~bzr-pqm/bzr/bzr.dev

Configuration Settings

=======================

Environment settings

---------------------

While most configuration is handled by configuration files, some options

which may be semi-permanent can also be controlled through the environment.

BZR_EMAIL

~~~~~~~~~

Override the email id used by Bazaar.  Typical format::

  "John Doe <jdoe@example.com>"

See also the ``email`` configuration option.

BZR_PROGRESS_BAR

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Override the progress display.  Possible values are "none" or "text".  If

the value is "none" then no progress bar is displayed.  The value "text" draws

the ordinary command line progress bar.

BZR_SIGQUIT_PDB

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Control whether SIGQUIT behaves normally or invokes a breakin debugger.

* 0 = Standard SIGQUIT behavior (normally, exit with a core dump)

* 1 = Invoke breakin debugger (default)

BZR_HOME

~~~~~~~~

Override the home directory used by Bazaar.

BZR_SSH

~~~~~~~

Select a different SSH implementation.

BZR_PDB

~~~~~~~

Control whether to launch a debugger on error.

* 0 = Standard behavior

* 1 = Launch debugger

BZR_REMOTE_PATH

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Path to the Bazaar executable to use when using the bzr+ssh protocol.

See also the ``bzr_remote_path`` configuration option.

BZR_EDITOR

~~~~~~~~~~

Path to the editor Bazaar should use for commit messages, etc.

BZR_LOG

~~~~~~~

Location of the Bazaar log file. You can check the current location by

running ``bzr version``.

The log file contains debug information that is useful for diagnosing or

reporting problems with Bazaar.

Setting this to ``NUL`` on Windows or ``/dev/null`` on other platforms

will disable logging.

BZR_PLUGIN_PATH

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The path to the plugins directory that Bazaar should use.

If not set, Bazaar will search for plugins in:

* the user specific plugin directory (containing the ``user`` plugins),

* the bzrlib directory (containing the ``core`` plugins),

* the site specific plugin directory if applicable (containing

  the ``site`` plugins).

If ``BZR_PLUGIN_PATH`` is set in any fashion, it will change the

the way the plugin are searched. 

As for the ``PATH`` variables, if multiple directories are

specified in ``BZR_PLUGIN_PATH`` they should be separated by the

platform specific appropriate character (':' on Unix,

';' on windows)

By default if ``BZR_PLUGIN_PATH`` is set, it replaces searching

in ``user``.  However it will continue to search in ``core`` and

``site`` unless they are explicitly removed.

If you need to change the order or remove one of these

directories, you should use special values:

* ``-user``, ``-core``, ``-site`` will remove the corresponding

  path from the default values,

* ``+user``, ``+core``, ``+site`` will add the corresponding path

  before the remaining default values (and also remove it from

  the default values).

Note that the special values 'user', 'core' and 'site' should be

used literally, they will be substituted by the corresponding,

platform specific, values.

The examples below use ':' as the separator, windows users

should use ';'.

Overriding the default user plugin directory::

  BZR_PLUGIN_PATH='/path/to/my/other/plugins'

Disabling the site directory while retaining the user directory::

  BZR_PLUGIN_PATH='-site:+user'

Disabling all plugins (better achieved with --no-plugins)::

  BZR_PLUGIN_PATH='-user:-core:-site'

Overriding the default site plugin directory::

  BZR_PLUGIN_PATH='/path/to/my/site/plugins:-site':+user

BZR_DISABLE_PLUGINS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Under special circumstances (mostly when trying to diagnose a

bug), it's better to disable a plugin (or several) rather than

uninstalling them completely. Such plugins can be specified in

the ``BZR_DISABLE_PLUGINS`` environment variable.

In that case, ``bzr`` will stop loading the specified plugins and

will raise an import error if they are explicitly imported (by

another plugin that depends on them for example).

Disabling ``myplugin`` and ``yourplugin`` is achieved by::

  BZR_DISABLE_PLUGINS='myplugin:yourplugin'

BZR_PLUGINS_AT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When adding a new feature or working on a bug in a plugin,

developers often need to use a specific version of a given

plugin. Since python requires that the directory containing the

code is named like the plugin itself this make it impossible to

use arbitrary directory names (using a two-level directory scheme

is inconvenient). ``BZR_PLUGINS_AT`` allows such directories even

if they don't appear in ``BZR_PLUGIN_PATH`` .

Plugins specified in this environment variable takes precedence

over the ones in ``BZR_PLUGIN_PATH``.

The variable specified a list of ``plugin_name@plugin path``,

``plugin_name`` being the name of the plugin as it appears in

python module paths, ``plugin_path`` being the path to the

directory containing the plugin code itself

(i.e. ``plugins/myplugin`` not ``plugins``).  Use ':' as the list

separator, use ';' on windows.

Example:

~~~~~~~~

Using a specific version of ``myplugin``:

``BZR_PLUGINS_AT='myplugin@/home/me/bugfixes/123456-myplugin``

BZRPATH

~~~~~~~

The path where Bazaar should look for shell plugin external commands.

http_proxy, https_proxy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Specifies the network proxy for outgoing connections, for example::

  http_proxy=http://proxy.example.com:3128/ 

  https_proxy=http://proxy.example.com:3128/

Configuration files

-------------------

Location

~~~~~~~~

Configuration files are located in ``$HOME/.bazaar`` on Unix and

``C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Bazaar\2.0`` on

Windows. (You can check the location for your system by using

``bzr version``.)

There are three primary configuration files in this location:

* ``bazaar.conf`` describes default configuration options,

* ``locations.conf`` describes configuration information for

  specific branch locations,

* ``authentication.conf`` describes credential information for

  remote servers.

Each branch can also contain a configuration file that sets values specific

to that branch. This file is found at ``.bzr/branch/branch.conf`` within the

branch. This file is visible to all users of a branch, if you wish to override

one of the values for a branch with a setting that is specific to you then you

can do so in ``locations.conf``.

General format

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An ini file has three types of contructs: section headers, section

options and comments.

Comments

^^^^^^^^

A comment is any line that starts with a "#" (sometimes called a "hash

mark", "pound sign" or "number sign"). Comment lines are ignored by

Bazaar when parsing ini files.

Section headers

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A section header is a word enclosed in brackets that starts at the begining

of a line.  A typical section header looks like this::

    [DEFAULT]

The only valid section headers for bazaar.conf currently are [DEFAULT] and

[ALIASES].  Section headers are case sensitive. The default section provides for

setting options which can be overridden with the branch config file.

For ``locations.conf``, the options from the section with the

longest matching section header are used to the exclusion of other

potentially valid section headers. A section header uses the path for

the branch as the section header. Some examples include::

    [http://mybranches.isp.com/~jdoe/branchdir]

    [/home/jdoe/branches/]

Section options

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A section option resides within a section. A section option contains an

option name, an equals sign and a value.  For example::

    email            = John Doe <jdoe@isp.com>

    gpg_signing_key  = Amy Pond <amy@example.com>

A option can reference other options by enclosing them in curly brackets::

    my_branch_name = feature_x

    my_server      = bzr+ssh://example.com

    push_location   = {my_server}/project/{my_branch_name}

Option policies

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Options defined in a section affect the named directory or URL plus

any locations they contain.  Policies can be used to change how an

option value is interpreted for contained locations.  Currently

there are three policies available:

 none:

   the value is interpreted the same for contained locations.  This is

   the default behaviour.

 norecurse:

   the value is only used for the exact location specified by the

   section name.

 appendpath:

   for contained locations, any additional path components are

   appended to the value.

Policies are specified by keys with names of the form "<option_name>:policy".

For example, to define the push location for a tree of branches, the

following could be used::

  [/top/location]

  push_location = sftp://example.com/location

  push_location:policy = appendpath

With this configuration, the push location for ``/top/location/branch1``

would be ``sftp://example.com/location/branch1``.

Section local options

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Some options are defined automatically inside a given section and can be

refered to in this section only. 

For example, the ``appendpath`` policy can be used like this::

  [/home/vila/src/bzr/bugs]

  mypush = lp:~vila/bzr

  mypush:policy=appendpath

Using ``relpath`` to achieve the same result is done like this::

  [/home/vila/src/bzr/bugs]

  mypush = lp:~vila/bzr/{relpath}

In both cases, when used in a directory like

``/home/vila/src/bzr/bugs/832013-expand-in-stack`` we'll get::

   $ bzr config mypush

   lp:~vila/bzr/832013-expand-in-stack

Another such option is ``basename`` which can be used like this::

  [/home/vila/src/bzr]

  mypush = lp:~vila/bzr/{basename}

When used in a directory like

``/home/vila/src/bzr/bugs/832013-expand-in-stack`` we'll get::

   $ bzr config mypush

   lp:~vila/bzr/832013-expand-in-stack

Note that ``basename`` here refers to the base name of ``relpath`` which

itself is defined as the relative path between the section name and the

location it matches.

Another such option is ``branchname``, which refers to the name of a colocated

branch.  For non-colocated branches, it behaves like basename.  It can be used

like this::

  [/home/vila/src/bzr/bugs]

  mypush = lp:~vila/bzr/{branchname}

When used with a colocated branch named ``832013-expand-in-stack``, we'll get::

  bzr config mypush

  lp:~vila/bzr/832013-expand-in-stack

When an option is local to a Section, it cannot be referred to from option

values in any other section from the same ``Store`` nor from any other

``Store``.

The main configuration file, bazaar.conf

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

``bazaar.conf`` allows two sections: ``[DEFAULT]`` and ``[ALIASES]``.

The default section contains the default

configuration options for all branches. The default section can be

overriden by providing a branch-specific section in ``locations.conf``.

A typical ``bazaar.conf`` section often looks like the following::

    [DEFAULT]

    email             = John Doe <jdoe@isp.com>

    editor            = /usr/bin/vim

    create_signatures = when-required

The branch location configuration file, locations.conf

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

``locations.conf`` allows one to specify overriding settings for

a specific branch. The format is almost identical to the default section in

bazaar.conf with one significant change: The section header, instead of saying

default, will be the path to a branch that you wish to override a value

for. The '?' and '*' wildcards are supported::

    [/home/jdoe/branches/nethack]

    email = Nethack Admin <nethack@nethack.com>

    [http://hypothetical.site.com/branches/devel-branch]

    create_signatures = always

The authentication configuration file, authentication.conf

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

``authentication.conf`` allows one to specify credentials for

remote servers. This can be used for all the supported transports and any part

of bzr that requires authentication (smtp for example).

The syntax of the file obeys the same rules as the others except for the

option policies which don't apply.

For more information on the possible uses of the authentication configuration

file see :doc:`authentication-help`.

Common options

--------------

debug_flags

~~~~~~~~~~~

A comma-separated list of debugging options to turn on.  The same values

can be used as with the -D command-line option (see `help global-options`).

For example::

    debug_flags = hpss

or::

    debug_flags = hpss,evil

email

~~~~~

The email address to use when committing a branch. Typically takes the form

of::

    email = Full Name <account@hostname.tld>

editor

~~~~~~

The path of the editor that you wish to use if *bzr commit* is run without

a commit message. This setting is trumped by the environment variable

``BZR_EDITOR``, and overrides the ``VISUAL`` and ``EDITOR`` environment

variables.

log_format

~~~~~~~~~~

The default log format to use. Standard log formats are ``long``, ``short``

and ``line``. Additional formats may be provided by plugins. The default

value is ``long``.

check_signatures

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reserved for future use.  These options will allow a policy for branches to

require signatures.

require

    The gnupg signature for revisions must be present and must be valid.

ignore

    Do not check gnupg signatures of revisions.

check-available

    (default) If gnupg signatures for revisions are present, check them.

    Bazaar will fail if it finds a bad signature, but will not fail if

    no signature is present.

create_signatures

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Defines the behaviour of signing revisions on commits.  By default bzr will not

sign new commits.

always

    Sign every new revision that is committed.  If the signing fails then the

    commit will not be made.

when-required

    Reserved for future use.

never

    Reserved for future use.

In future it is planned that ``when-required`` will sign newly

committed revisions only when the branch requires them.  ``never`` will refuse

to sign newly committed revisions, even if the branch requires signatures.

dirstate.fdatasync

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If true (default), working tree metadata changes are flushed through the

OS buffers to physical disk.  This is somewhat slower, but means data

should not be lost if the machine crashes.  See also repository.fdatasync.

gpg_signing_key

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The GnuPG user identity to use when signing commits.  Can be an e-mail

address, key fingerprint or full key ID.  When unset or when set to

"default" Bazaar will use the user e-mail set with ``whoami``.

recurse

~~~~~~~

Only useful in ``locations.conf``. Defines whether or not the

configuration for this section applies to subdirectories:

true

    (default) This section applies to subdirectories as well.

false

    This section only applies to the branch at this directory and not

    branches below it.

gpg_signing_command

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Default: "gpg"). Which program should be used to sign and check revisions.

For example::

    gpg_signing_command = /usr/bin/gnpg

The specified command must accept the options "--clearsign" and "-u <email>".

bzr_remote_path

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Default: "bzr").  The path to the command that should be used to run the smart

server for bzr.  This value may only be specified in locations.conf, because:

- it's needed before branch.conf is accessible

- allowing remote branch.conf files to specify commands would be a security

  risk

It is overridden by the BZR_REMOTE_PATH environment variable.

smtp_server

~~~~~~~~~~~

(Default: "localhost"). SMTP server to use when Bazaar needs to send

email, eg. with ``merge-directive --mail-to``, or the bzr-email plugin.

smtp_username, smtp_password

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

User and password to authenticate to the SMTP server. If smtp_username

is set, and smtp_password is not, Bazaar will prompt for a password.

These settings are only needed if the SMTP server requires authentication

to send mail.

locks.steal_dead

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If set to true, bzr will automatically break locks held by processes from

the same machine and user that are no longer alive.  Otherwise, it will

print a message and you can break the lock manually, if you are satisfied

the object is no longer in use.

mail_client

~~~~~~~~~~~

A mail client to use for sending merge requests.

By default, bzr will try to use ``mapi`` on Windows.  On other platforms, it

will try ``xdg-email``. If either of these fails, it will fall back to

``editor``.

Supported values for specific clients:

:claws: Use Claws.  This skips a dialog for attaching files.

:evolution: Use Evolution.

:kmail: Use KMail.

:mutt: Use Mutt.

:thunderbird: Use Mozilla Thunderbird or Icedove.  For Thunderbird/Icedove 1.5,

    this works around some bugs that xdg-email doesn't handle.

Supported generic values are:

:default: See above.

:editor: Use your editor to compose the merge request.  This also uses

    your commit id, (see ``bzr whoami``), smtp_server and (optionally)

    smtp_username and smtp_password.

:mapi: Use your preferred e-mail client on Windows.

:xdg-email: Use xdg-email to run your preferred mail program

repository.fdatasync

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If true (default), repository changes are flushed through the OS buffers

to physical disk.  This is somewhat slower, but means data should not be

lost if the machine crashes.  See also dirstate.fdatasync.

submit_branch

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The branch you intend to submit your current work to.  This is automatically

set by ``bzr send``, and is also used by the ``submit:`` revision spec.  This

should usually be set on a per-branch or per-location basis.

public_branch

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A publically-accessible version of this branch (implying that this version is

not publically-accessible).  Used (and set) by ``bzr send``.

suppress_warnings

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A list of strings, each string represent a warning that can be emitted by

bzr. Mentioning a warning in this list tells bzr to not emit it.

Valid values:

* ``format_deprecation``:

    whether the format deprecation warning is shown on repositories that are

    using deprecated formats.

default_format

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A format name for the default format used when creating branches.  See ``bzr

help formats`` for possible values.

Unicode options

---------------

output_encoding

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Python unicode encoding name for text output from bzr, such as log

information.  Values include: utf8, cp850, ascii, iso-8859-1.  The default

is the terminal encoding prefered by the operating system.

Branch type specific options

----------------------------

These options apply only to branches that use the ``dirstate-tags`` or

later format.  They

are usually set in ``.bzr/branch/branch.conf`` automatically, but may be

manually set in ``locations.conf`` or ``bazaar.conf``.

append_revisions_only

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If set to "True" then revisions can only be appended to the log, not

removed.  A branch with this setting enabled can only pull from another

branch if the other branch's log is a longer version of its own.  This is

normally set by ``bzr init --append-revisions-only``. If you set it

manually, use either 'True' or 'False' (case-sensitive) to maintain

compatibility with previous bzr versions (older than 2.2).

parent_location

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If present, the location of the default branch for pull or merge.  This option

is normally set when creating a branch, the first ``pull`` or by ``pull

--remember``.

push_location

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If present, the location of the default branch for push.  This option

is normally set by the first ``push`` or ``push --remember``.

push_strict

~~~~~~~~~~~

If present, defines the ``--strict`` option default value for checking

uncommitted changes before pushing.

dpush_strict

~~~~~~~~~~~~

If present, defines the ``--strict`` option default value for checking

uncommitted changes before pushing into a different VCS without any

custom bzr metadata.

bound_location

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The location that commits should go to when acting as a checkout.

This option is normally set by ``bind``.

bound

~~~~~

If set to "True", the branch should act as a checkout, and push each commit to

the bound_location.  This option is normally set by ``bind``/``unbind``.

send_strict

~~~~~~~~~~~

If present, defines the ``--strict`` option default value for checking

uncommitted changes before sending a merge directive.

add.maximum_file_size

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Defines the maximum file size the command line "add" operation will allow

in recursive mode, with files larger than this value being skipped. You may 

specify this value as an integer (in which case it is interpreted as bytes), 

or you may specify the value using SI units, i.e. 10KB, 20MB, 1G. A value of 0 

will disable skipping.

External Merge Tools

--------------------

bzr.mergetool.<name>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Defines an external merge tool called <name> with the given command-line.

Arguments containing spaces should be quoted using single or double quotes. The

executable may omit its path if it can be found on the PATH.

The following markers can be used in the command-line to substitute filenames

involved in the merge conflict::

  {base}      file.BASE

  {this}      file.THIS

  {other}     file.OTHER

  {result}    output file

  {this_temp} temp copy of file.THIS, used to overwrite output file if merge

              succeeds.

For example::

  bzr.mergetool.kdiff3 = kdiff3 {base} {this} {other} -o {result}

Because ``mergetool`` and ``config`` itself both use curly braces as

interpolation markers, trying to display the mergetool line results in the

following problem::

  $ bzr config bzr.mergetool.kdiff3='kdiff3 {base} {this} {other} -o {result}'

  $ bzr config bzr.mergetool.kdiff3

  bzr: ERROR: Option base is not defined while expanding "kdiff3 {base} {this} {other} -o {result}".

To avoid this, ``config`` can be instructed not to try expanding variables::

  $ bzr config --all bzr.mergetool.kdiff3

  branch:

    bzr.mergetool.kdiff3 = kdiff3 {base} {this} {other} -o {result}

bzr.default_mergetool

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Specifies which external merge tool (as defined above) should be selected by

default in tools such as ``bzr qconflicts``.

For example::

  bzr.default_mergetool = kdiff3