.. _general:

=======================

General Kallithea usage

=======================

Repository deleting

-------------------

Currently when an admin or owner deletes a repository, Kallithea does

not physically delete said repository from the filesystem, but instead

renames it in a special way so that it is not possible to push, clone

or access the repository.

There is a special command for cleaning up such archived repos::

    paster cleanup-repos --older-than=30d my.ini

This command scans for archived repositories that are older than

30 days, displays them, and asks if you want to delete them (unless given

the ``--dont-ask`` flag). If you host a large amount of repositories with

forks that are constantly being deleted, it is recommended that you run this

command via crontab.

It is worth noting that even if someone is given administrative access to

Kallithea and deletes a repository, you can easily restore such an action by

renaming the repository directory, removing the ``rm__<date>`` prefix.

File view: follow current branch

--------------------------------

In the file view, left and right arrows allow to jump to the previous and next

revision. Depending on the way revisions were created in the repository, this

could jump to a different branch.  When the checkbox ``Follow current branch``

is checked, these arrows will only jump to revisions on the same branch as the

currently visible revision.  So for example, if someone is viewing files in the

``beta`` branch and marks the `Follow current branch` checkbox, the < and >

arrows will only show revisions on the ``beta`` branch.

Changelog features

------------------

The core feature of a repository's ``changelog`` page is to show the revisions

in a repository. However, there are several other features available from the

changelog.

Branch filter

  By default, the changelog shows revisions from all branches in the

  repository. Use the branch filter to restrict to a given branch.

Viewing a changeset

  A particular changeset can be opened by clicking on either the changeset

  hash or the commit message, or by ticking the checkbox and clicking the

  ``Show selected changeset`` button at the top.

Viewing all changes between two changesets

  To get a list of all changesets between two selected changesets, along with

  the changes in each one of them, tick the checkboxes of the first and

  last changeset in the desired range and click the ``Show selected changesets``

  button at the top. You can only show the range between the first and last

  checkbox (no cherry-picking).

  From that page, you can proceed to viewing the overall delta between the

  selected changesets, by clicking the ``Compare revisions`` button.

Creating a pull request

  You can create a new pull request for the changes of a particular changeset

  (and its ancestors) by selecting it and clicking the ``Open new pull request

  for selected changesets`` button.

Permanent repository URLs

-------------------------

Due to the complicated nature of repository grouping, URLs of repositories

can often change. For example, a repository originally accessible from::

  http://server.com/repo_name

would get a new URL after moving it to test_group::

  http://server.com/test_group/repo_name

Such moving of a repository to a group can be an issue for build systems and

other scripts where the repository paths are hardcoded. To mitigate this,

Kallithea provides permanent URLs using the repository ID prefixed with an

underscore. In all Kallithea URLs, for example those for the changelog and the

file view, a repository name can be replaced by this ``_ID`` string. Since IDs

are always the same, moving the repository to a different group will not affect

such URLs.

In the example, the repository could also be accessible as::

  http://server.com/_<ID>

The ID of a given repository can be shown from the repository ``Summary`` page,

by selecting the ``Show by ID`` button next to ``Clone URL``.

E-mail notifications

--------------------

When the administrator correctly specified the e-mail settings in the Kallithea

configuration file, Kallithea will send e-mails on user registration and when

errors occur.

Mails are also sent for comments on changesets. In this case, an e-mail is sent

to the committer of the changeset (if known to Kallithea), to all reviewers of

the pull request (if applicable) and to all people mentioned in the comment

using @mention notation.

Trending source files

---------------------

Cloning remote repositories

---------------------------

Kallithea has the ability to clone remote repos from given remote locations.

Currently it supports the following options:

- hg  -> hg clone

- svn -> hg clone

- git -> git clone

.. note:: svn -> hg cloning requires tge ``hgsubversion`` library to be installed.

If you need to clone repositories that are protected via basic auth, you

might pass the url with stored credentials inside, e.g.,

``http://user:passw@remote.server/repo``, Kallithea will try to login and clone

using the given credentials. Please take note that they will be stored as

plaintext inside the database. Kallithea will remove auth info when showing the

clone url in summary page.

Specific features configurable in the Admin settings

----------------------------------------------------

In general, the Admin settings should be self-explanatory and will not be

described in more detail in this documentation. However, there are a few

features that merit further explanation.

Repository extra fields

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the `Visual` tab, there is an option `Use repository extra

fields`, which allows to set custom fields for each repository in the system.

Each new field consists of 3 attributes: ``field key``, ``field label``,

``field description``.

Example usage of such fields would be to define company-specific information

into repositories, e.g., defining a ``repo_manager`` key that would give info

about a manager of each repository.  There's no limit for adding custom fields.

Newly created fields are accessible via the API.

Meta-Tagging

~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the `Visual` tab, option `Stylify recognised meta tags` will cause Kallithea

to turn certain meta-tags, detected in repository and repository group

descriptions, into colored tags. Currently recognised tags are::

    [featured]

    [stale]

    [dead]

    [lang => lang]

    [license => License]

    [requires => Repo]

    [recommends => Repo]

    [see => URI]