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 longish time to accurately determine all the
541 relevant information about each branch; you can pass ``-t`` (or ``-l``
542 or ``--list``) to get just a terse list of topic branch names quickly.
544 Passing ``--heads`` shows independent topic branch names and when
545 combined with ``--rdeps`` behaves as though ``--rdeps`` were run with
546 the output of ``--heads``.
548 Alternatively, you can pass ``--graphviz`` to get a dot-suitable output
549 for drawing a dependency graph between the topic branches.
551 You can also use the ``--sort`` option to sort the branches using
552 a topological sort. This is especially useful if each
553 TopGit-tracked topic branch depends on a single parent branch,
554 since it will then print the branches in the dependency order.
555 In more complex scenarios, a text graph view would be much more
556 useful, but that has not yet been implemented.
558 The ``--deps`` option outputs dependency information between
559 branches in a machine-readable format. Feed this to ``tsort`` to
560 get the output from --sort.
562 The ``--deps-only`` option outputs a sorted list of the unique branch
563 names given on the command line plus all of their recursive dependents
564 (subject to ``--exclude`` of course). When ``--deps-only`` is given
565 the default is to just display information for ``HEAD``, but that can
566 be changed by using ``--all`` as the branch name. Each branch name
567 will appear only once in the output no matter how many times it's
568 visited while tracing the dependency graph or how many branch names are
569 given on the command line to process.
571 The ``--rdeps`` option outputs dependency information in an indented
572 text format that clearly shows all the dependencies and their
573 relationships to one another. When ``--rdeps`` is given the default is
574 to just display information for ``HEAD``, but that can be changed by
575 using ``--all`` as the branch name or by adding the ``--heads`` option.
577 With ``--exclude branch``, branch can be excluded from the output
578 meaning it will be skipped and its name will be omitted from any
579 dependency output. The ``--exclude`` option may be repeated to omit
580 more than one branch from the output. Limiting the output to a single
581 branch that has been excluded will result in no output at all.
583 Note that the branch name can be specified as ``HEAD`` as a shortcut for
584 the TopGit-controlled branch that ``HEAD`` is a symbolic ref to.
587 -i Use TopGit metadata from the index instead of the branch
588 -w Use TopGit metadata from the working tree instead of the branch
593 Switch to a topic branch. You can use ``git checkout <branch>``
594 to get the same effect, but this command helps you navigate
595 the dependency graph, or allows you to match the topic branch
596 name using a regular expression, so it can be more convenient.
598 There following subcommands are available:
601 Check out a branch that directly
602 depends on your current branch.
605 Check out a branch that this branch
608 ``tg checkout [goto] [--] <pattern>``
609 Check out a topic branch that
610 matches ``<pattern>``. ``<pattern>``
611 is used as a sed pattern to filter
612 all the topic branches. Both ``goto`` and
613 ``--`` may be omitted provided ``<pattern>``
614 is not ``push``, ``pop``, ``-a``, ``--all``,
615 ``goto``, ``..``, ``--``, ``next``, ``child``,
616 ``prev``, ``parent``, ``-h`` or ``--help``.
619 An alias for ``push``.
621 ``tg checkout child``
622 An alias for ``push``.
625 An alias for ``push``.
628 An alias for ``pop``.
630 ``tg checkout parent``
631 An alias for ``pop``.
634 An alias for ``pop``.
636 If any of the above commands can find more than one possible
637 branch to switch to, you will be presented with the matches
638 and asked to select one of them.
640 The ``<pattern>`` of ``tg checkout goto`` is optional. If you don't
641 supply it, all the available topic branches are listed and you
642 can select one of them.
644 Normally, the ``push`` and ``pop`` commands moves one step in
645 the dependency graph of the topic branches. The ``-a`` option
646 causes them (and their aliases) to move as far as possible.
647 That is, ``tg checkout push -a`` moves to a topic branch that
648 depends (directly or indirectly) on the current branch and
649 that no other branch depends on. ``tg checkout pop -a``
650 moves to a regular branch that the current topic branch
651 depends on (directly or indirectly). If there is more than
652 one possibility, you will be prompted for your selection.
656 Export a tidied-up history of the current topic branch and its
657 dependencies, suitable for feeding upstream. Each topic branch
658 corresponds to a single commit or patch in the cleaned up
659 history (corresponding basically exactly to ``tg patch`` output
660 for the topic branch).
662 The command has three possible outputs now -- either a Git branch
663 with the collapsed history, a Git branch with a linearized
664 history, or a quilt series in new directory.
666 In the case where you are producing collapsed history in a new
667 branch, you can use this collapsed structure either for
668 providing a pull source for upstream, or for further
669 linearization e.g. for creation of a quilt series using git log::
671 git log --pretty=email -p --topo-order origin..exported
673 To better understand the function of ``tg export``, consider this
674 dependency structure::
676 origin/master - t/foo/blue - t/foo/red - master
677 `- t/bar/good <,----------'
678 `- t/baz ------------'
680 (where each of the branches may have a hefty history). Then::
682 master$ tg export for-linus
684 will create this commit structure on the branch ``for-linus``::
686 origin/master - t/foo/blue -. merge - t/foo/red -.. merge - master
687 `- t/bar/good <,-------------------'/
688 `- t/baz ---------------------'
690 In this mode, ``tg export`` works on the current topic branch, and
691 can be called either without an option (in that case,
692 ``--collapse`` is assumed), or with the ``--collapse`` option, and
693 with one mandatory argument: the name of the branch where the
694 exported result will be stored.
696 When using the linearize mode::
698 master$ tg export --linearize for-linus
700 you get a linear history respecting the dependencies of your
701 patches in a new branch ``for-linus``. The result should be more
702 or less the same as using quilt mode and then reimporting it
703 into a Git branch. (More or less because the topological order
704 can usually be extended in more than one way into a total order,
705 and the two methods may choose different ones.) The result
706 might be more appropriate for merging upstream, as it contains
709 Note that you might get conflicts during linearization because
710 the patches are reordered to get a linear history. If linearization
711 would produce conflicts then using ``--quilt`` will also likely result
712 in conflicts when the exported quilt series is applied. Since the
713 ``--quilt`` mode simply runs a series of ``tg patch`` commands to
714 generate the patches in the exported quilt series and those patches
715 will end up being applied linearly, the same conflicts that would be
716 produced by the ``--linearize`` option will then occur at that time.
718 To avoid conflicts produced by ``--linearize`` (or by applying the
719 ``--quilt`` output), use the default ``--collapse`` mode and then use
720 ``tg rebase`` (or ``git rebase -m`` directly) on the collapsed branch
721 (with a suitable <upstream>) followed by ``git format-patch`` on the
722 rebased result to produce a conflict-free patch set.
724 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
726 When using the quilt mode::
728 master$ tg export --quilt for-linus
730 would create the following directory ``for-linus``::
732 for-linus/t/foo/blue.diff
733 for-linus/t/foo/red.diff
734 for-linus/t/bar/good.diff
742 With ``--quilt``, you can also pass the ``-b`` parameter followed
743 by a comma-separated explicit list of branches to export, or
744 the ``--all`` parameter (which can be shortened to ``-a``) to
745 export them all. The ``--binary`` option enables producing Git
746 binary patches. These options are currently only supported
749 In ``--quilt`` mode the patches are named like the originating
750 topgit branch. So usually they end up in subdirectories of the
751 output directory. With the ``--flatten`` option the names are
752 mangled so that they end up directly in the output dir (slashes
753 are replaced with underscores). With the ``--strip[=N]`` option
754 the first ``N`` subdirectories (all if no ``N`` is given) get
755 stripped off. Names are always ``--strip``'d before being
756 ``--flatten``'d. With the option ``--numbered`` (which implies
757 ``--flatten``) the patch names get a number as prefix to allow
758 getting the order without consulting the series file, which
759 eases sending out the patches.
761 | TODO: Make stripping of non-essential headers configurable
762 | TODO: Make stripping of [PATCH] and other prefixes configurable
763 | TODO: ``--mbox`` option to export instead as an mbox file
764 | TODO: support ``--all`` option in other modes of operation
765 | TODO: For quilt exporting, export the linearized history created in
766 a temporary branch--this would allow producing conflict-less
771 Import commits within the given revision range into TopGit,
772 creating one topic branch per commit. The dependencies are set
773 up to form a linear sequence starting on your current branch --
774 or a branch specified by the ``-d`` parameter, if present.
776 The branch names are auto-guessed from the commit messages and
777 prefixed by ``t/`` by default; use ``-p <prefix>`` to specify an
778 alternative prefix (even an empty one).
780 Alternatively, you can use the ``-s NAME`` parameter to specify
781 the name of the target branch; the command will then take one
782 more argument describing a *single* commit to import.
786 Update the current, specified or all topic branches with respect
787 to changes in the branches they depend on and remote branches.
788 This is performed in two phases -- first, changes within the
789 dependencies are merged to the base, then the base is merged
790 into the topic branch. The output will guide you on what to do
791 next in case of conflicts.
793 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
795 When ``-a`` (or ``--all``) is specifed, updates all topic branches
796 matched by ``<pattern>``'s (see ``git-for-each-ref(1)`` for details),
797 or all if no ``<pattern>`` is given. Any topic branches with missing
798 dependencies will be skipped entirely unless ``--skip`` is specified.
800 When ``--skip`` is specifed, an attempt is made to update topic
801 branches with missing dependencies by skipping only the dependencies
802 that are missing. Caveat utilitor.
804 After the update, if a single topic branch was specified, it is
805 left as the current one; if ``-a`` was specified, it returns to
806 the branch which was current at the beginning.
808 If your dependencies are not up-to-date, ``tg update`` will first
809 recurse into them and update them.
811 If a remote branch update brings in dependencies on branches
812 that are not yet instantiated locally, you can either bring in
813 all the new branches from the remote using ``tg remote
814 --populate``, or only pick out the missing ones using ``tg create
815 -r`` (``tg summary`` will point out branches with incomplete
816 dependencies by showing an ``!`` next to them).
818 | TODO: ``tg update -a -c`` to autoremove (clean) up-to-date branches
822 If ``-a`` or ``--all`` was specified, pushes all non-annihilated
823 TopGit-controlled topic branches, to a remote repository.
824 Otherwise, pushes the specified topic branches -- or the
825 current branch, if you don't specify which. By default, the
826 remote gets all the dependencies (both TopGit-controlled and
827 non-TopGit-controlled) and bases pushed to it too. If
828 ``--tgish-only`` was specified, only TopGit-controlled
829 dependencies will be pushed, and if ``--no-deps`` was specified,
830 no dependencies at all will be pushed.
832 The ``--dry-run`` and ``--force`` options are passed directly to
833 ``git push`` if given.
835 The remote may be specified with the ``-r`` option. If no remote
836 was specified, the configured default TopGit remote will be
841 Prints the base commit of each of the named topic branches, or
842 the current branch if no branches are named. Prints an error
843 message and exits with exit code 1 if the named branch is not
848 Prints the git log of the named topgit branch -- or the current
849 branch, if you don't specify a name.
851 NOTE: if you have merged changes from a different repository, this
852 command might not list all interesting commits.
856 Creates a TopGit annotated/signed tag or lists the reflog of one.
858 A TopGit annotated tag records the current state of one or more TopGit
859 branches and their dependencies and may be used to revert to the tagged
860 state at any point in the future.
862 When reflogs are enabled (the default in a non-bare repository) and
863 combined with the ``--force`` option a single tag name may be used as a
864 sort of TopGit branch state stash. The special branch name ``--all``
865 may be used to tag the state of all current TopGit branches to
866 facilitate this function and has the side-effect of surpressing the
867 out-of-date check allowing out-of-date branches to be included.
869 As a special feature, ``--stash`` may be used as the tag name in which
870 case ``--all`` is implied if no branch name is listed (instead of the
871 normal default of ``HEAD``), ``--force`` and ``--no-edit`` (use
872 ``--edit`` to change that) are automatically activated and the tag will
873 be saved to ``refs/tgstash`` instead of ``refs/tags/<tagname>``.
874 The ``--stash`` tag name may also be used with the ``-g``/``--reflog``
877 A TopGit annotated/signed tag is simply a Git annotated/signed tag with
878 a "TOPGIT REFS" section appended to the end of the tag message (and
879 preceding the signature for signed tags). PEM-style begin and end
880 lines surround one line per ref where the format of each line is
881 full-hash SP ref-name. A line will be included for each branch given
882 on the command line and each ref they depend on either directly or
885 If more than one TopGit branch is given on the command line, a new
886 commit will be created that has an empty tree and all of the given
887 TopGit branches as parents and that commit will be tagged. If a single
888 TopGit branch is given, then it will be tagged.
890 All the options for creating a tag serve the same purpose as their Git
891 equivalents except for two. The ``--refs`` option suppresses tag
892 creation entirely and emits the "TOPGIT REFS" section that would have
893 been included with the tag. If the ``--no-edit`` option is given and
894 no message is supplied (via the ``-m`` or ``-F`` option) then the
895 default message created by TopGit will be used without running the
898 With ``-g`` or ``--reflog`` show the reflog for a tag. Unlike
899 ``git log -g``, ``tg tag --reflog`` normally shows the message from the
900 tag (if a tag) or the commit (if a commit) if available rather than
901 the message from the reflog itself. With ``--reflog-message`` only
902 show the message (if any) from the reflog. Non-tag entries are
903 annotated with their type unless ``--no-type`` is given. TopGit tags
904 are created with a reflog if core.logallrefupdates is enabled (the
905 default for non-bare repositories). Unfortunately Git is incapable
906 of showing a tag's reflog (using git log -g) as it will first resolve
907 the tag before checking to see if it has a reflog. Git can, however,
908 show reflogs for lightweight tags (using git log -g) just fine but
909 that's not helpful here. Use the ``-g`` or ``--reflog`` option to see
910 the reflog for an actual tag object. This also works on non-TopGit
911 annotated/signed tags as well provided they have a reflog. The number
912 of entries shown may be limited with the ``-n`` option. If the tagname
913 is omitted then ``--stash`` is assumed and ``--reflog-message`` will
914 be implied (use ``--no-reflog-message`` to change that).
918 Provides a ``git rebase`` rerere auto continue function. It may be
919 used as a drop-in replacement front-end for ``git rebase -m`` that
920 automatically continues the rebase when ``git rerere`` information is
921 sufficient to resolve all conflicts.
923 You have enabled ``git rerere`` haven't you?
925 If the ``-m`` or ``--merge`` option is not present then ``tg rebase``
926 will complain and not do anything.
928 When ``git rerere`` is enabled, previously resolved conflicts are
929 remembered and can be automatically staged (see ``rerere.autoUpdate``).
931 However, even with auto staging, ``git rebase`` still stops and
932 requires an explicit ``git rebase --continue`` to keep going.
934 In the case where ``git rebase -m`` is being used to flatten history
935 (such as after a ``tg export --collapse`` prior to a
936 ``git format-patch``), there's a good chance all conflicts have already
937 been resolved during normal merge maintenance operations so there's no
938 reason ``git rebase`` could not automatically continue, but there's no
939 option to make it do so.
941 The ``tg rebase`` command provides a ``git rebase --auto-continue``
944 All the same rebase options can be used (they are simply passed through
945 to Git unchanged). However, the ``rerere.autoUpdate`` option is
946 automatically temporarily enabled while running ``git rebase`` and
947 should ``git rebase`` stop asking one to resolve and continue, but all
948 conflicts have already been resolved and staged using rerere
949 information, then ``git rebase --continue`` will be automatically run.
953 Provides the ability to revert one or more TopGit branches and their
954 dependents to a previous state contained within a tag created using the
955 ``tg tag`` command. In addition to the actual revert mode operation a
956 list mode operation is also provided to examine a tag's ref contents.
958 The default mode (``-l`` or ``--list``) shows the state of one or more
959 of the refs/branches stored in the tag data. When no refs are given on
960 the command line, all refs in the tag data are shown. With the special
961 ref name ``--heads`` then the indepedent heads contained in the tag
962 data are shown. The ``--deps`` option shows the specified refs and all
963 of their dependents in single list with no duplicates. The ``--rdeps``
964 option shows a display similar to ``tg summary --rdeps`` for each ref
965 or all independent heads if no ref is given on the command line.
967 The revert mode has three submodes, dry-run mode (``-n`` or
968 ``--dry-run``), force mode (``-f`` or ``--force``) and interactive mode
969 (``-i`` or ``--interactive``). If ``--dry-run`` (or ``-n``) is given
970 no ref updates will actually be performed but what would have been
971 updated is shown instead. If ``--interactive`` (or ``-i``) is given
972 then the editor is invoked on an instruction sheet allowing manual
973 selection of the refs to be updated before proceeding. Since revert is
974 potentially a destructive operation, at least one of the submodes must
975 be specified explicitly. If no refs are listed on the command line
976 then all refs in the tag data are reverted. Otherwise the listed refs
977 and all of their dependents (unless ``--no-deps`` is given) are
978 reverted. Unless ``--no-stash`` is given a new stash will be created
979 using ``tg tag --stash`` (except, of course, in dry-run mode) just
980 before actually performing the updates to facilitate recovery from
983 Both modes accept fully-qualified (i.e. starts with ``refs/``) ref
984 names as well as unqualified names (which will be assumed to be located
985 under ``refs/heads/``). In revert mode a tgish ref will always have
986 both its ``refs/heads/`` and ``refs/top-bases/`` values included no
987 matter how it's listed unless ``--no-deps`` is given and the ref is
988 fully qualified (i.e. starts with ``refs/``) or one or the other of its
989 values was removed from the instruction sheet in interactive mode. In
990 list mode a tgish ref will always have both its ``refs/heads/`` and
991 ``refs/top-bases/`` values included only when using the ``--deps`` or
994 The ``--tgish-only`` option excludes non-tgish refs (i.e. refs that do
995 not have a ``refs/heads/<name>``, ``refs/top-bases/<name>`` pair).
997 The ``--exclude`` option (which can be repeated) excludes specific
998 refs. If the name given to ``--exclude`` is not fully-qualified (i.e.
999 starts with ``refs/``) then it will exclude both members of a tgish ref
1002 The ``--quiet`` (or ``-q``) option may be used in revert mode to
1003 suppress non-dry-run ref change status messages.
1005 The special tag name ``--stash`` (as well as with ``@{n}`` suffixes)
1006 can be used to refer to ``refs/tgstash``.
1008 NOTE: If HEAD points to a ref that is updated by a revert operation
1009 then NO WARNING whatsoever will be issued, but the index and working
1010 tree will always be left completely untouched (and the reflog for
1011 the pointed-to ref can always be used to find the previous value).
1015 Outputs the direct dependencies for the current or named branch.
1018 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
1019 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
1023 Outputs all branches which directly depend on the current or
1027 -i show dependencies based on index instead of branch
1028 -w show dependencies based on working tree instead of branch
1036 TopGit stores all the topic branches in the regular ``refs/heads/``
1037 namespace (so we recommend distinguishing them with the ``t/`` prefix).
1038 Apart from that, TopGit also maintains a set of auxiliary refs in
1039 ``refs/top-*``. Currently, only ``refs/top-bases/`` is used, containing the
1040 current *base* of the given topic branch -- this is basically a merge of
1041 all the branches the topic branch depends on; it is updated during ``tg
1042 update`` and then merged to the topic branch, and it is the base of a
1043 patch generated from the topic branch by ``tg patch``.
1045 All the metadata is tracked within the source tree and history of the
1046 topic branch itself, in ``.top*`` files; these files are kept isolated
1047 within the topic branches during TopGit-controlled merges and are of
1048 course omitted during ``tg patch``. The state of these files in base
1049 commits is undefined; look at them only in the topic branches
1050 themselves. Currently, two files are defined:
1053 Contains the description of the topic branch in a
1054 mail-like format, plus the author information, whatever
1055 Cc headers you choose or the post-three-dashes message.
1056 When mailing out your patch, basically only a few extra
1057 mail headers are inserted and then the patch itself is
1058 appended. Thus, as your patches evolve, you can record
1059 nuances like whether the particular patch should have
1060 To-list / Cc-maintainer or vice-versa and similar
1061 nuances, if your project is into that. ``From`` is
1062 prefilled from your current ``GIT_AUTHOR_IDENT``; other
1063 headers can be prefilled from various optional
1064 ``topgit.*`` git config options.
1067 Contains the one-per-line list of branches this branch
1068 depends on, pre-seeded by `tg create`. A (continuously
1069 updated) merge of these branches will be the *base* of
1072 IMPORTANT: DO NOT EDIT ``.topdeps`` MANUALLY!!! If you do so, you need to
1073 know exactly what are you doing, since this file must stay in sync with
1074 the Git history information, otherwise very bad things will happen.
1076 TopGit also automagically installs a bunch of custom commit-related
1077 hooks that will verify whether you are committing the ``.top*`` files in a
1078 sane state. It will add the hooks to separate files within the ``hooks/``
1079 subdirectory, and merely insert calls to them to the appropriate hooks
1080 and make them executable (but will make sure the original hook's code is
1081 not called if the hook was not executable beforehand).
1083 Another automagically installed piece is a ``.git/info/attributes``
1084 specifier for an ``ours`` merge strategy for the files ``.topmsg`` and
1085 ``.topdeps``, and the (intuitive) ``ours`` merge strategy definition in
1092 There are two remaining issues with accessing topic branches in remote
1095 (i) Referring to remote topic branches from your local repository
1096 (ii) Developing some of the remote topic branches locally
1098 There are two somewhat contradictory design considerations here:
1100 (a) Hacking on multiple independent TopGit remotes in a single
1102 (b) Having a self-contained topic system in local refs space
1104 To us, (a) does not appear to be very convincing, while (b) is quite
1105 desirable for ``git-log topic`` etc. working, and increased conceptual
1108 Thus, we choose to instantiate all the topic branches of given remote
1109 locally; this is performed by ``tg remote --populate``. ``tg update``
1110 will also check if a branch can be updated from its corresponding remote
1111 branch. The logic needs to be somewhat involved if we are to "do the
1112 right thing". First, we update the base, handling the remote branch as
1113 if it was the first dependency; thus, conflict resolutions made in the
1114 remote branch will be carried over to our local base automagically.
1115 Then, the base is merged into the remote branch and the result is merged
1116 to the local branch -- again, to carry over remote conflict resolutions.
1117 In the future, this order might be adjustable on a per-update basis, in
1118 case local changes happen to be diverging more than the remote ones.
1120 All commands by default refer to the remote that ``tg remote --populate``
1121 was called on the last time (stored in the ``topgit.remote`` git
1122 configuration variable). You can manually run any command with a
1123 different base remote by passing ``-r REMOTE`` *before* the subcommand
1130 The following references are useful to understand the development of
1131 topgit and its subcommands.
1134 http://lists-archives.org/git/688698-add-list-and-rm-sub-commands-to-tg-depend.html
1137 THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE
1138 --------------------
1140 The following software understands TopGit branches:
1142 * `magit <http://magit.github.io/>`_ -- a git mode for emacs
1144 IMPORTANT: Magit requires its topgit mode to be enabled first, as
1145 described in its documentation, in the "Activating extensions"
1146 subsection. If this is not done, it will not push TopGit branches
1147 correctly, so it's important to enable it even if you plan to mostly use
1148 TopGit from the command line.