Bazaar (software)

infobox software
name = Bazaar

caption = Bazaar logo
author = Martin Pool
released = 14 December 2007
programming_language = Python
developer = Canonical Ltd. and community
latest_release_version = 1.7.1
latest_release_date = release date and age|2008|10|01
operating_system = Cross-platform
genre = Distributed revision control system
license = GNU General Public License
website = http://bazaar-vcs.org
status = Active

Bazaar (formerly Bazaar-NG, commandline tool bzr) is a distributed revision control system sponsored by Canonical Ltd., designed to make it easier for anyone to contribute to free and open source software projects.

The development team's focus is on ease of use, accuracy and flexibility. Branching and merging upstream code is designed to be very easy, with focus on users being productive with just a few commands. Bazaar can be used by a single developer working on multiple branches of local content, or by teams collaborating across a network.

Bazaar is written in the Python programming language, with packages for major Linux distributions, Mac OS X and MS Windows. Bazaar is free software and part of the GNU project.cite mailing list
last = Pool
first = Martin
title = Bazaar is now a GNU project
mailinglist = bazaar-announce
date = 2008-02-26
url = https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/bazaar-announce/2008-February/000135.html
accessdate = 2008-05-23 ] [cite mailinglist
url=http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2008-05/msg00012.html
title=Bazaar becomes a GNU project
last=Pool
first=Martin
date=2008-05-21
mailinglist=info-gnu
accessdate=2008-05-23]

Features

Bazaar commands are quite similar to those found in CVS or SVN and it is very simple to start and maintain a fresh project without a remote repository server.

In contrast to purely distributed version control systems which don't use a central server, Bazaar supports working with or without a central server. It is even possible to use both methods at the same time with the same project. The website Launchpad provides a free hosting service for projects managed with Bazaar.

Bazaar has support for working with some other revision control systems. [cite web | last = Vernooij | first = Jelmer | coauthors = John Meinel, Olad Conradi, Martin Pool, Wouter Van Heyst, Aaron Bentley | title = BzrForeignBranches | date= 2007-06-15 | url = http://bazaar-vcs.org/BzrForeignBranches | accessdate = 2007-06-21 ] This allows users to branch from another system (such as Subversion), make local changes and commit them into a Bazaar branch, and then later merge them back into the other system. Bazaar has basic support for Subversion with the "bzr-svn" plugin. [cite web | last = Vernooij | first = Jelmer | coauthors = Mark Lee, Neil Martinsen-Burrell, Robert Collins, Alexandre Vassalotti, Stijn Hoop | title = BzrForeignBranches/Subversion | date= 2007-06-07 | url = http://bazaar-vcs.org/BzrForeignBranches/Subversion | accessdate = 2007-06-21 ] There is also beginnings of support for both Mercurial [ [https://launchpad.net/products/bzr-hg The Bazaar Hg Plugin in Launchpad ] ] and Git. [ [https://launchpad.net/products/bzr-git bzr git support plugin in Launchpad ] ] Currently these are not feature complete, but are complete enough to show a graphical history.

Bazaar supports files with names from the complete Unicode set. It also allows commit messages, committer names, etc. to be in Unicode.

Before the release of version 1.x, Bazaar used to be considerably slower than Git. Since then it has been catching up for some tasks. [cite web | title = git/bzr historical performance comparison | date = 2008-05-08 | url = http://laserjock.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/git-and-bzr-historical-performance-comparison/ | accessdate = 2008-05-28] Its performance is comparable to other revision control systems if network latency is the bottleneck. [cite web | last = Canonical Ltd. | title = Benchmarks - Bazaar Version Control | date = 2007-12-21 | url = http://bazaar-vcs.org/Benchmarks | accessdate = 2008-01-20]

Plugins

* [http://bazaar-vcs.org/BzrTools BzrTools] - utilities collection
* [http://bazaar-vcs.org/BzrForeignBranches/Subversion bzr-svn] - Subversion format support
* [http://bazaar-vcs.org/Rebase bzr-rebase]
* [http://bazaar-vcs.org/QBzr QBzr]
* bzr-keywords

Windows installer includes BzrTools, bzr-svn, QBzr and TortoiseBZR by default.

Users

Prominent projects that use Bazaar for version control include: GNU Mailmancite web
url=http://bazaar-vcs.org/WhoUsesBzr
title=Projects using Bazaar
date=2008-04-28
accessdate=2008-05-23
publisher = Canonical Ltd] [cite web
title=Mailman source code branches
url=http://wiki.list.org/display/DEV/MailmanBranches
date=2007-12-04
accessdate=2008-05-23] , MySQL [cite web
last=Arnö
first=Kaj
url=http://blogs.mysql.com/kaj/2008/06/19/version-control-thanks-bitkeeper-welcome-bazaar/
title=Verson Control: Thanks, BitKeeper - Welcome, Bazaar
date=2008-06-19
accessdate=2008-06-19] and the GNOME bindings for Java [cite web
title=Get java-gnome!
url=http://java-gnome.sourceforge.net/4.0/get/
author=Operational Dynamics Pty Ltd
accessdate=2008-05-23]

History

Baz: an earlier Canonical Ltd version control system

The name "Bazaar" was originally used by a fork of the GNU arch client "tla". This fork is now called Baz to distinguish it from the current Bazaar software. [cite web
last = Pool
first = Martin
coauthors = Matthieu Moy and Matthew Hannigan
date = 2007-03-09
title = Branding
url = http://bazaar-vcs.org/Branding
accessdate = 2007-06-16 ] Baz was announced in October 2004 by Canonical Ltd employee Robert Collins [cite mailing list
last = Collins
first = Robert
title = Announce: Bazaar
mailinglist = Gnu-arch-users
date = 2004-10-29
url = http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnu-arch-users/2004-10/msg00712.html
accessdate = 2007-06-16 ] and maintained until 2005, when the project then called Bazaar-NG (the present Bazaar) was announced as Baz's successor. [cite mailing list
last = Moy
first = Matthieu
title = Future of GNU Arch, bazaar and bazaar-ng ... ?
mailinglist = bazaar-old
date = 2005-08-20
url = https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/bazaar-old/2005-August/000105.html
accessdate = 2007-06-16 ] Baz is now unmaintained and Canonical considers it deprecated. [cite web
title = Baz1x - Bazaar Version Control
date = 2006-07-24
url = http://bazaar-vcs.org/Baz1x
accessdate = 2008-01-17 ] cite web
last = Arbash Meinel
first = John
coauthor = Aaron Bentley, Martin Pool, Mark Shuttleworth
title = HistoryOfBazaar
date = 2006-07-26
url = http://bazaar-vcs.org/HistoryOfBazaar
accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] The last release of Baz was version 1.4.3, released October 2005. [cite web
last = Moy
first = Matthieu
title = ReleaseNotes1.4.3
date = 2005-10-25
url = http://bazaar-vcs.org/ReleaseNotes1.4.3
accessdate = 2007-06-16 ] A planned 1.5 release of Baz was abandoned in 2006. [cite mailing list
last = Collins
first = Robert
title = releasing 1.5
mailinglist = bazaar-old
date = 2006-06-30
url = https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/bazaar-old/2006-June/000531.html
accessdate = 2007-06-16 ]

Bazaar

In February 2005, Martin Pool, a developer who had previously described and reviewed a number of revision control systems in talks and in his weblog, announced that he had been hired by Canonical Ltd. and tasked with "build [ing] a distributed version-control system that open-source hackers will love to use." [cite web|last=Pool|first=Martin|url=http://sourcefrog.net/weblog/personal/at-canonical.html|title=sourcefrog: A beginning|date=2005-02-01|accessdate=2008-05-23] A public website and mailing list were established in March 2005 and the first numbered pre-release, 0.0.1, was released on March 26 2005. [cite mailinglist
last=Pool
first=Martin
title=(test)
url=https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/bazaar/2005q1/000002.html
date=2005-03-23
mailinglist=bazaar
accessdate=2008-05-23] [cite mailinglist
last=Bentley
first=Aaron
url=http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnu-arch-users/2005-03/msg00262.html
title=Re: State of the Arches
mailinglist=gnu-arch-users
quote=For completeness, it's probably worth mentioning that bazaar-ng (www.bazaar-ng.org) is another rcs system sponsored by Canonical
date=2005-03-23
accessdate=2008-05-23] [cite mailinglist
last=Pool
first=Martin
url=https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/bazaar/2005q1/000014.html
title=bzr 0.0.1 released
mailinglist=bazaar
date=2005-03-26
accessdate=2008-06-12]

Bazaar was conceived from the start as a different piece of software from both GNU arch and Baz. It has a different command set and is a completely different codebase and design. It was designed to build on the best ideas from a variety of other open source revision control systems under development at the time, without some of their historical decisions. Bazaar was originally intended as a test-bed for features to be later integrated into Baz, but by mid-2005 many of the major Baz developers had begun working primarily on Bazaar directly and instead Baz was abandoned.

Version 1.0 of Bazaar was released in December 2007. [cite press release
title = Canonical Releases Version 1.0 of Bazaar Version Control Tool for Efficient Developer Collaboration
publisher = Canonical Ltd
date = 2007-12-14
format = HTML
language = English
url = http://www.ubuntu.com/news/bazaar-v1-release
accessdate = 2008-05-23 ] In February 2008, Bazaar became a GNU project.

See also

* Distributed revision control
* Comparison of revision control software

References

External links

* [http://bazaar-vcs.org Bazaar website]
* [http://bazaar-vcs.org/HistoryOfBazaar History of Bazaar]
* [irc://irc.freenode.net/bzr #bzr] on freenode