Filtered Views

Goals

• aim for general design useful for both:
  • reduced tree (ala cvs) useful for translators, etc.
  • focussed work (ala git index) useful for breaking large changes into smaller commits
• provide feedback each time view is being used
• don't introduce features/commands until absolutely necessary
• do lots of tests as we go

Plan

1. Store in a new file: .bzr/checkout/view say - explicitly doesn't propagate

2. If a view is being invoked, then first message displayed is:

• Ignoring files outside view: (details of view)

3. If specifying explicit files, error if they are not inside the view.

4. Add --view (-V) list option to checkout and branch

5. Suggested order to support views in other commands:

• status
• diff
• commit
• add
• remove
• revert
• merge
• update
• pull

6. Once all relevant existing commands support views, add view command for changing the view. This can be a second patch.

Issues

If the view file contains a list of paths, what happens when things are renamed? Can we trap this and either follow the rename or complain?