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 status
60 Analyise the current branch,
61 both in terms of its conents,
62 and the refs which are relevant to git-debrebase,
63 and print a human-readable summary.
65 Please do not attempt to parse the output;
66 it may be reformatted or reorganised in the future.
68 use one of the L<UNDERLYING AND SUPPLEMENTARY OPERATIONS>
71 =item git-debrebase conclude
73 Finishes a git-debrebase session,
74 tidying up the branch and making it fast forward again.
76 Specifically: if the branch is unstitched,
77 launders and restitches it,
78 making a new pseudomerge.
79 Otherwise, it is an error,
82 =item git-debrebase quick
84 Unconditionally launders and restitches the branch,
85 consuming any ffq-prev
86 and making a new pseudomerge.
88 If the branch is already laundered and stitched, does nothing.
90 =item git-debrebase prepush [--prose=<for commit message>]
92 =item git-debrebase stitch [--prose=<for commit message>]
96 This is a good command to run before pushing to a git server.
98 If there is no ffq-prev, it is an error, unless --noop-ok.
100 You should consider using B<conclude> instead,
101 because that launders the branch too.
103 =item git-debrebase new-upstream-v0 <new-version> [<upstream-details>...]
105 Rebases the delta queue
106 onto a new upstream version. In detail:
108 Firstly, checks that the proposed rebase seems to make sense:
109 It is a snag unless the new upstream(s)
110 are fast forward from the previous upstream(s)
111 as found in the current breakwater anchor.
112 And, in the case of a multi-piece upstream
113 (a multi-component upstream, in dpkg-source terminology),
114 if the pieces are not in the same order, with the same names.
116 If all seems well, unstitches and launders the branch.
120 (in a private working area)
121 a new anchor merge commit,
122 on top of the breakwater tip,
123 and on top of that a commit to
124 update the version number in debian/changelog.
128 of the delta queue onto these new commits.
130 That git-rebase may complete successfully,
131 or it may require your assistance,
132 just like a normal git-rebase.
134 If you git-rebase --abort,
135 the whole new upstream operation is aborted,
136 except for the laundering.
138 The <upstream-details> are, optionally, in order:
142 =item <upstream-commit-ish>
144 The new upstream branch (or commit-ish).
145 Default is C<upstream>.
147 It is a snag if the upstream contains a debian/ directory;
148 if forced to proceed,
149 git-debrebase will disregard the upstream's debian/ and
150 take (only) the packaging from the current breakwater.
152 =item <piece-name> <piece-upstream-commit-ish>
154 Specifies that this is a multi-piece upstream.
157 When such a pair is specified,
158 git-debrebase will first combine the pieces of the upstream
160 and then use the result as the combined new upstream.
162 For each <piece-name>,
163 the tree of the <piece-upstream-commit-ish>
164 becomes the subdirectory <piece-name>
165 in the combined new upstream
166 (supplanting any subdirectory that might be there in
167 the main upstream branch).
169 <piece-name> has a restricted syntax:
170 it may contain only ASCII alphanumerics and hyphens.
172 The combined upstream is itself recorded as a commit,
173 with each of the upstream pieces' commits as parents.
174 The combined commit contains an annotation
175 to allow a future git-debrebase new upstream operation
176 to make the coherency checks described above.
178 =item <git-rebase options>
180 These will be passed to git rebase.
182 If the upstream rebase is troublesome, -i may be helpful.
183 As with plain git-debrebase,
184 do not specify a base, or --onto, or --fork-point.
188 If you are planning to generate a .dsc,
189 you will also need to have, or generate,
190 actual orig tarball(s),
191 which must be identical to the rev-spec(s)
192 passed to git-debrebase.
193 git-debrebase does not concern itself with source packages
194 so neither helps with this, nor checks it.
196 L<git-archive(1)>, L<dgit(1)> and
197 L<gbp-import-orig(1)> may be able to help.
199 This subcommand has -v0 in its name because we are not yet sure
200 that its command line syntax is optimal.
201 We may want to introduce an incompatible replacement syntax
202 under the name C<new-upstream>.
204 =item git-debrebase make-patches [--quiet-would-amend]
206 Generate patches in debian/patches/
207 representing the changes made to upstream files.
209 It is not normally necessary to run this command explicitly.
210 When uploading to Debian,
211 dgit and git-debrebase
212 will cooperate to regenerate patches as necessary.
213 When working with pure git remotes,
214 the patches are not needed.
216 Normally git-debrebase make-patches will
217 require a laundered branch.
218 (A laundered branch does not contain any patches.)
219 But if there are already some patches made by
220 git-debrebase make-patches,
221 and all that has happened is that more
222 changes to upstream files have been committed,
223 running it again can add the missing patches.
225 If the patches implied by the current branch
226 are not a simple superset of those already in debian/patches,
227 make-patches will fail with exit status 7,
228 and an error message.
229 (The message can be suppress with --quiet-would-amend.)
231 =item git-debrebase convert-from-gbp [<upstream-commit-ish>]
233 Cnnverts a gbp patches-unapplied branch
234 (not a gbp pq patch queue branch)
235 into a git-debrebase interchange branch.
237 This is done by generating a new anchor merge,
238 converting the quilt patches as a delta queue,
239 and dropping the patches from the tree.
241 The upstream commit-ish should correspond to
242 the gbp upstream branch, if there is one.
243 It is a snag if it is not an ancestor of HEAD,
244 or if the history between the upstream and HEAD
245 contains commits which make changes to upstream files.
247 It is also a snag if the specified upstream
248 has a debian/ subdirectory.
249 This check exists to detect certain likely user errors,
250 but if this situation is true and expected,
253 The result is a well-formed git-debrebase interchange branch.
254 The result is also fast-forward from the gbp branch.
256 Note that it is dangerous not to know whether you are
257 dealing with a gbp patches-unappled branch containing quilt patches,
258 or a git-debrebase interchange branch.
260 using the wrong tool for the branch format might result in
261 a dropped patch queue!
265 =head1 UNDERLYING AND SUPPLEMENTARY OPERATIONS
269 =item git-debrebase breakwater
271 Prints the breakwater tip commitid.
272 If your HEAD branch is not fully laundered,
273 prints the tip of the so-far-laundered breakwater.
275 =item git-debrebase anchor
277 Prints the breakwater anchor commitid.
279 =item git-debrebase analyse
281 Walks the history of the current branch,
282 most recent commit first,
283 back until the most recent anchor,
284 printing the commit object id,
285 and commit type and info
286 (ie the semantics in the git-debrebase model)
289 =item git-debrebase record-ffq-prev
291 Establishes the current branch's ffq-prev,
292 as discussed in L</UNSTITCHING AND LAUNDERING>,
293 but does not launder the branch or move HEAD.
295 It is an error if the ffq-prev could not be recorded.
296 It is also an error if an ffq-prev has already been recorded,
299 =item git-debrebase launder-v0
301 Launders the branch without recording anything in ffq-prev.
302 Then prints some information about the current branch.
303 Do not use this operation;
304 it will be withdrawn soon.
306 =item git-debrebase convert-to-gbp
308 Converts a laundered branch into a
309 gbp patches-unapplied branch containing quilt patches.
310 The result is not fast forward from the interchange branch,
311 and any ffq-prev is deleted.
313 This is provided mostly for the test suite
314 and for unusual situations.
315 It should only be used with a care and
316 with a proper understanding of the underlying theory.
318 Be sure to not accidentally treat the result as
319 a git-debrebase branch,
320 or you will drop all the patches!
326 This section documents the general options
328 (ie, the ones which immediately follow
332 on the command line).
333 Individual operations may have their own options which are
334 docuented under each operation.
340 Turns snag(s) with id <snag-id> into warnings.
342 Some troublesome things which git-debrebase encounters
344 (The specific instances are discussed
345 in the text for the relvant operation.)
347 When a snag is detected,
348 a message is printed to stderr containing the snag id
349 (in the form C<-f<snag-idE<gt>>),
350 along with some prose.
352 If snags are detected, git-debrebase does not continue,
353 unless the relevant -f<snag-id> is specified,
354 or --force is specified.
358 Turns all snags into warnings.
359 See the -f<snag-id> option.
361 Do not invoke git-debrebase --force in scripts and aliases;
362 instead, specify the particular -f<snag-id> for expected snags.
366 Suppresses the error in
367 some situations where git-debrebase does nothing,
368 because there is nothing to do.
370 The specific instances are discussed
371 in the text for the relvant operation.
373 =item --anchor=<commit-ish>
375 Treats <commit-ish> as an anchor.
376 This overrides the usual logic which automatically classifies
377 commits as anchors, pseudomerges, delta queue commits, etc.
379 It also disables some coherency checks
380 which depend on metadata extracted from its commit message,
382 it is a snag if <commit-ish> is the anchor
383 for the previous upstream version in
384 git-debrebase new-upstream operations.
388 Requests (more) debugging. May be repeated.
392 =head1 UNSTITCHING AND LAUNDERING
394 Several operations unstitch and launder the branch first.
395 In detail this means:
397 =head2 Establish the current branch's ffq-prev
399 If ffq-prev is not yet recorded,
400 git-debrebase checks that the current branch is ahead of relevant
401 remote tracking branches.
402 The relevant branches depend on
403 the current branch (and its
411 The branch that git would merge from
412 (remote.<branch>.merge, remote.<branch>.remote);
416 The branch git would push to, if different
417 (remote.<branch>.pushRemote etc.);
421 For local dgit suite branches,
422 the corresponding tracking remote;
426 If you are on C<master>,
427 remotes/dgit/dgit/sid.
431 The apparently relevant ref names to check are filtered through
432 branch.<branch>.ffq-ffrefs,
433 which is a semicolon-separated list of glob patterns,
434 each optionally preceded by !; first match wins.
436 In each case it is a snag if
437 the local HEAD is behind the checked remote,
438 or if local HEAD has diverged from it.
439 All the checks are done locally using the remote tracking refs:
440 git-debrebase does not fetch anything from anywhere.
442 If these checks pass,
444 git-debrebse then records the current tip as ffq-prev.
446 =head2 Examine the branch
449 analyses the current HEAD's history to find the anchor
451 and the most recent breakwater tip.
453 =head2 Rewrite the commits into laundered form
455 Mixed debian+upstream commits are split into two commits each.
456 Delta queue (upstream files) commits bubble to the top.
458 and quilt patch additions,
461 This rewrite will always succeed, by construction.
462 The result is the laundered branch.
467 dgit-maint-rebase(7),