Repository
(for a short intro of the basic concepts of Mercurial, see UnderstandingMercurial)
A repository is a directory (the repository directory or "repo" directory) which contains a subdirectory named .hg (dot hg) where Mercurial stores its internal data structures. Everything else (files and other subdirectories) in the repo directory is conceptually part of the [:WorkingDirectory:working directory], which is tracked by Mercurial (some files and subdirectories may be ignored. See [".hgignore"]).
1. Creation
An existing, already populated but yet untracked directory can be transformed into a repository with hg init, which creates and initializes the .hg subdirectory.
2. Tracking Files
A file in the working directory that shall be tracked by Mercurial must be added with hg add. [:LocalModifications:Local modifications] to tracked files in the working directory can be [:Commit:committed] with hg commit, which adds a new [:ChangeSet:changeset] to the repository by recording it in the .hg directory.
The working directory can be restored with hg update to any previously committed state by specifying the requested changeset with its [:ChangeSetID:changeset ID].
The last transaction in a repository can be undone with hg rollback (see ["Rollback"]).
3. Transferring Changesets and Cloning
Changesets can be transferred from one repository to another with hg pull, hg push, hg export and hg import (see ["Pull"], ["Push"], ["Export"], ["Import"], ["CommunicatingChanges"]).
Repositories can be [:Clone:cloned] with hg clone.
4. Checking Integrity
Checking the internal integrity of a repository (the contents of .hg) can be done with hg verify.
5. Structure
The .hg directory of a repository contains (incomplete listing):
The [:Manifest:manifest] — Files .hg/store/00manifest.i and .hg/store/00manifest.d
Describes the file contents of the repository at a particular changeset ID. Stored in [:Revlog:revlog] format.
The [:Changelog:changelog] — Files .hg/store/00changelog.i and .hg/store/00changelog.d
- Contains all changesets. Stored in revlog format.
A revlog per tracked file — Files .hg/store/data/<encoded path>.i and .hg/store/data/<encoded path>.d
<encoded path> is the path of the tracked file in the working directory, encoded according to [:CaseFoldingPlan].
6. Backup
Backing up a repository can be done by using push/pull/clone to a backup repository. A repository which is not actively written to (by other processes concurrently running on the computer) can be backed-up by backing-up the repo directory using normal directory/file backup procedures (like tar, zip, etc). The .hg directory is [:CaseFolding:case folding] tolerant, which means, it can for example be copied onto a FAT filesystem (see also ["BackUp"], ["CaseFoldingPlan"]).