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.. Information on how to use plugins in Bazaar.
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Information on how to use plugins in Bazaar.
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A plugin is an external component for Bazaar that is typically made by
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third parties. A plugin is capable of augmenting Bazaar by adding new
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functionality. A plugin can also change current Bazaar behavior by
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replacing current functionality. Sample applications of plugins are:
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* providing additional network transports
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* customizing log output.
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The sky is the limit for the customization that can be done through plugins.
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In fact, plugins often work as a way for developers to test new features for
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Bazaar prior to inclusion in the official codebase. Plugins are helpful
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at feature retirement time as well, e.g. deprecated file formats may one
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day be removed from the Bazaar core and be made available as a plugin instead.
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Plugins are good for users, good for external developers and good for
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replacing current functionality. Plugins often work as a way for
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developers to test new features for Bazaar prior to inclusion in the
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official codebase. Plugins can do a variety of things, including
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overriding commands, adding new commands, providing additional network
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transports, or customizing log output. The sky is the limit for the
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customization that can be done through plugins.
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We keep our list of plugins on the http://bazaar-vcs.org/BzrPlugins page.
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How to install a plugin
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-----------------------
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Installing a plugin is very easy! If not already created, create a
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``plugins`` directory under your Bazaar configuration directory,
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``~/.bazaar/`` on Linux and
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``C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Bazaar\2.0\``
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on Windows. Within this directory (referred to as $BZR_HOME below),
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each plugin is placed in its own subdirectory.
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Plugins are very similar to bzr core functionality. They can import
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anything in bzrlib. A plugin may simply override standard functionality,
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but most plugins supply new commands.
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To create a command, make a new object that derives from
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``bzrlib.commands.Command``, and name it ``cmd_foo``, where foo is the name of
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your command. If you create a command whose name contains an underscore,
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it will appear in the UI with the underscore turned into a hyphen. For
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example, `cmd_baz_import` will appear as `baz-import`. For examples of how
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to write commands, please see ``builtins.py``.
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Once you've created a command you must register the command with
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``bzrlib.commands.register_command(cmd_foo)``. You must register the
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command when your file is imported, otherwise bzr will not see it.
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Bzr will scan ``bzrlib/plugins`` and ``~/.bazaar/plugins`` for plugins
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by default. You can override this with ``BZR_PLUGIN_PATH``. Plugins
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may be either modules or packages. If your plugin is a single file,
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you can structure it as a module. If it has multiple files, or if you
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want to distribute it as a bzr branch, you should structure it as a
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package, i.e. a directory with an ``__init__.py`` file.
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Please feel free to contribute your plugin to BzrTools, if you think it
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would be useful to other people.
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How to Install a plugin
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=======================
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Installing a plugin is very easy! One can either install a plugin
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system-wide or on a per user basis. Both methods involve creating a
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``plugins`` directory. Within this directory one can place plugins in
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subdirectories. For example, ``plugins/bzrtools/``.
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Two locations are currently checked: the bzrlib/plugins directory
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(typically found in ``/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/bzrlib/plugins/``) and
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``$HOME/.bazaar/plugins/``.
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One can additionally override the home plugins by setting the environment
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variable ``BZR_PLUGIN_PATH`` to a directory that contains plugins. The
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installation of a plugin can be checked by running ``bzr plugins`` at
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any time. New commands can be seen by running ``bzr help commands``.
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Plugins work particularly well with Bazaar branches. For example, to
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install the bzrtools plugins for your main user account on Linux,
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one can perform the following::
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install the bzrtools plugins for your main user account, one can perform
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bzr branch http://panoramicfeedback.com/opensource/bzr/bzrtools
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~/.bazaar/plugins/bzrtools
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When installing plugins, the directories that you install them in must
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be valid python identifiers. This means that they can only contain
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certain characters, notably they cannot contain hyphens (``-``). Rather
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than installing ``bzr-gtk`` to ``$BZR_HOME/plugins/bzr-gtk``, install it
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to ``$BZR_HOME/plugins/gtk``.
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Alternative plugin locations
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----------------------------
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If you have the necessary permissions, plugins can also be installed on
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a system-wide basis. Two locations are currently checked for plugins:
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1. the system location - bzrlib/plugins
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2. the personal location - $BZR_HOME/plugins.
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On a Linux installation, these locations are typically
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``/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/bzrlib/plugins/`` and
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``$HOME/.bazaar/plugins/``.
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On a Windows installation, the system location might be
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``C:\\Program Files\\Bazaar\\plugins``
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while the personal location might be
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``C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Bazaar\2.0\plugins``.
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One can additionally override the personal plugins location
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by setting the environment variable ``BZR_PLUGIN_PATH``
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to a directory that contains plugins.
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Listing the installed plugins
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-----------------------------
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To do this, use the plugins command like this::
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The name, location and version of each plugin installed will be displayed.
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New commands added by plugins can be seen by running ``bzr help commands``.
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The commands provided by a plugin are shown followed by the name of the
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Here is a sample of some of the more popular plugins.
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================ ================= ==================================
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Category Name Description
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================ ================= ==================================
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GUI QBzr Qt-based GUI tools
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GUI bzr-gtk GTK-based GUI tools
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GUI bzr-eclipse Eclipse integration
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General bzrtools misc. enhancements including shelf
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General difftools external diff tool helper
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General extmerge external merge tool helper
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Integration bzr-svn use Subversion as a repository
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Migration cvsps migrate CVS patch-sets
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================ ================= ==================================
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If you wish to write your own plugins, it is not difficult to do.
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See `Writing a plugin`_ in the appendices to get started.
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doc/plugins.txt
