mercurial/help/templates.txt

templater: take any string literals as template, but not for rawstring (BC)

This patch series is intended to unify the interpretation of string literals.
It is breaking change that boldly assumes

 a. string literal "..." never contains template-like fragment or it is
    intended to be a template
 b. we tend to use raw string literal r"..." for regexp pattern in which "{"
    should have different meaning

Currently, we don't have a comprehensible rule how string literals are
evaluated in template functions. For example, fill() takes "initialindent"
and "hangindent" as templates, but not for "text", whereas "text" is a
template in pad() function.

  date(date, fmt)
  diff(includepattern, excludepattern)
  fill(text, width, initialident: T, hangindent: T)
  get(dict, key)
  if(expr, then: T, else: T)
  ifcontains(search, thing, then: T, else: T)
  ifeq(expr1, expr2, then: T, else: T)
  indent(text, indentchars, firstline)
  join(list, sep)
  label(label: T, expr: T)
  pad(text: T, width, fillchar, right)
  revset(query, formatargs...])
  rstdoc(text, style)
  shortest(node, minlength)
  startswith(pattern, text)
  strip(text, chars)
  sub(pattern, replacement, expression: T)
  word(number, text, separator)
  expr % template: T

  T: interpret "string" or r"rawstring" as template

This patch series adjusts the rule as follows:

 a. string literal, '' or "", starts template processing (BC)
 b. raw string literal, r'' or r"", disables both \-escape and template
    processing (BC, done by subsequent patches)
 c. fragment not surrounded by {} is non-templated string

  "ccc{'aaa'}{r'bbb'}"
   ------------------  *: template
   ---                 c: string
        ---            a: template
                ---    b: rawstring

Because this can eliminate the compilation of template arguments from the
evaluation phase, "hg log -Tdefault" gets faster.

  % cd mozilla-central
  % LANG=C HGRCPATH=/dev/null hg log -Tdefault -r0:10000 --time > /dev/null
  before: real 4.870 secs (user 4.860+0.000 sys 0.010+0.000)
  after:  real 3.480 secs (user 3.440+0.000 sys 0.030+0.000)

Also, this will allow us to parse nested templates at once for better error
indication.

Mercurial allows you to customize output of commands through
templates. You can either pass in a template or select an existing
template-style from the command line, via the --template option.

You can customize output for any "log-like" command: log,
outgoing, incoming, tip, parents, and heads.

Some built-in styles are packaged with Mercurial. These can be listed
with :hg:`log --template list`. Example usage::

    $ hg log -r1.0::1.1 --template changelog

A template is a piece of text, with markup to invoke variable
expansion::

    $ hg log -r1 --template "{node}\n"
    b56ce7b07c52de7d5fd79fb89701ea538af65746

Strings in curly braces are called keywords. The availability of
keywords depends on the exact context of the templater. These
keywords are usually available for templating a log-like command:

.. keywordsmarker

The "date" keyword does not produce human-readable output. If you
want to use a date in your output, you can use a filter to process
it. Filters are functions which return a string based on the input
variable. Be sure to use the stringify filter first when you're
applying a string-input filter to a list-like input variable.
You can also use a chain of filters to get the desired output::

   $ hg tip --template "{date|isodate}\n"
   2008-08-21 18:22 +0000

List of filters:

.. filtersmarker

Note that a filter is nothing more than a function call, i.e.
``expr|filter`` is equivalent to ``filter(expr)``.

In addition to filters, there are some basic built-in functions:

.. functionsmarker

Also, for any expression that returns a list, there is a list operator:

- expr % "{template}"

As seen in the above example, "{template}" is interpreted as a template.
To prevent it from being interpreted, you can use an escape character "\{"
or a raw string prefix, "r'...'".

Some sample command line templates:

- Format lists, e.g. files::

   $ hg log -r 0 --template "files:\n{files % '  {file}\n'}"

- Join the list of files with a ", "::

   $ hg log -r 0 --template "files: {join(files, ', ')}\n"

- Modify each line of a commit description::

   $ hg log --template "{splitlines(desc) % '**** {line}\n'}"

- Format date::

   $ hg log -r 0 --template "{date(date, '%Y')}\n"

- Output the description set to a fill-width of 30::

   $ hg log -r 0 --template "{fill(desc, 30)}"

- Use a conditional to test for the default branch::

   $ hg log -r 0 --template "{ifeq(branch, 'default', 'on the main branch',
   'on branch {branch}')}\n"

- Append a newline if not empty::

   $ hg tip --template "{if(author, '{author}\n')}"

- Label the output for use with the color extension::

   $ hg log -r 0 --template "{label('changeset.{phase}', node|short)}\n"

- Invert the firstline filter, i.e. everything but the first line::

   $ hg log -r 0 --template "{sub(r'^.*\n?\n?', '', desc)}\n"

- Display the contents of the 'extra' field, one per line::

   $ hg log -r 0 --template "{join(extras, '\n')}\n"

- Mark the active bookmark with '*'::

   $ hg log --template "{bookmarks % '{bookmark}{ifeq(bookmark, active, \"*\")} '}\n"

- Mark the working copy parent with '@'::

   $ hg log --template "{ifcontains(rev, revset('.'), '@')}\n"

- Show only commit descriptions that start with "template"::

   $ hg log --template "{startswith(\"template\", firstline(desc))}\n"

- Print the first word of each line of a commit message::

   $ hg log --template "{word(0, desc)}\n"