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(7)>.
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 It is hazardous to use plain git-rebase on a git-debrebase branch,
59 because git-rebase has a tendency to start the rebase
60 too far back in history,
61 and then drop important commits.
62 See L<git-debrebase(5)/ILLEGAL OPERATIONS>
64 =item git-debrebase status
66 Analyses the current branch,
67 both in terms of its contents,
68 and the refs which are relevant to git-debrebase,
69 and prints a human-readable summary.
71 Please do not attempt to parse the output;
72 it may be reformatted or reorganised in the future.
74 use one of the L<UNDERLYING AND SUPPLEMENTARY OPERATIONS>
77 =item git-debrebase conclude
79 Finishes a git-debrebase session,
80 tidying up the branch and making it fast forward again.
82 Specifically: if the branch is unstitched,
83 launders and restitches it,
84 making a new pseudomerge.
85 Otherwise, it is an error,
88 =item git-debrebase quick
90 Unconditionally launders and restitches the branch,
91 consuming any ffq-prev
92 and making a new pseudomerge.
94 If the branch is already laundered and stitched, does nothing.
96 =item git-debrebase prepush [--prose=<for commit message>]
98 If the branch is unstitched,
102 This is a good command to run before pushing to a git server.
103 You should consider using B<conclude> instead,
104 because that launders the branch too.
106 =item git-debrebase stitch [--prose=<for commit message>]
111 If there is no ffq-prev, it is an error, unless --noop-ok.
113 You should consider using B<prepush> or B<conclude> instead.
115 =item git-debrebase scrap
117 Throws away all the work since the branch was last stitched.
118 This is done by rewinding you to ffq-prev.
120 If you are in the middle of a git-rebase, will abort that too.
122 =item git-debrebase new-upstream <new-version> [<upstream-details>...]
124 Rebases the delta queue
125 onto a new upstream version. In detail:
127 Firstly, checks that the proposed rebase seems to make sense:
128 It is a snag unless the new upstream(s)
129 are fast forward from the previous upstream(s)
130 as found in the current breakwater anchor.
131 And, in the case of a multi-piece upstream
132 (a multi-component upstream, in dpkg-source terminology),
133 if the pieces are not in the same order, with the same names.
135 If all seems well, unstitches and launders the branch.
139 (in a private working area)
140 a new anchor merge commit,
141 on top of the breakwater tip,
142 and on top of that a commit to
143 update the version number in debian/changelog.
147 of the delta queue onto these new commits.
149 That git-rebase may complete successfully,
150 or it may require your assistance,
151 just like a normal git-rebase.
153 If you git-rebase --abort,
154 the whole new upstream operation is aborted,
155 except for the laundering.
158 may be a whole new Debian version, including revision,
159 or just the upstream part,
160 in which case -1 will be appended
161 to make the new Debian version.
163 The <upstream-details> are, optionally, in order:
167 =item <upstream-commit-ish>
169 The new upstream branch (or commit-ish).
170 The default is to look for one of these tags, in this order:
172 where U is the new upstream version.
173 (This is the same algorithm as L<git-deborig(1)>.)
175 It is a snag if the upstream contains a debian/ directory;
176 if forced to proceed,
177 git-debrebase will disregard the upstream's debian/ and
178 take (only) the packaging from the current breakwater.
180 =item <piece-name> <piece-upstream-commit-ish>
182 Specifies that this is a multi-piece upstream.
185 When such a pair is specified,
186 git-debrebase will first combine the pieces of the upstream
188 and then use the result as the combined new upstream.
190 For each <piece-name>,
191 the tree of the <piece-upstream-commit-ish>
192 becomes the subdirectory <piece-name>
193 in the combined new upstream
194 (supplanting any subdirectory that might be there in
195 the main upstream branch).
197 <piece-name> has a restricted syntax:
198 it may contain only ASCII alphanumerics and hyphens.
200 The combined upstream is itself recorded as a commit,
201 with each of the upstream pieces' commits as parents.
202 The combined commit contains an annotation
203 to allow a future git-debrebase new upstream operation
204 to make the coherency checks described above.
206 =item <git-rebase options>
208 These will be passed to git rebase.
210 If the upstream rebase is troublesome, -i may be helpful.
211 As with plain git-debrebase,
212 do not specify a base, or --onto, or --fork-point.
216 If you are planning to generate a .dsc,
217 you will also need to have, or generate,
218 actual orig tarball(s),
219 which must be identical to the rev-spec(s)
220 passed to git-debrebase.
221 git-debrebase does not concern itself with source packages
222 so neither helps with this, nor checks it.
224 L<git-archive(1)>, L<dgit(1)> and
225 L<gbp-import-orig(1)> may be able to help.
227 =item git-debrebase make-patches [--quiet-would-amend]
229 Generate patches in debian/patches/
230 representing the changes made to upstream files.
232 It is not normally necessary to run this command explicitly.
233 When uploading to Debian,
234 dgit and git-debrebase
235 will cooperate to regenerate patches as necessary.
236 When working with pure git remotes,
237 the patches are not needed.
239 Normally git-debrebase make-patches will
240 require a laundered branch.
241 (A laundered branch does not contain any patches.)
242 But if there are already some patches made by
243 git-debrebase make-patches,
244 and all that has happened is that more
245 changes to upstream files have been committed,
246 running it again can add the missing patches.
248 If the patches implied by the current branch
249 are not a simple superset of those already in debian/patches,
250 make-patches will fail with exit status 7,
251 and an error message.
252 (The message can be suppressed with --quiet-would-amend.)
253 If the problem is simply that
254 the existing patches were not made by git-debrebase,
255 using dgit quilt-fixup instead should succeed.
257 =item git-debrebase convert-from-unapplied [<upstream-commit-ish>]
259 =item git-debrebase convert-from-gbp [<upstream-commit-ish>]
261 Converts any of the following into a git-debrebase interchange branch:
267 a gbp patches-unapplied branch (but not a gbp pq patch-queue branch)
271 a patches-unapplied git packaging branch containing debian/patches,
276 a git branch for a package which has no Debian delta -
277 ie where upstream files are have not been modified in Debian,
278 so there are no patches
282 (These two commands operate identically and are simply aliases.)
284 The conversion is done by generating a new anchor merge,
285 converting any quilt patches as a delta queue,
286 and dropping the patches from the tree.
288 The upstream commit-ish should correspond to
289 the upstream branch or tag, if there is one.
290 It is a snag if it is not an ancestor of HEAD,
291 or if the history between the upstream and HEAD
292 contains commits which make changes to upstream files.
293 If it is not specified,
294 the same algorithm is used as for git-debrebase new-upstream.
296 It is also a snag if the specified upstream
297 has a debian/ subdirectory.
298 This check exists to detect certain likely user errors,
299 but if this situation is true and expected,
302 git-debrebase will try to look for the dgit archive view
303 of the most recent release,
304 and if it finds it will make a pseduomerge so that
305 your new git-debrebase view is appropriately fast forward.
307 The result is a well-formed git-debrebase interchange branch.
308 The result is also fast-forward from the original branch.
310 It is a snag if the new branch looks like it will have diverged,
311 just as for a laundering/unstitching call to git-debrebase;
312 See L</Establish the current branch's ffq-prev>, below.
314 Note that it is dangerous not to know whether you are
315 dealing with a (gbp) patches-unapplied branch containing quilt patches,
316 or a git-debrebase interchange branch.
318 using the wrong tool for the branch format might result in
319 a dropped patch queue!
323 =head1 UNDERLYING AND SUPPLEMENTARY OPERATIONS
327 =item git-debrebase breakwater
329 Prints the breakwater tip commitid.
330 If your HEAD branch is not fully laundered,
331 prints the tip of the so-far-laundered breakwater.
333 =item git-debrebase anchor
335 Prints the breakwater anchor commitid.
337 =item git-debrebase analyse
339 Walks the history of the current branch,
340 most recent commit first,
341 back until the most recent anchor,
342 printing the commit object id,
343 and commit type and info
344 (ie the semantics in the git-debrebase model)
347 =item git-debrebase record-ffq-prev
349 Establishes the current branch's ffq-prev,
350 as discussed in L</UNSTITCHING AND LAUNDERING>,
351 but does not launder the branch or move HEAD.
353 It is an error if the ffq-prev could not be recorded.
354 It is also an error if an ffq-prev has already been recorded,
357 =item git-debrebase launder-v0
359 Launders the branch without recording anything in ffq-prev.
360 Then prints some information about the current branch.
361 Do not use this operation;
362 it will be withdrawn soon.
364 =item git-debrebase convert-to-gbp
366 Converts a laundered branch into a
367 gbp patches-unapplied branch containing quilt patches.
368 The result is not fast forward from the interchange branch,
369 and any ffq-prev is deleted.
371 This is provided mostly for the test suite
372 and for unusual situations.
373 It should only be used with care and
374 with a proper understanding of the underlying theory.
376 Be sure to not accidentally treat the result as
377 a git-debrebase branch,
378 or you will drop all the patches!
380 =item git-debrebase convert-from-dgit-view [<convert-options>] [upstream]
382 Converts any dgit-compatible git branch
383 corresponding to a (possibly hypothetical) 3.0 quilt dsc source package
384 into a git-debrebase-compatible branch.
386 This operation should not be used
387 if the branch is already in git-debrebase form.
388 Normally git-debrebase will refuse to continue in this case
389 (or silently do nothing if the global --noop-ok option is used).
391 Some representation of the original upstream source code will be needed.
392 If I<upstream> is supplied, that must be a suitable upstream commit.
394 git-debrebase will look first for git tags (as for new-upstream),
395 and then for orig tarballs which it will ask dgit to process.
397 The upstream source must be exactly right and
398 all the patches in debian/patches must be up to date.
399 Applying the patches from debian/patches to the upstream source
400 must result in exactly your HEAD.
402 The output is laundered and stitched.
403 The resulting history is not particularly pretty,
404 especially if orig tarball(s) were imported
405 to produce a synthetic upstream commit.
407 The available convert-options are as follows.
408 (These must come after convert-from-dgit-view.)
412 =item --[no-]diagnose
414 Print additional error messages to help diagnose
415 failure to find an appropriate upstream.
416 --no-diagnose is the default.
418 =item --build-products-dir
420 Directory to look in for orig tarballs.
421 The default is the git config option
422 dgit.default.build-products-dir
423 or failing that, C<..>.
424 Passed on to dgit, if git-debrebase invokes dgit.
428 Whether to try to look for or use any orig tarballs.
429 --origs is the default.
433 Whether to try to look for or use any upstream git tags.
434 --tags is the default.
436 =item --always-convert-anyway
438 Perform the conversion operation,
439 producing unpleasant extra history,
440 even if the branch seems to be in git-debrebase form already.
441 This should not be done unless necessary,
442 and it should not be necessary.
446 =item git-debrebase forget-was-ever-debrebase
448 Deletes the ffq-prev and debrebase-last refs
449 associated with this branch,
450 that git-debrebase and dgit use to determine
451 whether this branch is managed by git-debrebase,
452 and what previous head may need to be stitched back in.
454 This can be useful if you were just playing with git-debrebase,
455 and have used git-reset --hard to go back to a commit
456 before your experiments.
458 Do not use this if you expect to run git-debrebase on the branch again.
464 This section documents the general options
466 (ie, the ones which immediately follow
470 on the command line).
471 Individual operations may have their own options which are
472 docuented under each operation.
478 Turns snag(s) with id <snag-id> into warnings.
480 Some troublesome things which git-debrebase encounters
482 (The specific instances are discussed
483 in the text for the relevant operation.)
485 When a snag is detected,
486 a message is printed to stderr containing the snag id
487 (in the form C<-f<snag-idE<gt>>),
488 along with some prose.
490 If snags are detected, git-debrebase does not continue,
491 unless the relevant -f<snag-id> is specified,
492 or --force is specified.
496 Turns all snags into warnings.
497 See the -f<snag-id> option.
499 Do not invoke git-debrebase --force in scripts and aliases;
500 instead, specify the particular -f<snag-id> for expected snags.
504 Suppresses the error in
505 some situations where git-debrebase does nothing,
506 because there is nothing to do.
508 The specific instances are discussed
509 in the text for the relvant operation.
511 =item --anchor=<commit-ish>
513 Treats <commit-ish> as an anchor.
514 This overrides the usual logic which automatically classifies
515 commits as anchors, pseudomerges, delta queue commits, etc.
517 It also disables some coherency checks
518 which depend on metadata extracted from its commit message,
520 it is a snag if <commit-ish> is the anchor
521 for the previous upstream version in
522 git-debrebase new-upstream operations.
524 =item --dgit=<program>
526 Run <program>, instead of dgit from PATH,
527 when invocation of dgit is necessary.
528 This is provided mostly for the benefit of the test suite.
532 Requests (more) debugging. May be repeated.
534 =item --experimntal-merge-resolution
536 Enable experimental code for handling general merges
537 (see L<git-debrebase(5)/General merges>).
539 This option may generate lossage of various kinds,
540 including misleading error messages,
541 references to nonexistent documentation, and
542 you being handed an incomprehensible pile of
543 multidimensional merge wreckage.
547 =head1 UNSTITCHING AND LAUNDERING
549 Several operations unstitch and launder the branch first.
550 In detail this means:
552 =head2 Establish the current branch's ffq-prev
554 If ffq-prev is not yet recorded,
555 git-debrebase checks that the current branch is ahead of relevant
556 remote tracking branches.
557 The relevant branches depend on
558 the current branch (and its
566 The branch that git would merge from
567 (remote.<branch>.merge, remote.<branch>.remote);
571 The branch git would push to, if different
572 (remote.<branch>.pushRemote etc.);
576 For local dgit suite branches,
577 the corresponding tracking remote;
581 If you are on C<master>,
582 remotes/dgit/dgit/sid.
586 The apparently relevant ref names to check are filtered through
587 branch.<branch>.ffq-ffrefs,
588 which is a semicolon-separated list of glob patterns,
589 each optionally preceded by !; first match wins.
591 In each case it is a snag if
592 the local HEAD is behind the checked remote,
593 or if local HEAD has diverged from it.
594 All the checks are done locally using the remote tracking refs:
595 git-debrebase does not fetch anything from anywhere.
597 If these checks pass,
599 git-debrebse then records the current tip as ffq-prev.
601 =head2 Examine the branch
604 analyses the current HEAD's history to find the anchor
606 and the most recent breakwater tip.
608 =head2 Rewrite the commits into laundered form
610 Mixed debian+upstream commits are split into two commits each.
611 Delta queue (upstream files) commits bubble to the top.
613 and quilt patch additions,
616 This rewrite will always succeed, by construction.
617 The result is the laundered branch.
622 dgit-maint-rebase(7),