Bazaar (Bzr)

Bazaar (bzr) is a distributed version control system focused on ease of use and flexibility. This guide covers basic to advanced operations for managing code repositories.

Installation

macOS

brew install bzr
bzr --version

Linux/Ubuntu

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bzr

Windows

choco install bazaar
# Or download from https://launchpad.net/bzr/

Initial Setup

Configure User

# Set user identity
bzr whoami "John Doe <john@example.com>"

# View current user
bzr whoami

# Configure editor
export EDITOR=vim
bzr config editor=vim

Basic Repository Operations

Initialize Repository

# Create new repository
bzr init my-project
cd my-project

# Clone existing repository
bzr branch https://launchpad.net/myapp myapp
bzr clone https://launchpad.net/myapp

# Create shared repository
bzr init-repo repo-name
cd repo-name
bzr init branch1
bzr init branch2

Check Status

# Show changes
bzr status

# Show changes with details
bzr status --verbose

# Show file changes
bzr diff

# Show specific file changes
bzr diff filename.txt

# Check who changed what
bzr blame filename.txt

Committing Changes

Add and Commit

# Add new file
bzr add filename.txt

# Add multiple files
bzr add file1.txt file2.txt

# Add all changes
bzr add

# Remove file
bzr remove filename.txt

# Rename file
bzr rename oldname.txt newname.txt

# Move file
bzr move file.txt directory/

# Commit changes
bzr commit -m "Fix login bug"

# Commit specific files
bzr commit file.txt -m "Update config"

# Commit with verbose message
bzr commit -m "Detailed commit message" --verbose

Viewing History

# Show commit log
bzr log

# Show last N commits
bzr log -n 5
bzr log --last 5

# Show commits for file
bzr log filename.txt

# Show commits from author
bzr log --author="John Doe"

# Show with patches
bzr log -p

# Show commits by date
bzr log --revision "2025-03-01..2025-03-31"

# Show specific revision
bzr log -r 42

# Show as graph
bzr log --graph

# Show authors and dates
bzr log --long --show-ids

Branching

Creating Branches

# Create branch from current
bzr branch . ../branch-name

# Create branch at specific path
bzr branch /path/to/repo /path/to/branch

# Create light-weight branch
bzr branch --lightweight

# List branches in repository
bzr branches

# List all branches
bzr branches -r remote://location

Working with Branches

# Switch to branch
cd ../branch-name

# Show parent branch
bzr config parent_location

# Set parent branch
bzr config parent_location = ../main-branch

# Update from parent
bzr update

# Check missing commits
bzr missing
bzr missing --theirs
bzr missing --mine

Merging

Merge Operations

# Merge from branch
bzr merge ../other-branch

# Merge specific revision
bzr merge ../branch -r 42

# Preview merge
bzr merge --preview ../other-branch

# Merge and commit
bzr merge ../other-branch
bzr commit -m "Merge other-branch"

# Abort merge
bzr revert

Resolving Conflicts

# Show conflicts
bzr status

# View conflicted file
cat filename.txt.conflict

# Mark as resolved
bzr resolve filename.txt

# Resolve all
bzr resolve --all

# Take ours
bzr resolve --take-this filename.txt

# Take theirs
bzr resolve --take-other filename.txt

Publishing and Sharing

Push and Pull

# Push to remote
bzr push

# Push to specific location
bzr push sftp://host/path/repo

# Push new branch
bzr push sftp://host/path/repo --create-prefix

# Pull changes
bzr pull

# Pull from specific location
bzr pull sftp://host/path/repo

# Check outgoing changes
bzr outgoing

# Check incoming changes
bzr incoming

# Pull and update
bzr pull && bzr update

Setting Up Remote

# Configure default push location
bzr config push_location = sftp://host/repos/myapp

# Configure default pull location
bzr config parent_location = sftp://host/repos/main

# Create shared repository on server
bzr init-repo sftp://host/repos/myapp
bzr push sftp://host/repos/myapp/branch

# Clone branch locally
bzr branch sftp://host/repos/myapp/branch

Advanced Operations

Rebasing

# Rebase current branch
bzr rebase ../main-branch

# Rebase with conflicts
# ... resolve conflicts ...
bzr rebase --continue

# Abort rebase
bzr rebase --abort

Cherry-picking

# Cherry-pick specific commit
bzr merge ../branch -r 42 --cherry-pick

# Cherry-pick multiple commits
bzr merge ../branch -r 40..45 --cherry-pick

Tagging

# Create tag
bzr tag v1.0.0

# Create tag at specific revision
bzr tag -r 42 v1.0.0

# List tags
bzr tags

# Delete tag
bzr tag -d v1.0.0

# Show tag information
bzr log -r tag:v1.0.0

Shelving Changes

# Shelve current changes
bzr shelve

# Shelve with name
bzr shelve -s "WIP: feature"

# List shelved changes
bzr shelve --list

# Restore shelved changes
bzr unshelve

# Delete shelf
bzr unshelve -d

Undoing Changes

# Revert file to last committed
bzr revert filename.txt

# Revert all changes
bzr revert

# Revert to specific revision
bzr revert -r 40

# Undo last commit (keep changes)
bzr uncommit

# Undo last commit (discard changes)
bzr reset --hard -r -2

# Create commit that reverts change
bzr revert -r 40
bzr commit -m "Revert to revision 40"

Workflow Examples

Feature Branch Workflow

# Create feature branch
bzr branch . ../feature/auth

# Work on feature
cd ../feature/auth
echo "auth code" > auth.py
bzr add auth.py
bzr commit -m "Add authentication"

# Merge to main
cd ../main
bzr merge ../feature/auth
bzr commit -m "Merge feature/auth"

# Clean up
rm -rf ../feature/auth

Release Management

# Create release branch
bzr branch . ../release/1.0
cd ../release/1.0

# Make release commits
bzr commit -m "Bump version to 1.0"
bzr tag v1.0.0

# Merge back to main
cd ../main
bzr merge ../release/1.0
bzr commit -m "Merge release 1.0"

# Continue development
bzr commit -m "Start 1.1 development"

Useful Extensions

Enable Extensions

# In ~/.bazaar/bazaar.conf or project .bzr/branch.conf
[DEFAULT]
auto_update = True

[ALIASES]
ci = commit
co = checkout

Creating Aliases

# Create command aliases
bzr config aliases.ci = commit
bzr config aliases.co = checkout
bzr config aliases.br = branch
bzr config aliases.st = status

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

# Check repository integrity
bzr check

# Verify branch
bzr verify-signatures

# Update repository
bzr upgrade

# Recover from corruption
bzr recover

# Rebuild metadata
bzr reconcile

Resolving Conflicts

# Show all conflicts
bzr conflicts

# Mark manually resolved
bzr resolve --all

# Take specific version
bzr resolve --take-this filename.txt
bzr resolve --take-other filename.txt

# Use merge tool
bzr merge ../branch --merge-type weave

Performance

# Optimize repository
bzr optimize

# Verify performance
bzr check --expensive

# Check disk usage
bzr du

# Clean backup files
bzr clean-logs

Collaboration Tips

Code Review

# Create patch for review
bzr send -o mypatch.patch ../main-branch

# Apply patch
bzr patch < mypatch.patch
bzr commit -m "Applied patch from review"

# Test patch
bzr merge --preview < mypatch.patch

Shared Repository

# Create shared repo
bzr init-repo /shared/repos/project

# Work in shared repo
cd /shared/repos/project
bzr init branch1
bzr init branch2

# Each person works locally
bzr branch /shared/repos/project/branch1 ~/branch1-work
cd ~/branch1-work
bzr commit -m "My changes"
bzr push /shared/repos/project/branch1

Configuration File Example

# ~/.bazaar/bazaar.conf
[DEFAULT]
email = John Doe <john@example.com>
editor = vim
auto_update = True
create_signatures = never
send_strict = True

[ALIASES]
ci = commit
co = checkout
br = branch
st = status
di = diff
lo = log

Resources

• Bazaar User Guide
• Bazaar Documentation
• Bzr Commands Reference
• Bzr Workflows
• Launchpad Hosting

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Last updated: 2025-03-30