Fix a typo in the fold command help

[stgit] / README

Stacked GIT
-----------

StGIT is a Python application providing similar functionality to Quilt
(i.e. pushing/poping patches to a stack) on top of GIT. These
operations are performed using the GIT merge algorithms.

Note that StGIT is not an SCM interface for GIT. Use the GIT commands
or some other tools like Cogito for this.

For the latest version see http://www.procode.org/stgit/


Basic Operations
----------------

For a full list of commands:

	stg help

For help on individual commands:

	stg <cmd> (-h | --help)

To initialise a tree (the tree must have been previously initialised
with GIT):

	stg init

To add/delete files:

	stg add [<file>*]
	stg rm [<file>*]

To inspect the tree status:

	stg status

To get a diff between 2 revisions:

	stg diff [-r rev1[:[rev2]]]

A revision name can be of the form '([patch]/[bottom | top]) | <tree-ish>'
If the patch name is not specified but '/' is passed, the topmost
patch is considered. If neither 'bottom' or 'top' follows the '/', the
whole patch diff is displayed (this does not include the local
changes).

Note than when the first patch is pushed to the stack, the current
HEAD is saved in the .git/refs/heads/base file for easy reference.

To create/delete a patch:

	stg new <name>
	stg delete [<name or topmost>]

The 'new' command also sets the topmost patch to the newly created
one.

To push/pop a patch to/from the stack:

	stg push [<name or first unapplied>]
	stg pop [<name or topmost>]

Note that the 'push' command can apply any patch in the unapplied
list. This is useful if you want to reorder the patches.

To add the patch changes to the tree:

	stg refresh

To inspect the patches applied:

	stg series
	stg applied
	stg unapplied
	stg top

To export a patch series:

	stg export [<dir-name or 'patches'>]

The 'export' command supports options to automatically number the
patches (-n) or add the '.diff' extension (-d).

StGIT does not yet provide support for cloning or pulling changes from
a different repository. Until this becomes available, run the
following commands:

	stg pop -a
	your-git-script-for-pulling-and-merging
	stg push -a

You can also look in the TODO file for what's planned to be
implemented in the future.


Directory Structure
-------------------

.git/
  objects/
    ??/

refs/
  heads/
    master		- the master commit id
    ...
  bases/
    master		- the bottom id of the stack (to get a big diff)
    ...
  tags/
    ...
  branches/
    ...
  patches/
    master/
      applied		- list of applied patches
      unapplied		- list of not-yet applied patches
      current		- name of the topmost patch
      patch1/
        first		- the initial id of the patch (used for log)
        bottom		- the bottom id of the patch
        top		- the top id of the patch
      patch2/
      ...
    ...

HEAD			-> refs/heads/<something>


A Bit of StGIT Patch Theory
---------------------------

We assume that a patch is a diff between two nodes - bottom and top. A
node is a commit SHA1 id or tree SHA1 id in the GIT terminology:

P - patch
N - node

P = diff(Nt, Nb)

	Nb - bottom (start) node
	Nt - top (end) node
	Nf - first node (for log generation)

For an ordered stack of patches:

P1 = diff(N1, N0)
P2 = diff(N2, N1)
...

Ps = P1 + P2 + P3 + ... = diff(Nst, Nsb)

	Ps  - the big patch of the whole stack
	Nsb - bottom stack node (= N0)
	Nst - top stack node (= Nn)

Applying (pushing) a patch on the stack (Nst can differ from Nb) is
done by diff3 merging. The new patch becomes:

P' = diff(Nt', Nb')
Nb' = Nst
Nt' = diff3(Nst, Nb, Nt)

(note that the diff3 parameters order is: branch1, ancestor, branch2)

The above operation allows easy patch re-ordering.

Removing (popping) a patch from the stack is done by simply setting
the Nst to Nb.