what is a smart server?

[Aaron Bentley]

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Viktor Nagy wrote:
> I am evaluating bazaar for a project, and the docs seem to me a bit
> contradictory on the definition of a smart server. From the user guide
> section 7.2 I had the feeling that everything is called a smart server
> that uses the bzr | bzr+ssh protocol.

There is a bzr protocol.  It speaks about operations in terms of bazaar
concepts, instead of only low-level file operations.  This is what makes
it a "smart" protocol, rather than a "dumb" protocol, that only knows
about files.

The bzr protocol can be provided at least 3 ways:
- - Via TCP on port 4155
- - Via SSH (bzr+ssh)
- - Via HTTP (this can be explicitly specified as bzr+http, but recent
bzrs will auto-detect when an http URL supports bzr protocol)

Of these, bzr+ssh is the most popular method, possibly because it merely
requires bzr to be installed on the server, with no additional setup.

> Moreover, I thought that this is a standalone server, so I won't need
> apache for it.

You don't need Apache unless you want to use Apache to provide bzr+http.

> But then I get to section 10, where is speaks about setting up the
> smart server with fastcgi/mod_python.

The link in the user guide should be titled "Running an HTTP smart
server" or something, since it only pertains to HTTP smart servers, not
TCP or SSH smart servers.

> Are these two different things?

Running a TCP or SSH smart server is different from running an HTTP
smart server.

> If
> yes, then which one is the preferred way for a dedicated bzr server?

Depends on local requirements.  The most popular way is certainly via
SSH.  Note that bzr+ssh is the only method that provides write access by
default, because the Bazaar protocol does not implement authentication,
but SSH always does.

> my guess is that they are different solutions, and bzr serve gives
> better performance, but correct me if I'm wrong

bzr serve is used for all methods, AFAIK.

bzr+http may be slightly slower than straight bzr, but I'm not sure
whether the difference is observable.

> if my guess is correct I would like to know as well if it's possible
> to do some kind of authentication in a "bzr serve" server.

Not at present.

Aaron
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