view mercurial/help/revisions.txt @ 26375:3686fa2b8eee

windows: insert file positioning call between reads and writes

fopen() and fdopen() have a unique-to-Windows requirement that
transitions between read and write operations in files opened
in modes r+, w+, and a+ perform a file positioning call
(fsetpos, fseek, or rewind) in between. While the MSDN docs don't
say what will happen if this is not done, observations reveal
that Python raises an IOError with errno 0. Furthermore, I
/think/ this behavior isn't deterministic. But I can reproduce
it reliably with subsequent patches applied that open revlogs
in a+ mode and perform both reads and writes.

This patch introduces a proxy class for file handles opened
in r+, w+, and a+ mode on Windows. The class intercepts calls
and audits whether a file positioning function has been called
between read and write operations. If not, a dummy, no-op seek
to the current file position is performed. This appears to be
sufficient to "trick" Windows into allowing transitions between
read and writes without raising errors.

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.