Diff for "WorkingDirectory"

Working directory

The working directory is the top-level directory in a [:Repository:repository], in which the plain versions of files are available to read, edit and build. Files in the working directory are usually from the [:Tip:tip], but may be from older [:Revision:revisions], or modified and not yet [:Commit:committed].

It’s useful to think of the working directory as "the changeset I’m about to commit". If the working directory has no [:LocalModifications:local modifications] it is said to be clean.

Use hg revert to discard all local modifications (see [:Revert]).

Use hg update to bring the working directory into sync with a particular [:ChangeSet:changeset] (see [:Update]).

To remove all files from the working directory (not the repository!), you can do

hg update null

A [:NamedBranches:branch name] can be set for the working directory.

Mercurial tracks various information about the working directory (see DirState).

Parent(s)

A working directory has one or two [:Parent:parent] revisions. The parent revision (or revisions) will become the parent revisions of the new revision which will eventually be created by a commit of the local modifications.

An hg update will change the parent revision, whereas hg revert will only modify the content of the working directory.

A working directory will only have two parent revisions as the result of a [:Merge:merge], but only until that merge has been committed.

Immediately after a commit (or after an update -C), the working directory has exactly one parent revision, namely the newly committed (or updated-to) changeset. This is even the case if the newly committed changeset was a merge.

The command hg parents (without a revision specifier) lists the parent revision(s) of the working directory.

Example output for a single parent (no uncomitted merge):

$ hg parents
changeset:   2:86794f718fb1
tag:         tip
user:        mpm@selenic.com
date:        Mon May 05 01:20:46 2008 +0200
summary:     Express great joy at existence of Mercurial

Example output for two parent revisions (after an uncomitted merge):

$ hg parents
changeset:   2:c3844fde99f0
user:        mpm@selenic.com
date:        Tue May 06 20:10:35 2008 +0200
summary:     Add description of hello.c

changeset:   3:86794f718fb1
tag:         tip
parent:      1:82e55d328c8c
user:        mpm@selenic.com
date:        Mon May 05 01:20:46 2008 +0200
summary:     Express great joy at existence of Mercurial

When an update is needed

There are several ways to see if an update of your working directory is needed (see related [http://www.selenic.com/pipermail/mercurial/2006-September/010951.html mailing list thread]):

To see the delta between the working directory and the tip, do:

hg diff -r tip

To see what patches would be applied to the working directory on an update do:

hg log -r tip:.

If the working directory is at the tip (that is, no update needed)

hg id

will write "tip" after the changeset id.

CategoryGlossary