Allow commit files to be removed from the message editor

[Russ Brown]

One of my colleagues just found a feature that svk has that bzr doesn't, which could be a nice addition to bzr.

The feature is that if a filename is removed from the list of files shown in the commit comment editor, bzr excludes the file form the commit.

So for example, if I have files A, B and C modified and I do bzr commit, the editor shows this:

-------------- This line and the following will be ignored --------------

modified:
  A
  B
  C

If I then remove the line containing B, add a commit message and save/quit, bzr detects that B has gone, and just commits files A and C.

[James Westby (james-w)]

Hi,

It would be interesting how this worked with "--show-diff". Would
edits to that diff be reflected in the committed state? Would it also
change the files on disk?

While I think this request is reasonable it worries me as it seems to lead
to things like the above.

Thanks,

James

[Russ Brown (pickscrape)]

I agree: add things like what happens if a filename gets renamed in the list etc. Might be worth seeing how svk deals with it: I suspect that the only thing notices is deletions, and states as much in the commit comment.

I figured it was worth reporting since my colleague pretty much expressed outrage at this feature not being present. Funny thing is I never actually used that feature of svk myself: interesting how different people use the same tool in different ways.

Just did an experiment: svk's commit comment / file list separator line looks like this:

=== Targets to commit (you may delete items from it) ===

So it seems that it does only deal with file removals (which to me seems sensible).

I do appreciate that this could be quite the can of worms though. :)

[Berto (bertosmailbox)]

I've been wanting this feature myself. I put together a plugin to demonstrate the behavior:

lp:~bertosmailbox/+junk/bzr-newcommit

It would be great to have this feature integrated into the builtin commit command. I would be happy to work on that.

Any comments would be great.

Thanks!
-berto.