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. See the USAGE_
15 section for command line details.
21 See the file ``INSTALL``.
27 The TopGit git repository can be found at <http://repo.or.cz/topgit/pro>.
33 Why not use something like StGIT or Guilt or ``rebase -i`` for maintaining
34 your patch queue? The advantage of these tools is their simplicity;
35 they work with patch *series* and defer to the reflog facility for
36 version control of patches (reordering of patches is not
37 version-controlled at all). But there are several disadvantages -- for
38 one, these tools (especially StGIT) do not actually fit well with plain
39 Git at all: it is basically impossible to take advantage of the index
40 effectively when using StGIT. But more importantly, these tools
41 horribly fail in the face of a distributed environment.
43 TopGit has been designed around three main tenets:
45 (i) TopGit is as thin a layer on top of Git as possible. You
46 still maintain your index and commit using Git; TopGit will only
47 automate a few indispensable tasks.
49 (ii) TopGit is anxious about *keeping* your history. It will
50 never rewrite your history, and all metadata is also tracked
51 by Git, smoothly and non-obnoxiously. It is good to have a
52 *single* point when the history is cleaned up, and that is at
53 the point of inclusion in the upstream project; locally, you
54 can see how your patch has evolved and easily return to older
57 (iii) TopGit is specifically designed to work in a
58 distributed environment. You can have several instances of
59 TopGit-aware repositories and smoothly keep them all
60 up-to-date and transfer your changes between them.
62 As mentioned above, the main intended use-case for TopGit is tracking
63 third-party patches, where each patch is effectively a single topic
64 branch. In order to flexibly accommodate even complex scenarios when
65 you track many patches where many are independent but some depend on
66 others, TopGit ignores the ancient Quilt heritage of patch series and
67 instead allows the patches to freely form graphs (DAGs just like Git
68 history itself, only "one level higher"). For now, you have to manually
69 specify which patches the current one depends on, but TopGit might help
70 you with that in the future in a darcs-like fashion.
72 A glossary plug: The union (i.e. merge) of patch dependencies is called
73 a *base* of the patch (topic branch).
75 Of course, TopGit is perhaps not the right tool for you:
77 (i) TopGit is not complicated, but StGIT et al. are somewhat
78 simpler, conceptually. If you just want to make a linear
79 purely-local patch queue, deferring to StGIT instead might
82 (ii) When using TopGit, your history can get a little hairy
83 over time, especially with all the merges rippling through.
92 ## Create and evolve a topic branch
93 $ tg create t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
94 tg: Automatically marking dependency on master
95 tg: Creating t/gitweb/pathinfo-action base from master...
101 ## Create another topic branch on top of the former one
102 $ tg create t/gitweb/nifty-links
103 tg: Automatically marking dependency on t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
104 tg: Creating t/gitweb/nifty-links base from t/gitweb/pathinfo-action...
108 ## Create another topic branch on top of master and submit
109 ## the resulting patch upstream
110 $ tg create t/revlist/author-fixed master
111 tg: Creating t/revlist/author-fixed base from master...
115 tg: Sent t/revlist/author-fixed
117 To: git@vger.kernel.org
118 Cc: gitster@pobox.com
119 Subject: [PATCH] Fix broken revlist --author when --fixed-string
121 ## Create another topic branch depending on two others non-trivially
122 $ tg create t/whatever t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
123 tg: Creating t/whatever base from t/revlist/author-fixed...
124 tg: Merging t/whatever base with t/gitweb/nifty-links...
126 tg: Please commit merge resolution and call: tg create
127 tg: It is also safe to abort this operation using `git reset --hard`
128 tg: but please remember you are on the base branch now;
129 tg: you will want to switch to a different branch.
133 tg: Resuming t/whatever setup...
137 ## Update a single topic branch and propagate the changes to
139 $ git checkout t/gitweb/nifty-links
142 $ git checkout t/whatever
144 Topic Branch: t/whatever (1 commit)
145 Subject: [PATCH] Whatever patch
147 Depends: t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
149 t/gitweb/nifty-links (1 commit)
151 tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/nifty-links changes...
153 tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update` again.
154 tg: It is also safe to abort this operation using `git reset --hard`,
155 tg: but please remember you are on the base branch now;
156 tg: you will want to switch to a different branch.
160 tg: Updating t/whatever against new base...
162 tg: Please resolve the merge and commit. No need to do anything else.
163 tg: You can abort this operation using `git reset --hard` now
164 tg: and retry this merge later using `tg update`.
168 ## Update a single topic branch and propagate the changes
169 ## further through the dependency chain
170 $ git checkout t/gitweb/pathinfo-action
173 $ git checkout t/whatever
175 Topic Branch: t/whatever (1/2 commits)
176 Subject: [PATCH] Whatever patch
178 Depends: t/revlist/author-fixed t/gitweb/nifty-links
180 t/gitweb/pathinfo-action (<= t/gitweb/nifty-links) (1 commit)
182 tg: Recursing to t/gitweb/nifty-links...
183 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/pathinfo-action changes...
185 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Please commit merge resolution and call `tg update` again.
186 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: It is also safe to abort this operation using `git reset --hard`,
187 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: but please remember you are on the base branch now;
188 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: you will want to switch to a different branch.
189 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: You are in a subshell. If you abort the merge,
190 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: use `exit` to abort the recursive update altogether.
191 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] $ ..resolve..
192 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] $ git commit
193 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] $ tg update
194 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Updating t/gitweb/nifty-links against new base...
196 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: Please resolve the merge and commit.
197 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: You can abort this operation using `git reset --hard`.
198 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: You are in a subshell. After you either commit or abort
199 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] tg: your merge, use `exit` to proceed with the recursive update.
200 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] $ ..resolve..
201 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] $ git commit
202 [t/gitweb/nifty-links] $ exit
203 tg: Updating base with t/gitweb/nifty-links changes...
204 tg: Updating t/whatever against new base...
206 ## Clone a TopGit-controlled repository
209 $ tg remote --populate origin
214 ## Add a TopGit remote to a repository and push to it
215 $ git remote add foo URL
219 ## Update from a non-default TopGit remote
227 ``tg [-C <dir>] [-r <remote> | -u] [-c <name>=<val>] <subcommand> [<subcommand option/argument>...]``
229 -C <dir> Change directory to <dir> before doing anything
230 -r <remote> Pretend ``topgit.remote`` is set to <remote>
231 -u Pretend ``topgit.remote`` is not set
232 -c <name=val> Pass config option to git, may be repeated
234 The ``tg`` tool has several subcommands:
236 :`tg annihilate`_: Mark a TopGit-controlled branch as defunct
237 :`tg base`_: Show base commit for one or more TopGit branches
238 :`tg checkout`_: Shortcut for git checkout with name matching
239 :`tg create`_: Create a new TopGit-controlled branch
240 :`tg delete`_: Delete a TopGit-controlled branch cleanly
241 :`tg depend`_: Add a new dependency to a TopGit-controlled branch
242 :`tg export`_: Export TopGit branch patches to files or a branch
243 :`tg files`_: Show files changed by a TopGit branch
244 :`tg help`_: Show TopGit help optionally using a browser
245 :`tg import`_: Import patch file(s) to separate TopGit branches
246 :`tg info`_: Show status information about a TopGit branch
247 :`tg log`_: Run git log limiting revisions to a TopGit branch
248 :`tg mail`_: Shortcut for git send-email with ``tg patch`` output
249 :`tg next`_: Show branches directly depending on a TopGit branch
250 :`tg patch`_: Generate a patch file for a TopGit branch
251 :`tg prev`_: Show non-annihilated TopGit dependencies for a branch
252 :`tg push`_: Run git push on TopGit branch(es) and depedencies
253 :`tg rebase`_: Auto continue git rebase if rerere resolves conflicts
254 :`tg remote`_: Set up remote for fetching/pushing TopGit branches
255 :`tg revert`_: Revert ref(s) to a state stored in a `tg tag`
256 :`tg summary`_: Show various information about TopGit branches
257 :`tg tag`_: Create tag that records current TopGit branch state
258 :`tg update`_: Update TopGit branch(es) with respect to dependencies
262 Our sophisticated integrated help facility. Mostly duplicates
267 # to get help for a particular command:
269 # to get help for a particular command in a browser window:
270 $ tg help -w <command>
271 # to get help on TopGit itself
273 # to get help on TopGit itself in a browser
278 Create a new TopGit-controlled topic branch of the given name
279 (required argument) and switch to it. If no dependencies are
280 specified (by extra arguments passed after the first one), the
281 current branch is assumed to be the only dependency.
283 By default ``tg create`` opens an editor on the new ``.topmsg`` file
284 and then commits the new ``.topmsg`` and ``.topdeps`` files
285 automatically with a suitable default commit message. The commit
286 message can be changed with the ``-m`` (or ``--message``) or ``-F``
287 (or ``--file``) option. The automatic commit can be suppressed by
288 using the ``--no-ccmmit`` option. Running the editor on the new
289 ``.topmsg`` file can be suppressed by using ``-n`` (or ``--no-edit``)
290 which also suppresses the automatic commit. If more than one
291 dependency is listed, the automatic commit will not take place until
292 AFTER all the listed dependencies have been merged into a base commit
293 which may require some manual merge resolutions if there are conflicts.
295 Previous versions of TopGit behaved as though the ``--no-edit`` option
296 was always given on the command line.
298 The default behavior has been changed to promote a separation between
299 commits that modify ``.topmsg`` and/or ``.topdeps`` and commits that
300 modify other files. This facilitates cleaner cherry picking and other
301 patch maintenance activities.
303 You should edit the patch description (contained in the ``.topmsg``
304 file) as appropriate. It will already contain some prefilled bits.
305 You can set the ``topgit.to``, ``topgit.cc`` and ``topgit.bcc``
306 git configuration variables (see ``man git-config``) in order to
307 have ``tg create`` add these headers with the given default values
308 to ``.topmsg`` before invoking the editor.
310 The main task of ``tg create`` is to set up the topic branch base
311 from the dependencies. This may fail due to merge conflicts if more
312 than one dependencie is given. In that case, after you commit the
313 conflict resolution, you should call ``tg create`` again (without any
314 arguments or with the single argument ``--continue``); it will then
315 detect that you are on a topic branch base ref and resume the topic
316 branch creation operation.
318 With the ``--no-deps`` option at most one dependency may be listed and
319 the newly created TopGit-controlled branch will have an empty
320 ``.topdeps`` file. This may be desirable in order to create a TopGit-
321 controlled branch that has no changes of its own and serves merely to
322 mark the common dependency that all other TopGit-controlled branches
323 in some set of TopGit-controlled branches depend on. A plain,
324 non-TopGit-controlled branch can be used for the same purpose, but the
325 advantage of a TopGit-controlled branch with no dependencies is that it
326 will be pushed with ``tg push``, it will show up in the ``tg summary``
327 output with the subject from its ``.topmsg`` thereby documenting what
328 it's for and finally it can be setup with ``tg create -r`` and/or
329 ``tg remote --populate`` to facilitate sharing.
331 For example, ``tg create --no-deps release v2.1`` will create a TopGit-
332 controlled ``release`` branch based off the ``v2.1`` tag that can then
333 be used as a base for creation of other TopGit-controlled branches.
334 Then when the time comes to move the base for an entire set of changes
335 up to ``v2.2`` the command ``git update-ref top-bases/release v2.2^0``
336 can be used followed by ``tg update --all``. Note that it's only safe
337 to update ``top-bases/release`` directly in this manner because a) it
338 has no depedencies since it was created with the ``--no-deps`` option
339 and b) the old ``top-bases/release`` value can be fast-forwarded to the
340 new ``top-bases/release`` value.
342 In an alternative use case, if ``-r <branch>`` is given instead of a
343 dependency list, the topic branch is created based on the given
344 remote branch. With just ``-r`` the remote branch name is assumed
345 to be the same as the local topic branch being created. Since no
346 new commits are created in this mode (only two refs will be updated)
347 the editor will never be run for this use case. Note that no other
348 options may be combined with ``-r``.
352 Remove a TopGit-controlled topic branch of the given name
353 (required argument). Normally, this command will remove only an
354 empty branch (base == head) without dependendents; use ``-f`` to
355 remove a non-empty branch or a branch that is depended upon by
358 The ``-f`` option is also useful to force removal of a branch's
359 base, if you used ``git branch -D B`` to remove branch B, and then
360 certain TopGit commands complain, because the base of branch B
363 IMPORTANT: Currently, this command will *NOT* remove the branch
364 from the dependency list in other branches. You need to take
365 care of this *manually*. This is even more complicated in
366 combination with ``-f`` -- in that case, you need to manually
367 unmerge the removed branch's changes from the branches depending
370 See also ``tg annihilate``.
372 | TODO: ``-a`` to delete all empty branches, depfix, revert
376 Make a commit on the current TopGit-controlled topic branch
377 that makes it equal to its base, including the presence or
378 absence of .topmsg and .topdeps. Annihilated branches are not
379 displayed by ``tg summary``, so they effectively get out of your
380 way. However, the branch still exists, and ``tg push`` will
381 push it (except if given the ``-a`` option). This way, you can
382 communicate that the branch is no longer wanted.
384 When annihilating a branch that has dependents (i.e. branches
385 that depend on it), those dependents have the dependencies of
386 the branch being annihilated added to them if they do not already
387 have them as dependencies. Essentially the DAG is repaired to
388 skip over the annihilated branch.
390 Normally, this command will remove only an empty branch
391 (base == head, except for changes to the .top* files); use
392 ``-f`` to annihilate a non-empty branch.
396 Change the dependencies of a TopGit-controlled topic branch.
397 This should have several subcommands, but only ``add`` is
400 The ``add`` subcommand takes an argument naming a topic branch to
401 be added, adds it to ``.topdeps``, performs a commit and then
402 updates your topic branch accordingly. If you want to do other
403 things related to the dependency addition, like adjusting
404 ``.topmsg``, prepare them in the index before calling ``tg depend
407 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
409 | TODO: Subcommand for removing dependencies, obviously
413 List files changed by the current or specified topic branch.
416 -i list files based on index instead of branch
417 -w list files based on working tree instead of branch
421 Show summary information about the current or specified topic
424 Numbers in parenthesis after a branch name such as "(11/3 commits)"
425 indicate how many commits on the branch (11) and how many of those
426 are non-merge commits (3).
430 Generate a patch from the current or specified topic branch.
431 This means that the diff between the topic branch base and head
432 (latest commit) is shown, appended to the description found in
433 the ``.topmsg`` file.
435 The patch is simply dumped to stdout. In the future, ``tg patch``
436 will be able to automatically send the patches by mail or save
437 them to files. (TODO)
440 -i base patch generation on index instead of branch
441 -w base patch generation on working tree instead of branch
442 --binary pass --binary to ``git diff-tree`` to enable generation
444 --diff-opt options after the branch name (and an optional ``--``)
445 are passed directly to ``git diff-tree``
447 In order to pass a sole explicit ``-w`` through to ``git diff-tree`` it
448 must be separated from the ``tg`` options by an explicit ``--``.
449 Or it can be spelled as ``--ignore-all-space`` to distinguuish it from
450 ``tg``'s ``-w`` option.
452 If additional non-``tg`` options are passed through to
453 ``git diff-tree`` (other than ``--binary`` which is fully supported)
454 the resulting ``tg patch`` output may not be appliable.
458 Send a patch from the current or specified topic branch as
461 Takes the patch given on the command line and emails it out.
462 Destination addresses such as To, Cc and Bcc are taken from the
465 Since it actually boils down to ``git send-email``, please refer
466 to the documentation for that for details on how to setup email
467 for git. You can pass arbitrary options to this command through
468 the ``-s`` parameter, but you must double-quote everything. The
469 ``-r`` parameter with a msgid can be used to generate in-reply-to
470 and reference headers to an earlier mail.
472 WARNING: be careful when using this command. It easily sends
473 out several mails. You might want to run::
475 git config sendemail.confirm always
477 to let ``git send-email`` ask for confirmation before sending any
481 -i base patch generation on index instead of branch
482 -w base patch generation on working tree instead of branch
484 | TODO: ``tg mail patchfile`` to mail an already exported patch
485 | TODO: mailing patch series
486 | TODO: specifying additional options and addresses on command line
490 Register the given remote as TopGit-controlled. This will create
491 the namespace for the remote branch bases and teach ``git fetch``
492 to operate on them. However, from TopGit 0.8 onwards you need to
493 use ``tg push``, or ``git push --mirror``, for pushing
494 TopGit-controlled branches.
496 ``tg remote`` takes an optional remote name argument, and an
497 optional ``--populate`` switch. Use ``--populate`` for your
498 origin-style remotes: it will seed the local topic branch system
499 based on the remote topic branches. ``--populate`` will also make
500 ``tg remote`` automatically fetch the remote, and ``tg update`` look
501 at branches of this remote for updates by default.
503 Using ``--populate`` with a remote name causes the ``topgit.remote``
504 git configuration variable to be set to the given remote name.
508 Show overview of all TopGit-tracked topic branches and their
509 up-to-date status. With a branch name limit output to that branch.
510 Using ``--deps-only`` or ``--rdeps`` changes the default from all
511 branches to just the current ``HEAD`` branch but using ``--all`` as
512 the branch name will show results for all branches instead of ``HEAD``.
515 marks the current topic branch
518 indicates that it introduces no changes of its own
521 indicates respectively whether it is local-only
525 indicates respectively if it is ahead or out-of-date
526 with respect to its remote mate
529 indicates that it is out-of-date with respect to its
533 indicates that it has missing dependencies [even if
534 they are recursive ones]
537 indicates that it is out-of-date with respect to
540 This can take a long time to accurately determine all the
541 relevant information about each branch; you can pass ``-t`` to get
542 just a terse list of topic branch names quickly. Alternately,
543 you can pass ``--graphviz`` to get a dot-suitable output to draw a
544 dependency graph between the topic branches.
546 You can also use the ``--sort`` option to sort the branches using
547 a topological sort. This is especially useful if each
548 TopGit-tracked topic branch depends on a single parent branch,
549 since it will then print the branches in the dependency order.
550 In more complex scenarios, a text graph view would be much more
551 useful, but that has not yet been implemented.
553 The ``--deps`` option outputs dependency information between
554 branches in a machine-readable format. Feed this to ``tsort`` to
555 get the output from --sort.
557 The ``--deps-only`` option outputs a sorted list of the unique branch
558 names given on the command line plus all of their recursive dependents
559 (subject to ``--exclude`` of course). When ``--deps-only`` is given
560 the default is to just display information for ``HEAD``, but that can
561 be changed by using ``--all`` as the branch name. Each branch name
562 will appear only once in the output no matter how many times it's
563 visited while tracing the dependency graph or how many branch names are
564 given on the command line to process.
566 The ``--rdeps`` option outputs dependency information in an indented
567 text format that clearly shows all the dependencies and their
568 relationships to one another. When ``--rdeps`` is given the default is
569 to just display information for ``HEAD``, but that can be changed by
570 using ``--all`` as the branch name.
572 With ``--exclude branch``, branch can be excluded from the output
573 meaning it will be skipped and its name will be omitted from any
574 dependency output. The ``--exclude`` option may be repeated to omit
575 more than one branch from the output. Limiting the output to a single
576 branch that has been excluded will result in no output at all.
578 Note that the branch name can be specified as ``HEAD`` as a shortcut for
579 the TopGit-controlled branch that ``HEAD`` is a symbolic ref to.
582 -i Use TopGit metadata from the index instead of the branch
583 -w Use TopGit metadata from the working tree instead of the branch
588 Switch to a topic branch. You can use ``git checkout <branch>``
589 to get the same effect, but this command helps you navigate
590 the dependency graph, or allows you to match the topic branch
591 name using a regular expression, so it can be more convenient.
593 There following subcommands are available:
596 Check out a branch that directly
597 depends on your current branch.
600 Check out a branch that this branch
603 ``tg checkout [goto] [--] <pattern>``
604 Check out a topic branch that
605 matches ``<pattern>``. ``<pattern>``
606 is used as a sed pattern to filter
607 all the topic branches. Both ``goto`` and
608 ``--`` may be omitted provided ``<pattern>``
609 is not ``push``, ``pop``, ``-a``, ``--all``,
610 ``goto``, ``..``, ``--``, ``next``, ``child``,
611 ``prev``, ``parent``, ``-h`` or ``--help``.
614 An alias for ``push``.
616 ``tg checkout child``
617 An alias for ``push``.
620 An alias for ``push``.
623 An alias for ``pop``.
625 ``tg checkout parent``
626 An alias for ``pop``.
629 An alias for ``pop``.
631 If any of the above commands can find more than one possible
632 branch to switch to, you will be presented with the matches
633 and asked to select one of them.
635 The ``<pattern>`` of ``tg checkout goto`` is optional. If you don't
636 supply it, all the available topic branches are listed and you
637 can select one of them.
639 Normally, the ``push`` and ``pop`` commands moves one step in
640 the dependency graph of the topic branches. The ``-a`` option
641 causes them (and their aliases) to move as far as possible.
642 That is, ``tg checkout push -a`` moves to a topic branch that
643 depends (directly or indirectly) on the current branch and
644 that no other branch depends on. ``tg checkout pop -a``
645 moves to a regular branch that the current topic branch
646 depends on (directly or indirectly). If there is more than
647 one possibility, you will be prompted for your selection.
651 Export a tidied-up history of the current topic branch and its
652 dependencies, suitable for feeding upstream. Each topic branch
653 corresponds to a single commit or patch in the cleaned up
654 history (corresponding basically exactly to ``tg patch`` output
655 for the topic branch).
657 The command has three possible outputs now -- either a Git branch
658 with the collapsed history, a Git branch with a linearized
659 history, or a quilt series in new directory.
661 In the case where you are producing collapsed history in a new
662 branch, you can use this collapsed structure either for
663 providing a pull source for upstream, or for further
664 linearization e.g. for creation of a quilt series using git log::
666 git log --pretty=email -p --topo-order origin..exported
668 To better understand the function of ``tg export``, consider this
669 dependency structure::
671 origin/master - t/foo/blue - t/foo/red - master
672 `- t/bar/good <,----------'
673 `- t/baz ------------'
675 (where each of the branches may have a hefty history). Then::
677 master$ tg export for-linus
679 will create this commit structure on the branch ``for-linus``::
681 origin/master - t/foo/blue -. merge - t/foo/red -.. merge - master
682 `- t/bar/good <,-------------------'/
683 `- t/baz ---------------------'
685 In this mode, ``tg export`` works on the current topic branch, and
686 can be called either without an option (in that case,
687 ``--collapse`` is assumed), or with the ``--collapse`` option, and
688 with one mandatory argument: the name of the branch where the
689 exported result will be stored.
691 When using the linearize mode::
693 master$ tg export --linearize for-linus
695 you get a linear history respecting the dependencies of your
696 patches in a new branch ``for-linus``. The result should be more
697 or less the same as using quilt mode and then reimporting it
698 into a Git branch. (More or less because the topological order
699 can usually be extended in more than one way into a total order,
700 and the two methods may choose different ones.) The result
701 might be more appropriate for merging upstream, as it contains
704 Note that you might get conflicts during linearization because
705 the patches are reordered to get a linear history. If linearization
706 would produce conflicts then using ``--quilt`` will also likely result
707 in conflicts when the exported quilt series is applied. Since the
708 ``--quilt`` mode simply runs a series of ``tg patch`` commands to
709 generate the patches in the exported quilt series and those patches
710 will end up being applied linearly, the same conflicts that would be
711 produced by the ``--linearize`` option will then occur at that time.
713 To avoid conflicts produced by ``--linearize`` (or by applying the
714 ``--quilt`` output), use the default ``--collapse`` mode and then use
715 ``tg rebase`` (or ``git rebase -m`` directly) on the collapsed branch
716 (with a suitable <upstream>) followed by ``git format-patch`` on the
717 rebased result to produce a conflict-free patch set.
719 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
721 When using the quilt mode::
723 master$ tg export --quilt for-linus
725 would create the following directory ``for-linus``::
727 for-linus/t/foo/blue.diff
728 for-linus/t/foo/red.diff
729 for-linus/t/bar/good.diff
737 With ``--quilt``, you can also pass the ``-b`` parameter followed
738 by a comma-separated explicit list of branches to export, or
739 the ``--all`` parameter (which can be shortened to ``-a``) to
740 export them all. The ``--binary`` option enables producing Git
741 binary patches. These options are currently only supported
744 In ``--quilt`` mode the patches are named like the originating
745 topgit branch. So usually they end up in subdirectories of the
746 output directory. With the ``--flatten`` option the names are
747 mangled so that they end up directly in the output dir (slashes
748 are replaced with underscores). With the ``--strip[=N]`` option
749 the first ``N`` subdirectories (all if no ``N`` is given) get
750 stripped off. Names are always ``--strip``'d before being
751 ``--flatten``'d. With the option ``--numbered`` (which implies
752 ``--flatten``) the patch names get a number as prefix to allow
753 getting the order without consulting the series file, which
754 eases sending out the patches.
756 | TODO: Make stripping of non-essential headers configurable
757 | TODO: Make stripping of [PATCH] and other prefixes configurable
758 | TODO: ``--mbox`` option to export instead as an mbox file
759 | TODO: support ``--all`` option in other modes of operation
760 | TODO: For quilt exporting, export the linearized history created in
761 a temporary branch--this would allow producing conflict-less
766 Import commits within the given revision range into TopGit,
767 creating one topic branch per commit. The dependencies are set
768 up to form a linear sequence starting on your current branch --
769 or a branch specified by the ``-d`` parameter, if present.
771 The branch names are auto-guessed from the commit messages and
772 prefixed by ``t/`` by default; use ``-p <prefix>`` to specify an
773 alternative prefix (even an empty one).
775 Alternatively, you can use the ``-s NAME`` parameter to specify
776 the name of the target branch; the command will then take one
777 more argument describing a *single* commit to import.
781 Update the current, specified or all topic branches with respect
782 to changes in the branches they depend on and remote branches.
783 This is performed in two phases -- first, changes within the
784 dependencies are merged to the base, then the base is merged
785 into the topic branch. The output will guide you on what to do
786 next in case of conflicts.
788 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
790 When ``-a`` (or ``--all``) is specifed, updates all topic branches
791 matched by ``<pattern>``'s (see ``git-for-each-ref(1)`` for details),
792 or all if no ``<pattern>`` is given. Any topic branches with missing
793 dependencies will be skipped entirely unless ``--skip`` is specified.
795 When ``--skip`` is specifed, an attempt is made to update topic
796 branches with missing dependencies by skipping only the dependencies
797 that are missing. Caveat utilitor.
799 After the update, if a single topic branch was specified, it is
800 left as the current one; if ``-a`` was specified, it returns to
801 the branch which was current at the beginning.
803 If your dependencies are not up-to-date, ``tg update`` will first
804 recurse into them and update them.
806 If a remote branch update brings in dependencies on branches
807 that are not yet instantiated locally, you can either bring in
808 all the new branches from the remote using ``tg remote
809 --populate``, or only pick out the missing ones using ``tg create
810 -r`` (``tg summary`` will point out branches with incomplete
811 dependencies by showing an ``!`` next to them).
813 | TODO: ``tg update -a -c`` to autoremove (clean) up-to-date branches
817 If ``-a`` or ``--all`` was specified, pushes all non-annihilated
818 TopGit-controlled topic branches, to a remote repository.
819 Otherwise, pushes the specified topic branches -- or the
820 current branch, if you don't specify which. By default, the
821 remote gets all the dependencies (both TopGit-controlled and
822 non-TopGit-controlled) and bases pushed to it too. If
823 ``--tgish-only`` was specified, only TopGit-controlled
824 dependencies will be pushed, and if ``--no-deps`` was specified,
825 no dependencies at all will be pushed.
827 The ``--dry-run`` and ``--force`` options are passed directly to
828 ``git push`` if given.
830 The remote may be specified with the ``-r`` option. If no remote
831 was specified, the configured default TopGit remote will be
836 Prints the base commit of each of the named topic branches, or
837 the current branch if no branches are named. Prints an error
838 message and exits with exit code 1 if the named branch is not
843 Prints the git log of the named topgit branch -- or the current
844 branch, if you don't specify a name.
846 NOTE: if you have merged changes from a different repository, this
847 command might not list all interesting commits.
851 Creates a TopGit annotated/signed tag or lists the reflog of one.
853 A TopGit annotated tag records the current state of one or more TopGit
854 branches and their dependencies and may be used to revert to the tagged
855 state at any point in the future.
857 When reflogs are enabled (the default in a non-bare repository) and
858 combined with the ``--force`` option a single tag name may be used as a
859 sort of TopGit branch state stash. The special branch name ``--all``
860 may be used to tag the state of all current TopGit branches to
861 facilitate this function and has the side-effect of surpressing the
862 out-of-date check allowing out-of-date branches to be included.
864 As a special feature, ``--stash`` may be used as the tag name in which
865 case ``--all`` is implied if no branch name is listed (instead of the
866 normal default of ``HEAD``), ``--force`` and ``--no-edit`` (use
867 ``--edit`` to change that) are automatically activated and the tag will
868 be saved to ``refs/tgstash`` instead of ``refs/tags/<tagname>``.
869 The ``--stash`` tag name may also be used with the ``-g``/``--reflog``
872 A TopGit annotated/signed tag is simply a Git annotated/signed tag with
873 a "TOPGIT REFS" section appended to the end of the tag message (and
874 preceding the signature for signed tags). PEM-style begin and end
875 lines surround one line per ref where the format of each line is
876 full-hash SP ref-name. A line will be included for each branch given
877 on the command line and each ref they depend on either directly or
880 If more than one TopGit branch is given on the command line, a new
881 commit will be created that has an empty tree and all of the given
882 TopGit branches as parents and that commit will be tagged. If a single
883 TopGit branch is given, then it will be tagged.
885 All the options for creating a tag serve the same purpose as their Git
886 equivalents except for two. The ``--refs`` option suppresses tag
887 creation entirely and emits the "TOPGIT REFS" section that would have
888 been included with the tag. If the ``--no-edit`` option is given and
889 no message is supplied (via the ``-m`` or ``-F`` option) then the
890 default message created by TopGit will be used without running the
893 With ``-g`` or ``--reflog`` show the reflog for a tag. Unlike
894 ``git log -g``, ``tg tag --reflog`` normally shows the message from the
895 tag (if a tag) or the commit (if a commit) if available rather than
896 the message from the reflog itself. With ``--reflog-message`` only
897 show the message (if any) from the reflog. Non-tag entries are
898 annotated with their type unless ``--no-type`` is given. TopGit tags
899 are created with a reflog if core.logallrefupdates is enabled (the
900 default for non-bare repositories). Unfortunately Git is incapable
901 of showing a tag's reflog (using git log -g) as it will first resolve
902 the tag before checking to see if it has a reflog. Git can, however,
903 show reflogs for lightweight tags (using git log -g) just fine but
904 that's not helpful here. Use the ``-g`` or ``--reflog`` option to see
905 the reflog for an actual tag object. This also works on non-TopGit
906 annotated/signed tags as well provided they have a reflog. The number
907 of entries shown may be limited with the ``-n`` option. If the tagname
908 is omitted then ``--stash`` is assumed and ``--reflog-message`` will
909 be implied (use ``--no-reflog-message`` to change that).
913 Provides a ``git rebase`` rerere auto continue function. It may be
914 used as a drop-in replacement front-end for ``git rebase -m`` that
915 automatically continues the rebase when ``git rerere`` information is
916 sufficient to resolve all conflicts.
918 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
920 If the ``-m`` or ``--merge`` option is not present then ``tg rebase``
921 will complain and not do anything.
923 When ``git rerere`` is enabled, previously resolved conflicts are
924 remembered and can be automatically staged (see ``rerere.autoUpdate``).
926 However, even with auto staging, ``git rebase`` still stops and
927 requires an explicit ``git rebase --continue`` to keep going.
929 In the case where ``git rebase -m`` is being used to flatten history
930 (such as after a ``tg export --collapse`` prior to a
931 ``git format-patch``), there's a good chance all conflicts have already
932 been resolved during normal merge maintenance operations so there's no
933 reason ``git rebase`` could not automatically continue, but there's no
934 option to make it do so.
936 The ``tg rebase`` command provides a ``git rebase --auto-continue``
939 All the same rebase options can be used (they are simply passed through
940 to Git unchanged). However, the ``rerere.autoUpdate`` option is
941 automatically temporarily enabled while running ``git rebase`` and
942 should ``git rebase`` stop asking one to resolve and continue, but all
943 conflicts have already been resolved and staged using rerere
944 information, then ``git rebase --continue`` will be automatically run.
948 Provides the ability to revert one or more TopGit branches and their
949 dependents to a previous state contained within a tag created using the
950 ``tg tag`` command. In addition to the actual revert mode operation a
951 list mode operation is also provided to examine a tag's ref contents.
953 The default mode (``-l`` or ``--list``) shows the state of one or more
954 of the refs/branches stored in the tag data. When no refs are given on
955 the command line, all refs in the tag data are shown. With the special
956 ref name ``--heads`` then the indepedent heads contained in the tag
957 data are shown. The ``--deps`` option shows the specified refs and all
958 of their dependents in single list with no duplicates. The ``--rdeps``
959 option shows a display similar to ``tg summary --rdeps`` for each ref
960 or all independent heads if no ref is given on the command line.
962 The revert mode has three submodes, dry-run mode (``-n`` or
963 ``--dry-run``), force mode (``-f`` or ``--force``) and interactive mode
964 (``-i`` or ``--interactive``). If ``--dry-run`` (or ``-n``) is given
965 no ref updates will actually be performed but what would have been
966 updated is shown instead. If ``--interactive`` (or ``-i``) is given
967 then the editor is invoked on an instruction sheet allowing manual
968 selection of the refs to be updated before proceeding. Since revert is
969 potentially a destructive operation, at least one of the submodes must
970 be specified explicitly. If no refs are listed on the command line
971 then all refs in the tag data are reverted. Otherwise the listed refs
972 and all of their dependents (unless ``--no-deps`` is given) are
973 reverted. Unless ``--no-stash`` is given a new stash will be created
974 using ``tg tag --stash`` (except, of course, in dry-run mode) just
975 before actually performing the updates to facilitate recovery from
978 Both modes accept fully-qualified (i.e. starts with ``refs/``) ref
979 names as well as unqualified names (which will be assumed to be located
980 under ``refs/heads/``). In revert mode a tgish ref will always have
981 both its ``refs/heads/`` and ``refs/top-bases/`` values included no
982 matter how it's listed unless ``--no-deps`` is given and the ref is
983 fully qualified (i.e. starts with ``refs/``) or one or the other of its
984 values was removed from the instruction sheet in interactive mode. In
985 list mode a tgish ref will always have both its ``refs/heads/`` and
986 ``refs/top-bases/`` values included only when using the ``--deps`` or
989 The ``--tgish-only`` option excludes non-tgish refs (i.e. refs that do
990 not have a ``refs/heads/<name>``, ``refs/top-bases/<name>`` pair).
992 The ``--exclude`` option (which can be repeated) excludes specific
993 refs. If the name given to ``--exclude`` is not fully-qualified (i.e.
994 starts with ``refs/``) then it will exclude both members of a tgish ref
997 The ``--quiet`` (or ``-q``) option may be used in revert mode to
998 suppress non-dry-run ref change status messages.
1000 The special tag name ``--stash`` (as well as with ``@{n}`` suffixes)
1001 can be used to refer to ``refs/tgstash``.
1003 NOTE: If HEAD points to a ref that is updated by a revert operation
1004 then NO WARNING whatsoever will be issued, but the index and working
1005 tree will always be left completely untouched (and the reflog for
1006 the pointed-to ref can always be used to find the previous value).
1010 Outputs the direct dependencies for the current or named branch.
1013 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
1014 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
1018 Outputs all branches which directly depend on the current or
1022 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
1023 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
1031 TopGit stores all the topic branches in the regular ``refs/heads/``
1032 namespace (so we recommend distinguishing them with the ``t/`` prefix).
1033 Apart from that, TopGit also maintains a set of auxiliary refs in
1034 ``refs/top-*``. Currently, only ``refs/top-bases/`` is used, containing the
1035 current *base* of the given topic branch -- this is basically a merge of
1036 all the branches the topic branch depends on; it is updated during ``tg
1037 update`` and then merged to the topic branch, and it is the base of a
1038 patch generated from the topic branch by ``tg patch``.
1040 All the metadata is tracked within the source tree and history of the
1041 topic branch itself, in ``.top*`` files; these files are kept isolated
1042 within the topic branches during TopGit-controlled merges and are of
1043 course omitted during ``tg patch``. The state of these files in base
1044 commits is undefined; look at them only in the topic branches
1045 themselves. Currently, two files are defined:
1048 Contains the description of the topic branch in a
1049 mail-like format, plus the author information, whatever
1050 Cc headers you choose or the post-three-dashes message.
1051 When mailing out your patch, basically only a few extra
1052 mail headers are inserted and then the patch itself is
1053 appended. Thus, as your patches evolve, you can record
1054 nuances like whether the particular patch should have
1055 To-list / Cc-maintainer or vice-versa and similar
1056 nuances, if your project is into that. ``From`` is
1057 prefilled from your current ``GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT``; other
1058 headers can be prefilled from various optional
1059 ``topgit.*`` git config options.
1062 Contains the one-per-line list of branches this branch
1063 depends on, pre-seeded by `tg create`. A (continuously
1064 updated) merge of these branches will be the *base* of
1067 IMPORTANT: DO NOT EDIT ``.topdeps`` MANUALLY!!! If you do so, you need to
1068 know exactly what are you doing, since this file must stay in sync with
1069 the Git history information, otherwise very bad things will happen.
1071 TopGit also automagically installs a bunch of custom commit-related
1072 hooks that will verify whether you are committing the ``.top*`` files in a
1073 sane state. It will add the hooks to separate files within the ``hooks/``
1074 subdirectory, and merely insert calls to them to the appropriate hooks
1075 and make them executable (but will make sure the original hook's code is
1076 not called if the hook was not executable beforehand).
1078 Another automagically installed piece is a ``.git/info/attributes``
1079 specifier for an ``ours`` merge strategy for the files ``.topmsg`` and
1080 ``.topdeps``, and the (intuitive) ``ours`` merge strategy definition in
1087 There are two remaining issues with accessing topic branches in remote
1090 (i) Referring to remote topic branches from your local repository
1091 (ii) Developing some of the remote topic branches locally
1093 There are two somewhat contradictory design considerations here:
1095 (a) Hacking on multiple independent TopGit remotes in a single
1097 (b) Having a self-contained topic system in local refs space
1099 To us, (a) does not appear to be very convincing, while (b) is quite
1100 desirable for ``git-log topic`` etc. working, and increased conceptual
1103 Thus, we choose to instantiate all the topic branches of given remote
1104 locally; this is performed by ``tg remote --populate``. ``tg update``
1105 will also check if a branch can be updated from its corresponding remote
1106 branch. The logic needs to be somewhat involved if we are to "do the
1107 right thing". First, we update the base, handling the remote branch as
1108 if it was the first dependency; thus, conflict resolutions made in the
1109 remote branch will be carried over to our local base automagically.
1110 Then, the base is merged into the remote branch and the result is merged
1111 to the local branch -- again, to carry over remote conflict resolutions.
1112 In the future, this order might be adjustable on a per-update basis, in
1113 case local changes happen to be diverging more than the remote ones.
1115 All commands by default refer to the remote that ``tg remote --populate``
1116 was called on the last time (stored in the ``topgit.remote`` git
1117 configuration variable). You can manually run any command with a
1118 different base remote by passing ``-r REMOTE`` *before* the subcommand
1125 The following references are useful to understand the development of
1126 topgit and its subcommands.
1129 http://lists-archives.org/git/688698-add-list-and-rm-sub-commands-to-tg-depend.html
1132 THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE
1133 --------------------
1135 The following software understands TopGit branches:
1137 * `magit <http://magit.github.io/>`_ -- a git mode for emacs
1139 IMPORTANT: Magit requires its topgit mode to be enabled first, as
1140 described in its documentation, in the "Activating extensions"
1141 subsection. If this is not done, it will not push TopGit branches
1142 correctly, so it's important to enable it even if you plan to mostly use
1143 TopGit from the command line.