Why Does Update with No Args Move Bookmark?

[Becker, Mischa J]

>> > Why does `hg update` without arguments move a bookmark [1]?  It
>> > seems like this could cause unintentional problems if someone does
>> > work on a bookmark, and un-mindfully runs `hg up`.  This feels like a bug.
>
>> The short answer is that it simplifies the common scenario where you
>> pull changes from some public server, and you have not made any
>> commits of your own. "hg up" moves you to the tip of the current
>> branch and drags the bookmark with it so you are ready to start working.
>
> I agree that pulling from a public server is a common scenario, but disagree that the bookmark should move.  I think the
> only operation that should cause a bookmark to move is a commit, or a specific command to do so.
>
> Whenever I create a branch, Mercurial warns me: "branches are permanent and global, did you want a bookmark?" If
> bookmarks are supposed to be lightweight branches, moving a bookmark on an update breaks that model.  If I run
> `hg up` without any arguments, if I'm on a line that has a bookmark, it should update to or keep me on the bookmark, not
> to some other line.  Moving the bookmark breaks the branch-iness of the bookmark. This behavior makes it really unlikely
> (as others have attested) that I'll ever use this feature. And I really, really want to use this feature.

My impression is that bookmarks were implemented to generally act how Git branches do.  With my luck, that's probably completely wrong. :p  But as someone who has never used Git and doesn't share repos with a large number of other people, bookmarks never seem to act the way I want\expect them to and I've mostly stopped using them.

i.e. When I'm bookmarking a revision, I'm bookmarking that specific change set, not that branch, not that tip, etc.  If I add a new commit, I want the bookmark to stay where it was. If I do some history editing and strip a bookmarked change set, I want the bookmark to be deleted also, not moved to the first undeleted ancestor.

Now that I look at it in more detail, my first example might actually be a thg bug because I've told it to never activate bookmarks but it always does.

Mischa

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