Bazaar Repository Structure, Branches, Tags

[Aaron Bentley]

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JetMark wrote:
> I have imported some of my CVS repositories using cvsps-import. It has
> created two additional directory levels between the top level of my
> repository and the highest levels of files in the repository. The first
> level is called "branches" and "tags" the second contains all of my cvs
> branch and tag names.

This is not the Bazaar way.  I have not used cvsps, but it sounds like
it is just something that cvsps does.

In Bazaar, branches are directories, and tags are just special names for
revisions.  They are used completely differently.

> Its not just Bizaar that does this type of thing, for a while I
> considered subversion and a major point against subversion (in my view)
> is that it seems to have confused/polluted the directory-structure name
> space with that of the tag names name space. Now it seems that Bizaar
> does the same.

Subversion is like that.  Bazaar is not, though it sounds like cvsps may be.

> In other words, I can create branches and tags with
> the same name that are not the same. Is this true? [Question 1]

You can create a tag with the name "release".  You would use it like this:
bzr log -r tag:release

This will show you the log message of the commit you tagged as
"release", and no others.

You can create a branch with the name "~/release".  You would use it
like this:
bzr log ~/release

This will show you all of the messages of all the commits that were made
in that branch.

> Surely the first aim of any
> VCS is to separate the repository private information from what you put
> in it.

There are a great variety of VCSes.  Arch and releted systems did not
cherish a separation of user files and control data.  Bazaar does, but
even Bazaar (like CVS) has an ignore file that affects the working
directory behavior.

> Lastly if I use Bizaar, its likely I will want to use the hooks. These
> will be complex, custom, and require creation and maintenance over a
> period of time. Am I disadvantaged by the fact that I am not very good
> at python and not really keen to spend time learning yet another
> language?

You might find the shell hooks plugin useful:
http://people.samba.org/bzr/jelmer/bzr-shell-hooks/trunk

(note that this is a Bazaar branch, so it will appear empty in a web
browser.)

Aaron
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