Mercurial > hgbook
diff en/undo.tex @ 121:9094c9fda8ec
Start chapter on error recovery.
author | Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com> |
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date | Wed, 15 Nov 2006 15:59:41 -0800 |
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children | 3af28630fe8c |
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--- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/en/undo.tex Wed Nov 15 15:59:41 2006 -0800 @@ -0,0 +1,117 @@ +\chapter{Finding and fixing your mistakes} +\label{chap:undo} + +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 highly +capable features that will help you to isolate the sources of +problems, and to handle them appropriately. + +\section{Easily recovered errors} + +\subsection{The accidental commit} + +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 changeset is one in which I've created a new +source file, but forgotten to \hgcmd{add} it. A ``plain wrong'' +changeset is not as common, but no less annoying. + +\subsection{Rolling back a transaction} + +In section~\ref{sec:concepts:txn}, I mentioned that Mercurial treats +each modification of a repository as a \emph{transaction}. Every time +you commit a changeset or pull changes from another repository, +Mercurial remembers what you did. You can undo, or \emph{roll back}, +exactly one of these actions using the \hgcmd{rollback} command. + +Here's a mistake that I often find myself making: committing a change +in which I've created a new file, but forgotten to \hgcmd{add} it. +\interaction{rollback.commit} +Looking at the output of \hgcmd{status} after the commit immediately +confirms the error. +\interaction{rollback.status} +The commit captured the changes to the file \filename{a}, but not the +new file \filename{b}. If I were to push this changeset to a +repository that I shared with a colleague, the chances are high that +something in \filename{a} would refer to \filename{b}, which would not +be present in their repository when they pulled my changes. I would +thus become the object of some indignation. + +However, luck is with me---I've caught my error before I pushed the +changeset. I use the \hgcmd{rollback} command, and Mercurial makes +that last changeset vanish. +\interaction{rollback.rollback} +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} is modified. The changeset has been completely erased. +I can now safely \hgcmd{add} the file \filename{b}, and rerun my +commit. +\interaction{rollback.add} + +\subsection{The erroneous pull} + +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 ``0.9'' +release, and another, containing different changes, for the ``1.0'' +release. + +Given this, you can imagine that the consequences could be messy if +you had a local ``0.9'' repository, and accidentally pulled changes +from the shared ``1.0'' repository into it. At worst, you could be +paying insufficient attention, and push those changes into the shared +``0.9'' tree, confusing your entire team (but don't worry, we'll +return to this horror scenario later). However, it's more likely that +you'll notice immediately, because Mercurial will display the URL it's +pulling from, or you will see it pull a suspiciously large number of +changes into the repository. + +The \hgcmd{rollback} command will work nicely to expunge all of the +changesets that you just pulled. Mercurial groups all changes from +one \hgcmd{pull} into a single transaction, so one \hgcmd{rollback} is +all you need to undo this mistake. + +\subsection{Rolling back is useless once you've pushed} + +The value of the \hgcmd{rollback} command drops to zero once you've +pushed your changes to another repository. Rolling back a change +makes it disappear entirely, but \emph{only} in the repository in +which you perform the \hgcmd{rollback}. Because a rollback eliminates +history, there's no way for the disappearance of a change to propagate +between repositories. + +If you've pushed a change to another repository---particularly if it's +a shared repository---it has essentially ``escaped into the wild,'' +and you'll have to recover from your mistake in a different way. What +will happen if you push a changeset somewhere, then roll it back, then +pull from the repository you pushed to, is that the changeset will +reappear in your repository. + +(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, +\emph{and} you know that nobody else could have pulled it from that +repository, you can roll back the changeset there, too, but you really +should really not rely on this working reliably. If you do this, +sooner or later a change really will make it into a repository that +you don't directly control (or have forgotten about), and come back to +bite you.) + +\subsection{You can only roll back once} + +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 one transaction, then its predecessor, this is +not the behaviour you will get. +\interaction{rollback.twice} +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. + +%%% Local Variables: +%%% mode: latex +%%% TeX-master: "00book" +%%% End: