The mercurial backend is broken when no changelog message is given. Here is a quick patch, partialy copying the svn backend. --- /usr/share/perl5/IkiWiki/Rcs/mercurial.pm 2007-03-18 23:19:40.000000000 +0100 +++ ./mercurial.pm 2007-03-24 13:11:36.000000000 +0100 @@ -70,12 +70,15 @@ if (defined $user) { $user = possibly_foolish_untaint($user); + $message="web commit by $user".(length $message ? ": $message" : ""); } elsif (defined $ipaddr) { $user = "Anonymous from $ipaddr"; + $message="web commit from $ipaddr".(length $message ? ": $message" : ""); } else { $user = "Anonymous"; + $message="web commit by Anonymous".(length $message ? ": $message" : ""); } $message = possibly_foolish_untaint($message);