Thoughts on Nested Branches: bzr init --nest?

[Maritza Mendez]

Even though I have used bzr to manage my own work, I must learn a lot about
deploying it for collaborative projects.  So please indulge my simple email.

I notice something interesting about nested branches.  I personally think
the project-within-a-project idea is asking for trouble, but I also know
that I have done it unintentionally in my own work.  So my coworkers may
too.  It's easy to do, because "bzr init" works in any directory which does
not already directly contain a .bzr subdirectory.  So I have to be prepared
to manage this.

The bzr commands which act on one branch at a time (not counting plugins
like bzrtools which manage multiple branches) very logically act on the
nearest enclosing branch.  Makes sense.

I also see that the Tortoise shell extension does not allow me to bzr init
in any directory which is contained by a directory (directlly or indirectly)
by a directory which directly contains a .bzr subdirectory.  That's good for
me, but maybe not for some people.  (I can still fool Tortoise by creating a
branch in a directory above the first branch...)

I wonder how often people need to create branches within branches compared
to how often this happens accidentally and causes problems.  I believe in
individual responsibility but I also have to think about varying levels of
experience of the people on my team.  I can't always control that.  So it
would be nice if "bzr init" would refuse to create a nested branch (by
traversing up to / looking for an existing .bzr) unless the user says they
really mean it.  A session could look like this:

~/martitza> bzr init Project_A
Created a standalone tree(format: pack-0.92)
~/martitza> cd Project_A
~/martitza/Project_A> mkdir flowers
~/martitza/Project_A> cd flowers
~/martitza/Project_A/flowers> bzr init Project_B
Branch not created!  Enclosing brnach found at /home/martitza/Project_A
Use --nest to create nested branches.
~/martitza/Project_A/flowers> bzr init --nest Project_B
Created a standalone tree(format: pack-0.92)

Just a suggestion.  This would be helpful for us, but maybe not others.

-M
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