out and a normal ``git merge`` three-way merge is
2554 performed (possibly multiple times). If the normal ``git merge`` fails then
2555 user intervention is required to resolve the merge conflict(s) and continue.
2557 Since the ``tg annihilate``, ``tg create`` and ``tg depend add`` commands may
2558 end up running the ``tg update`` machinery behind the scenes to complete their
2559 operation they may also result in any of these merge strategies being used.
2561 In addition to the normal Git merge strategies (if the in-index merging fails),
2562 there are four possible TopGit merge strategies that may be shown. Since they
2563 all involve use of the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command they are all
2564 variations of a "trivial aggressive" merge. The "trivial" part because all of
2565 the merges done by ``git read-tree -m`` are described as "trivial" and the
2566 "aggressive" part because the ``--aggressive`` option is always used.
2568 1) "trivial aggressive"
2569 Only two heads were involved and all merging was completed by
2570 the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command.
2572 2) "trivial aggressive automatic"
2573 Only two heads were involved but after the
2574 ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command completed there were
2575 still unresolved items and ``git merge-index`` had to be run
2576 (using the ``tg index-merge-one-file`` driver) which ultimately
2577 ran ``git merge-file`` at least once to perform a simple
2578 automatic three-way merge. Hence the "automatic" description
2579 and the "Auto-merging ..." output line(s).
2581 3) "trivial aggressive octopus"
2582 This is the same as a "trivial aggressive" merge except that
2583 more than two heads were involved and after merging the first
2584 two heads, the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` step was
2585 repeated again on the result for each additional head. All
2586 merging was completed via multiple
2587 ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` commands only.
2588 This beast is relatively rare in the wild.
2590 4) "trivial aggressive automatic octopus"
2591 This is very similar to the "trivial aggressive octopus"
2592 except that at least one of the ``git read-tree -m --aggressive``
2593 commands left unresolved items that were handled the same way
2594 as the "trivial aggressive automatic" strategy. This species
2595 is commonly seen in the wild.
2602 Version-controlled file stored at the root level of each
2603 TopGit branch that contains the patch header for a TopGit
2604 branch. See also IMPLEMENTATION_.
2607 Version-controlled file stored at the root level of each
2608 TopGit branch that lists the branch's dependencies one per
2609 line omitting the leading ``refs/heads/`` part. See also
2613 Given two Git commit identifiers (e.g. hashes) C1 and C2,
2614 commit C1 "contains" commit C2 if either they are the same
2615 commit or C2 can be reached from C1 by following one or more
2616 parent links from C1 (perhaps via one or more intermediate
2617 commits along the way). In other words, if C1 contains C2
2618 then C2 is an ancestor of C1 or conversely C1 is a descendant
2619 of C2. Since a TopGit branch name is also the name of a Git
2620 branch (something located under the ``refs/heads`` Git
2621 namespace) and similarly for a TopGit base, they can both be
2622 resolved to a Git commit identifier and then participate in
2623 a branch containment test. An easy mnemonic for this is
2624 "children contain the genes of their parents."
2627 A Basic Regular Expression (BRE) pattern. These are older
2628 style regular expressions but have the advantage that all
2629 characters other than ``\``, ``.``, ``*`` and ``[``
2630 automatically match themselves without need for backslash
2631 quoting (well actually, ``^`` and ``$`` are special at the
2632 beginning and end respectively but otherwise match themselves).
2635 See branch containment.
2638 An Extended Regular Expression (ERE) pattern. These are newer
2639 style regular expressions where all the regular expression
2640 "operator" characters "operate" when NOT preceded by a
2641 backslash and are turned into normal characters with a ``\``.
2642 The backreference atom, however, may not work, but ``?``, ``+``
2643 and ``|`` "operators" do; unlike BREs.
2646 Excellent system for managing a history of changes to one
2647 or more possibly interrelated patches.
2650 A Git branch that has an associated TopGit base. Conceptually
2651 it represents a single patch that is the difference between
2652 the associated TopGit base and the TopGit branch. In other
2653 words ``git diff-tree <TopGit base> <TopGit branch>`` except
2654 that any ``.topdeps`` and/or ``.topmsg`` files are excluded
2655 from the result and the contents of the ``.topmsg`` file from
2656 the TopGit branch is prefixed to the result.
2659 A Git branch whose tree does NOT contain any ``.topdeps`` or
2660 ``.topmsg`` entries at the top-level of the tree. It *does*
2661 always have an associated "TopGit base" ref (otherwise it would
2662 not be a "TopGit" branch). See also `BARE BRANCHES`_.
2665 In TopGit context, "bare branch" almost always refers to a
2666 "TopGit bare branch" and should be understood to mean such even
2667 if the leading "TopGit" has been left off.
2670 A Git branch that records the base upon which a TopGit branch's
2671 single conceptual "patch" is built. The name of the Git branch
2672 is derived from the TopGit branch name by stripping off the
2673 leading ``refs/heads/`` and appending the correct prefix where
2674 all TopGit bases are stored (typically either
2675 ``refs/top-bases/`` or ``refs/heads/{top-bases}/`` -- the
2676 prefix for any given repository can be shown by using the
2677 ``tg --top-bases`` command and updated using the
2678 ``tg migrate-bases`` command).
2680 All of a TopGit branch's dependencies are merged into the
2681 corresponding TopGit base during a ``tg update`` of a branch.
2686 TopGit ``[PATCH]`` branch
2687 A TopGit branch whose subject starts with ``[PATCH]``. By
2688 convention these TopGit branches contain a single patch
2689 (equivalent to a single patch file) and have at least one
2690 dependency (i.e. their ``.topdeps`` files are never empty).
2692 TopGit ``[BASE]`` branch
2693 A TopGit branch whose subject starts with ``[BASE]``. By
2694 convention these TopGit branches do not actually contain
2695 any changes and their ``.topdeps`` files are empty. They
2696 are used to control a base dependency that another set of
2697 branches depends on. Sometimes these are named ``[RELEASE]``
2698 instead because the base dependency they represent is actually
2699 the formal release of something.
2701 TopGit ``[STAGE]`` branch
2702 A TopGit branch whose subject starts with ``[STAGE]``. By
2703 convention these TopGit branches do not actually contain any
2704 changes of their own but do have one or (typically) more
2705 dependencies in their ``.topdeps`` file. These branches are
2706 used to bring together one or (typically) more independent
2707 TopGit ``[PATCH]`` branches into a single branch so that
2708 testing and/or evaluation can be performed on the result.
2711 When merging two (or more) heads that touch the same lines in
2712 the file but in different ways the result is a merge conflict
2713 that requires manual intervention. If a merge conflict occurs
2714 with more than two heads (an octopus merge) it's generally
2715 replaced by multiple three-way merges so that by the time a
2716 user sees a merge conflict needing manual resolution, there
2717 will be only two heads involved.
2720 A Git merge strategy (see the "MERGE STRATEGIES" section of
2721 ``git help merge``) or one of the TopGit `merge strategies`_
2722 used to merge two or more heads.
2724 TopGit merge strategy
2725 See the `Merge Strategies`_ section above for details but
2726 basically these are just in-index merges done using the
2727 ``git read-tree -m --aggressive`` command one or more times
2728 possibily assisted by the ``git merge-index`` and the
2729 ``git merge-file`` commands.
2732 In TopGit context the "next" branch refers to the branch that
2733 corresponds to the next (aka following) patch in an ordered
2734 (aka linearized) list of patches created by exporting the
2735 TopGit branches in patch application order.
2738 A merge involving more than two heads. Note that if there are
2739 less than three independent heads the resulting merge that
2740 started out as an octopus will end up not actually being an
2744 A TopGit branch is considered to be "out-of-date" when ANY of
2745 the following are true:
2747 a) The TopGit branch does NOT contain its
2750 b) The TopGit branch does NOT contain its
2751 corresponding remote branch (there may not be
2752 a remote branch in which case this does not apply)
2754 c) The TopGit branch's base does NOT contain its
2755 corresponding remote branch's base (there may not be
2756 a remote branch in which case this does not apply)
2758 d) Any of the TopGit branches listed in the branch's
2759 ``.topdeps`` file are NOT contained by the branch.
2760 (See "branch containment" above.)
2762 e) Any of the TopGit branches listed in the branch's
2763 ``.topdeps`` file are out-of-date.
2765 Note that if a remote branch is present and is NOT out-of-date
2766 then it will contain its own base and (c) is mostly redundant.
2769 In TopGit context the "previous" (or "prev") branch refers to
2770 the branch that corresponds to the previous (aka preceding)
2771 patch in an ordered (aka linearized) list of patches created by
2772 exporting the TopGit branches in patch application order.
2774 remote TopGit branch
2775 A Git branch with the same branch name as a TopGit branch
2776 but living under ``refs/remotes/<some remote>/`` instead
2777 of just ``refs/heads/``.
2780 The TopGit base branch corresponding to a remote TopGit branch,
2781 which lives under ``refs/remotes/`` somewhere (depending on
2782 what the output of ``tg --top-bases`` is for that remote).
2785 A three-way merge takes a common base and two heads (call them
2786 A and B) and creates a new file that is the common base plus
2787 all of the changes made between the common base and head A
2788 *AND* all of the changes made between the common base and
2789 head B. The technique used to accomplish this is called a
2796 The following references are useful to understand the development of
2797 topgit and its subcommands.
2800 http://public-inbox.org/git/36ca99e90904091034m4d4d31dct78acb333612e678@mail.gmail.com/T/#u
2803 THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE
2804 --------------------
2806 The following software understands TopGit branches:
2808 * `Magit <https://github.com/magit/magit>`_ - a git mode for emacs
2809 with the `Magit TopGit mode <https://github.com/greenrd/magit-topgit>`_
2810 that may, perhaps, be a bit outdated.
2812 IMPORTANT: Magit requires its topgit mode to be enabled first, as
2813 described in its documentation, in the "Activating extensions"
2814 subsection. If this is not done, it will not push TopGit branches
2815 correctly, so it's important to enable it even if you plan to mostly use
2816 TopGit from the command line.