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Searching History

It is sometimes necessary or desirable to be able to search the history of the repository for specific keywords or even complicated queries. MacHg exposes Mercurial's underlying functionality of searching by keyword, searching by id, and searching by revset query.

Searching by keyword will yield the entire list of revisions which contain the keyword either in the commit message or in the names of the files which are modified by the revision.

To search by Keyword:

  1. Switch to the History view.

  2. Locate the search field in the upper right corner of the window.

  3. Click on the search field icon inside the search field and choose "Search By Keyword" (This is the default).

  4. Enter the keyword in the search field.

Searching by Revision ID will yield the single revision (or the first revision) which has an id matching the id entered in the search field.

To search by Revision ID:

  1. Switch to the History view.

  2. Locate the search field in the upper right corner of the window.

  3. Click on the search field icon inside the search field and choose "Search By Revision ID".

  4. Enter the revision id in the search field.

Revset queries are a powerful but somewhat cryptic way to specify very exactly what one is looking for. You might think of them as sort of similar language to grep only applied specifically to specifying revsets. Searching by a revset query will yield a list of revision which match the generalized "revset" query.

To search by Revset Query:

  1. Switch to the History view.

  2. Locate the search field in the upper right corner of the window.

  3. Click on the search field icon inside the search field and choose "Search By Revset Query".

  4. Enter the revset query in the search field.

 

Specifying Revision Sets (Revsets)

Mercurial supports a functional language for selecting a set of revisions. These revision specifications are called "revsets".

The language supports a number of predicates which are joined by infix operators. Parenthesis can be used for grouping.

Identifiers such as branch names must be quoted with single or double quotes if they contain characters outside of "[._a-zA-Z0-9\x80-\xff]" or if they match one of the predefined predicates.

Special characters can be used in quoted identifiers by escaping them, e.g., "\n" is interpreted as a newline. To prevent them from being interpreted, strings can be prefixed with "r", e.g. "r'...'".

There is a single prefix operator:

Operator
Meaning

"not x"

Changesets not in x. Short form is "! x".

 

These are the supported infix operators:

Operation
Meaning

"x::y"

A DAG range, meaning all changesets that are descendants of x and ancestors of y, including x and y themselves. If the first endpoint is left out, this is equivalent to "ancestors(y)", if the second is left out it is equivalent to "descendants(x)". An alternative syntax is "x..y".

"x:y"

All changesets with revision numbers between x and y, both inclusive. Either endpoint can be left out, they default to 0 and tip.

"x and y"

The intersection of changesets in x and y. Short form is "x & y".

"x or y"

The union of changesets in x and y. There are two alternative short forms: "x | y" and "x + y".

"x - y"

Changesets in x but not in y.

"x^n"

The nth parent of x, n == 0, 1, or 2. For n == 0, x; for n == 1, the first parent of each changeset in x; for n == 2, the second parent of changeset in x.

"x~n"

The nth first ancestor of x; "x~0" is x; "x~3" is "x^^^".

 

There is a single postfix operator:

Operator
Meaning

"x^"

Equivalent to "x^1", the first parent of each changeset in x.

 

The following predicates are supported:

Predicate
Meaning

"adds(pattern)"

Changesets that add a file matching pattern.

"all()"

All changesets, the same as "0:tip".

"ancestor(single, single)"

Greatest common ancestor of the two changesets.

"ancestors(set)"

Changesets that are ancestors of a changeset in set.

"author(string)"

Alias for "user(string)".

"bisected(string)"

Changesets marked in the specified bisect state (good, bad, skip).

"bookmark([name])"

The named bookmark or all bookmarks.

"branch(string or set)"

All changesets belonging to the given branch or the branches of the given changesets.

"children(set)"

Child changesets of changesets in set.

"closed()"

Changeset is closed.

"committer([user])"

Changesets with committer [matching the given user].

"contains(pattern)"

Revision contains a file matching pattern. See "hg help patterns" for information about file patterns.

"date(interval)"

Changesets within the interval, see "hg help dates".

"desc(string)"

Search commit message for string. The match is case-insensitive.

"descendants(set)"

Changesets which are descendants of changesets in set.

"file(pattern)"

Changesets affecting files matched by pattern.

"filelog(pattern)"

Changesets connected to the specified filelog.

"follow([file])"

An alias for "::." (ancestors of the working copy's first parent). If a filename is specified, the history of the given file is followed, including copies.

"grep(regex)"

Like "keyword(string)" but accepts a regex. Use "grep(r'...')" to ensure special escape characters are handled correctly. Unlike "keyword(string)", the match is case-sensitive.

"head()"

Changeset is a named branch head.

"heads(set)"

Members of set with no children in set.

"id(string)"

Revision non-ambiguously specified by the given hex string prefix.

"keyword(string)"

Search commit message, user name, and names of changed files for string. The match is case-insensitive.

"last(set, n)"

Last n members of set.

"limit(set, n)"

First n members of set.

"max(set)"

Changeset with highest revision number in set.

"merge()"

Changeset is a merge changeset.

"min(set)"

Changeset with lowest revision number in set.

"modifies(pattern)"

Changesets modifying files matched by pattern.

"mq()"

Changesets managed by MQ.

"outgoing([path])"

Changesets not found in the specified destination repository, or the default push location.

"p1([set])"

First parent of changesets in set, or the working directory.

"p2([set])"

Second parent of changesets in set, or the working directory.

"parents([set])"

The set of all parents for all changesets in set, or the working directory.

"present(set)"

An empty set, if any revision in set isn't found; otherwise, all revisions in set.

"removes(pattern)"

Changesets which remove files matching pattern.

"rev(number)"

Revision with the given numeric identifier.

"reverse(set)"

Reverse order of set.

"roots(set)"

Changesets with no parent changeset in set.

"sort(set[, [-]key...])"

Sort set by keys. The default sort order is ascending, specify a key as "-key" to sort in descending order.

The keys can be:

- "rev" for the revision number,

- "branch" for the branch name,

- "desc" for the commit message (description),

- "user" for user name ("author" can be used as an alias),

- "date" for the commit date

"tag([name])"

The specified tag by name, or all tagged revisions if no name is given.

"user(string)"

User name contains string. The match is case-insensitive.

 

Aliases

New predicates (known as "aliases") can be defined, using any combination of existing predicates or other aliases. An alias definition looks like:

      alias = definition

in the "revsetalias" section of a Mercurial configuration file. Arguments of the form "$1", "$2", etc. are substituted from the alias into the definition.

For example,

      [revsetalias]
      h = heads()
      d($1) = sort($1, date)
      rs($1, $2) = reverse(sort($1, $2))

defines three aliases, "h", "d", and "rs". "rs(0:tip, author)" is exactly equivalent to "reverse(sort(0:tip, author))".

Some sample queries:

Changesets on the default branch:

    hg log -r "branch(default)"

Changesets on the default branch since tag 1.5 (excluding merges):

    hg log -r "branch(default) and 1.5:: and not merge()"

Open branch heads:

    hg log -r "head() and not closed()"

Changesets between tags 1.3 and 1.5 mentioning "bug" that affect "hgext/*":

    hg log -r "1.3::1.5 and keyword(bug) and file('hgext/*')"

Changesets committed in May 2008, sorted by user:

    hg log -r "sort(date('May 2008'), user)"

Changesets mentioning "bug" or "issue" that are not in a tagged release:

    hg log -r "(keyword(bug) or keyword(issue)) and not ancestors(tagged())"