Why do I occasionally get my bookmarks locked?

[jeanbza]

For context, I'm in a git co-located project because of #469.

My push-to-GitHub flow looks something like this:

jbarkhuysen at MacBook-Y9JVN in ~/workspace/cosmos-stratum-htef-runner on (HEAD detached from b013198)*
$ jj
@  ntmxzynt [email protected] 2025-02-11 09:20:02 hidden aea079d2
│  Support for hidden files.
○  qwvwprvv [email protected] 2025-02-11 08:14:08 symlinks2 git_head() 247fbfd4
│  Basic support for symlinks.
○  xqrwzwnr [email protected] 2025-02-11 08:14:08 filerefactor 9e52c8cd
│  Move a few file-y functions to file.go.
◆  tywxkppr [email protected] 2025-02-11 07:15:28 main c62f5451
│  Perform file:// copies after HTEF invocation and add results to FunctionOutputEnvelope. #12
~
# FYI the feature's name is about hidden, it's not semantically meaningful for this issue.
$ git push origin hidden
# This was an accident, but it led to...
$ jj desc
# This locked commits situation:
$ jj
@  yyyomtpm [email protected] 2025-02-11 09:20:40 a256ca50
│  (empty) (no description set)
◆  ntmxzynt [email protected] 2025-02-11 09:20:02 hidden hidden@origin git_head() aea079d2
│  Support for hidden files.
~  (elided revisions)
◆  tywxkppr [email protected] 2025-02-11 07:15:28 main c62f5451
│  Perform file:// copies after HTEF invocation and add results to FunctionOutputEnvelope. #12
~

Why did a git push and jj desc lock xqrwzwnr, qwvwprvv, and ntmxzynt? GitHub's origin/main is at tywxkppr so there doesn't seem to be a reason to do that.

Also, how do I get it to stop doing this ~ (elided revisions) thing? I have never wanted jj to elide revisions. I can't imagine what that feature is for heh. :)

Thanks for any help.

[jeanbza]

Bizarrely, if I got to my first in-flight commit xqrwzwnr, jj log stops showing me commits after it:

$ jj edit filerefactor --ignore-immutable
Working copy now at: xqrwzwnr 9e52c8cd filerefactor | Move a few file-y functions to file.go.
Parent commit      : tywxkppr c62f5451 main | Perform file:// copies after HTEF invocation and add results to FunctionOutputEnvelope. #12
Added 0 files, modified 3 files, removed 1 files
$ jj
@  xqrwzwnr [email protected] 2025-02-11 08:14:08 filerefactor 9e52c8cd
│  Move a few file-y functions to file.go.
◆  tywxkppr [email protected] 2025-02-11 07:15:28 main git_head() c62f5451
│  Perform file:// copies after HTEF invocation and add results to FunctionOutputEnvelope. #12
~

Why? 🤨

[jennings]

See: Where is my commit, why is it not visible in jj log?

[jeanbza]

Thanks!

[bnjmnt4n]

The term for locked commits is "immutable commits". See https://jj-vcs.github.io/jj/latest/config/#set-of-immutable-commits. The default configuration for immutable commits is such that untracked bookmarks are immutable. jj bookmark track hidden@origin should make those commits mutable again. Typically untracked bookmarks correspond to remote bookmarks by other users which you would not typically want to modify.

The elided revisions are configurable by choosing what commits you'd like to display in the default revset: https://jj-vcs.github.io/jj/latest/config/#default-revisions. For example, you could choose to display all commits via all().

[jeanbza]

Thank you! This helps a lot. When I run into this issue again I'll give these a try.

[joyously]

I think this sort of question is common in the mind of a novice, pointing to needing a bit better defaults or better hints or making the links to docs more prominent...something to help ease the onslaught of new concepts all at once.

[jeanbza]

+1. I honestly still don't understand why my commits are becoming immutable, or why they're being elided when I log. I'm glad I now know better how to work around that, but I expected the exact opposite behaviour.

[jennings]

This doesn't solve the problem, but I came up with a revset to determine what's making a revision immutable. If you create the following alias, you can use it to determine what's making a revision immutable:

[revset-aliases]
'why_immutable(r)' = 'r | roots(r:: & immutable_heads())'

Usage:

$ jj log -r 'why_immutable(xqrwzwnr)'