Provide a "shelf" command as an extended shelve --list

[Glen Mailer]

It would be useful to be able to obtain more information about the changes on the shelf, but this is quite tricky to add such options into the existing "shelve --list"

It would be nice to have a "bzr shelf" command, which has output somewhat like "bzr log", including the same behaviour for -v and -p.

[Alexander Belchenko (bialix)]

Glen Mailer пишет:
> It would be useful to be able to obtain more information about the
> changes on the shelf, but this is quite tricky to add such options into
> the existing "shelve --list"
>
> It would be nice to have a "bzr shelf" command, which has output
> somewhat like "bzr log", including the same behaviour for -v and -p.

You can use `bzr unshelve --dry-run` and `bzr unshelve --preview` for
that. No need for the new command.

Do you think this is underdocumented?

--
All the dude wanted was his rug back

[Glen Mailer (glenjamin)]

I'd say the way that viewing / exploring the list is split between two commands is not particularly user friendly.

[Alexander Belchenko (bialix)]

Glen Mailer пишет:
> I'd say the way that viewing / exploring the list is split between two
> commands is not particularly user friendly.

So, you think that adding 3rd command will help to improve user interface?

--
All the dude wanted was his rug back

[Glen Mailer (glenjamin)]

> So, you think that adding 3rd command will help to improve user interface?

Yes, that's why I reported this bug.

There are 3 distinct actions involved when working with shelved changes:

* Shelving some changes
* Applying previously shelved changes
* Viewing and examining items "on the shelf"

It seems very counter-intuitive to me that if I want to see details about a shelved change, I use the "unshelve" command.

[Alexander Belchenko (bialix)]

Glen Mailer пишет:
>> So, you think that adding 3rd command will help to improve user
> interface?
>
> Yes, that's why I reported this bug.
>
> There are 3 distinct actions involved when working with shelved changes:
>
> * Shelving some changes
> * Applying previously shelved changes
> * Viewing and examining items "on the shelf"
>
>
> It seems very counter-intuitive to me that if I want to see details about a shelved change, I use the "unshelve" command.

OK, so you suggest to extract shelve --list, unshelve --dry-run and
unshelve --preview into separate command. Do you have in mind any
suggestions regarding name of that command and options for the new command?

--
All the dude wanted was his rug back

[Glen Mailer (glenjamin)]

I was in favour of "bzr shelf" since we're looking at the shelf itself, although this may have some historical issues with the old bzrtools version.

I envisage the output to be somewhat similar to "bzr log", currently "bzr shelve --list" is similar to "bzr log --short" without the dates.
The two outputs i'd like to see - the list of changes and the diff of changes are available in "bzr log" using the -p and -v flags, it probably makes sense to include the date a change was shelved in the output too.

Purpose: Show the list of shelved changes
Usage: bzr shelf

Options:
  -v, --verbose Show files changed in each shelved change.
  -q, --quiet Only display errors and warnings.
  -p, --show-diff Show changes made in each shelved change as a patch.
  --forward Show from oldest to newest.
  -l N, --limit=N Limit the output to the first N shelved changes.
  --usage Show usage message and options.
  --timezone=ARG Display timezone as local, original, or utc.
  -h, --help Show help message.

[Alexander Belchenko (bialix)]

Glen Mailer пишет:
>> So, you think that adding 3rd command will help to improve user
> interface?
>
> Yes, that's why I reported this bug.
>
> There are 3 distinct actions involved when working with shelved changes:
>
> * Shelving some changes
> * Applying previously shelved changes
> * Viewing and examining items "on the shelf"
>
>
> It seems very counter-intuitive to me that if I want to see details about a shelved change, I use the "unshelve" command.

Actually, neither `unshelve --dry-run` nor `unshelve --preview` show you
the items "on the shelf". Both commands show you the possible result of
applying shelved changes.

Look at this example:

C:\Temp\6>bzr init

C:\Temp\6>echo foo > foo

C:\Temp\6>bzr add
added foo

C:\Temp\6>bzr commit -m1
Committing to: C:/Temp/6/
modified foo
Committed revision 1.

C:\Temp\6>echo spam > foo

C:\Temp\6>bzr st
modified:
   foo

C:\Temp\6>bzr shelve -m test --all
Selected changes:
  M foo
Changes shelved with id "1".

C:\Temp\6>bzr shelve --list
   1: test

C:\Temp\6>bzr unshelve --dry-run
Using changes with id "1".
Message: test
  M foo

C:\Temp\6>bzr unshelve --preview
Using changes with id "1".
Message: test
  M foo
=== modified file 'foo'
--- a/foo 2010-09-20 14:15:06 +0000
+++ b/foo 2010-09-20 14:15:24 +0000
@@ -1,1 +1,1 @@
-foo
+spam

C:\Temp\6>bzr unshelve --keep
Using changes with id "1".
Message: test
  M foo
All changes applied successfully.

C:\Temp\6>bzr shelve --list
   1: test

C:\Temp\6>bzr unshelve --dry-run
Using changes with id "1".
Message: test

C:\Temp\6>bzr unshelve --preview
Using changes with id "1".
Message: test

C:\Temp\6>

As you can see after `unshelve --keep` the changes still present in the
shelf, but they're also applied to the working tree. So both `unshelve
--fry-run` and `unshelve --preview` show there is no changes to apply.

[Vincent Ladeuil (vila)]

I'm unclear about *where* some 'shelve status' should be provided, but I like the idea of being able to get a summary of what a shelf is with a bit more details than what --list provides.

May be '-v' would be enough (bar the usual objections about overloading '-v' for so many commands).

The shelf message is not always enough when visiting very old shelves, while the complete diff is too much.

[Vincent Ladeuil (vila)]

See also bug #995717 'Getting the original diff with bzr unshelve is hard'.