[darcs-users] some darcs comments from Johan Tibell

[Trent W. Buck]

Johan Tibell <johan.tibell at gmail.com> writes:

>>     $ time ssh fs darcs get --lazy $PWD $PWD+issue1234
>>     [...]
>>     $ du -sh $PWD $PWD+issue1234
>>     52M     /home/twb/Desktop/Darcs/darcs
>>     4.7M    /home/twb/Desktop/Darcs/darcs+issue1234
>
> Is it best practice to create your topic branches inside the directory
> of the main branch as done in this case?

I think you've misread $PWD+issue1234 -- it creates a branch in the same
directory as HEAD ($PWD), not *within* HEAD, e.g.  $PWD/issue1234.

In other words,

    ~/Desktop/Darcs/darcs               -- is the HEAD
    ~/Desktop/Darcs/darcs+issue1234     -- is a branch
    ~/Desktop/Darcs                     -- isn't a repo at all

> Also it doesn't have quite the same effect. When checking out a new
> branch in Git using "git checkout -b" untracked/uncommited files are
> still present in the working directory of the new branch

Granted.  I think you really want in-repo branching rather than just
*fast* branching that Darcs currently has.  In-repo branches have been
discussed before -- I expect Eric can cite the threads and BTS bugs.

As a fugly hack (re the working tree), you could

    cp -a $PWD $PWD+branch
    darcs optimize --relink --sibling $PWD+branch   # reclaim disk space
    cd $PWD+branch

> This also means that already compiled files in dist/ (created by
> Cabal) can be more easily shared between branches.

Granted.  I usually cheat with a --builddir that's shared between repos,
or by cheating with cp -a (as above).  I keep meaning to get C caching
(distcc?) working, too.

>>     - they're not using --lazy for branches;
>
> Aside: I want all my history locally so I don't use lazy.

Fair enough, when HEAD is remote.  If HEAD is local, then a lazy branch
won't lose any disconnectedness.  Even with hard linking, it's noticably
faster for me (darcs 2.0.2, 8000-ish patches):

    $ time darcs get --complete $PWD $PWD+delete-me-complete
    Copying patches, to get lazy repository hit ctrl-C...
    Finished getting.

    real    0m27.379s
    user    0m8.053s
    sys     0m9.451s

    $ time darcs get --lazy $PWD $PWD+delete-me-lazy
    Finished getting.

    real    0m1.171s
    user    0m0.684s
    sys     0m0.271s

>>     - they're using HUGE repositories.
>
> Why assume when you can ask?

Sorry; "branching is slow" is a regular complaint we get on darcs-users,
so I was speaking generally rather than about you specifically.

>> I think this is just git setting $LESS to FSR (unless it's already set
>> to something else).  The help text "disappears" because your terminal
>> emulator has been configured that way.  Try ^A:altscreen off in GNU
>> Screen -- I dunno about other terminals.  LESS=F should help if you use
>> less.
>
> I don't want to change the default behavior of less for all uses. Can
> I have it do this just for darcs?

Only in an ugly way: DARCS_PAGER=darcs-less, where darcs-less is just a
script in your path of the form

    #!/bin/sh
    less -F "$@"