2.4.1  Selecting A Branch And Revision

Before any information can be viewed, one has to select not only the database to use, but also the branch and revision that you wish to view. This is done by using the Branch and Revision auto-completion entry fields inside the View panel. There are a number of things that Monotone Browser will do to help you select the item you want.

For example, when entering the branch name one can simply select it from the completion list that is provided when you left click on the   button just to the right of the entry field. However, the list of branch names can be very long and so it may be easier to start typing it in directly. As you type, Monotone Browser will attempt to auto-complete it for you and update the completion list so as to only contain those remaining valid completions.

So if you typed in net.venge.monotone.contrib.lib.automate-stdio as the branch and then left clicked on the   button then you would have something like that shown in the figure below.

Figure 2-3  A Branch Auto-Completion Entry Field Showing Its Completion List
  1. Entering a space will trigger auto-completion. This is especially useful when starting off with a blank auto-completion entry field or when a value was pasted in and you want to update the display.

  2. With a very large number of branches, performance can suffer when you are typing and the completion list is displayed. Simply dismiss the completion list to speed up the auto-completion.

Entering a revision id is done in much the same way as with a branch name. The revision ids are limited to those that are on the selected branch. One can also select a revision by its tag name simply by making sure that Tagged is ticked.

If you wish to select a revision that is not on a branch or select a specific revision out of several labelled with the same tag on the same branch then one has to use the Advanced Find dialog window (see Chapter 3).