diff en/appA-cmdref.xml @ 658:b90b024729f1

WIP DocBook snapshot that all compiles. Mirabile dictu!

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+<!-- vim: set filetype=docbkxml shiftwidth=2 autoindent expandtab tw=77 : -->
+
+<appendix id="cmdref">
+<title>Command reference</title>
+
+<para>\cmdref{add}{add files at the next commit}
+\optref{add}{I}{include}
+\optref{add}{X}{exclude}
+\optref{add}{n}{dry-run}</para>
+
+<para>\cmdref{diff}{print changes in history or working directory}</para>
+
+<para>Show differences between revisions for the specified files or
+directories, using the unified diff format.  For a description of the
+unified diff format, see section <xref linkend="sec:mq:patch"/>.</para>
+
+<para>By default, this command does not print diffs for files that Mercurial
+considers to contain binary data.  To control this behaviour, see the
+<option role="hg-opt-diff">-a</option> and <option role="hg-opt-diff">--git</option> options.</para>
+
+<sect2>
+<title>Options</title>
+
+<para>\loptref{diff}{nodates}</para>
+
+<para>Omit date and time information when printing diff headers.</para>
+
+<para>\optref{diff}{B}{ignore-blank-lines}</para>
+
+<para>Do not print changes that only insert or delete blank lines.  A line
+that contains only whitespace is not considered blank.
+</para>
+
+<para>\optref{diff}{I}{include}
+</para>
+
+<para>Include files and directories whose names match the given patterns.
+</para>
+
+<para>\optref{diff}{X}{exclude}
+</para>
+
+<para>Exclude files and directories whose names match the given patterns.
+</para>
+
+<para>\optref{diff}{a}{text}
+</para>
+
+<para>If this option is not specified, <command role="hg-cmd">hg diff</command> will refuse to print
+diffs for files that it detects as binary. Specifying <option role="hg-opt-diff">-a</option>
+forces <command role="hg-cmd">hg diff</command> to treat all files as text, and generate diffs for
+all of them.
+</para>
+
+<para>This option is useful for files that are <quote>mostly text</quote> but have a
+few embedded NUL characters.  If you use it on files that contain a
+lot of binary data, its output will be incomprehensible.
+</para>
+
+<para>\optref{diff}{b}{ignore-space-change}
+</para>
+
+<para>Do not print a line if the only change to that line is in the amount
+of white space it contains.
+</para>
+
+<para>\optref{diff}{g}{git}
+</para>
+
+<para>Print <command>git</command>-compatible diffs.  XXX reference a format
+description.
+</para>
+
+<para>\optref{diff}{p}{show-function}
+</para>
+
+<para>Display the name of the enclosing function in a hunk header, using a
+simple heuristic.  This functionality is enabled by default, so the
+<option role="hg-opt-diff">-p</option> option has no effect unless you change the value of
+the <envar role="rc-item-diff">showfunc</envar> config item, as in the following example.</para>
+
+<!-- &interaction.cmdref.diff-p; -->
+
+<para>\optref{diff}{r}{rev}
+</para>
+
+<para>Specify one or more revisions to compare.  The <command role="hg-cmd">hg diff</command> command
+accepts up to two <option role="hg-opt-diff">-r</option> options to specify the revisions to
+compare.
+</para>
+
+<orderedlist>
+<listitem><para>Display the differences between the parent revision of the
+  working directory and the working directory.
+</para>
+</listitem>
+<listitem><para>Display the differences between the specified changeset and the
+  working directory.
+</para>
+</listitem>
+<listitem><para>Display the differences between the two specified changesets.
+</para>
+</listitem></orderedlist>
+
+<para>You can specify two revisions using either two <option role="hg-opt-diff">-r</option>
+options or revision range notation.  For example, the two revision
+specifications below are equivalent.
+</para>
+<programlisting>hg diff -r 10 -r 20
+hg diff -r10:20</programlisting>
+
+<para>When you provide two revisions, Mercurial treats the order of those
+revisions as significant.  Thus, <command role="hg-cmd">hg diff -r10:20</command> will
+produce a diff that will transform files from their contents as of
+revision 10 to their contents as of revision 20, while
+<command role="hg-cmd">hg diff -r20:10</command> means the opposite: the diff that will
+transform files from their revision 20 contents to their revision 10
+contents.  You cannot reverse the ordering in this way if you are
+diffing against the working directory.
+</para>
+
+<para>\optref{diff}{w}{ignore-all-space}
+</para>
+
+<para>\cmdref{version}{print version and copyright information}
+</para>
+
+<para>This command displays the version of Mercurial you are running, and
+its copyright license.  There are four kinds of version string that
+you may see.
+</para>
+<itemizedlist>
+<listitem><para>The string <quote><literal>unknown</literal></quote>. This version of Mercurial was
+  not built in a Mercurial repository, and cannot determine its own
+  version.
+</para>
+</listitem>
+<listitem><para>A short numeric string, such as <quote><literal>1.1</literal></quote>. This is a
+  build of a revision of Mercurial that was identified by a specific
+  tag in the repository where it was built.  (This doesn't necessarily
+  mean that you're running an official release; someone else could
+  have added that tag to any revision in the repository where they
+  built Mercurial.)
+</para>
+</listitem>
+<listitem><para>A hexadecimal string, such as <quote><literal>875489e31abe</literal></quote>.  This
+  is a build of the given revision of Mercurial.
+</para>
+</listitem>
+<listitem><para>A hexadecimal string followed by a date, such as
+  <quote><literal>875489e31abe+20070205</literal></quote>.  This is a build of the given
+  revision of Mercurial, where the build repository contained some
+  local changes that had not been committed.
+</para>
+</listitem></itemizedlist>
+
+</sect2>
+<sect2>
+<title>Tips and tricks</title>
+
+<sect3 id="cmdref:diff-vs-status">
+<title>Why do the results of <command role="hg-cmd">hg diff</command> and <command role="hg-cmd">hg status</command> differ?</title>
+
+<para>When you run the <command role="hg-cmd">hg status</command> command, you'll see a list of files
+that Mercurial will record changes for the next time you perform a
+commit.  If you run the <command role="hg-cmd">hg diff</command> command, you may notice that it
+prints diffs for only a <emphasis>subset</emphasis> of the files that <command role="hg-cmd">hg status</command>
+listed.  There are two possible reasons for this.
+</para>
+
+<para>The first is that <command role="hg-cmd">hg status</command> prints some kinds of modifications
+that <command role="hg-cmd">hg diff</command> doesn't normally display.  The <command role="hg-cmd">hg diff</command> command
+normally outputs unified diffs, which don't have the ability to
+represent some changes that Mercurial can track.  Most notably,
+traditional diffs can't represent a change in whether or not a file is
+executable, but Mercurial records this information.
+</para>
+
+<para>If you use the <option role="hg-opt-diff">--git</option> option to <command role="hg-cmd">hg diff</command>, it will
+display <command>git</command>-compatible diffs that <emphasis>can</emphasis> display this
+extra information.
+</para>
+
+<para>The second possible reason that <command role="hg-cmd">hg diff</command> might be printing diffs
+for a subset of the files displayed by <command role="hg-cmd">hg status</command> is that if you
+invoke it without any arguments, <command role="hg-cmd">hg diff</command> prints diffs against the
+first parent of the working directory.  If you have run <command role="hg-cmd">hg merge</command>
+to merge two changesets, but you haven't yet committed the results of
+the merge, your working directory has two parents (use <command role="hg-cmd">hg parents</command>
+to see them).  While <command role="hg-cmd">hg status</command> prints modifications relative to
+<emphasis>both</emphasis> parents after an uncommitted merge, <command role="hg-cmd">hg diff</command> still
+operates relative only to the first parent.  You can get it to print
+diffs relative to the second parent by specifying that parent with the
+<option role="hg-opt-diff">-r</option> option.  There is no way to print diffs relative to
+both parents.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+<sect3>
+<title>Generating safe binary diffs</title>
+
+<para>If you use the <option role="hg-opt-diff">-a</option> option to force Mercurial to print
+diffs of files that are either <quote>mostly text</quote> or contain lots of
+binary data, those diffs cannot subsequently be applied by either
+Mercurial's <command role="hg-cmd">hg import</command> command or the system's <command>patch</command>
+command.
+</para>
+
+<para>If you want to generate a diff of a binary file that is safe to use as
+input for <command role="hg-cmd">hg import</command>, use the <command role="hg-cmd">hg diff</command>{--git} option when you
+generate the patch.  The system <command>patch</command> command cannot handle
+binary patches at all.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+</sect2>
+</appendix>
+
+<!--
+local variables: 
+sgml-parent-document: ("00book.xml" "book" "appendix")
+end:
+-->