Re: [Monotone-devel] Re: Removing a branch from my local database

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Wed, Aug 23, 2006 at 09:07:03PM +0100, Andy Jones wrote:
>      Mhh.. in fact if you are in the "I'm not sure I want it forever" area,
>      you probably should better import it in a new DB, yes.
> 
>    Noted.
> 
>      To remove it from the DB you have to use the scary command:
>      mtn db kill_branch_certs_locally BRANCH-NAME
> 
>    I'll run any scary command you like (on a branch I'm not developing
>    myself), so long as you don't want me to do a sync afterwards...

Why are you afraid of sync'ing?  It's not like the server will let you
corrupt anything :-).

>      In order to get rid of the extra file size you'd have to create a new
>      DB and locally sync the branches you're interested in into the new DB,
>      and then drop the old one.
> 
>    Eeek.   That isn't good.  I would have thought that this was a pretty
>    likely use case, if you compare with how CVS or Subversion is used.

This is the better solution, anyway -- don't screw around with db
kill_branch_certs_locally, that's a hack for very restricted use
(basically, when you want to try and rename a branch, damn the
torpedos).

Just from the start do
  $ mtn db init -d cleaned.mtn
  $ mtn -d cleaned.mtn pull file:dirty.mtn --exclude <branch to get rid of>

In general, we are still sort of working out best practices ourselves,
and changing around the software too (e.g., that last line wouldn't
have worked a few versions ago :-)).

It still would be _really nice_ to have more information on achieving
practical goals in the manual -- possibly organized in a
question-and-answer format.  In the current manual, the reference
section is good, but the other parts could use a little work.  My
feeling is that the tutorial is a little linear -- not everyone cares
about all the things it mentions -- but also limited -- some of the
"advanced uses" topics are a bit random, and would be more useful
if phrased in a more tutorial-oriented format.

-- Nathaniel

-- 
"But in Middle-earth, the distinct accusative case disappeared from
the speech of the Noldor (such things happen when you are busy
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