7
Bazaar supports many different ways of working together.
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This means that you can
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start with one workflow and adapt it over time as circumstances
10
change. There is no "one true way" that always makes sense and
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there never will be. This section provides a brief overview of
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some popular workflows supported by Bazaar.
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Keep in mind that these workflow are just *some* examples of how
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Bazaar can be used. You may want to use a workflow not listed here,
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perhaps building on the ideas below.
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Whether developing software, editing documents or changing configuration files,
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having an easy-to-use VCS tool can help. A single user can use this workflow
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effectively for managing projects where they are the only contributor.
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.. image:: images/workflows_single.png
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Advantages of this workflow over not using version control at all include:
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* backup of old versions
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* rollback to an earlier state
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* tracking of history.
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The key features of Bazaar appropriate for this workflow are low administration
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(no server setup) and ease of use.
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Sometimes two people need to work together sharing changes as they go. This
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commonly starts off as a *Solo* workflow (see above) or a team-oriented
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workflow (see below). At some point, the second person takes a branch (copy
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including history) of what the first person has done. They can then work in
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parallel exchanging changes by merging when appropriate.
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.. image:: images/workflows_peer.png
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Advantages over *Solo* are:
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* easier sharing of changes
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* each line of each text file can be attributed to a particular change
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including who changed it, when and why.
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When implementing this workflow, Bazaar's advantages over CVS and Subversion include:
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* intelligent merging means merging multiple times isn't painful.
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Also known as *lock-step*, this is essentially the same as the workflow
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encouraged/enforced by CVS and Subversion. All developers work on the same
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branch (or branches). They run ``bzr update`` to get their checkout up-to-date,
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then ``bzr commit`` to publish their changes to the central location.
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.. image:: images/workflows_centralized.png
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Subversion and CVS are good choices for implementing this workflow because they
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make it easy. Bazaar directly supports it as well while providing some
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important advantages over CVS and Subversion:
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* better branching and merging
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* better renaming support.
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Centralized with local commits
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------------------------------
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This is essentially the same as the *Centralized* model, except that when
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developers are making a series of changes, they do ``commit --local`` or unbind
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their checkout. When it is complete, they commit their work to the shared
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.. image:: images/workflows_localcommit.png
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Advantages over *Centralized*:
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* Can work offline, e.g. when disconnected during travel
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* Less chance for a bad commit to interfere with everyone else's work
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Subversion and CVS do not support this model. Other distributed VCS tools can
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support it but do so less directly than Bazaar does.
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Decentralized with shared mainline
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----------------------------------
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In this workflow, each developer has their own branch or branches, plus commit
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rights to the main branch. They do their work in their personal branch, then
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merge it into the mainline when it is ready.
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.. image:: images/workflows_shared.png
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Advantage over *Centralized with local commits*:
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* Easier organization of work - separate changes can be developed in their own branches
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* Developers can merge one another's personal branches when working on something together.
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Subversion and CVS do not support this model. Other distributed VCS
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tools support it. Many features of Bazaar are good for this workflow
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including ease of use, shared repositories, integrated merging and
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rich metadata (including directory rename tracking).
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Decentralized with human gatekeeper
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-----------------------------------
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In this workflow, each developer has their own branch or branches, plus
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read-only access to the main branch. One developer (the gatekeeper) has commit
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rights to the main branch. When a developer wants their work merged, they ask
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the gatekeeper to merge it. The gatekeeper does code review, and merges the
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work into the main branch if it meets the necessary standards.
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.. image:: images/workflows_gatekeeper.png
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Advantage over *Decentralized with shared mainline*:
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* Code is always reviewed before it enters the mainline
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* Tighter control over when changes get incorporated into the mainline.
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A companion tool of Bazaar's called Bundle Buggy can be very useful for
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tracking what changes are up for review, their status and reviewer comments.
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Decentralized with automatic gatekeeper
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---------------------------------------
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In this workflow, each developer has their own branch or branches, plus
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read-only access to the mainline. A software gatekeeper has commit rights to
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the main branch. When a developer wants their work merged, they request another
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person to review it. Once it has passed review, either the original author or
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the reviewer asks the gatekeeper software to merge it, depending on team
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policies. The gatekeeper software does a merge, a compile, and runs the test
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suite. If and only if the code passes, it is merged into the mainline.
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Note: As an alternative, the review step can be skipped and the author can
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submit the change to the automatic gatekeeper without it. (This is particularly
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appropriate when using practices such as Pair Programming that effectively
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promote just-in-time reviews instead of reviewing code as a separate step.)
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.. image:: images/workflows_pqm.png
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Advantages over *Decentralized with human gatekeeper*:
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* Code is always tested before it enters the mainline (so the integrity of the
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* Scales better as teams grow.
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A companion tool of Bazaar's called Patch Queue Manager (PQM) can provide the
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automated gatekeeper capability.
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Implementing a workflow
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-----------------------
168
For an in-depth look at how to implement each of the workflows above,
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see chapters 3 to 6 in this manual. First though, chapter 2
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explains some important pre-requisites including installation, general
171
usage instructions and configuration tips.
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doc/en/user-guide/bazaar_workflows.txt
