3 git-debrebase - delta queue rebase tool for Debian packaging
7 git-debrebase [<options...>] [-- <git-rebase options...>]
8 git-debrebase [<options...>] <operation> [<operation options...>
12 git-debrebase is a tool for representing in git,
14 Debian packages based on upstream source code.
16 This is the command line reference.
17 Please read the tutorial
18 L<dgit-maint-debrebase(5)>.
19 For background, theory of operation,
20 and definitions see L<git-debrebase(5)>.
22 You should read this manpage in conjunction with
23 L<git-debrebase(5)/TERMINOLOGY>,
24 which defines many important terms used here.
26 =head1 PRINCIPAL OPERATIONS
30 =item git-debrebase [-- <git-rebase options...>]
32 =item git-debrebase [-i <further git-rebase options...>]
34 Unstitches and launders the branch.
35 (See L</UNSTITCHING AND LAUNDERING> below.)
37 Then, if any git-rebase options were supplied,
38 edits the Debian delta queue,
39 using git-rebase, by running
41 git rebase <git-rebase options> <breakwater-tip>
43 Do not pass a base branch argument:
44 git-debrebase will supply that.
45 Do not use --onto, or --fork-point.
46 Useful git-rebase options include -i and --autosquash.
48 If git-rebase stops for any reason,
49 you may git-rebase --abort, --continue, or --skip, as usual.
50 If you abort the git-rebase,
51 the branch will still have been laundered,
52 but everything in the rebase will be undone.
54 The options for git-rebase must either start with C<-i>,
55 or be prececded by C<-->,
56 to distinguish them from options for git-debrebase.
58 =item git-debrebase conclude
60 Finishes a git-debrebase session,
61 tidying up the branch and making it fast forward again.
63 Specifically: if the branch is unstitched,
64 launders and restitches it,
65 making a new pseudomerge.
66 Otherwise, it is an error,
69 =item git-debrebase quick
71 Unconditionally launders and restitches the branch,
72 consuming any ffq-prev
73 and making a new pseudomerge.
75 If the branch is already laundered and stitched, does nothing.
77 =item git-debrebase prepush [--prose=<for commit message>]
79 =item git-debrebase stitch [--prose=<for commit message>]
83 This is a good command to run before pushing to a git server.
85 If there is no ffq-prev, it is an error, unless --noop-ok.
87 You should consider using B<conclude> instead,
88 because that launders the branch too.
90 =item git-debrebase new-upstream-v0 <new-version> [<upstream-details>...]
92 Rebases the delta queue
93 onto a new upstream version. In detail:
95 Firstly, checks that the proposed rebase seems to make sense:
96 It is a snag unless the new upstream(s)
97 are fast forward from the previous upstream(s)
98 as found in the current breakwater anchor.
99 And, in the case of a multi-piece upstream
100 (a multi-component upstream, in dpkg-source terminology),
101 if the pieces are not in the same order, with the same names.
103 If all seems well, unstitches and launders the branch.
107 (in a private working area)
108 a new anchor merge commit,
109 on top of the breakwater tip,
110 and on top of that a commit to
111 update the version number in debian/changelog.
115 of the delta queue onto these new commits.
117 That git-rebase may complete successfully,
118 or it may require your assistance,
119 just like a normal git-rebase.
121 If you git-rebase --abort,
122 the whole new upstream operation is aborted,
123 except for the laundering.
125 The <upstream-details> are, optionally, in order:
129 =item <upstream-commit-ish>
131 The new upstream branch (or commit-ish).
132 Default is C<upstream>.
134 It is a snag if the upstream contains a debian/ directory;
135 if forced to proceed,
136 git-debrebase will disregard the upstream's debian/ and
137 take (only) the packaging from the current breakwater.
139 =item <piece-name> <piece-upstream-commit-ish>
141 Specifies that this is a multi-piece upstream.
144 When such a pair is specified,
145 git-debrebase will first combine the pieces of the upstream
147 and then use the result as the combined new upstream.
149 For each <piece-name>,
150 the tree of the <piece-upstream-commit-ish>
151 becomes the subdirectory <piece-name>
152 in the combined new upstream
153 (supplanting any subdirectory that might be there in
154 the main upstream branch).
156 <piece-name> has a restricted syntax:
157 it may contain only ASCII alphanumerics and hyphens.
159 The combined upstream is itself recorded as a commit,
160 with each of the upstream pieces' commits as parents.
161 The combined commit contains an annotation
162 to allow a future git-debrebase new upstream operation
163 to make the coherency checks described above.
165 =item <git-rebase options>
167 These will be passed to git rebase.
169 If the upstream rebase is troublesome, -i may be helpful.
170 As with plain git-debrebase,
171 do not specify a base, or --onto, or --fork-point.
175 If you are planning to generate a .dsc,
176 you will also need to have, or generate,
177 actual orig tarball(s),
178 which must be identical to the rev-spec(s)
179 passed to git-debrebase.
180 git-debrebase does not concern itself with source packages
181 so neither helps with this, nor checks it.
183 L<git-archive(1)>, L<dgit(1)> and
184 L<gbp-import-orig(1)> may be able to help.
186 This subcommand has -v0 in its name because we are not yet sure
187 that its command line syntax is optimal.
188 We may want to introduce an incompatible replacement syntax
189 under the name C<new-upstream>.
191 =item git-debrebase convert-from-gbp [<upstream-commit-ish>]
193 Cnnverts a gbp patches-unapplied branch
194 (not a gbp pq patch queue branch)
195 into a git-debrebase interchange branch.
197 This is done by generating a new anchor merge,
198 converting the quilt patches as a delta queue,
199 and dropping the patches from the tree.
201 The upstream commit-ish should correspond to
202 the gbp upstream branch, if there is one.
203 It is a snag if it is not an ancestor of HEAD,
204 or if the history between the upstream and HEAD
205 contains commits which make changes to upstream files.
207 It is also a snag if the specified upstream
208 has a debian/ subdirectory.
209 This check exists to detect certain likely user errors,
210 but if this situation is true and expected,
213 The result is a well-formed git-debrebase interchange branch.
214 The result is also fast-forward from the gbp branch.
216 Note that it is dangerous not to know whether you are
217 dealing with a gbp patches-unappled branch containing quilt patches,
218 or a git-debrebase interchange branch.
220 using the wrong tool for the branch format might result in
221 a dropped patch queue!
225 =head1 UNDERLYING AND SUPPLEMENTARY OPERATIONS
229 =item git-debrebase breakwater
231 Prints the breakwater tip commitid.
232 If your HEAD branch is not fully laundered,
233 prints the tip of the so-far-laundered breakwater.
235 =item git-debrebase anchor
237 Prints the breakwater anchor commitid.
239 =item git-debrebase analyse
241 Walks the history of the current branch,
242 most recent commit first,
243 back until the most recent anchor,
244 printing the commit object id,
245 and commit type and info
246 (ie the semantics in the git-debrebase model)
249 =item git-debrebase record-ffq-prev
251 Establishes the current branch's ffq-prev,
252 as discussed in L</UNSTITCHING AND LAUNDERING>,
253 but does not launder the branch or move HEAD.
255 It is an error if the ffq-prev could not be recorded.
256 It is also an error if an ffq-prev has already been recorded,
259 =item git-debrebase launder-v0
261 Launders the branch without recording anything in ffq-prev.
262 Then prints some information about the current branch.
263 Do not use this operation;
264 it will be withdrawn soon.
266 =item git-debrebase convert-to-gbp
268 Converts a laundered branch into a
269 gbp patches-unapplied branch containing quilt patches.
270 The result is not fast forward from the interchange branch,
271 and any ffq-prev is deleted.
273 This is provided mostly for the test suite
274 and for unusual situations.
275 It should only be used with a care and
276 with a proper understanding of the underlying theory.
278 Be sure to not accidentally treat the result as
279 a git-debrebase branch,
280 or you will drop all the patches!
286 This section documents the general options
288 (ie, the ones which immediately follow
292 on the command line).
293 Individual operations may have their own options which are
294 docuented under each operation.
300 Turns snag(s) with id <snag-id> into warnings.
302 Some troublesome things which git-debrebase encounters
304 (The specific instances are discussed
305 in the text for the relvant operation.)
307 When a snag is detected,
308 a message is printed to stderr containing the snag id
309 (in the form C<-f<snag-idE<gt>>),
310 along with some prose.
312 If snags are detected, git-debrebase does not continue,
313 unless the relevant -f<snag-id> is specified,
314 or --force is specified.
318 Turns all snags into warnings.
319 See the -f<snag-id> option.
321 Do not invoke git-debrebase --force in scripts and aliases;
322 instead, specify the particular -f<snag-id> for expected snags.
326 Suppresses the error in
327 some situations where git-debrebase does nothing,
328 because there is nothing to do.
330 The specific instances are discussed
331 in the text for the relvant operation.
333 =item --anchor=<commit-ish>
335 Treats <commit-ish> as an anchor.
336 This overrides the usual logic which automatically classifies
337 commits as anchors, pseudomerges, delta queue commits, etc.
339 It also disables some coherency checks
340 which depend on metadata extracted from its commit message,
342 it is a snag if <commit-ish> is the anchor
343 for the previous upstream version in
344 git-debrebase new-upstream operations.
348 Requests (more) debugging. May be repeated.
352 =head1 UNSTITCHING AND LAUNDERING
354 Several operations unstitch and launder the branch first.
355 In detail this means:
357 =head2 Establish the current branch's ffq-prev
359 If ffq-prev is not yet recorded,
360 git-debrebase checks that the current branch is ahead of relevant
361 remote tracking branches.
362 The relevant branches depend on
363 the current branch (and its
371 The branch that git would merge from
372 (remote.<branch>.merge, remote.<branch>.remote);
376 The branch git would push to, if different
377 (remote.<branch>.pushRemote etc.);
381 For local dgit suite branches,
382 the corresponding tracking remote;
386 If you are on C<master>,
387 remotes/dgit/dgit/sid.
391 The apparently relevant ref names to check are filtered through
392 branch.<branch>.ffq-ffrefs,
393 which is a semicolon-separated list of glob patterns,
394 each optionally preceded by !; first match wins.
396 In each case it is a snag if
397 the local HEAD is behind the checked remote,
398 or if local HEAD has diverged from it.
399 All the checks are done locally using the remote tracking refs:
400 git-debrebase does not fetch anything from anywhere.
402 If these checks pass,
404 git-debrebse then records the current tip as ffq-prev.
406 =head2 Examine the branch
409 analyses the current HEAD's history to find the anchor
411 and the most recent breakwater tip.
413 =head2 Rewrite the commits into laundered form
415 Mixed debian+upstream commits are split into two commits each.
416 Delta queue (upstream files) commits bubble to the top.
418 and quilt patch additions,
421 This rewrite will always succeed, by construction.
422 The result is the laundered branch.
427 dgit-maint-rebase(7),