*********************************
A Quick Start Guide to TortoiseHg
*********************************

.. module:: tour
	:synopsis: A Gentle Introduction to Using TortoiseHg on Windows

Welcome to TortoiseHg and the Mercurial!  TortoiseHg is a Windows
Explorer shell extension and a set of graphical applications that serve
as a friendly front-end to the Mercurial distributed version control
system (DVCS).   All TortoiseHg functionality is reachable from Explorer
context menus as well as from a command line application named
:command:`hgtk`.  Mercurial commands are also available from the
standard :command:`hg` command line application.


Configuring TortoiseHg
======================

Your first step should be to make sure that you are correctly identified
to TortoiseHg.  You do this by opening the global settings dialog.
Right click on the desktop background and select
:menuselection:`TortoiseHg --> Global Settings`.

.. figure:: figures/cmenu-global-settings.jpg
	:alt: Desktop Context Menu

	Open "Global Settings" from the desktop

This opens the TortoiseHg settings dialog, editing your global (user)
configuration.  If you are using the command line, the global settings
dialog can be opened by :command:`hgtk userconfig`.

.. figure:: figures/settings.png
	:alt: Settings Dialog

	TortoiseHg Settings Dialog

First select the :guilabel:`Commit` page and enter a name in the
:guilabel:`Username` field.

.. note::
	If you neglect to configure a username TortoiseHg will ask you to
	enter one when you try to *commit*, which is the first time a
	username is actually required.

.. note::
	There are no hard fast rules on how to format your username, the
	field is free form, but the following convention is commonly used::
	
		FullName <email>
		
	for example ::
	
		Donald Duck <donaldduck@example.net>
	
	The email address is stripped when viewing history in the changelog
	viewer, and the built-in web server obfuscates email addresses to
	prevent SPAM.


Next, select the :guilabel:`TortoiseHg` page and select the
:guilabel:`Three-way Merge Tool` entry.  In the drop down list you will
find all of the merge tools detected on your computer (kdiff3 is
provided by the Windows installer) and a number of internal merge
behaviors.  Select your preferred merge tool.

If you prefer for TortoiseHg to also use your selected merge tool for
visual diffs, you can leave the :guilabel:`Visual Diff Tool`
unspecified.  Otherwise, select your favorite visual diff tool from the
drop down list of detected visual diff tools.

If there are no options in either drop-down list, you must install a
diff/merge tool that is supported by our mergetools.rc or configure your
own tool.

.. note::
	If you installed TortoiseHg from source, you need to add our
	contrib/mergetools.ini file to your HGRC path in some way.  One
	approach is to %include it from your ~/.hgrc file.

Feel free to configure other global settings while you have the dialog
open.  You will have the chance later to override these global settings
with repository local settings, if required.

Click the :guilabel:`Ok` button to save the changes you have made and
close the settings dialog.

.. note::
	Most TortoiseHg tools require a restart to pick up changes made in the
	settings dialog.

Getting Acquainted
==================

Mercurial supports many different
`collaboration models <http://tortoisehg.bitbucket.org/hgbook/1.6/collaborating-with-other-people.html>`_.
This chapter describes just one of those models: a single central repository.
The central repository model does not scale as well as other models, but
it is the most familiar to those coming from other revision tools and
thus is the most common approach people start with.

To get started, suppose you volunteer to create the central repository.
There are ways to `convert <http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/RepositoryConversion>`_
non-Mercurial repositories into Mercurial repositories, but this example
assumes you are starting from scratch.

Initialize the repository
=========================

Create the initial repository on your local machine by using the
:guilabel:`Create Repository Here` shell menu option, or in a command
shell within the folder, type :command:`hgtk init`.  You only need to do
this in once in the root folder of your project.

.. figure:: figures/init.png
	:alt: Init dialog

	Repository Init Dialog

We suggest you keep :guilabel:`Add special files (.hgignore, ...)`
checked, and do not check
:guilabel:`Make repo compatible with Mercurial 1.0`
unless you have a strong reason to do so.

After pressing :guilabel:`Create`, Mercurial creates a subdirectory in
your project folder named :file:`.hg`. This is where Mercurial keeps all
its version data.  It is called the *repository* or *store*, while the
directory containing the source files is called the *working directory*.
You never need to specify the :file:`.hg` directory when running
commands, you only need to specify the working directory root.  It is
mentioned here just so you better understand how Mercurial works.

.. warning::
	It is dangerous to manually edit the files in :file:`.hg` directory,
	repository corruption can occur.  :file:`.hg/hgrc` is perhaps the
	only exception to this rule.

Add files
=========

Now it's time to tell Mercurial which files must be tracked and which
files must be ignored. There are a lot of way to do this:

1. To add files, select them in explorer and then right click and select
   :menuselection:`TortoiseHg --> Add Files...` in the context menu. A
   dialog will open for you to double check the selected files and
   accept the add operation.
 
2. Or open the status tool (:menuselection:`TortoiseHg --> View File Status`
   or :command:`hgtk status` from the command line). Check the files you
   want to add and then press the :guilabel:`Add` button. From the
   status tool you can launch the ignore filter tool from the context
   menu of a unknown file (the menu option is named :guilabel:`ignore`)
   
3. Or skip adding new files as a separate step and have the commit tool
   add them implicitly.  The commit tool is very similar to the status
   tool and allows you to do all of the same tasks. In this tool you
   can add and commit an untracked file by just checking the file and
   pressing :guilabel:`Commit`.
   
4. To ignore files, open the ignore filter dialog:
   :menuselection:`TortoiseHg --> Edit Ignore Filter` or from command
   line :command:`hgtk hgignore`. Choose a file from the list or
   manually type in a *Glob* or *Regular expression* filter and then
   press :guilabel:`Add`. Changes to the ignore filter take effect
   immediately.
   
.. note::
	The :file:`.hgignore` file, contained in the working directory root,
	is typically tracked (checked in).

.. note::
	It is good practice to not have many *unknown* files in your working
	directory, as it makes it too easy to forget to add vital new files.
	It is recommended that you keep your :file:`.hgignore` file up to
	date.


Commit
======
   
Commit your local repository by right-clicking anywhere in the folder,
or on the folder itself, and then selecting :guilabel:`Hg Commit ...`,
or from command line type :command:`hgtk commit`.  Write a commit
message, select the files you wish to commit, then press
:guilabel:`Commit`. If, after the commit, you realize that something was
wrong with the message or the selected files, you can cancel the last
commit using the :guilabel:`Undo` button.  Your previous commit message
will be in the message history drop-down, so you do not have to type it
in again from scratch.

.. note::
	You lose the ability to easily undo the last commit when you close
	the commit tool.

.. figure:: figures/commit.png
	:alt: Commit dialog

	Commit Tool

Share the repository
====================

Now you are ready to share your work. You do this by making a copy of
your repository in a public location that everyone in your group can
read. Mercurial calls this copy operation *cloning your repository*. To
clone your repository to a shared drive, open the clone tool
:menuselection:`TortoiseHg --> Clone a Repository`, or
:command:`hgtk clone` from command line.  Then enter the destination
path.

.. figure:: figures/share.png
	:alt: Clone dialog

	Clone Dialog

When you create a clone for the purposes of generating a *central
repository* there is no reason for that clone to have a working
directory. Checking
:guilabel:`do not update the new working directory` will prevent
Mercurial from checking out a working copy of the repository in the
central repository clone.  It will only have the :file:`.hg` directory,
which stores the entire revision history of the project.

Other team members can clone from this clone with or without a checked
out working directory.


Fetching from the group repository
==================================

You want to start collaborating with your team.  They tell you something
like *fetch the repository from x*.  What does that mean? It means that
you want to make a copy of the repository located at x on your local
machine.  Mercurial calls this cloning and TortiseHg has a dialog
for it. Right click in the directory where you want your copy and select
:menuselection:`TortoiseHg --> Clone a Repository`, or
:command:`hgtk clone` from command line.

.. figure:: figures/clone.png
	:alt: Clone dialog

	Clone Dialog

This time you do want to update the working directory because you want
to work on the project, uncheck
:guilabel:`do not update the new working directory` so Mercurial updates
the working directory with the *tip* revision in your new clone.


Working with your repository
============================

Suppose you've introduced some changes. It is easy to see that there are
a couple of directories with changes pending.  You can traverse the
directories to find specific changes and commit them from Explorer. A
quicker way is to use the commit tool:

.. figure:: figures/overlayicons.png
	:alt: Overlay Icons 

	Overlay Icons on Vista

The commit tool gives you a way to see differences or you can use your
visual difference tool (kdiff). Mercurial allows you to commit many
changes before you decide to synchronize (share changes) with the group
repository.


When you're ready to publish your changes, you

1. Commit your changes to your local repository (see above).
2. Pull changes from the group repository into your repository,
   :menuselection:`TortoiseHg --> Repository Browser` or
   :command:`hgtk log`, choose the path to the group repository
   in the syncbar and then :guilabel:`Pull`.
3. If some changesets were pulled, merge those changes with your local
   changes and then commit the merge into your local repository. From
   the changelog viewer (:menuselection:`TortoiseHg --> Repository Browser`
   or :command:`hgtk log`) open the context menu over the changeset
   which you want to merge and select :guilabel:`merge with`.
   Finally, in the merge dialog, press :guilabel:`Merge` and then
   :guilabel:`Commit`.
4. Ensure your merged work still builds and passes your extensive test suite.
5. Push your changes to the group repository,
   :menuselection:`TortoiseHg --> Repository Browser` or :command:`hgtk log`,
   choose the path to group repository and then :guilabel:`Push`.

Which may sound complicated, but most of the time it is just pushing the
buttons in the commit and changelog tools.

.. note::
	Merges can be safely restarted if necessary.

Mercurial makes collaboration easy, fast, and productive.
Learn more at Mercurial's `wiki <http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/>`_.

.. vim: noet ts=4