--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/help/patterns.txt	Sun Oct 04 09:59:13 2009 +0200
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+    Mercurial accepts several notations for identifying one or more
+    files at a time.
+
+    By default, Mercurial treats filenames as shell-style extended
+    glob patterns.
+
+    Alternate pattern notations must be specified explicitly.
+
+    To use a plain path name without any pattern matching, start it
+    with "path:". These path names must completely match starting at
+    the current repository root.
+
+    To use an extended glob, start a name with "glob:". Globs are
+    rooted at the current directory; a glob such as "``*.c``" will
+    only match files in the current directory ending with ".c".
+
+    The supported glob syntax extensions are "``**``" to match any
+    string across path separators and "{a,b}" to mean "a or b".
+
+    To use a Perl/Python regular expression, start a name with "re:".
+    Regexp pattern matching is anchored at the root of the repository.
+
+    Plain examples::
+
+      path:foo/bar   a name bar in a directory named foo in the root
+                     of the repository
+      path:path:name a file or directory named "path:name"
+
+    Glob examples::
+
+      glob:*.c       any name ending in ".c" in the current directory
+      *.c            any name ending in ".c" in the current directory
+      **.c           any name ending in ".c" in any subdirectory of the
+                     current directory including itself.
+      foo/*.c        any name ending in ".c" in the directory foo
+      foo/**.c       any name ending in ".c" in any subdirectory of foo
+                     including itself.
+
+    Regexp examples::
+
+      re:.*\.c$      any name ending in ".c", anywhere in the repository