Mercurial > hg-website
diff hgscm/templates/quick_start.html @ 202:dbf469434236
moved quick start into templates.
author | drak@bach |
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date | Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:40:55 -0400 |
parents | text/quick_start.txt@5bc5fe45852a |
children | e25c49f3fe47 |
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--- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/hgscm/templates/quick_start.html Sat Jun 27 06:40:55 2009 -0400 @@ -0,0 +1,140 @@ += Quick Start = + +*This site should get you going at once.* + +== Part 0: Instant usage == + +*(you know this from the main page)* + +Clone a project and create a patch + +$ hg clone http://hg-scm.org/hello +$ cd hello +$ (edit files) +$ hg add (new files) +$ hg commit -m 'My changes' +$ hg export tip > patch.diff + + +Create a project and commit + +$ hg init (project-directory) +$ cd (project-directory) +$ (add some files) +$ hg add +$ hg commit -m 'Initial commit' + + +== Part 1: Using Mercurial == + +Aside from the practical Quick Start above, there are only a few commands you need to start working. + +Even if you stick to these basics, Mercurial is quite powerful. And they are very easy to use, once you see the model behind that: Each repository has the whole history, and history is not necessarily linear (part 2 explains that model in a bit more detail). + +A quick overview of the basic commands: + +- hg init: create a new repository +- hg commit: save your changes in the current repository +- hg log: see all changes in your repository +- hg pull: get all changes from another repository int the current one +- hg push: get all changes from your repository into another one +- hg serve: create an instant-webserver. People can see the history there and pull from it +- hg merge: join different lines of history + +If you want to see a nice graph of the history, just do "hg serve" in your repository and then direct your browser to + + http://127.0.0.1:8000 + +This also helps getting a feeling for what the commands do. + +(you can also do a lot of finegrained stuff by using different command options. Just call "hg help <command>" to see them). + +I you want more than this quick overview, please have a look at our longer [practical guide]({% url workflow_guide %}). + +== Part 2: Understanding Mercurial from Subversion == + +Now we'll look at some of the basic concepts of Mercurial to get a better understanding of its internals: + +* Like in Subversion, history consists of a number of commits. They're + called changesets in Mercurial. + +* Subversion requires a strict linear ordering of the commits and + gives nice linear revision numbers to them. So revision N has only + one child revision, N+1. + + This is simple, but it requires a central server to make sure that + everybody agrees on the revision numbers. + +* Mercurial generalizes this by letting each changeset have multiple + children. If I work alone and make commits I'll make + + C1 --> C2 --> C3 + + by making three commits. The commit C3 with no children is a "head". + It is also the newest changeset in the repository -- called "tip". + + If I shared C1 with you and you started your work from that, your + commits will build a repository like this: + + C1 --> C2' --> C3' + + Here C3' is a head in your repository and I don't know anything + about C2' and C3' yet. + +* If I pull from you, or you push to me, the two repositories are + compared. By default, all missing changesets are transferred. This + is all there is to push/pull: compare two graphs of changesets and + transfer the missing ones. + + After a pull from you my repository will look like this: + + /-> C2 --> C3 + C1 -< + \-> C2' --> C3' + + Here C1 has two child changesets, and the repository has two heads + since the development has diverged. + + The changeset C3' will be the new tip since it is the newest + changeset in the repository. Note that tip is always a head, but a + head need not be the tip. + +* Having two heads suggest that someone should merge them -- otherwise + the changes from one will never be combined with the changed made in + the other head. + + When merging with 'hg merge' the task is to figure out the canonical + way to combine the changesets. If the changes do not overlap this is + usually trivial, otherwise you have to do a three-way merge. The + merge must be committed and this creates a changeset which explains + to the world how you think the two heads should be combined: + + /-> C2 --> C3 -\ + C1 -< >-> M + \-> C2' --> C3' -/ + + Note that the merge changeset M has two parents. + + If you do not merge C3 and C3' and try to push, you get the 'new + remote head' message and push aborts. It aborts since it is a little + "impolite" to leave the job of merging to someone else -- he who + created the two heads by pulling in some code should also normally + do the merging. + + +It helped my understanding a lot to think in terms of the changeset graph. Just remember that: + + * "hg commit" adds a new node. The parent changesets of the new node + is given by "hg parents" + + * "hg push" and "hg pull" transfer nodes in the graph between two + repositories. + + * "hg update" updates the working copy to reflect a given node in + the history graph. This also changes the parent changeset of the + next commit, see "hg parents". + + +And you want to quickly look up something, you can use one of the [Mercurial cheatsheets](http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/wiki/index.cgi/QuickReferenceCardsAndCheatSheets). + +*compiled from a great email by Martin Geisler*