Mercurial > hgbook
diff en/ch08-undo.xml @ 753:1c13ed2130a7
Merge with http://hg.serpentine.com/mercurial/book
| author | Dongsheng Song <dongsheng.song@gmail.com> |
|---|---|
| date | Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:23:33 +0800 |
| parents | 7e7c47481e4f 0b45854f0b7b |
| children | b338f5490029 |
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--- a/en/ch08-undo.xml Fri Mar 20 17:17:55 2009 +0800 +++ b/en/ch08-undo.xml Mon Mar 30 16:23:33 2009 +0800 @@ -1,10 +1,10 @@ <!-- vim: set filetype=docbkxml shiftwidth=2 autoindent expandtab tw=77 : --> -<chapter id="chap.undo"> +<chapter id="chap:undo"> <?dbhtml filename="finding-and-fixing-mistakes.html"?> <title>Finding and fixing mistakes</title> - <para>To err might be human, but to really handle the consequences + <para id="x_d2">To err might be human, but to really handle the consequences well takes a top-notch revision control system. In this chapter, we'll discuss some of the techniques you can use when you find that a problem has crept into your project. Mercurial has some @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ <sect2> <title>The accidental commit</title> - <para>I have the occasional but persistent problem of typing + <para id="x_d3">I have the occasional but persistent problem of typing rather more quickly than I can think, which sometimes results in me committing a changeset that is either incomplete or plain wrong. In my case, the usual kind of incomplete @@ -27,33 +27,33 @@ less annoying.</para> </sect2> - <sect2 id="sec.undo.rollback"> + <sect2 id="sec:undo:rollback"> <title>Rolling back a transaction</title> - <para>In section <xref linkend="sec.concepts.txn"/>, I mentioned - that Mercurial treats each modification of a repository as a - <emphasis>transaction</emphasis>. Every time you commit a - changeset or pull changes from another repository, Mercurial - remembers what you did. You can undo, or <emphasis>roll - back</emphasis>, exactly one of these actions using the - <command role="hg-cmd">hg rollback</command> command. (See - section <xref linkend="sec.undo.rollback-after-push"/> for an - important caveat about the use of this command.)</para> + <para id="x_d4">In <xref linkend="sec:concepts:txn"/>, I + mentioned that Mercurial treats each modification of a + repository as a <emphasis>transaction</emphasis>. Every time + you commit a changeset or pull changes from another + repository, Mercurial remembers what you did. You can undo, + or <emphasis>roll back</emphasis>, exactly one of these + actions using the <command role="hg-cmd">hg rollback</command> + command. (See <xref linkend="sec:undo:rollback-after-push"/> + for an important caveat about the use of this command.)</para> - <para>Here's a mistake that I often find myself making: + <para id="x_d5">Here's a mistake that I often find myself making: committing a change in which I've created a new file, but forgotten to <command role="hg-cmd">hg add</command> it.</para> &interaction.rollback.commit; - <para>Looking at the output of <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <para id="x_d6">Looking at the output of <command role="hg-cmd">hg status</command> after the commit immediately confirms the error.</para> &interaction.rollback.status; - <para>The commit captured the changes to the file + <para id="x_d7">The commit captured the changes to the file <filename>a</filename>, but not the new file <filename>b</filename>. If I were to push this changeset to a repository that I shared with a colleague, the chances are @@ -62,14 +62,14 @@ repository when they pulled my changes. I would thus become the object of some indignation.</para> - <para>However, luck is with me&emdash;I've caught my error + <para id="x_d8">However, luck is with me&emdash;I've caught my error before I pushed the changeset. I use the <command role="hg-cmd">hg rollback</command> command, and Mercurial makes that last changeset vanish.</para> &interaction.rollback.rollback; - <para>Notice that the changeset is no longer present in the + <para id="x_d9">Notice that the changeset is no longer present in the repository's history, and the working directory once again thinks that the file <filename>a</filename> is modified. The commit and rollback have left the working directory exactly as @@ -84,14 +84,14 @@ <sect2> <title>The erroneous pull</title> - <para>It's common practice with Mercurial to maintain separate + <para id="x_da">It's common practice with Mercurial to maintain separate development branches of a project in different repositories. Your development team might have one shared repository for your project's <quote>0.9</quote> release, and another, containing different changes, for the <quote>1.0</quote> release.</para> - <para>Given this, you can imagine that the consequences could be + <para id="x_db">Given this, you can imagine that the consequences could be messy if you had a local <quote>0.9</quote> repository, and accidentally pulled changes from the shared <quote>1.0</quote> repository into it. At worst, you could be paying @@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ see it pull a suspiciously large number of changes into the repository.</para> - <para>The <command role="hg-cmd">hg rollback</command> command + <para id="x_dc">The <command role="hg-cmd">hg rollback</command> command will work nicely to expunge all of the changesets that you just pulled. Mercurial groups all changes from one <command role="hg-cmd">hg pull</command> into a single transaction, @@ -111,10 +111,10 @@ need to undo this mistake.</para> </sect2> - <sect2 id="sec.undo.rollback-after-push"> + <sect2 id="sec:undo:rollback-after-push"> <title>Rolling back is useless once you've pushed</title> - <para>The value of the <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <para id="x_dd">The value of the <command role="hg-cmd">hg rollback</command> command drops to zero once you've pushed your changes to another repository. Rolling back a change makes it disappear entirely, but <emphasis>only</emphasis> in @@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ eliminates history, there's no way for the disappearance of a change to propagate between repositories.</para> - <para>If you've pushed a change to another + <para id="x_de">If you've pushed a change to another repository&emdash;particularly if it's a shared repository&emdash;it has essentially <quote>escaped into the wild,</quote> and you'll have to recover from your mistake @@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ you pushed to, is that the changeset will reappear in your repository.</para> - <para>(If you absolutely know for sure that the change you want + <para id="x_df">(If you absolutely know for sure that the change you want to roll back is the most recent change in the repository that you pushed to, <emphasis>and</emphasis> you know that nobody else could have pulled it from that repository, you can roll @@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ <sect2> <title>You can only roll back once</title> - <para>Mercurial stores exactly one transaction in its + <para id="x_e0">Mercurial stores exactly one transaction in its transaction log; that transaction is the most recent one that occurred in the repository. This means that you can only roll back one transaction. If you expect to be able to roll back @@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ &interaction.rollback.twice; - <para>Once you've rolled back one transaction in a repository, + <para id="x_e1">Once you've rolled back one transaction in a repository, you can't roll back again in that repository until you perform another commit or pull.</para> @@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ <sect1> <title>Reverting the mistaken change</title> - <para>If you make a modification to a file, and decide that you + <para id="x_e2">If you make a modification to a file, and decide that you really didn't want to change the file at all, and you haven't yet committed your changes, the <command role="hg-cmd">hg revert</command> command is the one you'll need. It looks at @@ -173,57 +173,57 @@ changeset. (That's a long-winded way of saying that, in the normal case, it undoes your modifications.)</para> - <para>Let's illustrate how the <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <para id="x_e3">Let's illustrate how the <command role="hg-cmd">hg revert</command> command works with yet another small example. We'll begin by modifying a file that Mercurial is already tracking.</para> &interaction.daily.revert.modify; - <para>If we don't + <para id="x_e4">If we don't want that change, we can simply <command role="hg-cmd">hg revert</command> the file.</para> &interaction.daily.revert.unmodify; - <para>The <command role="hg-cmd">hg revert</command> command + <para id="x_e5">The <command role="hg-cmd">hg revert</command> command provides us with an extra degree of safety by saving our modified file with a <filename>.orig</filename> extension.</para> &interaction.daily.revert.status; - <para>Here is a summary of the cases that the <command + <para id="x_e6">Here is a summary of the cases that the <command role="hg-cmd">hg revert</command> command can deal with. We will describe each of these in more detail in the section that follows.</para> <itemizedlist> - <listitem><para>If you modify a file, it will restore the file + <listitem><para id="x_e7">If you modify a file, it will restore the file to its unmodified state.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>If you <command role="hg-cmd">hg add</command> a + <listitem><para id="x_e8">If you <command role="hg-cmd">hg add</command> a file, it will undo the <quote>added</quote> state of the file, but leave the file itself untouched.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>If you delete a file without telling Mercurial, + <listitem><para id="x_e9">If you delete a file without telling Mercurial, it will restore the file to its unmodified contents.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>If you use the <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <listitem><para id="x_ea">If you use the <command role="hg-cmd">hg remove</command> command to remove a file, it will undo the <quote>removed</quote> state of the file, and restore the file to its unmodified contents.</para> </listitem></itemizedlist> - <sect2 id="sec.undo.mgmt"> + <sect2 id="sec:undo:mgmt"> <title>File management errors</title> - <para>The <command role="hg-cmd">hg revert</command> command is + <para id="x_eb">The <command role="hg-cmd">hg revert</command> command is useful for more than just modified files. It lets you reverse the results of all of Mercurial's file management commands&emdash;<command role="hg-cmd">hg add</command>, <command role="hg-cmd">hg remove</command>, and so on.</para> - <para>If you <command role="hg-cmd">hg add</command> a file, + <para id="x_ec">If you <command role="hg-cmd">hg add</command> a file, then decide that in fact you don't want Mercurial to track it, use <command role="hg-cmd">hg revert</command> to undo the add. Don't worry; Mercurial will not modify the file in any @@ -231,7 +231,7 @@ &interaction.daily.revert.add; - <para>Similarly, if you ask Mercurial to <command + <para id="x_ed">Similarly, if you ask Mercurial to <command role="hg-cmd">hg remove</command> a file, you can use <command role="hg-cmd">hg revert</command> to restore it to the contents it had as of the parent of the working directory. @@ -242,7 +242,7 @@ &interaction.daily.revert.missing; - <para>If you revert a <command role="hg-cmd">hg copy</command>, + <para id="x_ee">If you revert a <command role="hg-cmd">hg copy</command>, the copied-to file remains in your working directory afterwards, untracked. Since a copy doesn't affect the copied-from file in any way, Mercurial doesn't do anything @@ -253,7 +253,7 @@ <sect3> <title>A slightly special case: reverting a rename</title> - <para>If you <command role="hg-cmd">hg rename</command> a + <para id="x_ef">If you <command role="hg-cmd">hg rename</command> a file, there is one small detail that you should remember. When you <command role="hg-cmd">hg revert</command> a rename, it's not enough to provide the name of the @@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ &interaction.daily.revert.rename; - <para>As you can see from the output of <command + <para id="x_f0">As you can see from the output of <command role="hg-cmd">hg status</command>, the renamed-to file is no longer identified as added, but the renamed-<emphasis>from</emphasis> file is still removed! @@ -270,22 +270,22 @@ &interaction.daily.revert.rename-orig; - <para>So remember, to revert a <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <para id="x_f1">So remember, to revert a <command role="hg-cmd">hg rename</command>, you must provide <emphasis>both</emphasis> the source and destination names.</para> - <para>% TODO: the output doesn't look like it will be + <para id="x_f2">% TODO: the output doesn't look like it will be removed!</para> - <para>(By the way, if you rename a file, then modify the + <para id="x_f3">(By the way, if you rename a file, then modify the renamed-to file, then revert both components of the rename, when Mercurial restores the file that was removed as part of the rename, it will be unmodified. If you need the modifications in the renamed-to file to show up in the renamed-from file, don't forget to copy them over.)</para> - <para>These fiddly aspects of reverting a rename arguably + <para id="x_f4">These fiddly aspects of reverting a rename arguably constitute a small bug in Mercurial.</para> </sect3> @@ -294,24 +294,24 @@ <sect1> <title>Dealing with committed changes</title> - <para>Consider a case where you have committed a change $a$, and + <para id="x_f5">Consider a case where you have committed a change $a$, and another change $b$ on top of it; you then realise that change $a$ was incorrect. Mercurial lets you <quote>back out</quote> an entire changeset automatically, and building blocks that let you reverse part of a changeset by hand.</para> - <para>Before you read this section, here's something to keep in - mind: the <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command - undoes changes by <emphasis>adding</emphasis> history, not by - modifying or erasing it. It's the right tool to use if you're - fixing bugs, but not if you're trying to undo some change that - has catastrophic consequences. To deal with those, see section - <xref linkend="sec.undo.aaaiiieee"/>.</para> + <para id="x_f6">Before you read this section, here's something to + keep in mind: the <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> + command undoes changes by <emphasis>adding</emphasis> history, + not by modifying or erasing it. It's the right tool to use if + you're fixing bugs, but not if you're trying to undo some change + that has catastrophic consequences. To deal with those, see + <xref linkend="sec:undo:aaaiiieee"/>.</para> <sect2> <title>Backing out a changeset</title> - <para>The <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command + <para id="x_f7">The <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command lets you <quote>undo</quote> the effects of an entire changeset in an automated fashion. Because Mercurial's history is immutable, this command <emphasis>does @@ -320,14 +320,14 @@ <emphasis>reverses</emphasis> the effect of the to-be-undone changeset.</para> - <para>The operation of the <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <para id="x_f8">The operation of the <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command is a little intricate, so let's illustrate it with some examples. First, we'll create a repository with some simple changes.</para> &interaction.backout.init; - <para>The <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command + <para id="x_f9">The <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command takes a single changeset ID as its argument; this is the changeset to back out. Normally, <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> will drop you into a text editor to write @@ -340,12 +340,12 @@ <sect2> <title>Backing out the tip changeset</title> - <para>We're going to start by backing out the last changeset we + <para id="x_fa">We're going to start by backing out the last changeset we committed.</para> &interaction.backout.simple; - <para>You can see that the second line from + <para id="x_fb">You can see that the second line from <filename>myfile</filename> is no longer present. Taking a look at the output of <command role="hg-cmd">hg log</command> gives us an idea of what the <command role="hg-cmd">hg @@ -353,51 +353,45 @@ &interaction.backout.simple.log; Notice that the new changeset that <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> has created is a child of the changeset we backed out. It's easier to see - this in figure <xref - endterm="fig.undo.backout.caption" linkend="fig.undo.backout"/>, - which presents a graphical - view of the change history. As you can see, the history is - nice and linear.</para> + this in <xref linkend="fig:undo:backout"/>, which presents a + graphical view of the change history. As you can see, the + history is nice and linear.</para> - <informalfigure id="fig.undo.backout"> - <mediaobject> - <imageobject><imagedata fileref="images/undo-simple.png"/> - </imageobject> - <textobject><phrase>XXX add text</phrase></textobject> - <caption><para id="fig.undo.backout.caption">Backing out - a change using the - <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> - command</para></caption> - </mediaobject> - </informalfigure> + <figure id="fig:undo:backout"> + <title>Backing out a change using the <command + role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command</title> + <mediaobject> + <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figs/undo-simple.png"/></imageobject> + <textobject><phrase>XXX add text</phrase></textobject> + </mediaobject> + </figure> </sect2> <sect2> <title>Backing out a non-tip change</title> - <para>If you want to back out a change other than the last one + <para id="x_fd">If you want to back out a change other than the last one you committed, pass the <option role="hg-opt-backout">--merge</option> option to the <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command.</para> &interaction.backout.non-tip.clone; - <para>This makes backing out any changeset a + <para id="x_fe">This makes backing out any changeset a <quote>one-shot</quote> operation that's usually simple and fast.</para> &interaction.backout.non-tip.backout; - <para>If you take a look at the contents of + <para id="x_ff">If you take a look at the contents of <filename>myfile</filename> after the backout finishes, you'll see that the first and third changes are present, but not the second.</para> &interaction.backout.non-tip.cat; - <para>As the graphical history in figure <xref - endterm="fig.undo.backout-non-tip.caption" - linkend="fig.undo.backout-non-tip"/> illustrates, Mercurial + <para id="x_100">As the graphical history in <xref + linkend="fig:undo:backout-non-tip"/> illustrates, Mercurial actually commits <emphasis>two</emphasis> changes in this kind of situation (the box-shaped nodes are the ones that Mercurial commits automatically). Before Mercurial begins the backout @@ -407,21 +401,19 @@ the previous parent of the working directory, and commits the result of the merge.</para> - <para>% TODO: to me it looks like mercurial doesn't commit the + <para id="x_101">% TODO: to me it looks like mercurial doesn't commit the second merge automatically!</para> - <informalfigure id="fig.undo.backout-non-tip"> - <mediaobject> - <imageobject><imagedata fileref="images/undo-non-tip.png"/> - </imageobject> - <textobject><phrase>XXX add text</phrase></textobject> - <caption><para id="fig.undo.backout-non-tip.caption">Automated - backout of a non-tip change using the - <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command</para></caption> - </mediaobject> - </informalfigure> + <figure id="fig:undo:backout-non-tip"> + <title>Automated backout of a non-tip change using the + <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command</title> + <mediaobject> + <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figs/undo-non-tip.png"/></imageobject> + <textobject><phrase>XXX add text</phrase></textobject> + </mediaobject> + </figure> - <para>The result is that you end up <quote>back where you + <para id="x_103">The result is that you end up <quote>back where you were</quote>, only with some extra history that undoes the effect of the changeset you wanted to back out.</para> @@ -429,7 +421,7 @@ <title>Always use the <option role="hg-opt-backout">--merge</option> option</title> - <para>In fact, since the <option + <para id="x_104">In fact, since the <option role="hg-opt-backout">--merge</option> option will do the <quote>right thing</quote> whether or not the changeset you're backing out is the tip (i.e. it won't try to merge if @@ -442,7 +434,7 @@ <sect2> <title>Gaining more control of the backout process</title> - <para>While I've recommended that you always use the <option + <para id="x_105">While I've recommended that you always use the <option role="hg-opt-backout">--merge</option> option when backing out a change, the <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command lets you decide how to merge a backout changeset. @@ -455,13 +447,13 @@ &interaction.backout.manual.clone; - <para>As with our + <para id="x_106">As with our earlier example, We'll commit a third changeset, then back out its parent, and see what happens.</para> &interaction.backout.manual.backout; - <para>Our new changeset is again a descendant of the changeset + <para id="x_107">Our new changeset is again a descendant of the changeset we backout out; it's thus a new head, <emphasis>not</emphasis> a descendant of the changeset that was the tip. The <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command was quite @@ -469,38 +461,35 @@ &interaction.backout.manual.log; - <para>Again, it's easier to see what has happened by looking at - a graph of the revision history, in figure <xref - endterm="fig.undo.backout-manual.caption" - linkend="fig.undo.backout-manual"/>. This makes it clear + <para id="x_108">Again, it's easier to see what has happened by looking at + a graph of the revision history, in <xref + linkend="fig:undo:backout-manual"/>. This makes it clear that when we use <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> to back out a change other than the tip, Mercurial adds a new head to the repository (the change it committed is box-shaped).</para> - <informalfigure id="fig.undo.backout-manual"> - <mediaobject> - <imageobject><imagedata fileref="images/undo-manual.png"/> - </imageobject> - <textobject><phrase>XXX add text</phrase></textobject> - <caption><para id="fig.undo.backout-manual.caption">Backing out a - change using the <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> - command</para></caption> - </mediaobject> - </informalfigure> + <figure id="fig:undo:backout-manual"> + <title>Backing out a change using the <command + role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command</title> + <mediaobject> + <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figs/undo-manual.png"/></imageobject> + <textobject><phrase>XXX add text</phrase></textobject> + </mediaobject> + </figure> - <para>After the <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> + <para id="x_10a">After the <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command has completed, it leaves the new <quote>backout</quote> changeset as the parent of the working directory.</para> &interaction.backout.manual.parents; - <para>Now we have two isolated sets of changes.</para> + <para id="x_10b">Now we have two isolated sets of changes.</para> &interaction.backout.manual.heads; - <para>Let's think about what we expect to see as the contents of + <para id="x_10c">Let's think about what we expect to see as the contents of <filename>myfile</filename> now. The first change should be present, because we've never backed it out. The second change should be missing, as that's the change we backed out. Since @@ -510,68 +499,65 @@ &interaction.backout.manual.cat; - <para>To get the third change back into the file, we just do a + <para id="x_10d">To get the third change back into the file, we just do a normal merge of our two heads.</para> &interaction.backout.manual.merge; - <para>Afterwards, the graphical history of our repository looks - like figure - <xref endterm="fig.undo.backout-manual-merge.caption" - linkend="fig.undo.backout-manual-merge"/>.</para> + <para id="x_10e">Afterwards, the graphical history of our + repository looks like + <xref linkend="fig:undo:backout-manual-merge"/>.</para> - <informalfigure id="fig.undo.backout-manual-merge"> - <mediaobject> - <imageobject><imagedata fileref="images/undo-manual-merge.png"/> - </imageobject> - <textobject><phrase>XXX add text</phrase></textobject> - <caption><para id="fig.undo.backout-manual-merge.caption">Manually - merging a backout change</para></caption> - </mediaobject> - </informalfigure> + <figure id="fig:undo:backout-manual-merge"> + <title>Manually merging a backout change</title> + <mediaobject> + <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figs/undo-manual-merge.png"/></imageobject> + <textobject><phrase>XXX add text</phrase></textobject> + </mediaobject> + </figure> </sect2> <sect2> <title>Why <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> works as it does</title> - <para>Here's a brief description of how the <command + <para id="x_110">Here's a brief description of how the <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command works.</para> <orderedlist> - <listitem><para>It ensures that the working directory is + <listitem><para id="x_111">It ensures that the working directory is <quote>clean</quote>, i.e. that the output of <command role="hg-cmd">hg status</command> would be empty.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>It remembers the current parent of the working + <listitem><para id="x_112">It remembers the current parent of the working directory. Let's call this changeset <literal>orig</literal></para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>It does the equivalent of a <command + <listitem><para id="x_113">It does the equivalent of a <command role="hg-cmd">hg update</command> to sync the working directory to the changeset you want to back out. Let's call this changeset <literal>backout</literal></para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>It finds the parent of that changeset. Let's + <listitem><para id="x_114">It finds the parent of that changeset. Let's call that changeset <literal>parent</literal>.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>For each file that the + <listitem><para id="x_115">For each file that the <literal>backout</literal> changeset affected, it does the equivalent of a <command role="hg-cmd">hg revert -r parent</command> on that file, to restore it to the contents it had before that changeset was committed.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>It commits the result as a new changeset. + <listitem><para id="x_116">It commits the result as a new changeset. This changeset has <literal>backout</literal> as its parent.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>If you specify <option + <listitem><para id="x_117">If you specify <option role="hg-opt-backout">--merge</option> on the command line, it merges with <literal>orig</literal>, and commits the result of the merge.</para> </listitem></orderedlist> - <para>An alternative way to implement the <command + <para id="x_118">An alternative way to implement the <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command would be to <command role="hg-cmd">hg export</command> the to-be-backed-out changeset as a diff, then use the <option @@ -581,21 +567,21 @@ sounds much simpler, but it would not work nearly as well.</para> - <para>The reason that <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <para id="x_119">The reason that <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> does an update, a commit, a merge, and another commit is to give the merge machinery the best chance to do a good job when dealing with all the changes <emphasis>between</emphasis> the change you're backing out and the current tip.</para> - <para>If you're backing out a changeset that's 100 revisions + <para id="x_11a">If you're backing out a changeset that's 100 revisions back in your project's history, the chances that the <command>patch</command> command will be able to apply a reverse diff cleanly are not good, because intervening changes are likely to have <quote>broken the context</quote> that <command>patch</command> uses to determine whether it can apply a patch (if this sounds like gibberish, see <xref - linkend="sec.mq.patch"/> for a + linkend="sec:mq:patch"/> for a discussion of the <command>patch</command> command). Also, Mercurial's merge machinery will handle files and directories being renamed, permission changes, and modifications to binary @@ -604,16 +590,16 @@ </sect2> </sect1> - <sect1 id="sec.undo.aaaiiieee"> + <sect1 id="sec:undo:aaaiiieee"> <title>Changes that should never have been</title> - <para>Most of the time, the <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <para id="x_11b">Most of the time, the <command role="hg-cmd">hg backout</command> command is exactly what you need if you want to undo the effects of a change. It leaves a permanent record of exactly what you did, both when committing the original changeset and when you cleaned up after it.</para> - <para>On rare occasions, though, you may find that you've + <para id="x_11c">On rare occasions, though, you may find that you've committed a change that really should not be present in the repository at all. For example, it would be very unusual, and usually considered a mistake, to commit a software project's @@ -622,21 +608,21 @@ so they increase the size of the repository and the amount of time it takes to clone or pull changes.</para> - <para>Before I discuss the options that you have if you commit a + <para id="x_11d">Before I discuss the options that you have if you commit a <quote>brown paper bag</quote> change (the kind that's so bad that you want to pull a brown paper bag over your head), let me first discuss some approaches that probably won't work.</para> - <para>Since Mercurial treats history as accumulative&emdash;every - change builds on top of all changes that preceded it&emdash;you - generally can't just make disastrous changes disappear. The one - exception is when you've just committed a change, and it hasn't - been pushed or pulled into another repository. That's when you - can safely use the <command role="hg-cmd">hg rollback</command> - command, as I detailed in section <xref - linkend="sec.undo.rollback"/>.</para> + <para id="x_11e">Since Mercurial treats history as + accumulative&emdash;every change builds on top of all changes + that preceded it&emdash;you generally can't just make disastrous + changes disappear. The one exception is when you've just + committed a change, and it hasn't been pushed or pulled into + another repository. That's when you can safely use the <command + role="hg-cmd">hg rollback</command> command, as I detailed in + <xref linkend="sec:undo:rollback"/>.</para> - <para>After you've pushed a bad change to another repository, you + <para id="x_11f">After you've pushed a bad change to another repository, you <emphasis>could</emphasis> still use <command role="hg-cmd">hg rollback</command> to make your local copy of the change disappear, but it won't have the consequences you want. The @@ -644,7 +630,7 @@ will reappear in your local repository the next time you pull.</para> - <para>If a situation like this arises, and you know which + <para id="x_120">If a situation like this arises, and you know which repositories your bad change has propagated into, you can <emphasis>try</emphasis> to get rid of the changeefrom <emphasis>every</emphasis> one of those repositories. This is, @@ -652,13 +638,13 @@ single repository while you're expunging, the change is still <quote>in the wild</quote>, and could propagate further.</para> - <para>If you've committed one or more changes + <para id="x_121">If you've committed one or more changes <emphasis>after</emphasis> the change that you'd like to see disappear, your options are further reduced. Mercurial doesn't provide a way to <quote>punch a hole</quote> in history, leaving changesets intact.</para> - <para>XXX This needs filling out. The + <para id="x_122">XXX This needs filling out. The <literal>hg-replay</literal> script in the <literal>examples</literal> directory works, but doesn't handle merge changesets. Kind of an important omission.</para> @@ -667,15 +653,15 @@ <title>Protect yourself from <quote>escaped</quote> changes</title> - <para>If you've committed some changes to your local repository + <para id="x_123">If you've committed some changes to your local repository and they've been pushed or pulled somewhere else, this isn't necessarily a disaster. You can protect yourself ahead of time against some classes of bad changeset. This is particularly easy if your team usually pulls changes from a central repository.</para> - <para>By configuring some hooks on that repository to validate - incoming changesets (see chapter <xref linkend="chap.hook"/>), + <para id="x_124">By configuring some hooks on that repository to validate + incoming changesets (see chapter <xref linkend="chap:hook"/>), you can automatically prevent some kinds of bad changeset from being pushed to the central repository at all. With such a @@ -684,23 +670,23 @@ propagate into the central repository. Better yet, this happens without any need for explicit intervention.</para> - <para>For instance, an incoming change hook that verifies that a + <para id="x_125">For instance, an incoming change hook that verifies that a changeset will actually compile can prevent people from inadvertantly <quote>breaking the build</quote>.</para> </sect2> </sect1> - <sect1 id="sec.undo.bisect"> + <sect1 id="sec:undo:bisect"> <title>Finding the source of a bug</title> - <para>While it's all very well to be able to back out a changeset + <para id="x_126">While it's all very well to be able to back out a changeset that introduced a bug, this requires that you know which changeset to back out. Mercurial provides an invaluable command, called <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command>, that helps you to automate this process and accomplish it very efficiently.</para> - <para>The idea behind the <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <para id="x_127">The idea behind the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command is that a changeset has introduced some change of behaviour that you can identify with a simple binary test. You don't know which piece of code introduced the @@ -709,41 +695,41 @@ test to direct its search for the changeset that introduced the code that caused the bug.</para> - <para>Here are a few scenarios to help you understand how you + <para id="x_128">Here are a few scenarios to help you understand how you might apply this command.</para> <itemizedlist> - <listitem><para>The most recent version of your software has a + <listitem><para id="x_129">The most recent version of your software has a bug that you remember wasn't present a few weeks ago, but you don't know when it was introduced. Here, your binary test checks for the presence of that bug.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>You fixed a bug in a rush, and now it's time to + <listitem><para id="x_12a">You fixed a bug in a rush, and now it's time to close the entry in your team's bug database. The bug database requires a changeset ID when you close an entry, but you don't remember which changeset you fixed the bug in. Once again, your binary test checks for the presence of the bug.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>Your software works correctly, but runs 15% + <listitem><para id="x_12b">Your software works correctly, but runs 15% slower than the last time you measured it. You want to know which changeset introduced the performance regression. In this case, your binary test measures the performance of your software, to see whether it's <quote>fast</quote> or <quote>slow</quote>.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>The sizes of the components of your project that + <listitem><para id="x_12c">The sizes of the components of your project that you ship exploded recently, and you suspect that something changed in the way you build your project.</para> </listitem></itemizedlist> - <para>From these examples, it should be clear that the <command + <para id="x_12d">From these examples, it should be clear that the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command is not useful only for finding the sources of bugs. You can use it to find any <quote>emergent property</quote> of a repository (anything that you can't find from a simple text search of the files in the tree) for which you can write a binary test.</para> - <para>We'll introduce a little bit of terminology here, just to + <para id="x_12e">We'll introduce a little bit of terminology here, just to make it clear which parts of the search process are your responsibility, and which are Mercurial's. A <emphasis>test</emphasis> is something that @@ -756,7 +742,7 @@ the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command</quote>.</para> - <para>One simple way to automate the searching process would be + <para id="x_12f">One simple way to automate the searching process would be simply to probe every changeset. However, this scales poorly. If it took ten minutes to test a single changeset, and you had 10,000 changesets in your repository, the exhaustive approach @@ -766,7 +752,7 @@ your search to those, you'd still be looking at over 40 hours to find the changeset that introduced your bug.</para> - <para>What the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command + <para id="x_130">What the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command does is use its knowledge of the <quote>shape</quote> of your project's revision history to perform a search in time proportional to the <emphasis>logarithm</emphasis> of the number @@ -777,7 +763,7 @@ Limit your search to the last hundred changesets, and it will take only about an hour (roughly seven tests).</para> - <para>The <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command is + <para id="x_131">The <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command is aware of the <quote>branchy</quote> nature of a Mercurial project's revision history, so it has no problems dealing with branches, merges, or multiple heads in a repository. It can @@ -788,24 +774,24 @@ <title>Using the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command</title> - <para>Here's an example of <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <para id="x_132">Here's an example of <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> in action.</para> <note> - <para> In versions 0.9.5 and earlier of Mercurial, <command + <para id="x_133"> In versions 0.9.5 and earlier of Mercurial, <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> was not a core command: it was distributed with Mercurial as an extension. This section describes the built-in command, not the old extension.</para> </note> - <para>Now let's create a repository, so that we can try out the + <para id="x_134">Now let's create a repository, so that we can try out the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command in isolation.</para> &interaction.bisect.init; - <para>We'll simulate a project that has a bug in it in a + <para id="x_135">We'll simulate a project that has a bug in it in a simple-minded way: create trivial changes in a loop, and nominate one specific change that will have the <quote>bug</quote>. This loop creates 35 changesets, each @@ -815,44 +801,44 @@ &interaction.bisect.commits; - <para>The next thing that we'd like to do is figure out how to + <para id="x_136">The next thing that we'd like to do is figure out how to use the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command. We can use Mercurial's normal built-in help mechanism for this.</para> &interaction.bisect.help; - <para>The <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command + <para id="x_137">The <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command works in steps. Each step proceeds as follows.</para> <orderedlist> - <listitem><para>You run your binary test.</para> + <listitem><para id="x_138">You run your binary test.</para> <itemizedlist> - <listitem><para>If the test succeeded, you tell <command + <listitem><para id="x_139">If the test succeeded, you tell <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> by running the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect good</command> command.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>If it failed, run the <command + <listitem><para id="x_13a">If it failed, run the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect bad</command> command.</para></listitem></itemizedlist> </listitem> - <listitem><para>The command uses your information to decide + <listitem><para id="x_13b">The command uses your information to decide which changeset to test next.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>It updates the working directory to that + <listitem><para id="x_13c">It updates the working directory to that changeset, and the process begins again.</para> </listitem></orderedlist> - <para>The process ends when <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <para id="x_13d">The process ends when <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> identifies a unique changeset that marks the point where your test transitioned from <quote>succeeding</quote> to <quote>failing</quote>.</para> - <para>To start the search, we must run the <command + <para id="x_13e">To start the search, we must run the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect --reset</command> command.</para> &interaction.bisect.search.init; - <para>In our case, the binary test we use is simple: we check to + <para id="x_13f">In our case, the binary test we use is simple: we check to see if any file in the repository contains the string <quote>i have a gub</quote>. If it does, this changeset contains the change that <quote>caused the bug</quote>. By convention, a @@ -860,14 +846,14 @@ <quote>bad</quote>, while one that doesn't is <quote>good</quote>.</para> - <para>Most of the time, the revision to which the working + <para id="x_140">Most of the time, the revision to which the working directory is synced (usually the tip) already exhibits the problem introduced by the buggy change, so we'll mark it as <quote>bad</quote>.</para> &interaction.bisect.search.bad-init; - <para>Our next task is to nominate a changeset that we know + <para id="x_141">Our next task is to nominate a changeset that we know <emphasis>doesn't</emphasis> have the bug; the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command will <quote>bracket</quote> its search between the first pair of @@ -877,38 +863,38 @@ &interaction.bisect.search.good-init; - <para>Notice that this command printed some output.</para> + <para id="x_142">Notice that this command printed some output.</para> <itemizedlist> - <listitem><para>It told us how many changesets it must + <listitem><para id="x_143">It told us how many changesets it must consider before it can identify the one that introduced the bug, and how many tests that will require.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>It updated the working directory to the next + <listitem><para id="x_144">It updated the working directory to the next changeset to test, and told us which changeset it's testing.</para> </listitem></itemizedlist> - <para>We now run our test in the working directory. We use the + <para id="x_145">We now run our test in the working directory. We use the <command>grep</command> command to see if our <quote>bad</quote> file is present in the working directory. If it is, this revision is bad; if not, this revision is good. &interaction.bisect.search.step1;</para> - <para>This test looks like a perfect candidate for automation, + <para id="x_146">This test looks like a perfect candidate for automation, so let's turn it into a shell function.</para> &interaction.bisect.search.mytest; - <para>We can now run an entire test step with a single command, + <para id="x_147">We can now run an entire test step with a single command, <literal>mytest</literal>.</para> &interaction.bisect.search.step2; - <para>A few more invocations of our canned test step command, + <para id="x_148">A few more invocations of our canned test step command, and we're done.</para> &interaction.bisect.search.rest; - <para>Even though we had 40 changesets to search through, the + <para id="x_149">Even though we had 40 changesets to search through, the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command let us find the changeset that introduced our <quote>bug</quote> with only five tests. Because the number of tests that the <command @@ -921,7 +907,7 @@ <sect2> <title>Cleaning up after your search</title> - <para>When you're finished using the <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <para id="x_14a">When you're finished using the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command in a repository, you can use the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect reset</command> command to drop the information it was using to drive your search. The @@ -941,7 +927,7 @@ <sect2> <title>Give consistent input</title> - <para>The <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command + <para id="x_14b">The <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command requires that you correctly report the result of every test you perform. If you tell it that a test failed when it really succeeded, it <emphasis>might</emphasis> be able to detect the @@ -955,7 +941,7 @@ <sect2> <title>Automate as much as possible</title> - <para>When I started using the <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <para id="x_14c">When I started using the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command, I tried a few times to run my tests by hand, on the command line. This is an approach that I, at least, am not suited to. After a few tries, I found @@ -963,7 +949,7 @@ my searches several times before finally getting correct results.</para> - <para>My initial problems with driving the <command + <para id="x_14d">My initial problems with driving the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command by hand occurred even with simple searches on small repositories; if the problem you're looking for is more subtle, or the number of @@ -972,14 +958,14 @@ the search is much higher. Once I started automating my tests, I had much better results.</para> - <para>The key to automated testing is twofold:</para> + <para id="x_14e">The key to automated testing is twofold:</para> <itemizedlist> - <listitem><para>always test for the same symptom, and</para> + <listitem><para id="x_14f">always test for the same symptom, and</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>always feed consistent input to the <command + <listitem><para id="x_150">always feed consistent input to the <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> command.</para> </listitem></itemizedlist> - <para>In my tutorial example above, the <command>grep</command> + <para id="x_151">In my tutorial example above, the <command>grep</command> command tests for the symptom, and the <literal>if</literal> statement takes the result of this check and ensures that we always feed the same input to the <command role="hg-cmd">hg @@ -991,21 +977,21 @@ <sect2> <title>Check your results</title> - <para>Because the output of a <command role="hg-cmd">hg + <para id="x_152">Because the output of a <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> search is only as good as the input you give it, don't take the changeset it reports as the absolute truth. A simple way to cross-check its report is to manually run your test at each of the following changesets:</para> <itemizedlist> - <listitem><para>The changeset that it reports as the first bad + <listitem><para id="x_153">The changeset that it reports as the first bad revision. Your test should still report this as bad.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>The parent of that changeset (either parent, + <listitem><para id="x_154">The parent of that changeset (either parent, if it's a merge). Your test should report this changeset as good.</para> </listitem> - <listitem><para>A child of that changeset. Your test should + <listitem><para id="x_155">A child of that changeset. Your test should report this changeset as bad.</para> </listitem></itemizedlist> @@ -1013,7 +999,7 @@ <sect2> <title>Beware interference between bugs</title> - <para>It's possible that your search for one bug could be + <para id="x_156">It's possible that your search for one bug could be disrupted by the presence of another. For example, let's say your software crashes at revision 100, and worked correctly at revision 50. Unknown to you, someone else introduced a @@ -1021,7 +1007,7 @@ revision 80. This could distort your results in one of several ways.</para> - <para>It is possible that this other bug completely + <para id="x_157">It is possible that this other bug completely <quote>masks</quote> yours, which is to say that it occurs before your bug has a chance to manifest itself. If you can't avoid that other bug (for example, it prevents your project @@ -1031,14 +1017,14 @@ you can mark a changeset as untested by running <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect --skip</command>.</para> - <para>A different problem could arise if your test for a bug's + <para id="x_158">A different problem could arise if your test for a bug's presence is not specific enough. If you check for <quote>my program crashes</quote>, then both your crashing bug and an unrelated crashing bug that masks it will look like the same thing, and mislead <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command>.</para> - <para>Another useful situation in which to use <command + <para id="x_159">Another useful situation in which to use <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect --skip</command> is if you can't test a revision because your project was in a broken and hence untestable state at that revision, perhaps because someone @@ -1049,7 +1035,7 @@ <sect2> <title>Bracket your search lazily</title> - <para>Choosing the first <quote>good</quote> and + <para id="x_15a">Choosing the first <quote>good</quote> and <quote>bad</quote> changesets that will mark the end points of your search is often easy, but it bears a little discussion nevertheless. From the perspective of <command @@ -1057,7 +1043,7 @@ changeset is conventionally <quote>bad</quote>, and the older changeset is <quote>good</quote>.</para> - <para>If you're having trouble remembering when a suitable + <para id="x_15b">If you're having trouble remembering when a suitable <quote>good</quote> change was, so that you can tell <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command>, you could do worse than testing changesets at random. Just remember to eliminate @@ -1066,7 +1052,7 @@ where another problem masks the bug (as I discussed above).</para> - <para>Even if you end up <quote>early</quote> by thousands of + <para id="x_15c">Even if you end up <quote>early</quote> by thousands of changesets or months of history, you will only add a handful of tests to the total number that <command role="hg-cmd">hg bisect</command> must perform, thanks to its logarithmic