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Chapter 3: Advanced Uses
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3.11 Reserved Files
A monotone workspace consists of control files and non-control files. Each type of file can
be versioned or non-versioned. These classifications lead to four groups of files:
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versioned control files
non-versioned control files
versioned non-control files
non-versioned non-control files
Control files contain special content formatted for use by monotone. Versioned files are
recorded in a monotone database and have their state tracked as they are modified.
If a control file is versioned, it is considered part of the state of the workspace, and will
be recorded as a manifest entry. If a control file is not versioned, it is used to manage the
state of the workspace, but it not considered an intrinsic part of it.
Most files you manage with monotone will be versioned non-control files. For example, if
you keep source code or documents in a monotone database, they are versioned non-control
files. Non-versioned, non-control files in your workspace are generally temporary or junk
files, such as backups made by editors or object files made by compilers. Such files are
ignored by monotone.
Identifying control files
Control files are identified by their names. Non-control files can have any name except the
names reserved for control files. The names of control files follow a regular pattern:
Versioned control files
Any file name beginning with .mtnNon-versioned control files
Any file in the directory _MTN/
The general intention is that versioned control files are things that you may want to edit
directly. In comparison, you should never have to edit non-versioned control files directly;
monotone should do that for you whenever it is appropriate. However, both are documented
here, just in case a situation arises where you need to go “under the hood”.
Existing control files and directories
The following control files are currently used. More control files may be added in the future,
but they will follow the patterns given above.
.mtn-ignore
Contains a list of regular expression patterns, one per line. If it exists, any
file with a name matching one of these patterns is ignored. See Section 7.4
[Regexps], page 218, for the syntax of these regular expressions.
_MTN/wanted-testresults
Contains a list of testresult key names, one per line. If it exists, update will only
select revisions that do not have regressions according to the given testresult
keys.