view mercurial/help/dates.txt @ 25596:c1975809a6b5

templater: take any string literals as template, but not for rawstring (BC)

This patch series is intended to unify the interpretation of string literals.
It is breaking change that boldly assumes

 a. string literal "..." never contains template-like fragment or it is
    intended to be a template
 b. we tend to use raw string literal r"..." for regexp pattern in which "{"
    should have different meaning

Currently, we don't have a comprehensible rule how string literals are
evaluated in template functions. For example, fill() takes "initialindent"
and "hangindent" as templates, but not for "text", whereas "text" is a
template in pad() function.

  date(date, fmt)
  diff(includepattern, excludepattern)
  fill(text, width, initialident: T, hangindent: T)
  get(dict, key)
  if(expr, then: T, else: T)
  ifcontains(search, thing, then: T, else: T)
  ifeq(expr1, expr2, then: T, else: T)
  indent(text, indentchars, firstline)
  join(list, sep)
  label(label: T, expr: T)
  pad(text: T, width, fillchar, right)
  revset(query, formatargs...])
  rstdoc(text, style)
  shortest(node, minlength)
  startswith(pattern, text)
  strip(text, chars)
  sub(pattern, replacement, expression: T)
  word(number, text, separator)
  expr % template: T

  T: interpret "string" or r"rawstring" as template

This patch series adjusts the rule as follows:

 a. string literal, '' or "", starts template processing (BC)
 b. raw string literal, r'' or r"", disables both \-escape and template
    processing (BC, done by subsequent patches)
 c. fragment not surrounded by {} is non-templated string

  "ccc{'aaa'}{r'bbb'}"
   ------------------  *: template
   ---                 c: string
        ---            a: template
                ---    b: rawstring

Because this can eliminate the compilation of template arguments from the
evaluation phase, "hg log -Tdefault" gets faster.

  % cd mozilla-central
  % LANG=C HGRCPATH=/dev/null hg log -Tdefault -r0:10000 --time > /dev/null
  before: real 4.870 secs (user 4.860+0.000 sys 0.010+0.000)
  after:  real 3.480 secs (user 3.440+0.000 sys 0.030+0.000)

Also, this will allow us to parse nested templates at once for better error
indication.

Some commands allow the user to specify a date, e.g.:

- backout, commit, import, tag: Specify the commit date.
- log, revert, update: Select revision(s) by date.

Many date formats are valid. Here are some examples:

- ``Wed Dec 6 13:18:29 2006`` (local timezone assumed)
- ``Dec 6 13:18 -0600`` (year assumed, time offset provided)
- ``Dec 6 13:18 UTC`` (UTC and GMT are aliases for +0000)
- ``Dec 6`` (midnight)
- ``13:18`` (today assumed)
- ``3:39`` (3:39AM assumed)
- ``3:39pm`` (15:39)
- ``2006-12-06 13:18:29`` (ISO 8601 format)
- ``2006-12-6 13:18``
- ``2006-12-6``
- ``12-6``
- ``12/6``
- ``12/6/6`` (Dec 6 2006)
- ``today`` (midnight)
- ``yesterday`` (midnight)
- ``now`` - right now

Lastly, there is Mercurial's internal format:

- ``1165411109 0`` (Wed Dec 6 13:18:29 2006 UTC)

This is the internal representation format for dates. The first number
is the number of seconds since the epoch (1970-01-01 00:00 UTC). The
second is the offset of the local timezone, in seconds west of UTC
(negative if the timezone is east of UTC).

The log command also accepts date ranges:

- ``<DATE`` - at or before a given date/time
- ``>DATE`` - on or after a given date/time
- ``DATE to DATE`` - a date range, inclusive
- ``-DAYS`` - within a given number of days of today