This is the eighth and final post in this series.
Tagging
With tagging you can more easily go back to a point in time or specific version of your code. While tagging is not required for this, it makes it much easier. Without labeling, a developer would have to read through logs and possibly source control changes to ascertain what version they need to go back to. Instead, tag. Make it easy on yourself or anyone coming behind you.
When is it a good time to tag. Every commit? I prescribe to substantial events in the code. At the very least, every time you release to production. That way if a release goes bad you can go back to the old codebase very easily. Other times to consider tagging would be:
- Large updates.
- Logical updates such as Feature A, Feature B, Bug A, Bug B.
- Anytime you believe going back to the current code may be of use.
Tagging could be seen as a tool to document the code but good commit messages are better for that in general. Tagging serves as a great way to document the timeline of important events of your codebase.
Further Reading
Tutorials and guides:
http://hginit.com/
http://mercurial.selenic.com/guide/
http://hgbook.red-bean.com/read/a-tour-of-mercurial-the-basics.html (the
whole book is good)http://mercurial.selenic.com/quickstart/
http://tekpub.com/view/dotnet-oss/7 (Free
video on Mercurial with CodePlex)
Command cheat sheets:
http://devcheatsheet.com/tag/mercurial/
http://www.sadev.co.za/files/Mercurial-Cheat-Sheet.png
http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/QuickReferenceCardsAndCheatSheets
Bitbucket Basics
http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/BITBUCKET/bitbucket+101
Release management techniques with Mercurial:
http://petevidler.com/2010/03/mercurial-release-management/
http://hgbook.red-bean.com/read/managing-releases-and-branchy-development.html
And one last link....
25 tips for intermediate mercurial users has some nice information to add to your arsenal when your ready.
Wrap Up
I hope you found this series helpful. I enjoyed putting it together and learned a few things along the way. Mercurial is lesser known than Git but still a great tool. Hopefully, you’ll find that using Mercurial is very easy. Give it a shot.
Happy Coding! 