Bazaar Advanced

Advanced Bazaar (bzr) workflows for distributed teams, complex branching strategies, rebasing, cherry-picking, and sophisticated merge handling.

Advanced Branching Strategies

Mainline Development Model

# Central mainline branch
bzr init mainline
cd mainline

# Feature branches from mainline
bzr branch . ../feature/user-auth
bzr branch . ../feature/payments
bzr branch . ../feature/notifications

# Each feature developer works in isolation
cd ../feature/user-auth
# ... make changes ...
bzr commit -m "Implement user authentication"

# Merge feature back to mainline
cd ../mainline
bzr merge ../feature/user-auth
bzr commit -m "Merge user auth feature"

# Continue with other features
bzr merge ../feature/payments
bzr commit -m "Merge payments feature"

Release Branch Model

# Create release branch from main development
bzr branch ../develop ../release/1.0

cd ../release/1.0
# Only bug fixes and version bumps
bzr commit -m "Version 1.0.1 - bugfix"
bzr tag v1.0.1

# Merge fixes back to develop
cd ../develop
bzr merge -r tag:v1.0.1 ../release/1.0
bzr commit -m "Merge release 1.0.1 fixes"

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

Integration Branch Pattern

# Main branch (stable)
bzr init main

# Development branch (bleeding edge)
bzr branch . ../develop

# Feature branches from develop
bzr branch ../develop ../feature/experiment

cd ../feature/experiment
# ... experimental changes ...
bzr commit -m "Try new approach"

# If successful, integrate to develop
cd ../develop
bzr merge ../feature/experiment
bzr commit -m "Merge experiment"

# Periodically integrate develop to main
cd ../main
bzr merge -r tag:latest-stable ../develop
bzr commit -m "Merge develop to stable"
bzr tag v-stable

Advanced Merge Strategies

Weave Merge Algorithm

# Use weave merging for text-heavy content
bzr merge ../other-branch --merge-type weave

# Weave is good for:
# - Documentation
# - Configuration files
# - Text-heavy content

Per-File Merge Strategies

# Different strategies for different files
bzr merge ../branch --merge-type directive

# In .bzr/branch/conflicts
# Use custom merge scripts for specific file types

Three-Way Merge

# Standard three-way merge (default)
bzr merge ../branch --merge-type merge3

# Combine with conflict resolution
bzr merge ../branch
# ... resolve conflicts ...
bzr resolve --all
bzr commit -m "Merge resolved"

Rebasing and Linear History

Interactive Rebase

# Rebase branch onto parent
bzr rebase ../main

# Rebase with conflict resolution
bzr rebase ../main
# ... resolve conflicts ...
bzr rebase --continue

# Abort rebase
bzr rebase --abort

# Rebase specific range
bzr rebase -r 40..50 ../main

Squashing Commits

# Multiple commits into one
bzr uncommit -r -3  # Undo last 3 commits
# Changes are preserved in working directory
bzr commit -m "Squashed: feature implementation"

# Or use reset
bzr reset --soft -r -3
bzr commit -m "Combined commits"

Cherry-picking Specific Commits

# Pick single commit
bzr merge ../branch -r 42 --cherry-pick

# Pick range of commits
bzr merge ../branch -r 40..45 --cherry-pick

# Pick non-contiguous commits
bzr merge ../branch -r 42 --cherry-pick
bzr merge ../branch -r 55 --cherry-pick
bzr merge ../branch -r 70 --cherry-pick
bzr commit -m "Cherry-picked specific fixes"

Distributed Team Workflows

Pull Request Workflow

# Developer creates feature branch
bzr branch lp:~dev/project/main ~dev/project/feature

# Make changes and push
cd ~/project/feature
bzr commit -m "Implement feature"
bzr push lp:~dev/project/feature

# Create merge proposal (on Launchpad)
bzr lp-propose-merge ../main

# Reviewer reviews code
bzr branch lp:~dev/project/feature /tmp/review
cd /tmp/review
bzr log -p

# After approval
bzr merge /tmp/review
bzr commit -m "Merge feature (approved by reviewer)"

Patch-based Collaboration

# Generate patch
bzr send -o feature.patch ../main

# Send patch via email
mail -a feature.patch reviewer@example.com < email-body.txt

# Reviewer applies patch
bzr patch < feature.patch
bzr diff  # Verify changes
bzr commit -m "Applied patch from contributor"

# For complex changes, send incremental patches
bzr send -o feature-v2.patch ../main

Subteam Integration Model

# Main project
bzr init project-main

# Subteam maintains integration branch
bzr branch project-main team-integration

# Team members work on features
bzr branch team-integration team/feature-1
bzr branch team-integration team/feature-2

# Features merged to team integration
cd team-integration
bzr merge team/feature-1
bzr commit -m "Merge feature 1"
bzr merge team/feature-2
bzr commit -m "Merge feature 2"

# Team integration merged to main
cd project-main
bzr merge team-integration
bzr commit -m "Merge team work"

Complex Merge Scenarios

Handling Conflicting Merges

# Merge with known conflicts
bzr merge ../conflicting-branch

# View conflicts
bzr conflicts

# Resolve using tools
bzr resolve --show-base filename.txt
# Edit to keep changes from both

# Mark as resolved
bzr resolve filename.txt

# Complete merge
bzr commit -m "Merge with manual conflict resolution"

Octopus Merging

# Merge multiple branches at once
bzr merge ../branch1
bzr merge ../branch2
bzr merge ../branch3
bzr commit -m "Octopus merge of features"

Reverting Merges

# Identify problematic merge
bzr log --show-ids | grep "Merge"

# Revert entire merge
bzr revert -r 42
bzr commit -m "Revert problematic merge"

# Or create commit that undoes merge
bzr merge --reverse ../problem-branch
bzr commit -m "Undo merge of problem-branch"

Bisect for Debugging

# Start bisect to find bug
bzr bisect start

# Mark current as bad
bzr bisect bad

# Go to earlier version
bzr bisect good -r 30

# Test each intermediate version
bzr bisect bad    # If bug exists
bzr bisect good   # If works fine

# Repeat until found
# Bisect will tell you the culprit commit

# Reset bisect state
bzr bisect reset

Stash Advanced Usage

# Shelve with description
bzr shelve -s "WIP: refactor auth system"

# Shelve specific files
bzr shelve filename.txt

# List with details
bzr shelve --list --show-changeset

# Apply specific shelf
bzr shelve -A "WIP: refactor auth system"

# Delete all shelves
bzr shelve -D all

# Peek at shelf without applying
bzr shelve --list -p "shelf-name"

Tagging Strategies

Semantic Versioning Tags

# Tag releases
bzr tag v1.0.0     # Major.Minor.Patch

# Tag release candidates
bzr tag v1.0.0-rc1
bzr tag v1.0.0-rc2

# Tag pre-releases
bzr tag v1.0.0-alpha
bzr tag v1.0.0-beta

# Tag development versions
bzr tag v2.0.0-dev

# Use for releases
bzr log -r tag:v1.0.0
bzr branch -r tag:v1.0.0 release-branch

Milestone Tags

# Mark important commits
bzr tag milestone/api-complete
bzr tag milestone/feature-freeze
bzr tag milestone/rc1-ready

# Filter by pattern
bzr tags | grep "milestone/"

Performance Optimization

Repository Optimization

# Optimize repository structure
bzr optimize

# Optimize specific branch
cd branch
bzr optimize

# Check repository size
bzr du

# Shrink repository
bzr pack

# Rebuild indices
bzr reconcile

Caching Strategies

# Configure caching
bzr config cache_size = 512M

# Use shared repository
bzr init-repo large-project
cd large-project
bzr init branch1
bzr init branch2

# Branches share history
bzr branch branch1 branch1-clone  # Fast clone

Migration and Conversion

Converting from Git

# Clone from Git
bzr branch git://github.com/user/repo myrepo

# Or import history
bzr fast-import input.fi

# Configure for Bazaar
cd myrepo
bzr whoami
bzr commit -m "Convert to Bazaar"

Exporting to Git

# Export as fast-export
bzr fast-export . > repo.fi

# Import in Git
cd /tmp/git-repo
git fast-import < repo.fi

Monitoring and Inspection

Detailed Log Analysis

# Show commits with full details
bzr log --show-ids --long --show-branch

# Export log to text
bzr log --long > history.txt

# Analyze changes per author
bzr log -u "John Doe" --long

# Count commits
bzr log | grep "^revision:" | wc -l

# Find large changes
bzr log -p | grep "^+++ " | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Blame and Annotate

# See who changed each line
bzr blame filename.txt

# With revision numbers
bzr blame --long filename.txt

# For specific lines
bzr blame filename.txt -r 1..10

Resources

Last updated: 2025-03-30