How does one configure mercurial hg to not retain backups by default?

Question

I never use those .orig files, and I hate cleaning them up manually. Is there a way to configure hg revert to use the --no-backups option by default? I can't find it in the Mercurial manual

Using a shell alias is possible but isn't desirable.

Answer 1

You can create an alias in your config file.

More details on the config file at http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/hgrc.5.html

Read the manual myself, and it looks like its changed somewhat since the last time I read it. I was going to suggest using defaults, but it appears that has been deprecated. The recommendation is to use aliases.

It appears an alias CAN override a built-in command, but obviously they don't recommend it.

So, you could do

[alias]
revert = revert --no-backup

but the recommendation would be to create a new command for yourself

Answer 2

Actually, the best way is to include the following two lines in your .hgrc file:

[defaults]
revert = --no-backup