view mercurial/help/merge-tools.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.

To merge files Mercurial uses merge tools.

A merge tool combines two different versions of a file into a merged
file. Merge tools are given the two files and the greatest common
ancestor of the two file versions, so they can determine the changes
made on both branches.

Merge tools are used both for :hg:`resolve`, :hg:`merge`, :hg:`update`,
:hg:`backout` and in several extensions.

Usually, the merge tool tries to automatically reconcile the files by
combining all non-overlapping changes that occurred separately in
the two different evolutions of the same initial base file. Furthermore, some
interactive merge programs make it easier to manually resolve
conflicting merges, either in a graphical way, or by inserting some
conflict markers. Mercurial does not include any interactive merge
programs but relies on external tools for that.

Available merge tools
=====================

External merge tools and their properties are configured in the
merge-tools configuration section - see hgrc(5) - but they can often just
be named by their executable.

A merge tool is generally usable if its executable can be found on the
system and if it can handle the merge. The executable is found if it
is an absolute or relative executable path or the name of an
application in the executable search path. The tool is assumed to be
able to handle the merge if it can handle symlinks if the file is a
symlink, if it can handle binary files if the file is binary, and if a
GUI is available if the tool requires a GUI.

There are some internal merge tools which can be used. The internal
merge tools are:

.. internaltoolsmarker

Internal tools are always available and do not require a GUI but will by default
not handle symlinks or binary files.

Choosing a merge tool
=====================

Mercurial uses these rules when deciding which merge tool to use:

1. If a tool has been specified with the --tool option to merge or resolve, it
   is used.  If it is the name of a tool in the merge-tools configuration, its
   configuration is used. Otherwise the specified tool must be executable by
   the shell.

2. If the ``HGMERGE`` environment variable is present, its value is used and
   must be executable by the shell.

3. If the filename of the file to be merged matches any of the patterns in the
   merge-patterns configuration section, the first usable merge tool
   corresponding to a matching pattern is used. Here, binary capabilities of the
   merge tool are not considered.

4. If ui.merge is set it will be considered next. If the value is not the name
   of a configured tool, the specified value is used and must be executable by
   the shell. Otherwise the named tool is used if it is usable.

5. If any usable merge tools are present in the merge-tools configuration
   section, the one with the highest priority is used.

6. If a program named ``hgmerge`` can be found on the system, it is used - but
   it will by default not be used for symlinks and binary files.

7. If the file to be merged is not binary and is not a symlink, then
   internal ``:merge`` is used.

8. The merge of the file fails and must be resolved before commit.

.. note::

   After selecting a merge program, Mercurial will by default attempt
   to merge the files using a simple merge algorithm first. Only if it doesn't
   succeed because of conflicting changes Mercurial will actually execute the
   merge program. Whether to use the simple merge algorithm first can be
   controlled by the premerge setting of the merge tool. Premerge is enabled by
   default unless the file is binary or a symlink.

See the merge-tools and ui sections of hgrc(5) for details on the
configuration of merge tools.