rust/README.rst

windows: add a method to convert Unix style command lines to Windows style

This started as a copy/paste of `os.path.expandvars()`, but limited to a given
dictionary of variables, converting `foo = foo + bar` to `foo += bar`, and
adding 'b' string prefixes.  Then code was added to make sure that a value being
substituted in wouldn't itself be expanded by cmd.exe.  But that left
inconsistent results between `$var1` and `%var1%` when its value was '%foo%'-
since neither were touched, `$var1` wouldn't expand but `%var1%` would.  So
instead, this just converts the Unix style to Windows style (if the variable
exists, because Windows will leave `%missing%` as-is), and lets cmd.exe do its
thing.

I then dropped the %% -> % conversion (because Windows doesn't do this), and
added the ability to escape the '$' with '\'.  The escape character is dropped,
for consistency with shell handling.

After everything seemed stable and working, running the whole test suite flagged
a problem near the end of test-bookmarks.t:1069.  The problem is cmd.exe won't
pass empty variables to its child, so defined but empty variables are now
skipped.  I can't think of anything better, and it seems like a pre-existing
violation of the documentation, which calls out that HG_OLDNODE is empty on
bookmark creation.

Future additions could potentially be replacing strong quotes with double quotes
(cmd.exe doesn't know what to do with the former), escaping a double quote, and
some tilde expansion via os.path.expanduser().  I've got some doubts about
replacing the strong quotes in case sh.exe is run, but it seems like the right
thing to do the vast majority of the time.  The original form of this was
discussed about a year ago[1].

[1] https://www.mercurial-scm.org/pipermail/mercurial-devel/2017-July/100735.html

===================
Mercurial Rust Code
===================

This directory contains various Rust code for the Mercurial project.

The top-level ``Cargo.toml`` file defines a workspace containing
all primary Mercurial crates.

Building
========

To build the Rust components::

   $ cargo build

If you prefer a non-debug / release configuration::

   $ cargo build --release

Features
--------

The following Cargo features are available:

localdev (default)
   Produce files that work with an in-source-tree build.

   In this mode, the build finds and uses a ``python2.7`` binary from
   ``PATH``. The ``hg`` binary assumes it runs from ``rust/target/<target>hg``
   and it finds Mercurial files at ``dirname($0)/../../../``.

Build Mechanism
---------------

The produced ``hg`` binary is *bound* to a CPython installation. The
binary links against and loads a CPython library that is discovered
at build time (by a ``build.rs`` Cargo build script). The Python
standard library defined by this CPython installation is also used.

Finding the appropriate CPython installation to use is done by
the ``python27-sys`` crate's ``build.rs``. Its search order is::

1. ``PYTHON_SYS_EXECUTABLE`` environment variable.
2. ``python`` executable on ``PATH``
3. ``python2`` executable on ``PATH``
4. ``python2.7`` executable on ``PATH``

Additional verification of the found Python will be performed by our
``build.rs`` to ensure it meets Mercurial's requirements.

Details about the build-time configured Python are built into the
produced ``hg`` binary. This means that a built ``hg`` binary is only
suitable for a specific, well-defined role. These roles are controlled
by Cargo features (see above).

Running
=======

The ``hgcli`` crate produces an ``hg`` binary. You can run this binary
via ``cargo run``::

   $ cargo run --manifest-path hgcli/Cargo.toml

Or directly::

   $ target/debug/hg
   $ target/release/hg

You can also run the test harness with this binary::

   $ ./run-tests.py --with-hg ../rust/target/debug/hg

.. note::

   Integration with the test harness is still preliminary. Remember to
   ``cargo build`` after changes because the test harness doesn't yet
   automatically build Rust code.