mercurial/helptext/flags.txt
author Martin von Zweigbergk <martinvonz@google.com>
Thu, 13 Feb 2020 21:14:20 -0800
changeset 44427 acbfa31cfaf2
parent 43676 2e017696181f
child 44974 33ef8841da62
permissions -rw-r--r--
debugmergestate: make templated Our IntelliJ team wants to be able to read the merge state in order to help the user resolve merge conflicts. They had so far been reading file contents from p1() and p2() and their merge base. That is not ideal for several reasons (merge base is not necessarily the "graft base", renames are not handled, commands like `hg update -m` is not handled). It will get especially bad as of my D7827. This patch makes the output s a templated. I haven't bothered to make it complete (e.g. merge driver states are not handled), but it's probably good enough as a start. I've done a web search for "debugmergestate" and I can't find any indication that any tools currently rely on its output. If it turns out that we get bug reports for it once this is released, I won't object to backing this patch out on the stable branch (and then perhaps replace it by a separate command, or put it behind a new flag). The changes in test-backout.t are interesting, in particular this: ``` - other path: foo (node not stored in v1 format) + other path: (node foo) ``` I wonder if that means that we actually read v1 format incorrectly. That seems to be an old format that was switched away from in 2014, so it doesn't matter now anyway. Differential Revision: https://phab.mercurial-scm.org/D8120

Most Mercurial commands accept various flags.

Flag names
==========

Flags for each command are listed in :hg:`help` for that command.
Additionally, some flags, such as --repository, are global and can be used with
any command - those are seen in :hg:`help -v`, and can be specified before or
after the command.

Every flag has at least a long name, such as --repository. Some flags may also
have a short one-letter name, such as the equivalent -R. Using the short or long
name is equivalent and has the same effect.

Flags that have a short name can also be bundled together - for instance, to
specify both --edit (short -e) and --interactive (short -i), one could use::

    hg commit -ei

If any of the bundled flags takes a value (i.e. is not a boolean), it must be
last, followed by the value::

    hg commit -im 'Message'

Flag types
==========

Mercurial command-line flags can be strings, numbers, booleans, or lists of
strings.

Specifying flag values
======================

The following syntaxes are allowed, assuming a flag 'flagname' with short name
'f'::

    --flagname=foo
    --flagname foo
    -f foo
    -ffoo

This syntax applies to all non-boolean flags (strings, numbers or lists).

Specifying boolean flags
========================

Boolean flags do not take a value parameter. To specify a boolean, use the flag
name to set it to true, or the same name prefixed with 'no-' to set it to
false::

    hg commit --interactive
    hg commit --no-interactive

Specifying list flags
=====================

List flags take multiple values. To specify them, pass the flag multiple times::

    hg files --include mercurial --include tests

Setting flag defaults
=====================

In order to set a default value for a flag in an hgrc file, it is recommended to
use aliases::

    [alias]
    commit = commit --interactive

For more information on hgrc files, see :hg:`help config`.

Overriding flags on the command line
====================================

If the same non-list flag is specified multiple times on the command line, the
latest specification is used::

    hg commit -m "Ignored value" -m "Used value"

This includes the use of aliases - e.g., if one has::

    [alias]
    committemp = commit -m "Ignored value"

then the following command will override that -m::

    hg committemp -m "Used value"

Overriding flag defaults
========================

Every flag has a default value, and you may also set your own defaults in hgrc
as described above.
Except for list flags, defaults can be overridden on the command line simply by
specifying the flag in that location.

Hidden flags
============

Some flags are not shown in a command's help by default - specifically, those
that are deemed to be experimental, deprecated or advanced. To show all flags,
add the --verbose flag for the help command::

    hg help --verbose commit