Squashing Commits

To squash commits, use the following instructions.

1. Using hg log, or hg glog, check your repository history and choose the revision upon which you want to squash commits.
2. The commit status needs to be in draft. If necessary, change the commit status to draft back as far as the chosen revision, using the following command: hg phase --draft --force -r rev-id. It's not best practices to use --force on a main |repo|, but this example is based on a fork. To learn more about phases, read the Mercurial Phases docs. See the following example:

# Put commits into draft status if needed
hg phase --draft --force -r 9039

# Check the changlog to ensure the commits are in draft
@  9041:c680f30edc60 [default] - draft
|  7 weeks ago by Johannes Bornhold | B:,T:tip
|  nix: Add version of transifex-client into default.nix
|
o  9040:66f03981cfcd [default] - draft
|  7 weeks ago by lisaq | B:,T:
|  fixes #1592 removing legacy css files
|
o  9039:388db711042f [default] - draft
|  7 weeks ago by Brian | B:,T:
|  docs: fixed *doCheck = false* with propogatedbuildinputs fragment
|
o  9038:ef41dce16c12 [default] - public
|  8 weeks ago by Brian | B:,T:
|  Docs: updating dependencies for Sphinx 131, but staying at 122 for now

3. Once the commits are in draft, run the hg histedit rev-id command, specifying the earliest draft commit. This will open the history edit function in your terminal, allowing you to fold the commit messages into one. Select a commit to use as the one into which the others will be squashed. Then save the file.

# Run the history edit specifying the base revision
hg histedit 9039

pick 388db711042f 9039 docs: fixed *doCheck = false* with propogatedbuildinputs
fold 66f03981cfcd 9040 fixes #1592 removing legacy css files
fold c680f30edc60 9041 nix: Add version of transifex-client into default.nix

# Edit history between 388db711042f and c680f30edc60
#
# Commits are listed from least to most recent
#
# Commands:
#  p, pick = use commit
#  e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending
#  f, fold = use commit, but combine it with the one above
#  d, drop = remove commit from history
#  m, mess = edit message without changing commit content

4. Once those settings are saved, the terminal will open up an editor and you can change the commit message. When finished, save again.

# add a new commit message or keep the original one
docs: added translations and packaging. Squashed commit.

# adding HG: in front of a line will remove it once saved
HG:docs: added translations and packaging. Squashed commit.
HG:nix: Add version of transifex-client into default.nix
HG:docs: fixed *doCheck = false* with propogatedbuildinputs fragment

5. Your commit messages will now be squashed into a single commit. You will also get a message about a backup bundle where |hg| will store the history of the squashed commit.

3 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved
saved backup bundle to /tutorials-fork/.hg/strip-backup/38b711042f-backup.hg
saved backup bundle to /tutorials-fork/.hg/strip-backup/f19da9449f-backup.hg

6. See the squashed commit message using the hg log or hg glog command.

@  9039:44e6fc3bf6b5 [default] - draft
|  7 weeks ago by Brian | B:,T:tip
|  docs: added translations and packaging. Squashed commit.
|
o  9038:ef41dce16c12 [default] - draft
|  8 weeks ago by Brian | B:,T:
|  Docs: updating dependencies for Sphinx 131, but staying at 122
|
o    9037:411a82632f54 [default] - draft
|\   7 weeks ago by Johannes Bornhold | B:,T:
| |  release: Merge back stable into default after release 3.2.1

7. Once you have squashed the commits, to push these changes to the server you have two options:
   • Push with force using hg push --force which will create a new head.
   • Strip your commits on the server back to a previous revision, and then push the new history. To strip commits on the server, see the strip information in the :ref:`api` documentation.