comparison hgext/largefiles/__init__.py @ 15230:697289c5d415

largefiles: improve help Extension help taken from the URL formerly in the text (https://developers.kilnhg.com/Repo/Kiln/largefiles/largefiles/File/usage.txt) and improved.
author Greg Ward <greg@gerg.ca>
date Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:10:03 -0400
parents cfccd3bee7b3
children 1fead3ad7874
comparison
equal deleted inserted replaced
15229:89e19ca2a90e 15230:697289c5d415
6 # This software may be used and distributed according to the terms of the 6 # This software may be used and distributed according to the terms of the
7 # GNU General Public License version 2 or any later version. 7 # GNU General Public License version 2 or any later version.
8 8
9 '''track large binary files 9 '''track large binary files
10 10
11 Large binary files tend to be not very compressible, not very "diffable", and 11 Large binary files tend to be not very compressible, not very
12 not at all mergeable. Such files are not handled well by Mercurial\'s storage 12 diffable, and not at all mergeable. Such files are not handled
13 format (revlog), which is based on compressed binary deltas. largefiles solves 13 efficiently by Mercurial's storage format (revlog), which is based on
14 this problem by adding a centralized client-server layer on top of Mercurial: 14 compressed binary deltas; storing large binary files as regular
15 largefiles live in a *central store* out on the network somewhere, and you only 15 Mercurial files wastes bandwidth and disk space and increases
16 fetch the ones that you need when you need them. 16 Mercurial's memory usage. The largefiles extension addresses these
17 problems by adding a centralized client-server layer on top of
18 Mercurial: largefiles live in a *central store* out on the network
19 somewhere, and you only fetch the revisions that you need when you
20 need them.
17 21
18 largefiles works by maintaining a *standin* in .hglf/ for each largefile. The 22 largefiles works by maintaining a "standin file" in .hglf/ for each
19 standins are small (41 bytes: an SHA-1 hash plus newline) and are tracked by 23 largefile. The standins are small (41 bytes: an SHA-1 hash plus
20 Mercurial. Largefile revisions are identified by the SHA-1 hash of their 24 newline) and are tracked by Mercurial. Largefile revisions are
21 contents, which is written to the standin. largefiles uses that revision ID to 25 identified by the SHA-1 hash of their contents, which is written to
22 get/put largefile revisions from/to the central store. 26 the standin. largefiles uses that revision ID to get/put largefile
27 revisions from/to the central store. This saves both disk space and
28 bandwidth, since you don't need to retrieve all historical revisions
29 of large files when you clone or pull.
23 30
24 A complete tutorial for using lfiles is included in ``usage.txt`` in the lfiles 31 To start a new repository or add new large binary files, just add
25 source distribution. See 32 --large to your ``hg add`` command. For example::
26 https://developers.kilnhg.com/Repo/Kiln/largefiles/largefiles/File/usage.txt 33
34 $ dd if=/dev/urandom of=randomdata count=2000
35 $ hg add --large randomdata
36 $ hg commit -m 'add randomdata as a largefile'
37
38 When you push a changeset that adds/modifies largefiles to a remote
39 repository, its largefile revisions will be uploaded along with it.
40 Note that the remote Mercurial must also have the largefiles extension
41 enabled for this to work.
42
43 When you pull a changeset that affects largefiles from a remote
44 repository, Mercurial behaves as normal. However, when you update to
45 such a revision, any largefiles needed by that revision are downloaded
46 and cached (if they have never been downloaded before). This means
47 that network access may be required to update to changesets you have
48 not previously updated to.
49
50 If you already have large files tracked by Mercurial without the
51 largefiles extension, you will need to convert your repository in
52 order to benefit from largefiles. This is done with the 'hg lfconvert'
53 command::
54
55 $ hg lfconvert --size 10 oldrepo newrepo
56
57 In repositories that already have largefiles in them, any new file
58 over 10MB will automatically be added as a largefile. To change this
59 threshhold, set ``largefiles.size`` in your Mercurial config file to
60 the minimum size in megabytes to track as a largefile, or use the
61 --lfsize option to the add command (also in megabytes)::
62
63 [largefiles]
64 size = 2 XXX wouldn't minsize be a better name?
65
66 $ hg add --lfsize 2
67
68 The ``largefiles.patterns`` config option allows you to specify a list
69 of filename patterns (see ``hg help patterns``) that should always be
70 tracked as largefiles::
71
72 [largefiles]
73 patterns =
74 *.jpg
75 re:.*\.(png|bmp)$
76 library.zip
77 content/audio/*
78
79 Files that match one of these patterns will be added as largefiles
80 regardless of their size.
27 ''' 81 '''
28 82
29 from mercurial import commands 83 from mercurial import commands
30 84
31 import lfcommands 85 import lfcommands