mq and named queues - and qseries --edit. Was: Re: mercurial at 11238: 10 new changesets (3 stable)

[Kevin Bullock]

On 4 Jun 2010, at 1:58 PM, Martin Geisler wrote:

> The idea is that instead of editing the series file manually, I would do
> something like
> 
>  hg qpush --grab foo
> 
> to apply patch 'foo' next, thereby editing the series file on the fly.
> This would basically turn the unapplied patches into a *set* instead of
> a *list*, allowing you to grab any unapplied patch and apply it.
> 
> I would even consider making --grab the default when there is a named
> patch on the command line. That way
> 
>  hg qpush     <-- apply next patch in series
>  hg qpush foo <-- make 'foo' next and apply it
> 
> You would then use
> 
>  hg qgoto foo
> 
> to get the old behavior of
> 
>  hg qpush foo

FWIW I agree with Mads that this would be dangerous. I like the idea of having a --grab option, but not making that behavior the default.

Here's why I like the option: the series file, although it's in plaintext, is essentially serialized state of the patch queue. Letting the software manipulate it that knows about its format seems preferable in the normal case, even if manual hacking ability is nice to have.

pacem in terris / mir / shanti / salaam / heiwa
Kevin R. Bullock