man > DARCS(1)

DARCS(1)                               General Commands Manual                              DARCS(1)

NAME
       darcs - an advanced revision control system

SYNOPSIS
       darcs command <arguments|[options]>...

       Where the commands and their respective arguments are

       darcs help [<darcs_command> [darcs_subcommand]]
       darcs initialize [<directory>]
       darcs add <file|directory> ...
       darcs whatsnew [file|directory]...
       darcs record [file|directory]...
       darcs clone <repository> [<directory>]
       darcs pull [repository]...
       darcs push [repository]
       darcs move <source> ... <destination>
       darcs remove <file|directory> ...
       darcs replace <old> <new> <file> ...
       darcs log [file|directory]...
       darcs annotate [file|directory]
       darcs diff [file|directory]...
       darcs show contents [file]...
       darcs show dependencies
       darcs show files [file|directory]...
       darcs show index
       darcs show pristine
       darcs show repo
       darcs show authors
       darcs show tags
       darcs show patch-index
       darcs test [[initialization] command]
       darcs revert [file|directory]...
       darcs unrevert
       darcs amend [file|directory]...
       darcs rebase pull [repository]...
       darcs rebase apply <patchfile>
       darcs rebase suspend
       darcs rebase unsuspend
       darcs rebase obliterate
       darcs rebase log
       darcs rollback [file|directory]...
       darcs unrecord
       darcs obliterate
       darcs tag [tagname]
       darcs setpref <pref> <value>
       darcs send [repository]
       darcs apply <patchfile>
       darcs optimize clean
       darcs optimize http
       darcs optimize reorder
       darcs optimize enable-patch-index
       darcs optimize disable-patch-index
       darcs optimize compress
       darcs optimize uncompress
       darcs optimize relink
       darcs optimize pristine
       darcs optimize upgrade
       darcs optimize cache <directory> ...
       darcs dist
       darcs mark-conflicts [file|directory]...
       darcs repair
       darcs convert darcs-2 <source> [<destination>]
       darcs convert export
       darcs convert import [<directory>]
       darcs fetch [repository]...


DESCRIPTION
       Darcs is a free, open source revision control system. It is:

       •  Distributed:  Every  user  has access to the full command set, removing boundaries between
          server and client or committer and non‐committers.

       •  Interactive: Darcs is easy to learn and efficient to use because it asks you questions  in
          response  to  simple  commands,  giving  you  choices in your work flow. You can choose to
          record one change in a file, while ignoring another. As you update from upstream, you  can
          review each patch name, even the full `diff' for interesting patches.

       •  Smart:  Originally developed by physicist David Roundy, darcs is based on a unique algebra
          of patches.  This smartness lets you respond to changing demands in ways that would other‐
          wise not be possible. Learn more about spontaneous branches with darcs.

OPTIONS
       Different options are accepted by different Darcs commands.  Each  command's  most  important
       options  are  listed  in  the COMMANDS section.  For a full list of all options accepted by a
       particular command, run `darcs command --help'.

   Selecting Patches:
       The --patches option yields patches with names matching  an  *extended*  regular  expression.
       See regex(7) for details.  The --matches option yields patches that match a logical (Boolean)
       expression: one or more primitive expressions combined by grouping (parentheses) and the com‐
       plement  (not),  conjunction  (and) and disjunction (or) operators.  The C notation for logic
       operators (!, && and ||) can also be used.

       - --patches=regex is a synonym for --matches='name regex' -  --hash=HASH  is  a  synonym  for
       --matches='hash  HASH'  -  --from-patch and --to-patch are synonyms for --from-match='name...
       and --to-match='name...  - --from-patch and --to-match can be unproblematically combined:
         `darcs log --from-patch='html.*documentation' --to-match='date 20040212'`

       The following primitive Boolean expressions are supported:

         exact STRING - check literal STRING is equal to patch name.
         name REGEX - match REGEX against patch name.
         author REGEX - match REGEX against patch author.
         hunk REGEX - match REGEX against contents of a hunk patch.
         comment REGEX - match REGEX against the full log message.
         hash HASH - match HASH against (a prefix of) the hash of a patch.
         date DATE - match DATE against the patch date.
         touch REGEX - match file paths for a patch.

       Here are some examples:

         darcs log --match 'exact "Resolve issue17: use dynamic memory allocation."'
         darcs log --match 'name issue17'
         darcs log --match 'name "^[Rr]esolve issue17\>"'
         darcs log --match 'author "David Roundy"'
         darcs log --match 'author droundy'
         darcs log --match 'author droundy AT darcs.net'
         darcs log --match 'hunk "foo = 2"'
         darcs log --match 'hunk "^instance .* Foo where$"'
         darcs log --match 'comment "prevent deadlocks"'
         darcs log --match 'hash c719567e92c3b0ab9eddd5290b705712b8b918ef'
         darcs log --match 'hash c7195'
         darcs log --match 'date "2006-04-02 22:41"'
         darcs log --match 'date "tea time yesterday"'
         darcs log --match 'touch src/foo.c'
         darcs log --match 'touch src/'
         darcs log --match 'touch "src/*.(c|h)"'


COMMANDS
       darcs help [<darcs_command> [darcs_subcommand]]
           Without arguments, `darcs help` prints a categorized list of darcs commands and  a  short
           description  of  each one.  With an extra argument, `darcs help foo` prints detailed help
           about the darcs command foo.


   Most used/starting out:
       darcs initialize [<directory>]
           The `darcs initialize` command creates an empty repository in the current directory. This
           repository lives in a new `_darcs` directory, which stores version control  metadata  and
           settings.

           Any  existing  files  and  subdirectories become UNSAVED changes: record them with `darcs
           record --look-for-adds`.

           By default, patches of the new repository are in the darcs-2 semantics.   However  it  is
           possible to create a repository in darcs-1 semantics with the flag `--darcs-1`, althought
           this  is  not  recommended except for sharing patches with a project that uses patches in
           the darcs-1 semantics.

           Initialize is commonly abbreviated to `init`.

       darcs add <file|directory> ...
           Generally the working tree contains both files that should be version controlled (such as
           source code) and files that Darcs should ignore (such as executables  compiled  from  the
           source  code).  The `darcs add` command is used to tell Darcs which files to version con‐
           trol.

           When an existing project is first imported into a Darcs repository, it is common  to  run
           `darcs add -r *` or `darcs record -l` to add all initial source files into darcs.

           Adding symbolic links (symlinks) is not supported.

           Darcs  will ignore all files and folders that look "boring".  The `--boring` option over‐
           rides this behaviour.

           Darcs will not add file if another file in the same folder has the same name, except  for
           case.   The  `--case-ok`  option  overrides this behaviour.  Windows and OS X usually use
           filesystems that do not allow files a folder to have the same name except for  case  (for
           example,  `ReadMe`  and `README`).  If `--case-ok` is used, the repository might be unus‐
           able on those systems!


       darcs whatsnew [file|directory]...
           The `darcs whatsnew` command lists unrecorded changes to the working tree.  If you  spec‐
           ify  a  set of files and directories, only unrecorded changes to those files and directo‐
           ries are listed.

           With the `--summary` option, the changes are condensed to one line per file, with mnemon‐
           ics to indicate the nature and extent of the change.  The `--look-for-adds` option causes
           candidates for `darcs add` to be included in the summary output.  Summary  mnemonics  are
           as follows:

           *  `A f` and `A d/` respectively mean an added file or directory.  * `R f` and `R d/` re‐
           spectively mean a removed file or directory.  * `M f -N +M rP`  means  a  modified  file,
           with `N` lines deleted, `M`
             lines added, and `P` lexical replacements.  * `f -> g` means a moved file or directory.
           * `a f` and `a d/` respectively mean a new, but unadded, file or
             directory, when using `--look-for-adds`.

             An exclamation mark (!) as in `R! foo.c`, means the change is known to
             conflict with a change in another patch.  The phrase `duplicated`
             means the change is known to be identical to a change in another patch.

           The  `--machine-readable` option implies `--summary` while making it more parsable. Modi‐
           fied files are only shown as `M f`, and moves are shown in two lines: `F f` and `T g` (as
           in 'From f To g').

           By default, `darcs whatsnew` uses Darcs' internal format for changes.  To see  some  con‐
           text  (unchanged  lines) around each change, use the `--unified` option.  To view changes
           in conventional `diff` format, use the `darcs diff` command; but note that  `darcs  what‐
           snew` is faster.

           This  command  exits  unsuccessfully (returns a non-zero exit status) if there are no un‐
           recorded changes.

       darcs record [file|directory]...
           The `darcs record` command is used to create a patch from changes in  the  working  tree.
           If you specify a set of files and directories, changes to other files will be skipped.

           Every patch has a name, an optional description, an author and a date.

           Darcs  will launch a text editor (see `darcs help environment`) after the interactive se‐
           lection, to let you enter the patch name (first line) and the patch  description  (subse‐
           quent lines).

           You can supply the patch name in advance with the `-m` option, in which case no text edi‐
           tor is launched, unless you use `--edit-long-comment`.

           The patch description is an optional block of free-form text.  It is used to supply addi‐
           tional  information  that doesn't fit in the patch name.  For example, it might include a
           rationale of WHY the change was necessary.

           A technical difference between patch name and patch description, is  that  matching  with
           the flag `-p` is only done on patch names.

           Finally,  the  `--logfile`  option  allows you to supply a file that already contains the
           patch name and description.  This is useful if  a  previous  record  failed  and  left  a
           `_darcs/patch_description.txt` file.

           Each  patch  is  attributed  to  its author, usually by email address (for example, `Fred
           Bloggs <fred AT example.net>`).  Darcs looks in several places for this author  string:  the
           `--author`  option, the files `_darcs/prefs/author` (in the repository) and `~/.darcs/au‐
           thor` (in  your  home  directory),  and  the  environment  variables  `$DARCS_EMAIL`  and
           `$EMAIL`.   If  none of those exist, Darcs will prompt you for an author string and write
           it to `~/.darcs/author`.  Note that if you have more than one email address, you can  put
           them  all  in `~/.darcs/author`, one author per line.  Darcs will still prompt you for an
           author, but it allows you to select from the list, or to type in an alternative.

           If you want to manually define any explicit dependencies for your patch, you can use  the
           `--ask-deps`  flag. Some dependencies may be automatically inferred from the patch's con‐
           tent and cannot be removed. A patch with specific dependencies can be empty.

           The patch date is generated automatically.  It can only be spoofed by using the  `--pipe`
           option.

           If  you run record with the `--pipe` option, you will be prompted for the patch date, au‐
           thor, and the long comment. The long comment will extend until the end of file  or  stdin
           is  reached.  This  interface  is intended for scripting darcs, in particular for writing
           repository conversion scripts.  The prompts are intended mostly as a useful guide  (since
           scripts  won't  need them), to help you understand the input format. Here's an example of
           what the `--pipe` prompts look like:

               What is the date? Mon Nov 15 13:38:01 EST 2004
               Who is the author? David Roundy
               What is the log? One or more comment lines

           If a test command has been defined with `darcs setpref`, attempting  to  record  a  patch
           will  cause  the test command to be run in a clean copy of the working tree (that is, in‐
           cluding only recorded changes).  If the test fails, you will  be  offered  to  abort  the
           record operation.

           The  `--set-scripts-executable`  option causes scripts to be made executable in the clean
           copy of the working tree, prior to running the test.  See `darcs clone` for  an  explana‐
           tion of the script heuristic.

           If  your  test  command is tediously slow (e.g. `make all`) and you are recording several
           patches in a row, you may wish to use `--no-test` to skip all but the final test.

           To see some context (unchanged lines) around each change, use the `--unified` option.

       darcs clone <repository> [<directory>]
           Clone creates a copy of a repository.  The optional second argument specifies a  destina‐
           tion directory for the new copy; if omitted, it is inferred from the source location.

           By  default  Darcs will copy every patch from the original repository.  If you expect the
           original repository to remain accessible, you can use `--lazy` to avoid  copying  patches
           until they are needed ('copy on demand').  This is particularly useful when copying a re‐
           mote repository with a long history that you don't care about.

           When  cloning  locally, Darcs automatically uses hard linking where possible.  As well as
           saving time and space, this enables to move or delete the original repository without af‐
           fecting the copy.  Hard linking requires that the copy be on the same filesystem  as  the
           original  repository,  and that the filesystem support hard linking.  This includes NTFS,
           HFS+ and all general-purpose Unix filesystems (such as ext, UFS and ZFS).  FAT  does  not
           support hard links.

           When cloning from a remote location, Darcs will look for and attempt to use packs created
           by  `darcs  optimize http` in the remote repository.  Packs are single big files that can
           be downloaded faster than many little files.

           Darcs clone will not copy unrecorded changes to the source repository's working tree.

           You can copy a repository to a ssh url, in which case the new repository will  always  be
           complete.

           It is often desirable to make a copy of a repository that excludes some patches.  For ex‐
           ample, if releases are tagged then `darcs clone --tag .` would make a copy of the reposi‐
           tory as at the latest release.

           An  untagged repository state can still be identified unambiguously by a context file, as
           generated by `darcs log --context`.  Given the name of such a file, the  `--context`  op‐
           tion  will  create a repository that includes only the patches from that context.  When a
           user reports a bug in an unreleased version of your project, the recommended way to  find
           out  exactly what version they were running is to have them include a context file in the
           bug report.

           You can also make a copy of an untagged state using the `--to-patch` or `--to-match`  op‐
           tions,  which  exclude  patches  *after* the first matching patch.  Because these options
           treat the set of patches as an ordered sequence, you may get different results after  re‐
           ordering with `darcs optimize reorder`.

           The `--set-scripts-executable` option causes scripts to be made executable in the working
           tree. A script is any file that starts with a shebang ("#!").

       darcs pull [repository]...
           Pull  is  used  to  bring  patches made in another repository into the current repository
           (that is, either the one in the current directory, or the one specified with  the  `--re‐
           podir`  option).  Pull  accepts  arguments,  which  are URLs from which to pull, and when
           called without an argument, pull will use the repository specified  at  `_darcs/prefs/de‐
           faultrepo`.

           The  default (`--union`) behavior is to pull any patches that are in any of the specified
           repositories.  If you specify the `--intersection`  flag,  darcs  will  only  pull  those
           patches  which are present in all source repositories.  If you specify the `--complement`
           flag, darcs will only pull elements in the first repository that do not exist in  any  of
           the remaining repositories.

           If  `--reorder` is supplied, the set of patches that exist only in the current repository
           is brought at the top of the current history. This will work even if  there  are  no  new
           patches to pull.

           See `darcs help apply` for detailed description of many options.

       darcs push [repository]
           Push  is  the opposite of pull.  Push allows you to copy patches from the current reposi‐
           tory into another repository.

           If you give the `--apply-as` flag, darcs will use `sudo` to apply the patches as  a  dif‐
           ferent  user.   This can be useful if you want to set up a system where several users can
           modify the same repository, but you don't want to allow them  full  write  access.   This
           isn't  secure  against skilled malicious attackers, but at least can protect your reposi‐
           tory from clumsy, inept or lazy users.

           `darcs push` will compress the patch data before sending it to a remote location via ssh.
           This works as long as the remote darcs is not older than version 2.5. If you  get  errors
           that  indicate  a corrupt patch bundle, you should try again with the `--no-compress` op‐
           tion.


   Preparing patches before recording:
       darcs move <source> ... <destination>
           Darcs cannot reliably distinguish between a file being deleted and a new one added, and a
           file being moved.  Therefore Darcs always assumes the former, and provides the `darcs mv`
           command to let Darcs know when you want the latter.  This command will also move the file
           in the working tree (unlike `darcs remove`), unless it has already been moved.

           Darcs will not rename a file if another file in the same folder has the same name, except
           for case.  The `--case-ok` option overrides this behaviour.  Windows and OS X usually use
           filesystems that do not allow files a folder to have the same name except for  case  (for
           example,  `ReadMe`  and `README`).  If `--case-ok` is used, the repository might be unus‐
           able on those systems!

       darcs remove <file|directory> ...
           The `darcs remove` command exists primarily for symmetry with `darcs add`, as the  normal
           way  to  remove a file from version control is simply to delete it from the working tree.
           This command is only useful in the unusual case where one wants to record a removal patch
           WITHOUT deleting the copy in the working tree (which can be re-added).

           Note that applying a removal patch to a repository (e.g. by pulling the patch)  will  AL‐
           WAYS affect the working tree of that repository.

       darcs replace <old> <new> <file> ...
           In addition to line-based patches, Darcs supports a limited form of lexical substitution.
           Files  are treated as sequences of words, and each occurrence of the old word is replaced
           by the new word.  This is intended to provide a clean way to rename a function  or  vari‐
           able.   Such  renamings  typically  affect lines all through the source code, so a tradi‐
           tional line-based patch would be very likely to conflict with other  branches,  requiring
           manual merging.

           Files  are tokenized according to one simple rule: words are strings of valid token char‐
           acters, and everything between them (punctuation and whitespace) is  discarded.   By  de‐
           fault,   valid   token   characters   are  letters,  numbers  and  the  underscore  (i.e.
           `[A-Za-z0-9_]`).  However if the old and/or new token contains either a hyphen or period,
           BOTH hyphen and period are treated as valid (i.e. `[A-Za-z0-9_.-]`).

           The set of valid characters can be customized using the `--token-chars` option.  The  ar‐
           gument  must be surrounded by square brackets.  If a hyphen occurs between two characters
           in the set, it is treated as a set range.  For example, in most locales  `[A-Z]`  denotes
           all  uppercase  letters.  If the first character is a caret, valid tokens are taken to be
           the complement of the remaining characters.  For example, `[^:\n]` could be used to match
           fields in the passwd(5), where records and fields are separated by  newlines  and  colons
           respectively.

           If  you choose to use `--token-chars`, you are STRONGLY encouraged to do so consistently.
           The consequences of using multiple replace patches with different  `--token-chars`  argu‐
           ments on the same file are not well tested nor well understood.

           By default Darcs will refuse to perform a replacement if the new token is already in use,
           because  the replacements would be not be distinguishable from the existing tokens.  This
           behaviour can be overridden by supplying the `--force` option, but an attempt  to  `darcs
           rollback` the resulting patch will affect these existing tokens.

           Limitations:

           The  tokenizer treats files as byte strings, so it is not possible for `--token-chars` to
           include multi-byte characters, such as the non-ASCII parts of UTF-8.   Similarly,  trying
           to replace a "high-bit" character from a unibyte encoding will also result in replacement
           of  the  same  byte  in files with different encodings.  For example, an acute a from ISO
           8859-1 will also match an alpha from ISO 8859-7.

           Due to limitations in the patch file format,  `--token-chars`  arguments  cannot  contain
           literal whitespace.  For example, `[^ \n\t]` cannot be used to declare all characters ex‐
           cept  the  space,  tab  and newline as valid within a word, because it contains a literal
           space.

           Unlike POSIX regex(7) bracket expressions, character classes (such as `[[:alnum:]]`)  are
           NOT supported by `--token-chars`, and will be silently treated as a simple set of charac‐
           ters.


   Querying the repository:
       darcs log [file|directory]...
           The  `darcs log` command lists patches of the current repository or, with `--repo`, a re‐
           mote repository.  Without options or arguments, ALL patches will be listed.

           When given files or directories paths as arguments, only patches which affect those paths
           are listed.  This includes patches that happened to files before they were moved  or  re‐
           named.

           When  given  `--from-tag`  or  `--from-patch`,  only  patches since that tag or patch are
           listed.  Similarly, the `--to-tag` and `--to-patch` options restrict the  list  to  older
           patches.

           The `--last` and `--max-count` options both limit the number of patches listed.  The for‐
           mer  applies  BEFORE  other filters, whereas the latter applies AFTER other filters.  For
           example `darcs log foo.c --max-count 3` will print the last  three  patches  that  affect
           foo.c,  whereas  `darcs  log  --last 3 foo.c` will, of the last three patches, print only
           those that affect foo.c.

           Four output formats exist.  The default is  `--human-readable`.  The  slightly  different
           `--machine-readable`  format  enables  to see patch dependencies in non-interactive mode.
           You can also select `--context`, which is an internal format that can be re-read by Darcs
           (e.g. `darcs clone --context`).

           Finally, there is `--xml-output`, which emits valid XML... unless a  the  patch  metadata
           (author,  name  or  description)  contains  a  non-ASCII  character and was recorded in a
           non-UTF8 locale.

       darcs annotate [file|directory]
           When `darcs annotate` is called on a file, it will find the patch that last modified each
           line in that file. This also works on directories.

           The `--machine-readable` option can be used to generate output for  machine  postprocess‐
           ing.

       darcs diff [file|directory]...
           The `darcs diff` command compares two versions of the working tree of the current reposi‐
           tory.   Without  options,  the  pristine (recorded) and unrecorded working trees are com‐
           pared.  This is lower-level than  the  `darcs  whatsnew`  command,  since  it  outputs  a
           line-by-line diff, and it is also slower.  As with `darcs whatsnew`, if you specify files
           or directories, changes to other files are not listed.  The command always uses an exter‐
           nal diff utility.

           With  the  `--patch`  option,  the comparison will be made between working trees with and
           without that patch.  Patches *after* the selected patch are not present in either of  the
           compared  working  trees.   The  `--from-patch` and `--to-patch` options allow the set of
           patches in the `old' and `new' working trees to be specified separately.

           The associated tag and match options are also understood, e.g. `darcs diff --from-tag 1.0
           --to-tag 1.1`.  All these options assume an ordering of the patch set, so results may  be
           affected by operations such as `darcs optimize reorder`.

           diff(1)  is  called  with  the arguments `-rN`.  The `--unified` option causes `-u` to be
           passed to diff(1).  An additional argument can be passed  using  `--diff-opts`,  such  as
           `--diff-opts=-ud` or `--diff-opts=-wU9`.

           The  `--diff-command` option can be used to specify an alternative utility. Arguments may
           be included, separated by whitespace.  The value is not interpreted by a shell, so  shell
           constructs  cannot  be used.  The arguments %1 and %2 MUST be included, these are substi‐
           tuted for the two working trees being compared. For instance:

               darcs diff -p . --diff-command "meld %1 %2"

           If this option is used, `--diff-opts` is ignored.

       darcs show contents [file]...
           Show contents can be used to display an earlier version of some  file(s).   If  you  give
           show contents no version arguments, it displays the recorded version of the file(s).

       darcs show dependencies
           The  `darcs  show dependencies` command is used to create a graph of the dependencies be‐
           tween patches of the repository (by default up to last tag).

           The resulting graph is described in Dot Language, a general example of use could be:

           darcs show dependencies | dot -Tpdf -o FILE.pdf

       darcs show files [file|directory]...
           The `darcs show files` command lists those files and directories in the working tree that
           are under version control.  This command is primarily for scripting purposes;  end  users
           will probably want `darcs whatsnew --summary`.

           A  file  is  "pending"  if it has been added but not recorded.  By default, pending files
           (and directories) are listed; the `--no-pending` option prevents this.

           By default `darcs show files` lists both files and directories, but the `--no-files`  and
           `--no-directories` flags modify this behaviour.

           By default entries are one-per-line (i.e. newline separated).  This can cause problems if
           the  files  themselves contain newlines or other control characters.  To get around this,
           the `--null` option uses the null character instead.  The script interpreting output from
           this command needs to understand this idiom; `xargs -0` is such a command.

           For example, to list version-controlled files by size:

               darcs show files -0 | xargs -0 ls -ldS

       darcs show index
           The `darcs show index` command lists all version-controlled files and  directories  along
           with  their  hashes as stored in `_darcs/index`. For files, the fields correspond to file
           size, sha256 of the current file content and the filename.
       darcs show pristine
           The `darcs show pristine` command lists  all  version-controlled  files  and  directories
           along  with the hashes of their pristine copies. For files, the fields correspond to file
           size, sha256 of the pristine file content and the filename.
       darcs show repo
           The `darcs show repo` command displays statistics about the current repository,  allowing
           third-party  scripts to access this information without inspecting `_darcs` directly (and
           without breaking when the `_darcs` format changes).

           The 'Weak Hash' identifies the set of patches of a repository independently of  ordering.
           It  can  be  used to easily compare two repositories of a same project. It is not crypto‐
           graphically secure.

           By default, output includes statistics that require walking through the patches  recorded
           in  the  repository, namely the 'Weak Hash' and the count of patches.  If this data isn't
           needed, use `--no-enum-patches` to accelerate this command from O(n) to O(1).

           By default, output is in a human-readable format.  The `--xml-output` option can be  used
           to generate output for machine postprocessing.

       darcs show authors
           The  `darcs  show authors` command lists the authors of the current repository, sorted by
           the number of patches contributed.  With the  `--verbose`  option,  this  command  simply
           lists the author of each patch (without aggregation or sorting).

           An  author's name or email address may change over time.  To tell Darcs when multiple au‐
           thor strings refer to the same individual, create an `.authorspellings` file in the  root
           of  the  working tree.  Each line in this file begins with an author's canonical name and
           address, and may be followed by a comma separated list of extended  regular  expressions.
           Blank  lines  and  lines beginning with two hyphens are ignored.  The format of `.author‐
           spelling` can be described by this pattern:

               name <address> [, regexp ]*

           There are some pitfalls concerning special characters: Whitespaces are stripped,  if  you
           need  space in regexp use [ ].  Because comma serves as a separator you have to escape it
           if you want it in regexp. Note that `.authorspelling` use extended regular expressions so
           +, ? and so on are metacharacters and you need to escape them to  be  interpreted  liter‐
           ally.

           Any  patch with an author string that matches the canonical address or any of the associ‐
           ated regexps is considered to be the work of that author.  All matching is  case-insensi‐
           tive and partial (it can match a substring). Use ^,$ to match the whole string in regexps

           Currently  this  canonicalization  step is done only in `darcs show authors`.  Other com‐
           mands, such as `darcs log` use author strings verbatim.

           An example `.authorspelling` file is:

               -- This is a comment.
               Fred Nurk <fred AT example.com>
               John Snagge <snagge AT bbc.uk>, John, snagge@, js@(si|mit).edu
               Chuck Jones\, Jr. <chuck AT pobox.com>, cj\+user AT example.com

       darcs show tags
           The tags command writes a list of all tags in the repository to standard output.

           Tab characters (ASCII character 9) in tag names are changed to spaces for better interop‐
           erability with shell tools. A warning is printed if this happens.

       darcs show patch-index
           When given the `--verbose` flag, the command dumps the complete content of the patch  in‐
           dex and checks its integrity.
       darcs test [[initialization] command]
           Run  test  on  the current recorded state of the repository.  Given no arguments, it uses
           the default repository test (see `darcs setpref`).  Given one argument, it treats it as a
           test command.  Given two arguments, the first is an initialization command and the second
           is the test (meaning the exit code of the first command is not taken into account to  de‐
           termine  success  of the test).  If given the `--linear` or `--bisect` flags, it tries to
           find the most recent version in the repository which passes a test.

           `--linear` does linear search starting from head, and moving away from head. This  strat‐
           egy is best when the test runs very quickly or the patch you're seeking is near the head.

           `--bisect`  does  binary search.  This strategy is best when the test runs very slowly or
           the patch you're seeking is likely to be in the repository's distant past.

           `--backoff` starts searching from head, skipping further and further into the past  until
           the  test  succeeds.   It then does a binary search on a subset of those skipped patches.
           This strategy works well unless the patch you're seeking is in the  repository's  distant
           past.

           Under  the  assumption  that failure is monotonous, `--linear` and `--bisect` produce the
           same result.  (Monotonous means that when moving away from head, the test result  changes
           only  once  from  "fail"  to "ok".)  If failure is not monotonous, any one of the patches
           that break the test is found at random.


   Undoing and correcting:
       darcs revert [file|directory]...
           The `darcs revert` command discards unrecorded changes the working tree.  As with  `darcs
           record`,  you  will  be asked which hunks (changes) to revert.  The `--all` switch can be
           used to avoid such prompting. If files or directories are specified, other parts  of  the
           working tree are not reverted.

           In you accidentally reverted something you wanted to keep (for example, typing `darcs rev
           -a`  instead  of `darcs rec -a`), you can immediately run `darcs unrevert` to restore it.
           This is only guaranteed to work if the repository has not changed  since  `darcs  revert`
           ran.

       darcs unrevert
           Unrevert  is  a  rescue command in case you accidentally reverted something you wanted to
           keep (for example, typing `darcs rev -a` instead of `darcs rec -a`).

           This command may fail if the repository has changed since the revert took  place.   Darcs
           will  ask  for  confirmation before executing an interactive command that will DEFINITELY
           prevent unreversion.

       darcs amend [file|directory]...
           Amend updates a "draft" patch with additions or improvements, resulting in a single "fin‐
           ished" patch.

           By default `amend` proposes you to record additional changes.  If instead you want to re‐
           move changes, use the flag `--unrecord`.

           When recording a draft patch, it is a good idea to start the  name  with  `DRAFT:`.  When
           done,  remove  it  with  `darcs amend --edit-long-comment`.  Alternatively, to change the
           patch name without starting an editor, use the `--name`/`-m` flag:

               darcs amend --match 'name "DRAFT: foo"' --name 'foo2'

           Like `darcs record`, if you call amend with files as arguments, you will  only  be  asked
           about  changes  to those files.  So to amend a patch to foo.c with improvements in bar.c,
           you would run:

               darcs amend --match 'touch foo.c' bar.c

           It is usually a bad idea to amend another developer's patch.   To  make  amend  only  ask
           about  your own patches by default, you can add something like `amend match David Roundy`
           to `~/.darcs/defaults`, where `David Roundy` is your name.

       darcs rebase pull [repository]...
           Copy and apply patches from another repository, suspending any local  patches  that  con‐
           flict.
       darcs rebase apply <patchfile>
           Apply a patch bundle, suspending any local patches that conflict.
       darcs rebase suspend
           Select patches to move into a suspended state at the end of the repo.

       darcs rebase unsuspend
           Selected patches to restore from a suspended state to the end of the repo.

       darcs rebase obliterate
           Obliterate a patch that is currently suspended.

       darcs rebase log
           List the currently suspended changes.

       darcs rollback [file|directory]...
           Rollback  is used to undo the effects of some changes from patches in the repository. The
           selected changes are undone in your working tree, but the repository is  left  unchanged.
           First  you  are  offered a choice of which patches to undo, then which changes within the
           patches to undo.

           Before doing `rollback`, you may want to temporarily undo the  changes  of  your  working
           tree  (if  there  are) and save them for later use.  To do so, you can run `revert`, then
           run `rollback`, record a patch, and run `unrevert` to restore the saved changes into your
           working tree.

       darcs unrecord
           Unrecord does the opposite of record: it deletes patches  from  the  repository,  without
           changing  the  working  tree.   Deleting patches from the repository makes active changes
           again which you may record or revert later.  Beware that you should not use this  command
           if there is a possibility that another user may have already pulled the patch.

       darcs obliterate
           Obliterate  completely  removes  recorded patches from your local repository. The changes
           will be undone in your working tree and the patches will not be  shown  in  your  changes
           list anymore. Beware that you can lose precious code by obliterating!

           One way to save obliterated patches is to use the -O flag. A patch bundle will be created
           locally, that you will be able to apply later to your repository with `darcs apply`.


   Direct modification of the repository:
       darcs tag [tagname]
           The  `darcs tag` command names the current repository state, so that it can easily be re‐
           ferred to later.  Every *important* state should be tagged;  in  particular  it  is  good
           practice to tag each stable release with a number or codename.  Advice on release number‐
           ing can be found at <http://producingoss.com/en/development-cycle.html>.

           To  reproduce  the  state of a repository `R` as at tag `t`, use the command `darcs clone
           --tag t R`.  The command `darcs show tags` lists all tags in the current repository.

           Tagging also provides significant performance benefits: when Darcs reaches a  shared  tag
           that depends on all antecedent patches, it can simply stop processing.

           Like  normal  patches,  a tag has a name, an author, a timestamp and an optional long de‐
           scription, but it does not change the working tree.  A tag can have any name, but  it  is
           generally best to pick a naming scheme and stick to it.

           By default a tag names the entire repository state at the time the tag is created. If the
           --ask-deps  option  is  used, the patches to include as part of the tag can be explicitly
           selected.

           The `darcs tag` command accepts the `--pipe` option, which behaves as described in `darcs
           record`.

       darcs setpref <pref> <value>
           When working on project with multiple repositories and contributors, it is sometimes  de‐
           sirable for a preference to be set consistently project-wide.  This is achieved by treat‐
           ing  a  preference  set  with  `darcs setpref` as an unrecorded change, which can then be
           recorded and then treated like any other patch.

           Valid preferences are:

           * test -- a shell command that runs regression tests * predist -- a shell command to  run
           before  `darcs dist' * boringfile -- the path to a version-controlled boring file * bina‐
           riesfile -- the path to a version-controlled binaries file

           For example, a project using GNU autotools, with a `make test` target to perform  regres‐
           sion tests, might enable Darcs' integrated regression testing with the following command:

               darcs setpref test 'autoconf && ./configure && make && make test'

           Note that merging is not currently implemented for preferences: if two patches attempt to
           set the same preference, the last patch applied to the repository will always take prece‐
           dence.  This is considered a low-priority bug, because preferences are seldom set.


   Exchanging patches by e-mail:
       darcs send [repository]
           Send  is  used to prepare a bundle of patches that can be applied to a target repository.
           Send accepts the URL of the repository as an argument.  When called without an  argument,
           send  will  use the most recent repository that was either pushed to, pulled from or sent
           to.  By default, the patch bundle is saved to a file, although you may directly  send  it
           by mail.

           The `--output`, `--output-auto-name`, and `--to` flags determine what darcs does with the
           patch  bundle after creating it.  If you provide an `--output` argument, the patch bundle
           is saved to that file.  If you specify `--output-auto-name`, the patch bundle is saved to
           a file with an automatically generated name.  If you give one or more  `--to`  arguments,
           the  bundle  of patches is sent to those locations. The locations may either be email ad‐
           dresses or urls that the patch should be submitted to via HTTP.

           If  you  provide  the  `--mail`  flag,  darcs  will  look  at   the   contents   of   the
           `_darcs/prefs/email`  file in the target repository (if it exists), and send the patch by
           email to that address.  In this case, you may use the `--cc` option to specify additional
           recipients without overriding the default repository email address.

           If `_darcs/prefs/post` exists in the target repository, darcs will upload to the URL con‐
           tained in that file, which may either be a `mailto:` URL, or an `http://`  URL.   In  the
           latter case, the patch is posted to that URL.

           If there is no email address associated with the repository, darcs will prompt you for an
           email address.

           Use  the `--subject` flag to set the subject of the e-mail to be sent.  If you don't pro‐
           vide a subject on the command line, darcs will make one up based on names of the  patches
           in the patch bundle.

           Use  the `--in-reply-to` flag to set the In-Reply-To and References headers of the e-mail
           to be sent. By default no additional headers are included so e-mail will not  be  treated
           as reply by mail readers.

           If you want to include a description or explanation along with the bundle of patches, you
           need  to specify the `--edit-description` flag, which will cause darcs to open up an edi‐
           tor with which you can compose a message to go along with your patches.

           If you want to use a command different from the default one for sending email,  you  need
           to specify a command line with the `--sendmail-command` option. The command line can con‐
           tain  some  format  specifiers  which  are replaced by the actual values. Accepted format
           specifiers are `%s` for subject, `%t` for to, `%c` for cc, `%b` for the body of the mail,
           `%f` for from, `%a` for the patch bundle and the same specifiers  in  uppercase  for  the
           URL-encoded  values.  Additionally you can add `%<` to the end of the command line if the
           command expects the complete email message on standard input. E.g. the command lines  for
           evolution and msmtp look like this:

               evolution "mailto:%T?subject=%S&attach=%A&cc=%C&body=%B"
               msmtp -t %<

           Do  not confuse the `--author` options with the return address that `darcs send` will set
           for your patch bundle.

           For example, if you have two email addresses A and B:

           * If you use `--author A` but your machine is configured to send mail from
             address B by default, then the return address on your message will be B.  * If you  use
           `--from A` and your mail client supports setting the
             From: address arbitrarily (some non-Unix-like mail clients, especially,
             may not support this), then the return address will be A; if it does
             not  support this, then the return address will be B.  * If you supply neither `--from`
           nor `--author` then the return
             address will be B.

           In addition, unless you specify the sendmail  command  with  `--sendmail-command`,  darcs
           sends email using the default email command on your computer. This default command is de‐
           termined  by the `configure` script. Thus, on some non-Unix-like OSes, `--from` is likely
           to not work at all.

       darcs apply <patchfile>
           The `darcs apply` command takes a patch bundle and attempts to insert it into the current
           repository.  In addition to invoking it directly on bundles created by `darcs  send`,  it
           is used internally by `darcs push` on the remote end of an SSH connection.

           If no file is supplied, the bundle is read from standard input.

           If given an email instead of a patch bundle, Darcs will look for the bundle as a MIME at‐
           tachment to that email.  Currently this will fail if the MIME boundary is rewritten, such
           as in Courier and Mail.app.

           If  the  `--reply  noreply AT example.net`  option is used, and the bundle is attached to an
           email, Darcs will send a report (indicating success or failure) to the sender of the bun‐
           dle (the `To` field).  The argument to noreply is the address the report will  appear  to
           originate FROM.

           The  `--cc` option will cause the report to be CC'd to another address, for example `--cc
           reports AT lists.net,admin AT lists.net`.  Using `--cc`  without  `--reply`  is
           undefined.

           If you want to use a command different from the default one for sending mail, you need to
           specify  a  command line with the `--sendmail-command` option.  The command line can con‐
           tain the format specifier `%t` for to and you can add `%<` to the end of the command line
           if the command expects the complete mail on standard input. For example, the command line
           for msmtp looks like this:

               msmtp -t %<

           If gpg(1) is installed, you can use `--verify pubring.gpg` to reject bundles that  aren't
           signed by a key in `pubring.gpg`.

           If  `--test`  is supplied and a test is defined (see `darcs setpref`), the bundle will be
           rejected if the test fails after applying it.  In that case,  the  rejection  email  from
           `--reply` will include the test output.

           A patch bundle may introduce unresolved conflicts with existing patches or with the work‐
           ing tree.  By default, Darcs will add conflict markers (see `darcs mark-conflicts`).

           The  `--external-merge`  option  lets you resolve these conflicts using an external merge
           tool.  In the option, `%a` is replaced with the common ancestor (merge base),  `%1`  with
           the  first  version,  `%2` with the second version, and `%o` with the path where your re‐
           solved content should go.  For example, to use the xxdiff visual merge tool  you'd  spec‐
           ify: `--external-merge='xxdiff -m -O -M %o %1 %a %2'`

           The  `--allow-conflicts`  option will skip conflict marking; this is useful when you want
           to treat a repository as just a bunch of patches, such as using `darcs pull  --union`  to
           download of your co-workers patches before going offline.

           This  can mess up unrecorded changes in the working tree, forcing you to resolve the con‐
           flict immediately.  To simply reject bundles that introduce unresolved  conflicts,  using
           the  `--dont-allow-conflicts` option.  Making this the default in push-based workflows is
           strongly recommended.

           Unlike most Darcs commands, `darcs apply` defaults to `--all`.  Use  the  `--interactive`
           option to pick which patches to apply from a bundle.


   Other commands:
       darcs optimize clean
           This command deletes obsolete files within the repository.
       darcs optimize http
           Using this option creates 'repository packs' that could dramatically speed up performance
           when  a  user does a `darcs clone` of the repository over HTTP. To make use of packs, the
           clients must have a darcs of at least version 2.10.

       darcs optimize reorder
           This command moves recent patches (those not included in the latest tag) to the  "front",
           reducing  the amount that a typical remote command needs to download.  It should also re‐
           duce the CPU time needed for some operations.
       darcs optimize enable-patch-index
           Build the patch index, an internal data structure that accelerates commands that need  to
           know what patches touch a given file. Such as annotate and log.
       darcs optimize disable-patch-index
           Delete and stop maintaining the patch index from the repository.
       darcs optimize compress
           By  default  patches are compressed with zlib (RFC 1951) to reduce storage (and download)
           size.  In exceptional circumstances, it may be preferable to avoid compression.  In  this
           case  the  `--dont-compress`  option can be used (e.g. with `darcs record`) to avoid com‐
           pression.

           The `darcs optimize uncompress` and `darcs optimize compress` commands can be used to en‐
           sure existing patches in the current repository are  respectively  uncompressed  or  com‐
           pressed.
       darcs optimize uncompress
           By  default  patches are compressed with zlib (RFC 1951) to reduce storage (and download)
           size.  In exceptional circumstances, it may be preferable to avoid compression.  In  this
           case  the  `--dont-compress`  option can be used (e.g. with `darcs record`) to avoid com‐
           pression.

           The `darcs optimize uncompress` and `darcs optimize compress` commands can be used to en‐
           sure existing patches in the current repository are  respectively  uncompressed  or  com‐
           pressed.
       darcs optimize relink
           The `darcs optimize relink` command hard-links patches that the current repository has in
           common with its peers.  Peers are those repositories listed in `_darcs/prefs/sources`, or
           defined with the `--sibling` option (which can be used multiple times).

           Darcs uses hard-links automatically, so this command is rarely needed.  It is most useful
           if  you  used `cp -r` instead of `darcs clone` to copy a repository, or if you pulled the
           same patch from a remote repository into multiple local repositories.
       darcs optimize pristine
           This command updates the format of `_darcs/pristine.hashed/`, which was different  before
           darcs 2.3.1.
       darcs optimize upgrade
           Convert old-fashioned repositories to the current default hashed format.
       darcs optimize cache <directory> ...
           This command deletes obsolete files within the global cache.  It takes one or more direc‐
           tories  as arguments, and recursively searches all repositories within these directories.
           Then it deletes all files in the global cache not belonging to these repositories.   When
           no directory is given, it searches repositories in the user's home directory.

           It also automatically migrates the global cache to the (default) bucketed format.

       darcs dist
           `darcs  dist` creates a compressed archive in the repository's root directory, containing
           the recorded state of the working tree (unrecorded changes and the `_darcs` directory are
           excluded).  The command accepts matchers to create an archive  of  some  past  repository
           state, for instance `--tag`.

           By  default,  the  archive  (and the top-level directory within the archive) has the same
           name as the repository, but this can be overridden with the `--dist-name` option.

           If a predist command is set (see `darcs setpref`),  that  command  will  be  run  on  the
           recorded  state prior to archiving.  For example, autotools projects would set it to `au‐
           toconf && automake`.

           If `--zip` is used, matchers and the predist command are ignored.

       darcs mark-conflicts [file|directory]...
           Darcs requires human guidance to unify changes to the same part of a source file.  When a
           conflict first occurs, darcs will add the initial state and both choices to  the  working
           tree, delimited by the markers `v v v`, `=====`,  `* * *` and `^ ^ ^`, as follows:

               v v v v v v v
               Initial state.
               =============
               First choice.
               *************
               Second choice.
               ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

           However, you might revert or manually delete these markers without actually resolving the
           conflict.   In  this  case,  `darcs mark-conflicts` is useful to show where are the unre‐
           solved conflicts.  It is also useful if `darcs apply` or  `darcs  pull`  is  called  with
           `--allow-conflicts`, where conflicts aren't marked initially.

           Unless you use the `--dry-run` flag, any unrecorded changes to the affected files WILL be
           lost  forever  when  you  run this command!  You will be prompted for confirmation before
           this takes place.

       darcs repair
           The `darcs repair` command attempts to fix corruption in the  current  repository.   Cur‐
           rently it can only repair damage to the pristine tree, which is where most corruption oc‐
           curs.   This command rebuilds a pristine tree by applying successively the patches in the
           repository to an empty tree.

           The flag `--dry-run` make this operation  read-only,  making  darcs  exit  unsuccessfully
           (with a non-zero exit status) if the rebuilt pristine is different from the current pris‐
           tine.

       darcs convert darcs-2 <source> [<destination>]
           This  command  converts a repository that uses the old patch semantics `darcs-1` to a new
           repository with current `darcs-2` semantics.

           WARNING: the repository produced by this command is not  understood  by  Darcs  1.x,  and
           patches cannot be exchanged between repositories in darcs-1 and darcs-2 formats.

           Furthermore, repositories created by different invocations of this command SHOULD NOT ex‐
           change patches.


       darcs convert export
           This command enables you to export darcs repositories into git.

           For a one-time export you can use the recipe:

               $ cd repo
               $ git init ../mirror
               $ darcs convert export | (cd ../mirror && git fast-import)

           For incremental export using marksfiles:

               $ cd repo
               $ git init ../mirror
               $ touch ../mirror/git.marks
               $ darcs convert export --read-marks darcs.marks --write-marks darcs.marks
                  |    (cd    ../mirror    &&   git   fast-import   --import-marks=git.marks   --ex‐
           port-marks=git.marks)

           In the case of incremental export, be careful to never amend, delete or  reorder  patches
           in the source darcs repository.

           Also,  be  aware that exporting a darcs repo to git will not be exactly faithful in terms
           of history if the darcs repository contains conflicts.

           Limitations:

           * Empty directories are not supported by the fast-export protocol.  *  Unicode  filenames
           are currently not correctly handled.
             See http://bugs.darcs.net/issue2359 .

       darcs convert import [<directory>]
           This  command  imports git repositories into new darcs repositories.  Further options are
           accepted (see `darcs help init`).

           To convert a git repo to a new darcs one you may run:
               $ (cd gitrepo && git fast-export --all -M) | darcs convert import darcsmirror

           WARNING: git repositories with branches will produce weird results,
                    use at your own risks.

           Incremental import with marksfiles is currently not supported.

       darcs fetch [repository]...
           Fetch is similar to `pull` except that it does not  apply  any  patches  to  the  current
           repository. Instead, it generates a patch bundle that you can apply later with `apply`.

           Fetch's  behaviour is essentially similar to pull's, so please consult the help of `pull`
           to know more.



ENVIRONMENT
   HOME and APPDATA
       Per-user preferences are set in $HOME/.darcs (on Unix) or %APPDATA%/darcs (on Windows).  This
       is also the default location of the cache.

   DARCS_EDITOR, VISUAL, and EDITOR
       To edit a patch description of email comment, Darcs will invoke  an  external  editor.   Your
       preferred  editor  can  be  set as any of the environment variables $DARCS_EDITOR, $VISUAL or
       $EDITOR.  If none of these are set, nano is used.  If nano crashes or is not  found  in  your
       PATH, vi, emacs, emacs -nw and (on Windows) edit are each tried in turn.

   DARCS_PAGER and PAGER
       Darcs  will  invoke a pager if the output of some command is longer than 20 lines. Darcs will
       use the pager specified by $DARCS_PAGER or $PAGER.  If neither are set, `less` will be used.

   DARCS_DONT_COLOR, DARCS_ALWAYS_COLOR, DARCS_ALTERNATIVE_COLOR, and DARCS_DO_COLOR_LINES
       If the terminal understands ANSI color escape sequences, darcs will  highlight  certain  key‐
       words and delimiters when printing patches. This can be turned off by setting the environment
       variable  DARCS_DONT_COLOR  to  1. If you use a pager that happens to understand ANSI colors,
       like `less -R`, darcs can be forced always to  highlight  the  output  by  setting  DARCS_AL‐
       WAYS_COLOR  to 1. If you can't see colors you can set DARCS_ALTERNATIVE_COLOR to 1, and darcs
       will use ANSI codes for bold and reverse video instead of colors. In addition,  there  is  an
       extra-colorful  mode,  which  is  not  enabled  by  default,  which  can  be  activated  with
       DARCS_DO_COLOR_LINES

   DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_TRAILING_SPACES and DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_TRAILING_CR
       By default darcs will escape (by highlighting if possible) any kind of spaces at the  end  of
       lines  when  showing  patch  contents.  If you don't want this you can turn it off by setting
       DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_TRAILING_SPACES to 1. A special case  exists  for  only  carriage  returns:
       DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_TRAILING_CR

   DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_ANYTHING,  DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_EXTRA,  DARCS_ESCAPE_EXTRA,  DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_IS‐
       PRINT, and DARCS_ESCAPE_8BIT
       Darcs needs to escape certain characters when printing patch contents to a terminal,  depend‐
       ing on the encoding specified in your locale setting.

       By default, darcs assumes that your locale encoding is ASCII compatible.  This includes UTF-8
       and  some  8-bit  encodings  like ISO/IEC-8859 (including its variants). Since ASCII contains
       control characters like backspace (which could hide patch content from the user when  printed
       literally to the terminal), and even ones that may introduce security risks such as redirect‐
       ing  commands  to  the  shell,  darcs  needs  to escape such characters.  They are printed as
       `^<control letter>` or `\<hex code>`. Darcs also uses special markup for  line  endings  that
       are preceeded by white space, since the white space would otherwise not be recognizable.

       If  you  use  an encoding that is not ASCII compatible, things are somewhat less smooth. Such
       encodings include UTF-16 and UTF-32, as well as many of the encodings  that  became  obsolete
       with unicode. In this case you have two options: you can set DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_ANYTHING to 1.
       Then  everything that doesn't flip code sets should work, and so will all the bells and whis‐
       tles in your terminal. This environment variable can also be handy if you pipe the output  to
       a  pager  or  external  filter that knows better than darcs how to handle your encoding. Note
       that all escaping, including the special escaping of any line ending spaces, will  be  turned
       off by this setting.

       Another  possibility is to explicitly tell darcs to not escape or escape certain bytes, using
       DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_EXTRA and DARCS_ESCAPE_EXTRA. Their values should be strings consisting  of
       the  verbatim  bytes in question. The do-escapes take precedence over the dont-escapes. Space
       characters are still escaped  at  line  endings  though.  The  special  environment  variable
       DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_TRAILING_CR  turns  off  escaping  of carriage return last on the line (DOS
       style).

       For historical reasons, darcs also supports DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_ISPRINT  and  DARCS_USE_ISPRINT
       (which  are  synonyms).  These  make  sense only for 8-bit encodings like ISO-8859 and are no
       longer needed since nowadays darcs does the right thing here by default.

       Finally, if you are in a highly security sensitive situation (or just paranoid for other rea‐
       sons), you can set DARCS_ESCAPE_8BIT to 1. This will cause darcs to  escape  every  non-ASCII
       byte in addition to ASCII control characters.

   DARCS_TMPDIR and TMPDIR
       Darcs often creates temporary directories.  For example, the `darcs diff` command creates two
       for the working trees to be diffed.  By default temporary directories are created in /tmp, or
       if that doesn't exist, in _darcs (within the current repo).  This can be overridden by speci‐
       fying  some  other  directory  in  the  file  _darcs/prefs/tmpdir or the environment variable
       $DARCS_TMPDIR or $TMPDIR.

   DARCS_KEEP_TMPDIR
       If the environment variable DARCS_KEEP_TMPDIR is defined, darcs will not remove the temporary
       directories it creates.  This is intended primarily for debugging Darcs itself,  but  it  can
       also  be  useful, for example, to determine why your test preference (see `darcs setpref`) is
       failing when you run `darcs record`, but working when run manually.

   DARCS_EMAIL and EMAIL
       Each patch is attributed to its author, usually by email address (for example,  `Fred  Bloggs
       <fred AT example.net>`).   Darcs  looks in several places for this author string: the `--author`
       option, the files `_darcs/prefs/author` (in the repository) and  `~/.darcs/author`  (in  your
       home directory), and the environment variables `$DARCS_EMAIL` and `$EMAIL`.  If none of those
       exist,  Darcs  will  prompt you for an author string and write it to `~/.darcs/author`.  Note
       that if you have more than one email address, you can put them all in `~/.darcs/author`,  one
       author per line.  Darcs will still prompt you for an author, but it allows you to select from
       the list, or to type in an alternative.

   SENDMAIL
       On  Unix, the `darcs send` command relies on sendmail(8).  The `--sendmail-command` or $SEND‐
       MAIL environment variable can be used to provide an explicit path to this program;  otherwise
       the standard locations /usr/sbin/sendmail and /usr/lib/sendmail will be tried.

   DARCS_SLOPPY_LOCKS
       If on some filesystems you get an error of the kind:

           darcs: takeLock [...]: atomic_create [...]: unsupported operation

       you may want to try to export DARCS_SLOPPY_LOCKS=True.

   DARCS_SSH
       Repositories  of  the form [user@]host:[dir] are taken to be remote repositories, which Darcs
       accesses with the external program ssh(1).

       The environment variable $DARCS_SSH can be used to specify an alternative SSH client.   Argu‐
       ments  may be included, separated by whitespace.  The value is not interpreted by a shell, so
       shell constructs cannot be used; in particular, it is not possible for the  program  name  to
       contain whitespace by using quoting or escaping.

   DARCS_SCP and DARCS_SFTP
       When reading from a remote repository, Darcs will attempt to run `darcs transfer-mode` on the
       remote  host.   This  will  fail  if the remote host only has Darcs 1 installed, doesn't have
       Darcs installed at all, or only allows SFTP.

       If transfer-mode fails, Darcs will fall back on scp(1) and sftp(1).  The commands invoked can
       be customized with the environment variables $DARCS_SCP and $DARCS_SFTP  respectively,  which
       behave like $DARCS_SSH.  If the remote end allows only sftp, try setting DARCS_SCP=sftp.

   SSH_PORT
       If  this  environment  variable  is set, it will be used as the port number for all SSH calls
       made by Darcs (when accessing remote repositories over SSH).  This  is  useful  if  your  SSH
       server  does not run on the default port, and your SSH client does not support ssh_config(5).
       OpenSSH users will probably prefer to put something like `Host *.example.net Port  443`  into
       their ~/.ssh/config file.

   HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, FTP_PROXY, ALL_PROXY, and NO_PROXY
       If  Darcs  was  built  with  libcurl,  the  environment variables HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY and
       FTP_PROXY can be set to the URL of a proxy in the form

           [protocol://]<host>[:port]

       In which case libcurl will use the proxy for the associated protocol (HTTP, HTTPS  and  FTP).
       The  environment  variable  ALL_PROXY  can  be used to set a single proxy for all libcurl re‐
       quests.

       If the environment variable NO_PROXY is a comma-separated list of host names, access to those
       hosts will bypass proxies defined by the above variables. For example, it is quite common  to
       avoid proxying requests to machines on the local network with

           NO_PROXY=localhost,*.localdomain

       For compatibility with lynx et al, lowercase equivalents of these environment variables (e.g.
       $http_proxy) are also understood and are used in preference to the uppercase versions.

       If  Darcs  was  not built with libcurl, all these environment variables are silently ignored,
       and there is no way to use a web proxy.

   DARCS_PROXYUSERPWD
       If Darcs was built with libcurl, and you are using a web proxy that requires  authentication,
       you  can  set  the  $DARCS_PROXYUSERPWD environment variable to the username and password ex‐
       pected by the proxy, separated by a colon.  This environment variable is silently ignored  if
       Darcs was not built with libcurl.

   DARCS_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT
       Set  the maximum time in seconds that darcs allows and connection to take. If the variable is
       not specified the default are 30 seconds.  This option only works with curl.


FILES
   _darcs/prefs/motd
       The `_darcs/prefs/motd` file may contain a 'message of the day' which will  be  displayed  to
       users who clone or pull from the repository without the `--quiet` option.


   _darcs/prefs/email
       The  `_darcs/prefs/email` file is used to provide the e-mail address for your repository that
       others will use when they `darcs send` a patch back to you. The contents of the  file  should
       simply be an e-mail address.


   _darcs/prefs/post
       If  `_darcs/prefs/post` exists in the target repository, `darcs send ` will upload to the URL
       contained in that file, which may either be a `mailto:` URL, or an `http://` URL. In the lat‐
       ter case, the patch is posted to that URL.


   _darcs/prefs/author
       The `_darcs/prefs/author` file contains the email address (or name) to be used as the  author
       when  patches are recorded in this repository, e.g. `David Roundy <droundy AT abridgegame.org>`.
       This file overrides the contents of the environment variables `$DARCS_EMAIL` and `$EMAIL`.


   _darcs/prefs/defaults
       Default values for darcs commands. Each line of this file has the following form:

           COMMAND FLAG VALUE

       where `COMMAND` is either the name of the command to which the default applies, or  `ALL`  to
       indicate that the default applies to all commands accepting that flag. The `FLAG` term is the
       name  of  the  long argument option without the `--`, i.e. `verbose` rather than `--verbose`.
       Finally, the `VALUE` option can be omitted if the flag does not involve a value. If the value
       has spaces in it, use single quotes, not double quotes, to surround it. Each line only  takes
       one flag. To set multiple defaults for the same command (or for `ALL` commands), use multiple
       lines.

       Note  that  the use of `ALL` easily can have unpredicted consequences, especially if commands
       in newer versions of darcs accepts flags that they did not in  previous  versions.  Only  use
       safe flags with `ALL`.

       For  example,  if your system clock is bizarre, you could instruct darcs to always ignore the
       file modification times by adding the following line:

           ALL ignore-times

       There are some options which are meant specifically for use in  `_darcs/prefs/defaults`.  One
       of them is `--disable`. As the name suggests, this option will disable every command that got
       it  as argument. So, if you are afraid that you could damage your repositories by inadvertent
       use of a command like amend, add the following line:

           amend disable

       Also, a global preferences file can be created with the name `.darcs/defaults` in  your  home
       directory. Options present there will be added to the repository-specific preferences if they
       do not conflict.


   _darcs/prefs/sources
       The `_darcs/prefs/sources` file is used to indicate alternative locations from which to down‐
       load patches. This file contains lines such as:

           cache:/home/droundy/.cache/darcs
           readonly:/home/otheruser/.cache/darcs
           repo:http://darcs.net

       This  would indicate that darcs should first look in `/home/droundy/.cache/darcs` for patches
       that might be missing, and if the patch is not there, it should save a copy there for  future
       use.   In  that  case,  darcs will look in `/home/otheruser/.cache/darcs` to see if that user
       might have downloaded a copy, but will not try to save a copy there, of course.  Finally,  it
       will  look in `http://darcs.net`. Note that the `sources` file can also exist in `~/.darcs/`.
       Also note that the sources mentioned in your `sources` file will be tried *before* the repos‐
       itory you are pulling from. This can be useful in avoiding downloading patches multiple times
       when you pull from a remote repository to more than one local repository.

       A global cache is enabled by default in your home directory. The cache allows darcs to  avoid
       re-downloading patches (for example, when doing a second darcs clone of the same repository),
       and also allows darcs to use hard links to reduce disk usage.

       Note  that  the cache directory should reside on the same filesystem as your repositories, so
       you may need to vary this. You can also use multiple cache directories on different  filesys‐
       tems, if you have several filesystems on which you use darcs.


   _darcs/prefs/boring
       The  `_darcs/prefs/boring`  file  may contain a list of regular expressions describing files,
       such as object files, that you do not expect to add to your project. A newly created  reposi‐
       tory  has a boring file that includes many common source control, backup, temporary, and com‐
       piled files.

       You may want to have the boring file under version control. To do this you can use darcs set‐
       pref to set the value 'boringfile' to the name of your desired boring file (e.g. `darcs  set‐
       pref  boringfile  .boring`,  where  `.boring`  is the repository path of a file that has been
       darcs added to your repository). The boringfile preference  overrides  `_darcs/prefs/boring`,
       so be sure to copy that file to the boringfile.

       You  can also set up a 'boring' regexps file in your home directory, named `~/.darcs/boring`,
       which will be used with all of your darcs repositories.

       Any file not already managed by darcs and whose repository path matches  any  of  the  boring
       regular  expressions  is  considered boring. The boring file is used to filter the files pro‐
       vided to darcs add, to allow you to use a simple `darcs add newdir newdir/*` without acciden‐
       tally adding a bunch of object files. It is also used  when  the  `--look-for-adds`  flag  is
       given to whatsnew or record. Note that once a file has been added to darcs, it is not consid‐
       ered boring, even if it matches the boring file filter.


   _darcs/prefs/binaries
       The  `_darcs/prefs/binaries`  file may contain a list of regular expressions describing files
       that should be treated as binary files rather than text  files.  Darcs  automatically  treats
       files containing characters `^Z` or `NULL` within the first 4096 bytes as being binary files.
       You  probably  will want to have the binaries file under version control.  To do this you can
       use `darcs setpref` to set the value 'binariesfile' to the name of your desired binaries file
       (e.g. `darcs setpref binariesfile ./.binaries`, where `.binaries` is a  file  that  has  been
       darcs added to your repository). As with the boring file, you can also set up a `~/.darcs/bi‐
       naries` file if you like.


   _darcs/prefs/defaultrepo
       Contains the URL of the default remote repository used by commands `pull`, `push`, `send` and
       `optimize  relink`.  Darcs  edits this file automatically or when the flag `--set-default` is
       used.


   _darcs/prefs/tmpdir
       By default temporary directories are created in `/tmp`, or if that doesn't exist, in `_darcs`
       (within the current repo).  This can be overridden by specifying some other directory in  the
       file `_darcs/prefs/tmpdir` or the environment variable `$DARCS_TMPDIR` or `$TMPDIR`.


   _darcs/prefs/prefs
       Contains the preferences set by the command `darcs setprefs`.  Do not edit manually.



BUGS
       At  http://bugs.darcs.net/  you  can find a list of known bugs in Darcs.  Unknown bugs can be
       reported  at  that  site  (after  creating  an  account)  or  by  emailing  the   report   to
       bugs AT darcs.net.

SEE ALSO
       The   Darcs  website  provides  a  lot  of  additional  information.   It  can  be  found  at
       http://darcs.net/

LICENSE
       Darcs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of  the  GNU
       General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at
       your option) any later version.

                                          2.14.5 (release)                                  DARCS(1)
DARCS(1) □✕
NAME SYNOPSIS
darcs show dependencies darcs show index darcs show pristine darcs show repo darcs show authors darcs show tags darcs show patch-index darcs unrevert darcs rebase suspend darcs rebase unsuspend darcs rebase obliterate darcs rebase log darcs unrecord darcs obliterate darcs optimize clean darcs optimize http darcs optimize reorder darcs optimize enable-patch-index darcs optimize disable-patch-index darcs optimize compress darcs optimize uncompress darcs optimize relink darcs optimize pristine darcs optimize upgrade darcs dist darcs repair darcs convert export
DESCRIPTION OPTIONS
Selecting Patches:
COMMANDS
Most used/starting out: Preparing patches before recording: Querying the repository: darcs show dependencies darcs show index darcs show pristine darcs show repo darcs show authors darcs show tags darcs show patch-index Undoing and correcting: darcs unrevert darcs rebase suspend darcs rebase unsuspend darcs rebase obliterate darcs rebase log darcs unrecord darcs obliterate Direct modification of the repository: Exchanging patches by e-mail: Other commands: darcs optimize clean darcs optimize http darcs optimize reorder darcs optimize enable-patch-index darcs optimize disable-patch-index darcs optimize compress darcs optimize uncompress darcs optimize relink darcs optimize pristine darcs optimize upgrade darcs dist darcs repair darcs convert export
ENVIRONMENT
HOME and APPDATA DARCS_EDITOR, VISUAL, and EDITOR DARCS_PAGER and PAGER DARCS_DONT_COLOR, DARCS_ALWAYS_COLOR, DARCS_ALTERNATIVE_COLOR, and DARCS_DO_COLOR_LINES DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_TRAILING_SPACES and DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_TRAILING_CR DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_ANYTHING, DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_EXTRA, DARCS_ESCAPE_EXTRA, DARCS_DONT_ESCAPE_IS‐ PRINT, and DARCS_ESCAPE_8BIT DARCS_TMPDIR and TMPDIR DARCS_EMAIL and EMAIL DARCS_SCP and DARCS_SFTP HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, FTP_PROXY, ALL_PROXY, and NO_PROXY
FILES
_darcs/prefs/motd _darcs/prefs/email _darcs/prefs/post _darcs/prefs/author _darcs/prefs/defaults _darcs/prefs/sources _darcs/prefs/boring _darcs/prefs/binaries _darcs/prefs/defaultrepo _darcs/prefs/tmpdir _darcs/prefs/prefs
BUGS SEE ALSO LICENSE

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