@JMR: For the Eclipse plug-in we're putting style files into the
MercurialEclipse JAR and copy them on first usage as temporary files to a
location which can be used by hg. This also solves the problem with spaces in
filenames and templates.

Btw., IMHO hg cat offers a similar problem - no templating available and (AFAIK)
it doesn't follow renames. This is unfortunate as it breaks comparing of renamed
files to older versions :-(. We still haven't figured out how to solve this problem.

I am not sure you can get this information reliably with templates only, you
probably need a style file. Digging in the templating code and tests, copies can
be displayed with --template using the embedded style "filecopy" like:

hg log -vfC --template "{file_copies%filecopy}\n"

But the "source(copy)" format is probably not reliable enough for what you need.
I don't know any way to define styles within a --template but I am not
knowledgeable in this area either.

Adding mpm and ThomasAH to nosy list.

Couldn't you use a style file instead ?

This bug is also stopping us providing copy history in our tools (albeit, much 
less significant than NetBeans!). I don't understand the intent / philosophy of cmdutil.py/changeset_templater/showlist enough to submit the patch myself.

This bug is blocking us from getting at copy information when processing Search
History information in the netBeans IDE Mercurial plugin. Pretty much everything
else is working.

We are trying to implement a Search History in the Mercurial NetBeans IDE
support and also need the ability to get at copied file info in a template, we
are seeing similar problem with file_copies in tempalte:

$ hg --debug log -l 1 -C --template="rev: {rev}\\ndesc: {desc}\\ndate:
{date|hgdate}\\nid: {node|short}\\nfiles: {files}\\n file_adds: {file_adds}\\n
file_dels: {file_dels}\\n file_copies: {file_copies}\\n\\n" --repository
/export/home/NetBeansProjects/JavaApplication36_clone1
/export/home/NetBeansProjects/JavaApplication36_clone1
rev: 7
desc: copied
date: 1200923834 0
id: 16ca42ddff3c
files: 
 file_adds: src/javaapplication36/Main2222.java
src/javaapplication36/NewClass3111111111.java
 file_dels: src/javaapplication36/Main.java src/javaapplication36/NewClass31.java
 file_copies:
filesnodetagsdatedescbranchesnameauthorrevmanifestsourceextrasfile_addsfile_delsparentsfile_copiesfilesnodetagsdatedescbranchesnameauthorrevmanifestsourceextrasfile_addsfile_delsparentsfile_copies

$ hg --version
Mercurial Distributed SCM (version 0.9.5)

Using --template that tries to show the copies associated with a changeset 
doesn't work as expected, 
while hg log -vfC filename works fine.

For example (please excuse the odd filenames):

marc$ hg log -vfC python_source_v.property
changeset:   1512:60c1189d3152
user:        marc@f1.local
date:        Wed Jan 16 14:40:52 2008 -0600
files:       saveTarget4.field/__-4354d5:117843d713e:-
7fe1/python_source_v.property 
saveTarget4.field/__-e73f109:117843b48dc:-7fbc/python_source_v.property 
saveTarget4.field/__3b6f6a98:1178444f7e2:-7fea/python_source_v.property 
saveTarget4.field/__79cac2e6:117843fcd12:-7ff1/python_source_v.property 
saveTarget4.field/__7d1c59c0:117845389de:-7fe6/python_source_v.property 
saveTarget4.field/sheet.xml
copies:      saveTarget4.field/__-4354d5:117843d713e:-
7fe1/python_source_v.property 
(saveSource.field/__-4354d5:117843d713e:-7fe1/python_source_v.property) 
saveTarget4.field/__-
e73f109:117843b48dc:-7fbc/python_source_v.property (saveSource.field/__-
e73f109:117843b48dc:-
7fbc/python_source_v.property) saveTarget4.field/__3b6f6a98:1178444f7e2:-
7fea/python_source_v.property 
(saveSource.field/__3b6f6a98:1178444f7e2:-7fea/python_source_v.property) 
saveTarget4.field/__79cac2e6:117843fcd12:-7ff1/python_source_v.property 
(saveSource.field/__79cac2e6:117843fcd12:-7ff1/python_source_v.property) 
saveTarget4.field/__7d1c59c0:117845389de:-7fe6/python_source_v.property 
(saveSource.field/__7d1c59c0:117845389de:-7fe6/python_source_v.property) 
saveTarget4.field/sheet.xml 
(saveSource.field/sheet.xml)
description:
"(no message)"


changeset:   1500:6248674bbb47
user:        marc@f1.local
date:        Wed Jan 16 14:29:40 2008 -0600
files:       saveSource.field/__3b6f6a98:1178444f7e2:-
7fea/python_source_v.property
description:
"(no message)"


changeset:   1498:ac40a6485eb2
user:        marc@f1.local
date:        Wed Jan 16 14:23:56 2008 -0600
files:       saveSource.field/__3b6f6a98:1178444f7e2:-
7fea/python_source_v.property 
saveSource.field/__79cac2e6:117843fcd12:-7ff1/python_source_v.property 
saveSource.field/sheet.xml
description:
"(no message)"


this is as expected, in particular the "copies:" for rev 1512 are correct.

However with a template that contains {file_copies} (which I'm guessing is the 
correct keyword):

marc$ hg log -v -f -C --template 
"rev<<{rev}>>\ndate<<{date|isodate}>>\ndesc<<{desc}>>files\n<<{files}>>\ncopies<
<{file_copies}>>-----
\n\n\n" python_source_v.property 

rev<<1512>>
date<<2008-01-16 14:40 -0600>>
desc<<"(no message)">>files
<<saveTarget4.field/__-4354d5:117843d713e:-7fe1/python_source_v.property 
saveTarget4.field/__-
e73f109:117843b48dc:-7fbc/python_source_v.property 
saveTarget4.field/__3b6f6a98:1178444f7e2:-
7fea/python_source_v.property saveTarget4.field/__79cac2e6:117843fcd12:-
7ff1/python_source_v.property 
saveTarget4.field/__7d1c59c0:117845389de:-7fe6/python_source_v.property 
saveTarget4.field/sheet.xml>>
copies<<filesnodetagsdatedescbranchesnameauthorrevmanifestsourceextrasfile_addsf
ile_delsparentsfile_cop
iesfilesnodetagsdatedescbranchesnameauthorrevmanifestsourceextrasfile_addsfile_d
elsparentsfile_copiesfi
lesnodetagsdatedescbranchesnameauthorrevmanifestsourceextrasfile_addsfile_delspa
rentsfile_copiesfilesno
detagsdatedescbranchesnameauthorrevmanifestsourceextrasfile_addsfile_delsparents
file_copiesfilesnodetag
sdatedescbranchesnameauthorrevmanifestsourceextrasfile_addsfile_delsparentsfile_
copiesfilesnodetagsdate
descbranchesnameauthorrevmanifestsourceextrasfile_addsfile_delsparentsfile_copie
s>>-----


rev<<1500>>
date<<2008-01-16 14:29 -0600>>
desc<<"(no message)">>files
<<saveSource.field/__3b6f6a98:1178444f7e2:-7fea/python_source_v.property>>
copies<<>>-----


rev<<1498>>
date<<2008-01-16 14:23 -0600>>
desc<<"(no message)">>files
<<saveSource.field/__3b6f6a98:1178444f7e2:-7fea/python_source_v.property 
saveSource.field/__79cac2e6:117843fcd12:-7ff1/python_source_v.property 
saveSource.field/sheet.xml>>
copies<<>>-----


In this case the copies<< ... >> contains text that's formatted badly by 
cmdutil.py/changeset_templater/showlist (the material is in the "values" passed 
into this function, as 
an array of dicts, it just doesn't make it out the other side.

marc$ hg --version
Mercurial Distributed SCM (version 0.9.5)