[PATCH] commit: add --extra argument to set extra user fields

[Matt Mackall]

On Thu, 2014-03-06 at 08:59 +0100, Angel Ezquerra wrote:
> I'm
> trying to create a mercurial-TFS bridge and this seemed a very
> convenient way to "link" mercurial revisions with TFS changeset
> numbers (for example it would let us look for a particular TFS
> changest in the mercurial history). However, if you really think that
> this is a terrible idea maybe I need to rethink my approach.

I think this is actually a legitimate thing to want to do, but it's also
one we've always done via extensions. This naturally creates a nice,
high barrier to adding new types of metadata for Mercurial to care
about, which I consider to be a good thing.

The problem with something like extra is that it's TOO useful. It looks
vaguely like a solution to everyone's pet problem, and if we expose it
directly, everyone will abuse it. And then everyone will want to extend
it with hooks and supplementary commands and special merge behavior and
hgweb etc. etc. If we instead say "do it yourself with
a .myextrametadata file", they'll say "but that's ugly" and maybe
re-evaluate their need. At worst the ugliness will be on their plate and
not ours.

-- 
Mathematics is the supreme nostalgia of our time.