Mercurial supports several ways to specify revisions.
A plain integer is treated as a revision number. Negative integers are treated as sequential offsets from the tip, with -1 denoting the tip, -2 denoting the revision prior to the tip, and so forth.
A 40-digit hexadecimal string is treated as a unique revision identifier. A hexadecimal string less than 40 characters long is treated as a unique revision identifier and is referred to as a short-form identifier. A short-form identifier is only valid if it is the prefix of exactly one full-length identifier.
Any other string is treated as a bookmark, tag, or branch name. A bookmark is a movable pointer to a revision. A tag is a permanent name associated with a revision. A branch name denotes the tipmost open branch head of that branch - or if they are all closed, the tipmost closed head of the branch. Bookmark, tag, and branch names must not contain the ":" character.
The reserved name "tip" always identifies the most recent revision.
The reserved name "null" indicates the null revision. This is the revision of an empty repository, and the parent of revision 0.
The reserved name "." indicates the working directory parent. If no working directory is checked out, it is equivalent to null. If an uncommitted merge is in progress, "." is the revision of the first parent.
Finally, commands that expect a single revision (like "hg update") also accept revsets (see below for details). When given a revset, they use the last revision of the revset. A few commands accept two single revisions (like "hg diff"). When given a revset, they use the first and the last revisions of the revset.
Mercurial supports a functional language for selecting a set of revisions. Expressions in this language are called revsets.
The language supports a number of predicates which are joined by infix operators. Parenthesis can be used for grouping.
Identifiers such as branch names may need quoting with single or double quotes if they contain characters like "-" or if they match one of the predefined predicates.
Special characters can be used in quoted identifiers by escaping them, e.g., "\n" is interpreted as a newline. To prevent them from being interpreted, strings can be prefixed with "r", e.g. "r'...'".
There is a single prefix operator:
These are the supported infix operators:
An alternative syntax is "x..y".
All other prefix, infix and postfix operators have lower priority than "##". For example, "a1 ## a2~2" is equivalent to "(a1 ## a2)~2".
For example:
[revsetalias] issue(a1) = grep(r'\bissue[ :]?' ## a1 ## r'\b|\bbug\(' ## a1 ## r'\)')
"issue(1234)" is equivalent to "grep(r'\bissue[ :]?1234\b|\bbug\(1234\)')" in this case. This matches against all of "issue 1234", "issue:1234", "issue1234" and "bug(1234)".
There is a single postfix operator:
Where noted, predicates that perform string matching can accept a pattern string. The pattern may be either a literal, or a regular expression. If the pattern starts with "re:", the remainder of the pattern is treated as a regular expression. Otherwise, it is treated as a literal. To match a pattern that actually starts with "re:", use the prefix "literal:".
Matching is case-sensitive, unless otherwise noted. To perform a case- insensitive match on a case-sensitive predicate, use a regular expression, prefixed with "(?i)".
For example, "tag(r're:(?i)release')" matches "release" or "RELEASE" or "Release", etc.
The following predicates are supported:
The pattern without explicit kind like "glob:" is expected to be relative to the current directory and match against a file or a directory.
Accepts 0 or more changesets. Will return empty list when passed no args. Greatest common ancestor of a single changeset is that changeset.
If depth is specified, the result only includes changesets up to the specified generation.
Pattern matching is supported for 'name'. See 'hg help revisions.patterns'.
Pattern matching is supported for 'string'. See 'hg help revisions.patterns'.
Bundle must be specified by the -R option.
The pattern without explicit kind like "glob:" is expected to be relative to the current directory and match against a file exactly for efficiency.
Pattern matching is supported for 'string'. See 'hg help revisions.patterns'.
If depth is specified, the result only includes changesets up to the specified generation.
Pattern matching is supported for 'value'. See 'hg help revisions.patterns'.
For a faster but less accurate result, consider using "filelog()" instead.
This predicate uses "glob:" as the default kind of pattern.
For performance reasons, visits only revisions mentioned in the file-level filelog, rather than filtering through all changesets (much faster, but doesn't include deletes or duplicate changes). For a slower, more accurate result, use "file()".
The pattern without explicit kind like "glob:" is expected to be relative to the current directory and match against a file exactly for efficiency.
If some linkrev points to revisions filtered by the current repoview, we'll work around it to return a non-filtered value.
Line range corresponds to 'file' content at 'startrev' and should hence be consistent with file size. If startrev is not specified, working directory's parent is used.
By default, ancestors of 'startrev' are returned. If 'descend' is True, descendants of 'startrev' are returned though renames are (currently) not followed in this direction.
For a regular expression or case sensitive search of these fields, use "grep(regex)".
To match more than one field pass the list of fields to match separated by spaces (e.g. "author description").
Valid fields are most regular revision fields and some special fields.
Regular revision fields are "description", "author", "branch", "date", "files", "phase", "parents", "substate", "user" and "diff". Note that "author" and "user" are synonyms. "diff" refers to the contents of the revision. Two revisions matching their "diff" will also match their "files".
Special fields are "summary" and "metadata": "summary" matches the first line of the description. "metadata" is equivalent to matching "description user date" (i.e. it matches the main metadata fields).
"metadata" is the default field which is used when no fields are specified. You can match more than one field at a time.
The pattern without explicit kind like "glob:" is expected to be relative to the current directory and match against a file or a directory.
Pattern matching is supported for 'namespace'. See 'hg help revisions.patterns'.
Only non-public and non-obsolete changesets can be 'phasedivergent'. (EXPERIMENTAL)
If any of specified revisions is not present in the local repository, the query is normally aborted. But this predicate allows the query to continue even in such cases.
The pattern without explicit kind like "glob:" is expected to be relative to the current directory and match against a file or a directory.
The keys can be:
The "topo" sort order cannot be combined with other sort keys. This sort takes one optional argument, "topo.firstbranch", which takes a revset that specifies what topographical branches to prioritize in the sort.
Pattern matching is supported for 'name'. See 'hg help revisions.patterns'.
Pattern matching is supported for 'string'. See 'hg help revisions.patterns'.
New predicates (known as "aliases") can be defined, using any combination of existing predicates or other aliases. An alias definition looks like:
<alias> = <definition>
in the "revsetalias" section of a Mercurial configuration file. Arguments of the form 'a1', 'a2', etc. are substituted from the alias into the definition.
For example,
[revsetalias] h = heads() d(s) = sort(s, date) rs(s, k) = reverse(sort(s, k))
defines three aliases, "h", "d", and "rs". "rs(0:tip, author)" is exactly equivalent to "reverse(sort(0:tip, author))".
Command line equivalents for 'hg log':
-f -> ::. -d x -> date(x) -k x -> keyword(x) -m -> merge() -u x -> user(x) -b x -> branch(x) -P x -> !::x -l x -> limit(expr, x)
Some sample queries:
hg log -r "branch(default)"
hg log -r "branch(default) and 1.5:: and not merge()"
hg log -r "head() and not closed()"
hg log -r "1.3::1.5 and keyword(bug) and file('hgext/*')"
hg log -r "sort(date('May 2008'), user)"
hg log -r "(keyword(bug) or keyword(issue)) and not ancestors(tag())"
hg update :@
hg diff -r 1.3::1.5