merge: tidy up isolation of conflicts.

[wiggle/upstream.git] / p.help

 p is a tool for managing patches.  It contains many
 subcommands.  To use a particular subcommand, give it
 as the first argument to p, and then give any arguments
 that subcommand requires

files
 p keeps all it's files and patches in a subdirectory of
 the toplevel directory of a project.  This subdirectory
 is called ".patches".  It is often convenient for 
 ".patches" to actually be a symbolic link to somewhere 
 else altogether.

 The files and directories contained in .patches are:
   applied/    A directory containing applied patches
   removed/    A directory containing removed patches
   include/    A directory containing included patches
     Files in these directories are prefixed by a 3digit number
     which indicate thr order in which patches were added.
     The remainder of the filename is the name of the patch.
     Each file contains:
       Status: status
       ... notes ...
       ... diffstat output ...
       the actual patch
   name        A file containing the name of the current patch
   status      A file containing the status of the current patch
   notes       A file with notes about the patch
   patch       A a recently generated copy of the current patch
   files       A list of files that are 'checked out'
   to-resolve  A list of files that might have conflicts that need resolving
   tmp         A temporary file
   last-applied A most recently apply patch that had conflicts
   last-purge
   dest/       A directory where 'p publish' puts patch sets.
   SOURCE/     A directory where a bk repository lives.
   mail/       A directory of patches converted to email messages
   cc          A files listing:  prefix name emailaddr
                When mailing patches which start with prefix, name
                is put on the subject line, and the mail is cc:ed to
                emailaddr
   maintainer  This is where patches are mailed to
   owner       These mail headers are included in each mail message
   get-version A script to get a base version number for use when publishing
   to-resolve  List of files have have outstanding conflicts to be resolved.


model
overview
 What is 'p' ?

 'p' is a patch management system, not a source code control system.
 It allows you to create a set of patches against a base release, to
 annotate those patches with comments, and to revisit and edit patches
 after they have been committed.

 It also allows you to update the base release that the patches are
 against, and then re-apply all patches.

 At any time, there are a number of applied patches, a number of
 removed patches and possibly a current patch.
 The sets of applied and removed patches act much like stacks.  The current 
 patch can be moved to the top of either (commit or discard), and the top
 of either patch can be moved to the current patch (open or apply).
 open and apply actualy allow any patch in the corresponding stack to be
 made current, and assume that the use won't re-order patches that
 should not be re-ordered.

 To enable 'p' for a project, you simply create a directory called ".patches"
 in the top level directory of that project.  Files should be checked out
 ("p co filename") before editing but never need to be checked in.  Applying
 and external patch automatically checks out all modified files.

 Often it is appropriate to have the .patches directory elsewhere (for
 example in an http-export directory tree for public access) and have a 
 symlink from .patches to that location.

 p can be run from any subdirectory of a project containing a .patches
 directory.

 To find out about the contents of the .patches directory, see
      p help files

 Some common commands are:
    p co filename               # monitor changes to filename
    p make                      # create and view the current patch
    p commit                    # commit the current patch
    p discard                   # discard current patch, saving it as 
                                # a removed patch
    p apply                     # re-apply a removed patch, or apply
                                # an external patch
    p list                      # list current patches

co
 Usage:  p co filename

 prepare filename for editing.  This makes sure there is a
 copy of the file with a ~current~ suffix, and that the file
 is listed in in .patches/files.  This command can be run from
 a subdirectory of the project, and it will still do the
 right thing.

make
view
 Usage:  p make
         p view [patchnamefragment]

 make and view provide the same functionality.
 When given a patch name fragment, they will allow the unique
 patch with that name (either applied or removed) to be viewed
 (using the pager $PAGER, or less).
 Without an argument, the current patch is calculated and
 displayed.  This explains the two names as with no argument,
 they both make, and view the current patch.

all
 Usage:  p all

 Generate a composite patch of all currently applied patches.
 This involves creation a patch from the ~orig~ version of every
 file to it's current version.

status
name

 Usage: p status [newstatus]
        p name [newname]

 If a new status or name is given, it is recorded as the current
 status or name for the current patch.  If no argument is given,
 the command will prompt for both a new name and a new status.
 The current value is offered as a default in each case.

note
notes
 Usage: p notes

 Open the notes describing the current patch in an $EDITOR
 The notes should contain a simple one-line description, 
 a black line, and then a detailed description.

discard
 Usage: p discard

 The current patch is discard: moved to the .patches/removed
 directory.  If it doesn't have a name or status, these are
 prompted for.

commit
 Usage: p commit

 The current patch is commit: moved to the .patches/applied
 directory.  If name or status aren't set, these are prompted
 for.  If no notes have been written, and $EDITOR session is
 started with a template for some notes.  
 The patch is presented in the file being edited for reference,
 but will be removed from the notes on exit.

open
 Usage: p open [last | patch-name-fragment]

 The open command is used to open a previously commited
 patch for further editing.

 Without any argument, a list of available commited patches
 is given.
 If the argument 'last'is given, then the most recently commited
 patch is opened.
 Otherwise a unique patch with a name containing the name fragment
 is openned.  If there is no such unique patch, and error message
 is given. 

included
 Usage: p included [-f] [last | patch-name-fragment]

 After updating the base release of a project, some of the patches
 which are currently "removed" may already have been included in that
 release and so don't need to be maintained any more.

 The "included" command will check if a given patch appears to have
 been included and if so, moves it to the .patches/included directory.
 The test is performed by seeing if 'patch' is able to remove the
 patch.  If it cannot, but you are sure that the patch has been included
 (the problems patch reports are spurious) then using '-f' will cause
 the patch to be moved to 'included' anyway.

list
 Usage: p list

 List all the patches in either 'applied' or 'removed'.

apply
 Usage: p apply [-f] [-a] [last | patch-name-fragment | filename]

 This command is used for applying a patch to the project.
 If a patch in 'removed' is given, then it is moved out of 'removed'
 and is applied.  If a filename is given, the patch in that file is
 applied but the file is left unchanged.

 When applying a patch, all affected files are checked-out first.

 If 'patch' cannot apply the patch without error, 'apply' will fail.
 Giving the '-f' option will cause 'apply' to apply the patch anyway,
 and then run 'wiggle' to merge any rejected patch chunks as best
 as possible.  Any files for which wiggle finds unresolvaable conflicts
 while have its name saved in a file (.patches/to-resolve).  This
 list is used by the 'p resolve' command.

 Normally, 'apply' will not apply a patch to be applies if there is 
 one already open.  However the '-a' option may be given to ask
 'apply' to "append" the patch to the current patch.

resolve
 Usage: p resolve

 This is used to resolve any conflicts found by wiggle.  Each file
 listed in .patches/to-resolve is presented for editing, and then
 has wiggle run over it again to check that all conflicts have
 been resolved. 

publish
 Usage: p publish

 The 'publish' command will create a new subdirectory of 
    .patches/dest
 (which is often a symlink to a web-page area) and copy
 all current applied and removed patches into that directory.
 It also creates a complete patch (with "p all") and stores
 that in the directory.

clean
 Usage: p clean

 clean checks that no patches are currently applied, and 
 cleans up any ~current~ or ~orig~ files that have been left 
 in the source tree.  It also removed write permission from 
 all checked-out files.

 It effectively undoes all check-outs.

 It is run as part of 'update' which incorporates upstream 
 changes into a source tree.

openall
 Usage: p openall

 This command repeatedly runs "p open last && p discard" until
 that fails, which usually means that all patches have been
 discarded.  This is part of the preparation for incorporating
 upstream changes.

recommit
 Usage: p recommit patchname

 This command will re-apply and re-commit removed patches
 that successfully apply until the names patch has been applied.
 Patches are applied in reverse order, which is consistant with
 the order in which they were removed.

snapshot
 Usage: p snapshot

 This command takes a shapshot of the current patch so that further
 work can be done in the patch, but it can easily be removed if 
 there are problems.

 This might be used before appending a patch incase something goes
 wrong in the appending process.

snapdiff
 Usage: p snapdiff

 Display the differences between the latest snapshot and the current
 source.

snapback
 Usage: p snapback

 Revert all changes since the last snapshot

pull
 Usage: p pull

 Update the local copy of the official source repository.  This
 can be found by following the .patches/SOURCE link.

 Currently the code assumes it is a BitKeeper repository and
 runs "bk pull".  It should be enhanced to recognise CVS and 
 run "cvs update".

update
 Usage: p update

 This command updates the based release of the package.  To
 do this it removes all patches (p openall), cleans up (p clean),
 creates a patch from information in .patches/SOURCE, and applies
 that patch.  It currently makes no attempt to re-apply any
 patches, or to "p included" and patches.

 Currently the code assumes a BitKeeper repository and uses
 "bk export -tpatch -rLASTEST," to extract a patch, and then
 retags the repository with "bk tag LATEST".  It should be
 enhanced to recognise and work with CVS as well.

premail
 Usage: p premail [patch-name-prefix]

 This command converts a selection of patches to Email messages.
 The email messages are stored in .patches/mail.
 SAY MORE HERE

nomail
 Usage: p nomail

 Remove the .patches/mail directory and contents.

email
 Usage: p email

 Send all mail messages in .patches/mail.  On success, each
 email message is removed.

help
 Usage: p help [topic]

 Print out help messages, which are contained in a file
   p.help
 in the same directory that p was run from.
 Without a topic, a general introduction and a list of topics
 is presented.  With a topic, help on that topic is presented.

purge
 Usage: p purge

 Make copy of the current patch in .patches/last-purge (just
 in case) and then purge the current patch complete.