# HG changeset patch
# User Martin Geisler <mg@aragost.com>
# Date 1335782744 -7200
# Node ID 517b25608ad623aca4d6e243f9a1b3c0499a8e50
# Parent  e49e039acd5e2c7aaaadbe5adae14790c742133e
help/config: expand [subpaths] help

Brifly explain why rewriting subrepository paths can be necessary.
Explain that relative subrepository paths are made absolute before
rewrite rules are applied.

diff -r e49e039acd5e -r 517b25608ad6 mercurial/help/config.txt
--- a/mercurial/help/config.txt	Mon Apr 30 12:04:30 2012 +0200
+++ b/mercurial/help/config.txt	Mon Apr 30 12:45:44 2012 +0200
@@ -1052,20 +1052,24 @@
 ``subpaths``
 """"""""""""
 
-Defines subrepositories source locations rewriting rules of the form::
+Subrepository source URLs can go stale if a remote server changes name
+or becomes temporarily unavailable. This section lets you define
+rewrite rules of the form::
 
     <pattern> = <replacement>
 
-Where ``pattern`` is a regular expression matching the source and
-``replacement`` is the replacement string used to rewrite it. Groups
-can be matched in ``pattern`` and referenced in ``replacements``. For
-instance::
+where ``pattern`` is a regular expression matching a subrepository
+source URL and ``replacement`` is the replacement string used to
+rewrite it. Groups can be matched in ``pattern`` and referenced in
+``replacements``. For instance::
 
     http://server/(.*)-hg/ = http://hg.server/\1/
 
 rewrites ``http://server/foo-hg/`` into ``http://hg.server/foo/``.
 
-All patterns are applied in definition order.
+Relative subrepository paths are first made absolute, and the the
+rewrite rules are then applied on the full (absolute) path. The rules
+are applied in definition order.
 
 ``trusted``
 """""""""""