mercurial/help/filesets.txt

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+Mercurial supports a functional language for selecting a set of
+files. 
+
+Like other file patterns, this pattern type is indicated by a prefix,
+'set:'. The language supports a number of predicates which are joined
+by infix operators. Parenthesis can be used for grouping.
+
+Identifiers such as filenames or patterns must be quoted with single
+or double quotes if they contain characters outside of
+``[.*{}[]?/\_a-zA-Z0-9\x80-\xff]`` or if they match one of the
+predefined predicates. This generally applies to file patterns other
+than globs and arguments for predicates.
+
+Special characters can be used in quoted identifiers by escaping them,
+e.g., ``\n`` is interpreted as a newline. To prevent them from being
+interpreted, strings can be prefixed with ``r``, e.g. ``r'...'``.
+
+There is a single prefix operator:
+
+``not x``
+  Files not in x. Short form is ``! x``.
+
+These are the supported infix operators:
+
+``x and y``
+  The intersection of files in x and y. Short form is ``x & y``.
+
+``x or y``
+  The union of files in x and y. There are two alternative short
+  forms: ``x | y`` and ``x + y``.
+
+``x - y``
+  Files in x but not in y.
+
+The following predicates are supported:
+
+.. predicatesmarker
+
+Some sample queries:
+
+- Show status of files that appear to be binary in the working directory::
+
+    hg status -A "set:binary()"
+
+- Forget files that are in .hgignore but are already tracked::
+
+    hg forget "set:hgignore() and not ignored()"
+
+- Find text files that contain a string::
+
+    hg locate "set:grep(magic) and not binary()"
+
+- Find C files in a non-standard encoding::
+
+    hg locate "set:**.c and not encoding(ascii)"
+
+- Revert copies of large binary files::
+
+    hg revert "set:copied() and binary() and size('>1M')"
+
+- Remove files listed in files.lst that contain the letter a or b::
+
+    hg remove "set: 'listfile:foo.lst' and (**a* or **b*)"
+
+See also :hg:`help patterns`.