# HG changeset patch # User Bryan O'Sullivan # Date 1153673186 25200 # Node ID cbfa08bcf18119c51cf5cce574ff05c2caeb3bc7 # Parent d1a3394f8bcf761cc5b7286a3d46849ba33ef62b Start the "Mercurial in daily use" chapter. diff -r d1a3394f8bcf -r cbfa08bcf181 en/00book.tex --- a/en/00book.tex Thu Jul 20 19:42:50 2006 -0700 +++ b/en/00book.tex Sun Jul 23 09:46:26 2006 -0700 @@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ \include{preface} \include{intro} +\include{daily} \include{hook} \include{mq} diff -r d1a3394f8bcf -r cbfa08bcf181 en/Makefile --- a/en/Makefile Thu Jul 20 19:42:50 2006 -0700 +++ b/en/Makefile Sun Jul 23 09:46:26 2006 -0700 @@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ 99book.bib \ 99defs.tex \ build_id.tex \ + daily.tex \ hook.tex \ intro.tex \ mq.tex \ diff -r d1a3394f8bcf -r cbfa08bcf181 en/daily.tex --- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/en/daily.tex Sun Jul 23 09:46:26 2006 -0700 @@ -0,0 +1,88 @@ +\chapter{Mercurial in daily use} +\label{chap:daily} + +\section{Routine file management tasks} + +\subsection{Telling Mercurial which files to track} + +Mercurial does not work with files in your repository unless you tell +it to manage them. The \hgcmd{status} command will tell you which +files Mercurial doesn't know about; it uses a ``\texttt{?}'' to +display such files. + +To tell Mercurial to track a file, use the \hgcmd{add} command. Once +you have added a file, the entry in the output of \hgcmd{status} for +that file changes from ``\texttt{?}'' to ``\texttt{A}''. + +After you run a \hgcmd{commit}, the files that you added before the +commit will no longer be listed in the output of \hgcmd{status}. The +reason for this is that \hgcmd{status} only tells you about +``interesting'' files by default. If you have a repository that +contains thousands of files, you will rarely want to know about files +that Mercurial is tracking, but that have not changed. (You can still +get this information; we'll return to this later.) + +\begin{figure}[ht] + \interaction{daily.files.add} + \caption{Telling Mercurial to track a file} + \label{ex:daily:add} +\end{figure} + +Once you add a file, Mercurial will track every change you make to it +until you either remove or rename the file. + +\subsubsection{Aside: Mercurial tracks files, not directories} + +Mercurial does not track directory information. Instead, it tracks +the path to a file, and creates directories along a path when it needs +to. This sounds like a trivial distinction, but it has one minor +practical consequence: it is not possible to represent a completely +empty directory in Mercurial. + +Empty directories are rarely useful, and there are unintrusive +workarounds that you can use to achieve an appropriate effect. The +developers of Mercurial thus felt that the complexity that would be +required to manage empty directories was not worth the limited benefit +this feature would bring. + +If you need an empty directory in your repository, there are a few +ways to achieve this. One is to create a directory, then \hgcmd{add} a +``hidden'' file to that directory. On Unix-like systems, any file +name that begins with a period (``\texttt{.}'') is treated as hidden +by most commands and GUI tools. This approach is illustrated in +figure~\ref{ex:daily:empty}. + +\begin{figure}[ht] + \interaction{daily.files.empty} + \caption{Simulating an empty directory} + \label{ex:daily:empty} +\end{figure} + +Another way to tackle a need for an empty directory is to simply +create one in your automated build scripts before they will need it. + +\subsection{How to stop tracking a file} + +If you decide that a file no longer belongs in your repository, use +the \hgcmd{remove} command; this deletes the file, and tells Mercurial +to stop tracking it. + +You might wonder why Mercurial requires you to explicitly tell it that +you are deleting a file. Earlier during the development of Mercurial, +you could simply delete a file however you pleased; Mercurial would +notice automatically when you next ran a \hgcmd{commit}, and stop +tracking the file. In practice, this made it too easy to accidentally +stop Mercurial from tracking a file. + +If you forget to run \hgcmd{remove} to delete a file, you can run +\hgcmdopts{remove}{--after} later on, to tell Mercurial that you +deleted the file. + +\subsection{Useful shorthand---adding and removing files in one step} + + + +%%% Local Variables: +%%% mode: latex +%%% TeX-master: "00book" +%%% End: diff -r d1a3394f8bcf -r cbfa08bcf181 en/examples/daily.files --- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/en/examples/daily.files Sun Jul 23 09:46:26 2006 -0700 @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +#$ name: status + +hg init a +cd a +echo content > filename +mkdir subdir +echo something > subdir/otherfile +hg status + +#$ name: hidden + +mkdir empty +touch empty/.hidden +hg add empty/.hidden +hg commit -m 'Manage an empty-looking directory' +ls empty +cd .. +hg clone a b +ls b +ls b/empty