RFC: commit-to-branch

[Robert Collins]

I'd like some feedback on UI for committing to a different branch.

Firstly the use case - in a loom one often prepares work that belongs on
a different lower thread[branch].

The slow way is:
bzr switch actual-thread
bzr commit files-to-commit
bzr shelve --all
while not-on-the-original-thread up;bzr commit
bzr unshelve --all

I'd like this to be a single command for convenience.

I think overloading commit is best because this can be used for normal
bzr branches too (or the recently announced many-branches-colocated
plugin too).

So splitting this up there are several different things needed:
 - loom needs to be able to intercept the 'update the working tree' step
   and have it do the 'up-commit-repeat' dance in the background, then
   give control back, with a new local revision id.
 - commit needs an option to tell it to commit to a different branch
   object, and when doing that commit it wants to apply a delta based on
   the current tree rather than supplying full texts.
 - loom needs to make sure than the name the user supplies for finding
   the branch is able to find the thread.

For the first, I think a simple hook on Branch is probably enough.

For the second, a simple implementation (not fast, but 'works') would be
to checkout --lightweight the target branch, merge --uncommitted [paths]
the paths selected, then commit, and finally remove the temp dir. As a
bootstrap mechanism this should be decent, and avoid cruft. With the
pending work on commit in the brisbane-core branch, we can fit this in a
lot more easily into the core.

For the last, I am wondering if a directory-service would fit - it would
need a hint in the lookup (the branch the user is in when issueing the
command) - Aaron, do you think the directory service is a decent place
to hook this in?

-Rob

-- 
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