Re: [Monotone-devel] head selector

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Sun, Jul 24, 2005 at 07:54:46AM +0200, Richard Levitte - VMS Whacker wrote:
> In message <address@hidden> on Fri, 22 Jul 2005 21:21:40 -0700, Nathaniel 
> Smith <address@hidden> said:
> 
> njs> I'm less interested in Richard's version of h:,
> 
> Good, a straight opinion.  I haven't heard it before.

Sorry, thought I'd mentioned it.

> njs> that works on an arbitrary set of revisions, honestly; it seems
> njs> useful only for automation,
> 
> You're right, the first thing I had in mind was automation.  However,
> I've had plenty of use for it myself on the command line, with things
> like diff and log.

And for the heads of non-branch sets?

> njs> where you already have access to 'automate erase_ancestors', and
> njs> it uses up the letter 'h' without being nearly  so convenient for
> njs> command-line use.  But I'll listen to arguments...
> 
> I'm not sure what's wrong with the letter 'h', but I'll listen to
> arguments.

Well, simply, that it would be better used for branches, which is a
much more intuitive meaning of "head" to the average user; and
probably 'head of branch foo' is important enough to get short syntax,
and an obvious name.

> In message <address@hidden> on Fri, 22 Jul 2005 21:24:23 -0700, Nathaniel 
> Smith <address@hidden> said:
> 
> njs> Oh, forgot to mention, in the mean time you can also use a
> njs> workaround:
> njs> 
> njs> $ alias H='monotone automate heads'
> njs> $ monotone diff -r`H branch1` -r`H branch2`
> njs> 
> njs> Could use some better error checking for when there are multiple
> njs> heads, etc., but hey...
> 
> OK, that works for branches.  How about wanting to select the
> head-most arbitrary cert (that was my primary focus)?

monotone automate select c:<cert>=<val> | monotone automate erase_ancestors

I guess you have to use a shell function/shell script, since the
arguments don't go at the end :-).

> Also, how should Windows users do this?  Does Windows have the same
> backtick possibilities?

Yes, well, it is labeled "in the mean time...a workaround" for a
reason :-).

-- Nathaniel

-- 
"But in Middle-earth, the distinct accusative case disappeared from
the speech of the Noldor (such things happen when you are busy
fighting Orcs, Balrogs, and Dragons)."