Some useful settings when generating patches

Mercurial has a setting which tries to figure out what function you're in, and adds that to the patch output. It's really helpful when reviewing, so I recommend turning it on. For example, compare this diff:


--- a/bin/upgrading/s2layers/core2.s2 Tue Aug 30 22:12:52 2011 -0500
+++ b/bin/upgrading/s2layers/core2.s2 Wed Aug 31 04:45:59 2011 +0000
@@ -331,6 +331,8 @@
var readonly Tag[] tags "Array of tags applied to this entry.";

var Image userpic "The userpic selected to relate to this entry.";
+ var Image userpic_orig "FIXME";
+ var int itemid "Server stored ID number for this entry";

var readonly string{} metadata "Post metadata. Keys: 'music', 'mood', 'location', 'groups', 'xpost'. Comment metadata. Key: 'poster_ip'";

@@ -378,7 +380,6 @@
var bool new_day "Is this entry on a different day to the previous one?";
var bool end_day "Is this the last entry of a day?";

- var int itemid "Server stored ID number for this entry";

function print_metatypes(bool icon, bool info) "Print the metatype information for this entry";



With this one:

--- a/bin/upgrading/s2layers/core2.s2
+++ b/bin/upgrading/s2layers/core2.s2
@@ -331,6 +331,8 @@ class EntryLite
var readonly Tag[] tags "Array of tags applied to this entry.";

var Image userpic "The userpic selected to relate to this entry.";
+ var Image userpic_orig "FIXME";
+ var int itemid "Server stored ID number for this entry";

var readonly string{} metadata "Post metadata. Keys: 'music', 'mood', 'location', 'groups', 'xpost'. Comment metadata. Key: 'poster_ip'";

@@ -378,7 +380,6 @@ class Entry extends EntryLite
var bool new_day "Is this entry on a different day to the previous one?";
var bool end_day "Is this the last entry of a day?";

- var int itemid "Server stored ID number for this entry";

function print_metatypes(bool icon, bool info) "Print the metatype information for this entry";




Voila, instant context :) To turn it on, edit your .hgrc file:

nano ~/.hgrc

And then paste this section in it:

[diff]
showfunc=true
git=true


showfunc=true makes Mercurial try to parse out the function the lines are changing in. git=true makes Mercurial behave git-like in some aspects, the most important one being that it'll save changes to binary files (such as images) within the generated patch, so that someone applying the patch will have your image placed into the proper path. That is, without your needing to upload the image separately along with instructions for where the image should go.