Re: [Arx-users] Flailing around, and a segfault

[Walter Landry]

Kevin Smith <address@hidden> wrote:
> So I'm trying to understand how to interact with a remote archive
> (wlandry arx, in this case). The example on the ArX web site tells you
> how to get a readonly copy, but not how to fork it so you can work on a
> branch. Same with section 4.4 of the manual.
> 
> I did a "get", and then a "fork", and I was able to commit changes to my
> local archive. But now I can't see how to merge the latest stuff off
> ~wlandry. The answers might be in the docs, but I'm not seeing them. The
> built-in --help commands are just a bit too terse. In particular, they
> could use examples of what a [REVISION] might look like, or a [branch].

The command to merge is "merge".

> My best guess (looking at section 5.7.1) didn't work:
> 
> address@hidden test $ arx archives
> address@hidden
>         file:///home/kevins/_arx-archive
> address@hidden
>         http://superbeast.ucsd.edu/~landry/ArX/wlandry
> address@hidden test $ arx fork address@hidden/arx test-arx arx
> Can't fork from this branch.  It doesn't exist in the archive.
>         address@hidden/arx

This didn't work because "arx" is not a branch with revisions.
"arx.2.1" is, though.

> I would have thought that the browse command would show what is in a
> remote archive. Apparently it only works on the local archive?

No, it should work fine with a remote archive.  If you want to browse
only the archive, be sure to add a "/" at the end.  As in

  arx browse address@hidden/

If you omit it, it will browse the branch "address@hidden" in
your default archive.  Yes, this is confusing.  Yes, it could be
better documented.  Yes, it should probably give an error message if
the branch doesn't exist in the archive.

In any case, I would like a better way of handling default archives.

> Along the way, I tried this:
> 
> address@hidden test $ arx fork address@hidden/arx.2.1,0 test-arx arx
> Segmentation fault
> 
> The stack trace in gdb's was even less helpful than the last one.

This should work.  Are you running the latest code?  It doesn't have
the fix for gnome-vfs 2.8 yet.  I am trying to figure out how to make
it work for old and new versions.  If that is not the case, what
happens if you use --verbose?

> Other questions:
> 
> I feel like I want to rename my local archive to eliminate the
> "--archive" at the end. Is there a clean and simple way to do this (and
> is it a good idea to fit in with the new ArX world?)

You can fork all of your projects to a new archive without the
--archive at the end.  Changing what is already there is much more
tricky.  You have to change all of the log files and patches, and
update the checksums.  Essentially, you would be changing history, and
ArX doesn't support that.

> How can I view the checkin history of a single file? In particular, if
> I'm working in my own branch of the ArX code, how can I view the history
> of the file prior to my branching?

You can run "arx changelog" and search it for that particular file.
Then you can read the log for that revision to maybe get an idea of
what happened.  However, what you really want is an "annotate"
command.  That is on the TODO (after Windows/OS X support and the new
tag mechanism).

> I suspect if I could just grasp how ArX thinks about remote archives,
> this would all become much more clear.

I think you're almost there.

Walter