$ cat >> $HGRCPATH << EOF > [extensions] > show = > EOF No arguments shows available views $ hg init empty $ cd empty $ hg show available views: bookmarks -- bookmarks and their associated changeset underway -- changesets that aren't finished abort: no view requested (use "hg show VIEW" to choose a view) [255] `hg help show` prints available views $ hg help show hg show VIEW show various repository information A requested view of repository data is displayed. If no view is requested, the list of available views is shown and the command aborts. Note: There are no backwards compatibility guarantees for the output of this command. Output may change in any future Mercurial release. Consumers wanting stable command output should specify a template via "-T/--template". List of available views: bookmarks bookmarks and their associated changeset underway changesets that aren't finished (use 'hg help -e show' to show help for the show extension) options: -T --template TEMPLATE display with template (some details hidden, use --verbose to show complete help) Unknown view prints error $ hg show badview abort: unknown view: badview (run "hg show" to see available views) [255] HGPLAIN results in abort $ HGPLAIN=1 hg show bookmarks abort: must specify a template in plain mode (invoke with -T/--template to control output format) [255] But not if a template is specified $ HGPLAIN=1 hg show bookmarks -T '{bookmark}\n' (no bookmarks set) $ cd .. bookmarks view with no bookmarks prints empty message $ hg init books $ cd books $ touch f0 $ hg -q commit -A -m initial $ hg show bookmarks (no bookmarks set) bookmarks view shows bookmarks in an aligned table $ echo book1 > f0 $ hg commit -m 'commit for book1' $ echo book2 > f0 $ hg commit -m 'commit for book2' $ hg bookmark -r 1 book1 $ hg bookmark a-longer-bookmark $ hg show bookmarks * a-longer-bookmark 7b570 book1 b757f A custom bookmarks template works $ hg show bookmarks -T '{node} {bookmark} {active}\n' 7b5709ab64cbc34da9b4367b64afff47f2c4ee83 a-longer-bookmark True b757f780b8ffd71267c6ccb32e0882d9d32a8cc0 book1 False bookmarks JSON works $ hg show bookmarks -T json [ { "active": true, "bookmark": "a-longer-bookmark", "longestbookmarklen": 17, "node": "7b5709ab64cbc34da9b4367b64afff47f2c4ee83" }, { "active": false, "bookmark": "book1", "longestbookmarklen": 17, "node": "b757f780b8ffd71267c6ccb32e0882d9d32a8cc0" } ] JSON works with no bookmarks $ hg book -d a-longer-bookmark $ hg book -d book1 $ hg show bookmarks -T json [ ] $ cd ..