[ANNOUNCE] bzr-local-branches plugin a.k.a. git-style-branches

[Jelmer Vernooij]

I'm happy to announce the local-branches plugin, available from the bzr
branch at http://people.samba.org/bzr/jelmer/bzr-local-branches/trunk .

This plugin provides some very simple commands to allow use of bzr in a
fashion that is similar to git-style branches and Mercurial local
branches. In other words, it makes it possible to have several bzr
branches per .bzr directory that you can switch between.

Admittedly, the name "local branches" may be a bit confusing (given
the fact that bzr already has a --local option for several commands),
but I couldn't come up with a better name yet. Suggestions are
welcome :-)

The plugin adds a couple of commands:

 * bzr create-local-branch - Creates a new local branch (after
optionally creating the local branch container)
 * bzr remove-local-branch - Remove a local branch
 * bzr switch-local-branch - Change the active current local branch
 * bzr list-local-branches - List the available local branches and mark
the active one

The plugin works by adding the new branches in .bzr/branches and making 
.bzr/branch (which bzr uses at the moment) a symlink to one of the
directories under .bzr/branches. 

This has the advantage that people that don't use the plugin can still
access the current local branch, though they will be unable to see the
other local branches. 

This plugin is mainly a proof-of-concept, and a way for me to start
working on getting the right infrastructure in bzrlib for "local
branches", both for native use (like this plugin provides) and bzr-git. 

Cheers,

Jelmer
-- 
Jelmer Vernooij <jelmer at samba.org> - http://samba.org/~jelmer/
Jabber: jelmer at jabber.fsfe.org