mercurial/help/revisions.txt

changegroup: use a copy of hookargs when invoking the changegroup hook

addchangegroup creates a runhook function that is used to invoke the
changegroup and incoming hooks, but at the time the function is called,
the contents of hookargs associated with the transaction may have been
modified externally. For instance, bundle2 code affects it with
obsolescence markers and bookmarks info.

It also creates problems when a single transaction is used with multiple
changegroups added (as per an upcoming change), whereby the contents
of hookargs are that of after adding a latter changegroup when invoking
the hook for the first changegroup.

Mercurial supports several ways to specify individual revisions.

A plain integer is treated as a revision number. Negative integers are
treated as sequential offsets from the tip, with -1 denoting the tip,
-2 denoting the revision prior to the tip, and so forth.

A 40-digit hexadecimal string is treated as a unique revision
identifier.

A hexadecimal string less than 40 characters long is treated as a
unique revision identifier and is referred to as a short-form
identifier. A short-form identifier is only valid if it is the prefix
of exactly one full-length identifier.

Any other string is treated as a bookmark, tag, or branch name. A
bookmark is a movable pointer to a revision. A tag is a permanent name
associated with a revision. A branch name denotes the tipmost open branch head
of that branch - or if they are all closed, the tipmost closed head of the
branch. Bookmark, tag, and branch names must not contain the ":" character.

The reserved name "tip" always identifies the most recent revision.

The reserved name "null" indicates the null revision. This is the
revision of an empty repository, and the parent of revision 0.

The reserved name "." indicates the working directory parent. If no
working directory is checked out, it is equivalent to null. If an
uncommitted merge is in progress, "." is the revision of the first
parent.