newbie questions about git design and features (some wrt hg)

[Matt Mackall]

On Fri, Feb 02, 2007 at 10:55:48AM +0100, Jakub Narebski wrote:
> How Mercurial solves problem of multiple _persistent_ branches? Does it
> add pointers to commits somewhere deeper in changelog / revlog?

Each changeset may have a branch marker.

Here's branches in use with an import of mutt's CVS history:

$ hg branches
mutt-0-94                      208:b2cc0abd8fe0
HEAD                           207:a505693b54c1
mutt-0-93                      134:d59345944030
muttintl                       1:29510de8b3fc
$ hg co HEAD
176 files updated, 0 files merged, 8 files removed, 0 files unresolved
$ hg branch
HEAD
$ hg branch devel
$ hg branch
devel
$ hg branch devel

> BTW does Mercurial have tags?

Yes. Both local and revision-controlled.

> Nice to know. You compress only file deltas, or also file revision
> metadata? Do you compress manifests (trees) and commits (or at least
> commit messages) too?

All three use the same underlying storage format, so yes.

-- 
Mathematics is the supreme nostalgia of our time.