view mercurial/help/hgignore.txt @ 26379:39d643252b9f

revlog: use existing file handle when reading during _addrevision

_addrevision() may need to read from revlogs as part of computing
deltas. Previously, we would flush existing file handles and open
a new, short-lived file handle to perform the reading.

If we have an existing file handle, it seems logical to reuse it
for reading instead of opening a new file handle. This patch
makes that the new behavior.

After this patch, revlog files are only reopened when adding
revisions if the revlog is switched from inline to non-inline.

On Linux when unbundling a bundle of the mozilla-central repo, this
patch has the following impact on system call counts:

Call     Before     After       Delta
write    827,639    673,390   -154,249
open     700,103    684,089    -16,014
read      74,489     74,489          0
fstat    493,924    461,896    -32,028
close    249,131    233,117    -16,014
stat     242,001    242,001          0
lstat     18,676     18,676          0
lseek     20,268     20,268          0
ioctl     14,652     13,173     -1,479
TOTAL  3,180,758  2,930,679   -250,079

It's worth noting that many of the open() calls fail due to missing
files. That's why there are many more open() calls than close().

Despite the significant system call reduction, this change does not
seem to have a significant performance impact on Linux.

On Windows 10 (not a VM, on a SSD), this patch appears to reduce
unbundle time for mozilla-central from ~960s to ~920s. This isn't
as significant as I was hoping. But a decrease it is nonetheless.
Still, Windows unbundle performance is still >2x slower than Linux.

Despite the lack of significant gains, fewer system calls is fewer
system calls. If nothing else, this will narrow the focus of potential
areas to optimize in the future.

Synopsis
========

The Mercurial system uses a file called ``.hgignore`` in the root
directory of a repository to control its behavior when it searches
for files that it is not currently tracking.

Description
===========

The working directory of a Mercurial repository will often contain
files that should not be tracked by Mercurial. These include backup
files created by editors and build products created by compilers.
These files can be ignored by listing them in a ``.hgignore`` file in
the root of the working directory. The ``.hgignore`` file must be
created manually. It is typically put under version control, so that
the settings will propagate to other repositories with push and pull.

An untracked file is ignored if its path relative to the repository
root directory, or any prefix path of that path, is matched against
any pattern in ``.hgignore``.

For example, say we have an untracked file, ``file.c``, at
``a/b/file.c`` inside our repository. Mercurial will ignore ``file.c``
if any pattern in ``.hgignore`` matches ``a/b/file.c``, ``a/b`` or ``a``.

In addition, a Mercurial configuration file can reference a set of
per-user or global ignore files. See the ``ignore`` configuration
key on the ``[ui]`` section of :hg:`help config` for details of how to
configure these files.

To control Mercurial's handling of files that it manages, many
commands support the ``-I`` and ``-X`` options; see
:hg:`help <command>` and :hg:`help patterns` for details.

Files that are already tracked are not affected by .hgignore, even
if they appear in .hgignore. An untracked file X can be explicitly
added with :hg:`add X`, even if X would be excluded by a pattern
in .hgignore.

Syntax
======

An ignore file is a plain text file consisting of a list of patterns,
with one pattern per line. Empty lines are skipped. The ``#``
character is treated as a comment character, and the ``\`` character
is treated as an escape character.

Mercurial supports several pattern syntaxes. The default syntax used
is Python/Perl-style regular expressions.

To change the syntax used, use a line of the following form::

  syntax: NAME

where ``NAME`` is one of the following:

``regexp``
  Regular expression, Python/Perl syntax.
``glob``
  Shell-style glob.

The chosen syntax stays in effect when parsing all patterns that
follow, until another syntax is selected.

Neither glob nor regexp patterns are rooted. A glob-syntax pattern of
the form ``*.c`` will match a file ending in ``.c`` in any directory,
and a regexp pattern of the form ``\.c$`` will do the same. To root a
regexp pattern, start it with ``^``.

Subdirectories can have their own .hgignore settings by adding
``subinclude:path/to/subdir/.hgignore`` to the root ``.hgignore``. See
:hg:`help patterns` for details on ``subinclude:`` and ``include:``.

.. note::

  Patterns specified in other than ``.hgignore`` are always rooted.
  Please see :hg:`help patterns` for details.

Example
=======

Here is an example ignore file. ::

  # use glob syntax.
  syntax: glob

  *.elc
  *.pyc
  *~

  # switch to regexp syntax.
  syntax: regexp
  ^\.pc/