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============================
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Guidelines for modifying bzr
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============================
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This document describes the Bazaar internals and the development process.
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It's meant for people interested in developing Bazaar, and some parts will
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also be useful to people developing Bazaar plugins.
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If you have any questions or something seems to be incorrect, unclear or
10
missing, please talk to us in ``irc://irc.freenode.net/#bzr``, or write to
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the Bazaar mailing list. To propose a correction or addition to this
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document, send a merge request or new text to the mailing list.
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The current version of this document is available in the file
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``doc/developers/HACKING.txt`` in the source tree, or at
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http://doc.bazaar-vcs.org/bzr.dev/en/developer-guide/HACKING.html
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(The current version of this document is available in the file ``HACKING``
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in the source tree, or at http://bazaar-ng.org/hacking.html)
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Exploring the Bazaar Platform
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=============================
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Before making changes, it's a good idea to explore the work already
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done by others. Perhaps the new feature or improvement you're looking
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for is available in another plug-in already? If you find a bug,
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perhaps someone else has already fixed it?
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To answer these questions and more, take a moment to explore the
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overall Bazaar Platform. Here are some links to browse:
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* The Plugins page on the Wiki - http://bazaar-vcs.org/BzrPlugins
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* The Bazaar product family on Launchpad - https://launchpad.net/bazaar
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* Bug Tracker for the core product - https://bugs.launchpad.net/bzr/
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* Blueprint Tracker for the core product - https://blueprints.launchpad.net/bzr/
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If nothing else, perhaps you'll find inspiration in how other developers
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have solved their challenges.
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Planning and Discussing Changes
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===============================
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There is a very active community around Bazaar. Mostly we meet on IRC
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(#bzr on irc.freenode.net) and on the mailing list. To join the Bazaar
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community, see http://bazaar-vcs.org/BzrSupport.
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If you are planning to make a change, it's a very good idea to mention it
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on the IRC channel and/or on the mailing list. There are many advantages
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to involving the community before you spend much time on a change.
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* you get to build on the wisdom on others, saving time
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* if others can direct you to similar code, it minimises the work to be done
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* it assists everyone in coordinating direction, priorities and effort.
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In summary, maximising the input from others typically minimises the
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total effort required to get your changes merged. The community is
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friendly, helpful and always keen to welcome newcomers.
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Bazaar Development in a Nutshell
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================================
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Looking for a 10 minute introduction to submitting a change?
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See http://bazaar-vcs.org/BzrGivingBack.
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TODO: Merge that Wiki page into this document.
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Understanding the Development Process
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=====================================
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The development team follows many best-practices including:
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* a public roadmap and planning process in which anyone can participate
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* time based milestones everyone can work towards and plan around
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* extensive code review and feedback to contributors
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* complete and rigorous test coverage on any code contributed
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* automated validation that all tests still pass before code is merged
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into the main code branch.
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The key tools we use to enable these practices are:
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* Launchpad - https://launchpad.net/
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* Bazaar - http://bazaar-vcs.org/
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* Bundle Buggy - http://bundlebuggy.aaronbentley.com/
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* Patch Queue Manager - https://launchpad.net/pqm/
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For further information, see http://bazaar-vcs.org/BzrDevelopment.
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A Closer Look at the Merge & Review Process
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===========================================
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If you'd like to propose a change, please post to the
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bazaar@lists.canonical.com list with a bundle, patch, or link to a
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branch. Put '[PATCH]' or '[MERGE]' in the subject so Bundle Buggy
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can pick it out, and explain the change in the email message text.
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Remember to update the NEWS file as part of your change if it makes any
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changes visible to users or plugin developers. Please include a diff
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against mainline if you're giving a link to a branch.
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You can generate a bundle like this::
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bzr bundle > mybundle.patch
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A .patch extension is recommended instead of .bundle as many mail clients
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will send the latter as a binary file. If a bundle would be too long or your
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mailer mangles whitespace (e.g. implicitly converts Unix newlines to DOS
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newlines), use the merge-directive command instead like this::
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bzr merge-directive http://bazaar-vcs.org http://example.org/my_branch > my_directive.patch
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See the help for details on the arguments to merge-directive.
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Please do **NOT** put [PATCH] or [MERGE] in the subject line if you don't
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want it to be merged. If you want comments from developers rather than
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to be merged, you can put '[RFC]' in the subject line.
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Anyone is welcome to review code. There are broadly three gates for
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* Doesn't reduce test coverage: if it adds new methods or commands,
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there should be tests for them. There is a good test framework
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and plenty of examples to crib from, but if you are having trouble
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working out how to test something feel free to post a draft patch
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* Doesn't reduce design clarity, such as by entangling objects
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we're trying to separate. This is mostly something the more
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experienced reviewers need to help check.
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* Improves bugs, features, speed, or code simplicity.
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Code that goes in should pass all three. The core developers take care
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to keep the code quality high and understandable while recognising that
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perfect is sometimes the enemy of good. (It is easy for reviews to make
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people notice other things which should be fixed but those things should
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not hold up the original fix being accepted. New things can easily be
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recorded in the Bug Tracker instead.)
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Anyone can "vote" on the mailing list. Core developers can also vote using
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Bundle Buggy. Here are the voting codes and their explanations.
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:approve: Reviewer wants this submission merged.
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:tweak: Reviewer wants this submission merged with small changes. (No
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:abstain: Reviewer does not intend to vote on this patch.
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:resubmit: Please make changes and resubmit for review.
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:reject: Reviewer doesn't want this kind of change merged.
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:comment: Not really a vote. Reviewer just wants to comment, for now.
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If a change gets two approvals from core reviewers, and no rejections,
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then it's OK to come in. Any of the core developers can bring it into the
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bzr.dev trunk and backport it to maintenance branches if required. The
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Release Manager will merge the change into the branch for a pending
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release, if any. As a guideline, core developers usually merge their own
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changes and volunteer to merge other contributions if they were the second
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reviewer to agree to a change.
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To track the progress of proposed changes, use Bundle Buggy. See
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http://bundlebuggy.aaronbentley.com/help for a link to all the
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outstanding merge requests together with an explanation of the columns.
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Bundle Buggy will also mail you a link to track just your change.
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Preparing a Sandbox for Making Changes to Bazaar
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================================================
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Bazaar supports many ways of organising your work. See
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http://bazaar-vcs.org/SharedRepositoryLayouts for a summary of the
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popular alternatives.
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Of course, the best choice for you will depend on numerous factors:
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the number of changes you may be making, the complexity of the changes, etc.
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As a starting suggestion though:
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* create a local copy of the main development branch (bzr.dev) by using
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bzr branch http://bazaar-vcs.org/bzr/bzr.dev/ bzr.dev
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* keep your copy of bzr.dev prestine (by not developing in it) and keep
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it up to date (by using bzr pull)
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* create a new branch off your local bzr.dev copy for each issue
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(bug or feature) you are working on.
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This approach makes it easy to go back and make any required changes
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after a code review. Resubmitting the change is then simple with no
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risk of accidentially including edits related to other issues you may
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be working on. After the changes for an issue are accepted and merged,
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the associated branch can be deleted or archived as you wish.
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Navigating the Code Base
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========================
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TODO: List and describe in one line the purpose of each directory
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inside an installation of bzr.
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TODO: Refer to a central location holding an up to date copy of the API
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documentation generated by epydoc, e.g. something like
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http://starship.python.net/crew/mwh/bzrlibapi/bzrlib.html.
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The Importance of Testing
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=========================
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Reliability is a critical success factor for any Version Control System.
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We want Bazaar to be highly reliable across multiple platforms while
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evolving over time to meet the needs of its community.
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In a nutshell, this is want we expect and encourage:
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* New functionality should have test cases. Preferably write the
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test before writing the code.
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In general, you can test at either the command-line level or the
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internal API level. See Writing Tests below for more detail.
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internal API level. See Writing tests below for more detail.
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* Try to practice Test-Driven Development. before fixing a bug, write a
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* Try to practice Test-Driven Development: before fixing a bug, write a
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test case so that it does not regress. Similarly for adding a new
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feature: write a test case for a small version of the new feature before
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starting on the code itself. Check the test fails on the old code, then
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add the feature or fix and check it passes.
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* Exceptions should be defined inside bzrlib.errors, so that we can
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see the whole tree at a glance.
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* Imports should be done at the top-level of the file, unless there is
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a strong reason to have them lazily loaded when a particular
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function runs. Import statements have a cost, so try to make sure
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they don't run inside hot functions.
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* Module names should always be given fully-qualified,
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i.e. ``bzrlib.hashcache`` not just ``hashcache``.
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* Commands should return non-zero when they encounter circumstances that
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the user should really pay attention to - which includes trivial shell
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Recommended values are
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1- Conflicts in merge-like operations, or changes are present in
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2- Unrepresentable diff changes (i.e. binary files that we cannot show
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3- An error or exception has occurred.
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By doing these things, the Bazaar team gets increased confidence that
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changes do what they claim to do, whether provided by the core team or
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by community members. Equally importantly, we can be surer that changes
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down the track do not break new features or bug fixes that you are
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As of May 2007, Bazaar ships with a test suite containing over 6000 tests
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and growing. We are proud of it and want to remain so. As community
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members, we all benefit from it. Would you trust version control on
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your project to a product *without* a test suite like Bazaar has?
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Running the Test Suite
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======================
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Currently, bzr selftest is used to invoke tests.
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You can provide a pattern argument to run a subset. For example,
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to run just the blackbox tests, run::
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./bzr selftest -v blackbox
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To skip a particular test (or set of tests), use the --exclude option
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(shorthand -x) like so::
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./bzr selftest -v -x blackbox
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To ensure that all tests are being run and succeeding, you can use the
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--strict option which will fail if there are any missing features or known
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./bzr selftest --strict
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To list tests without running them, use the --list-only option like so::
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./bzr selftest --list-only
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This option can be combined with other selftest options (like -x) and
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filter patterns to understand their effect.
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In general tests should be placed in a file named test_FOO.py where
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FOO is the logical thing under test. That file should be placed in the
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tests subdirectory under the package being tested.
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For example, tests for merge3 in bzrlib belong in bzrlib/tests/test_merge3.py.
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See bzrlib/tests/test_sampler.py for a template test script.
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Tests can be written for the UI or for individual areas of the library.
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Choose whichever is appropriate: if adding a new command, or a new command
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option, then you should be writing a UI test. If you are both adding UI
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functionality and library functionality, you will want to write tests for
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both the UI and the core behaviours. We call UI tests 'blackbox' tests
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and they are found in ``bzrlib/tests/blackbox/*.py``.
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When writing blackbox tests please honour the following conventions:
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1. Place the tests for the command 'name' in
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bzrlib/tests/blackbox/test_name.py. This makes it easy for developers
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to locate the test script for a faulty command.
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2. Use the 'self.run_bzr("name")' utility function to invoke the command
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rather than running bzr in a subprocess or invoking the
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cmd_object.run() method directly. This is a lot faster than
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subprocesses and generates the same logging output as running it in a
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subprocess (which invoking the method directly does not).
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3. Only test the one command in a single test script. Use the bzrlib
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library when setting up tests and when evaluating the side-effects of
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the command. We do this so that the library api has continual pressure
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on it to be as functional as the command line in a simple manner, and
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to isolate knock-on effects throughout the blackbox test suite when a
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command changes its name or signature. Ideally only the tests for a
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given command are affected when a given command is changed.
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4. If you have a test which does actually require running bzr in a
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subprocess you can use ``run_bzr_subprocess``. By default the spawned
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process will not load plugins unless ``--allow-plugins`` is supplied.
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We make selective use of doctests__. In general they should provide
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*examples* within the API documentation which can incidentally be tested. We
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don't try to test every important case using doctests -- regular Python
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tests are generally a better solution.
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Most of these are in ``bzrlib/doc/api``. More additions are welcome.
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__ http://docs.python.org/lib/module-doctest.html
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Skipping tests and test requirements
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------------------------------------
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In our enhancements to unittest we allow for some addition results beyond
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just success or failure.
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If a test can't be run, it can say that it's skipped. This is typically
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used in parameterized tests - for example if a transport doesn't support
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setting permissions, we'll skip the tests that relating to that. ::
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return self.branch_format.initialize(repo.bzrdir)
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except errors.UninitializableFormat:
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raise tests.TestSkipped('Uninitializable branch format')
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Raising TestSkipped is a good idea when you want to make it clear that the
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test was not run, rather than just returning which makes it look as if it
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Several different cases are distinguished:
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Generic skip; the only type that was present up to bzr 0.18.
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The test doesn't apply to the parameters with which it was run.
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This is typically used when the test is being applied to all
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implementations of an interface, but some aspects of the interface
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are optional and not present in particular concrete
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implementations. (Some tests that should raise this currently
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either silently return or raise TestSkipped.) Another option is
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to use more precise parameterization to avoid generating the test
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**(Not implemented yet)**
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The test can't be run because of an inherent limitation of the
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environment, such as not having symlinks or not supporting
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The test can't be run because a dependency (typically a Python
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library) is not available in the test environment. These
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are in general things that the person running the test could fix
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by installing the library. It's OK if some of these occur when
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an end user runs the tests or if we're specifically testing in a
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limited environment, but a full test should never see them.
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The test exists but is known to fail, for example because the
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code to fix it hasn't been run yet. Raising this allows
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you to distinguish these failures from the ones that are not
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expected to fail. This could be conditionally raised if something
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is broken on some platforms but not on others.
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We plan to support three modes for running the test suite to control the
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interpretation of these results. Strict mode is for use in situations
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like merges to the mainline and releases where we want to make sure that
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everything that can be tested has been tested. Lax mode is for use by
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developers who want to temporarily tolerate some known failures. The
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default behaviour is obtained by ``bzr selftest`` with no options, and
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also (if possible) by running under another unittest harness.
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======================= ======= ======= ========
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result strict default lax
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======================= ======= ======= ========
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TestSkipped pass pass pass
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TestNotApplicable pass pass pass
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TestPlatformLimit pass pass pass
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TestDependencyMissing fail pass pass
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KnownFailure fail pass pass
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======================= ======= ======= ========
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Test feature dependencies
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-------------------------
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Rather than manually checking the environment in each test, a test class
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can declare its dependence on some test features. The feature objects are
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checked only once for each run of the whole test suite.
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For historical reasons, as of May 2007 many cases that should depend on
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features currently raise TestSkipped.)
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class TestStrace(TestCaseWithTransport):
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_test_needs_features = [StraceFeature]
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This means all tests in this class need the feature. The feature itself
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should provide a ``_probe`` method which is called once to determine if
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These should generally be equivalent to either TestDependencyMissing or
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sometimes TestPlatformLimit.
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Known failures are when a test exists but we know it currently doesn't
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work, allowing the test suite to still pass. These should be used with
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care, we don't want a proliferation of quietly broken tests. It might be
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appropriate to use them if you've committed a test for a bug but not the
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fix for it, or if something works on Unix but not on Windows.
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Testing exceptions and errors
451
-----------------------------
453
It's important to test handling of errors and exceptions. Because this
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code is often not hit in ad-hoc testing it can often have hidden bugs --
455
it's particularly common to get NameError because the exception code
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references a variable that has since been renamed.
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.. TODO: Something about how to provoke errors in the right way?
460
In general we want to test errors at two levels:
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1. A test in ``test_errors.py`` checking that when the exception object is
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constructed with known parameters it produces an expected string form.
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This guards against mistakes in writing the format string, or in the
465
``str`` representations of its parameters. There should be one for
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each exception class.
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2. Tests that when an api is called in a particular situation, it raises
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an error of the expected class. You should typically use
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``assertRaises``, which in the Bazaar test suite returns the exception
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object to allow you to examine its parameters.
473
In some cases blackbox tests will also want to check error reporting. But
474
it can be difficult to provoke every error through the commandline
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interface, so those tests are only done as needed -- eg in response to a
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particular bug or if the error is reported in an unusual way(?) Blackbox
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tests should mostly be testing how the command-line interface works, so
478
should only test errors if there is something particular to the cli in how
479
they're displayed or handled.
485
The Python ``warnings`` module is used to indicate a non-fatal code
486
problem. Code that's expected to raise a warning can be tested through
489
The test suite can be run with ``-Werror`` to check no unexpected errors
492
However, warnings should be used with discretion. It's not an appropriate
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way to give messages to the user, because the warning is normally shown
494
only once per source line that causes the problem. You should also think
495
about whether the warning is serious enought that it should be visible to
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users who may not be able to fix it.
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Interface implementation testing and test scenarios
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---------------------------------------------------
502
There are several cases in Bazaar of multiple implementations of a common
503
conceptual interface. ("Conceptual" because
504
it's not necessary for all the implementations to share a base class,
505
though they often do.) Examples include transports and the working tree,
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branch and repository classes.
508
In these cases we want to make sure that every implementation correctly
509
fulfils the interface requirements. For example, every Transport should
510
support the ``has()`` and ``get()`` and ``clone()`` methods. We have a
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sub-suite of tests in ``test_transport_implementations``. (Most
512
per-implementation tests are in submodules of ``bzrlib.tests``, but not
513
the transport tests at the moment.)
515
These tests are repeated for each registered Transport, by generating a
516
new TestCase instance for the cross product of test methods and transport
517
implementations. As each test runs, it has ``transport_class`` and
518
``transport_server`` set to the class it should test. Most tests don't
519
access these directly, but rather use ``self.get_transport`` which returns
520
a transport of the appropriate type.
522
The goal is to run per-implementation only tests that relate to that
523
particular interface. Sometimes we discover a bug elsewhere that happens
524
with only one particular transport. Once it's isolated, we can consider
525
whether a test should be added for that particular implementation,
526
or for all implementations of the interface.
528
The multiplication of tests for different implementations is normally
529
accomplished by overriding the ``test_suite`` function used to load
530
tests from a module. This function typically loads all the tests,
531
then applies a TestProviderAdapter to them, which generates a longer
532
suite containing all the test variations.
538
Some utilities are provided for generating variations of tests. This can
539
be used for per-implementation tests, or other cases where the same test
540
code needs to run several times on different scenarios.
542
The general approach is to define a class that provides test methods,
543
which depend on attributes of the test object being pre-set with the
544
values to which the test should be applied. The test suite should then
545
also provide a list of scenarios in which to run the tests.
547
Typically ``multiply_tests_from_modules`` should be called from the test
548
module's ``test_suite`` function.
551
Essential Domain Classes
552
########################
554
Introducing the Object Model
555
============================
557
The core domain objects within the bazaar model are:
567
Transports are explained below. See http://bazaar-vcs.org/Classes/
568
for an introduction to the other key classes.
573
The ``Transport`` layer handles access to local or remote directories.
574
Each Transport object acts like a logical connection to a particular
575
directory, and it allows various operations on files within it. You can
576
*clone* a transport to get a new Transport connected to a subdirectory or
579
Transports are not used for access to the working tree. At present
580
working trees are always local and they are accessed through the regular
581
Python file io mechanisms.
586
Transports work in URLs. Take note that URLs are by definition only
587
ASCII - the decision of how to encode a Unicode string into a URL must be
588
taken at a higher level, typically in the Store. (Note that Stores also
589
escape filenames which cannot be safely stored on all filesystems, but
590
this is a different level.)
592
The main reason for this is that it's not possible to safely roundtrip a
593
URL into Unicode and then back into the same URL. The URL standard
594
gives a way to represent non-ASCII bytes in ASCII (as %-escapes), but
595
doesn't say how those bytes represent non-ASCII characters. (They're not
596
guaranteed to be UTF-8 -- that is common but doesn't happen everywhere.)
598
For example if the user enters the url ``http://example/%e0`` there's no
599
way to tell whether that character represents "latin small letter a with
600
grave" in iso-8859-1, or "latin small letter r with acute" in iso-8859-2
601
or malformed UTF-8. So we can't convert their URL to Unicode reliably.
603
Equally problematic if we're given a url-like string containing non-ascii
604
characters (such as the accented a) we can't be sure how to convert that
605
to the correct URL, because we don't know what encoding the server expects
606
for those characters. (Although this is not totally reliable we might still
607
accept these and assume they should be put into UTF-8.)
609
A similar edge case is that the url ``http://foo/sweet%2Fsour`` contains
610
one directory component whose name is "sweet/sour". The escaped slash is
611
not a directory separator. If we try to convert URLs to regular Unicode
612
paths this information will be lost.
614
This implies that Transports must natively deal with URLs; for simplicity
615
they *only* deal with URLs and conversion of other strings to URLs is done
616
elsewhere. Information they return, such as from ``list_dir``, is also in
617
the form of URL components.
51
626
We have a commitment to 6 months API stability - any supported symbol in a
52
627
release of bzr MUST NOT be altered in any way that would result in
67
642
details for you - such as updating the docstring, and issuing a warning
68
643
when the old api is used.
70
For unsupported API's, it does not hurt to follow this discipline, but its
645
For unsupported API's, it does not hurt to follow this discipline, but it's
71
646
not required. Minimally though, please try to rename things so that
72
647
callers will at least get an AttributeError rather than weird results.
75
Standard parameter types
76
------------------------
78
There are some common requirements in the library: some parameters need to be
79
unicode safe, some need byte strings, and so on. At the moment we have
80
only codified one specific pattern: Parameters that need to be unicode
81
should be check via 'bzrlib.osutils.safe_unicode'. This will coerce the
82
input into unicode in a consistent fashion, allowing trivial strings to be
83
used for programmer convenience, but not performing unpredictably in the
84
presence of different locales.
89
If you change the behaviour of a command, please update its docstring
90
in bzrlib/commands.py. This is displayed by the 'bzr help' command.
95
If you make a user-visible change, please add a note to the NEWS file.
96
The description should be written to make sense to someone who's just
97
a user of bzr, not a developer: new functions or classes shouldn't be
98
mentioned, but new commands, changes in behaviour or fixed nontrivial
99
bugs should be listed. See the existing entries for an idea of what
102
Within each release, entries in the news file should have the most
103
user-visible changes first. So the order should be approximately:
105
* changes to existing behaviour - the highest priority because the
106
user's existing knowledge is incorrect
107
* new features - should be brought to their attention
108
* bug fixes - may be of interest if the bug was affecting them, and
109
should include the bug number if any
110
* major documentation changes
111
* changes to internal interfaces
113
People who made significant contributions to each change are listed in
114
parenthesis. This can include reporting bugs (particularly with good
115
details or reproduction recipes), submitting patches, etc.
120
Functions, methods, classes and modules should have docstrings
121
describing how they are used.
123
The first line of the docstring should be a self-contained sentence.
125
For the special case of Command classes, this acts as the user-visible
126
documentation shown by the help command.
128
The docstrings should be formatted as reStructuredText_ (like this
129
document), suitable for processing using the epydoc_ tool into HTML
132
.. _reStructuredText: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html
133
.. _epydoc: http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/
650
Deprecation decorators
651
----------------------
653
``bzrlib.symbol_versioning`` provides decorators that can be attached to
654
methods, functions, and other interfaces to indicate that they should no
657
To deprecate a static method you must call ``deprecated_function``
658
(**not** method), after the staticmethod call::
661
@deprecated_function(zero_ninetyone)
662
def create_repository(base, shared=False, format=None):
664
When you deprecate an API, you should not just delete its tests, because
665
then we might introduce bugs in them. If the API is still present at all,
666
it should still work. The basic approach is to use
667
``TestCase.applyDeprecated`` which in one step checks that the API gives
668
the expected deprecation message, and also returns the real result from
669
the method, so that tests can keep running.
671
Coding Style Guidelines
672
=======================
677
``hasattr`` should not be used because it swallows exceptions including
678
``KeyboardInterrupt``. Instead, say something like ::
680
if getattr(thing, 'name', None) is None
140
686
Please write PEP-8__ compliant code.
688
__ http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0008.html
142
690
One often-missed requirement is that the first line of docstrings
143
691
should be a self-contained one-sentence summary.
145
__ http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0008.html
693
We use 4 space indents for blocks, and never use tab characters. (In vim,
696
Lines should be no more than 79 characters if at all possible.
697
Lines that continue a long statement may be indented in either of
700
within the parenthesis or other character that opens the block, e.g.::
706
or indented by four spaces::
712
The first is considered clearer by some people; however it can be a bit
713
harder to maintain (e.g. when the method name changes), and it does not
714
work well if the relevant parenthesis is already far to the right. Avoid
717
self.legbone.kneebone.shinbone.toebone.shake_it(one,
723
self.legbone.kneebone.shinbone.toebone.shake_it(one,
729
self.legbone.kneebone.shinbone.toebone.shake_it(
732
For long lists, we like to add a trailing comma and put the closing
733
character on the following line. This makes it easier to add new items in
736
from bzrlib.goo import (
742
There should be spaces between function paramaters, but not between the
743
keyword name and the value::
745
call(1, 3, cheese=quark)
749
;(defface my-invalid-face
750
; '((t (:background "Red" :underline t)))
751
; "Face used to highlight invalid constructs or other uglyties"
754
(defun my-python-mode-hook ()
755
;; setup preferred indentation style.
756
(setq fill-column 79)
757
(setq indent-tabs-mode nil) ; no tabs, never, I will not repeat
758
; (font-lock-add-keywords 'python-mode
759
; '(("^\\s *\t" . 'my-invalid-face) ; Leading tabs
760
; ("[ \t]+$" . 'my-invalid-face) ; Trailing spaces
761
; ("^[ \t]+$" . 'my-invalid-face)); Spaces only
765
(add-hook 'python-mode-hook 'my-python-mode-hook)
767
The lines beginning with ';' are comments. They can be activated
768
if one want to have a strong notice of some tab/space usage
775
* Imports should be done at the top-level of the file, unless there is
776
a strong reason to have them lazily loaded when a particular
777
function runs. Import statements have a cost, so try to make sure
778
they don't run inside hot functions.
780
* Module names should always be given fully-qualified,
781
i.e. ``bzrlib.hashcache`` not just ``hashcache``.
152
Functions, methods or members that are in some sense "private" are given
153
a leading underscore prefix. This is just a hint that code outside the
154
implementation should probably not use that interface.
787
Functions, methods or members that are "private" to bzrlib are given
788
a leading underscore prefix. Names without a leading underscore are
789
public not just across modules but to programmers using bzrlib as an
790
API. As a consequence, a leading underscore is appropriate for names
791
exposed across modules but that are not to be exposed to bzrlib API
156
794
We prefer class names to be concatenated capital words (``TestCase``)
157
795
and variables, methods and functions to be lowercase words joined by
291
1110
./bzr selftest -v blackbox
294
Errors and exceptions
295
=====================
297
Errors are handled through Python exceptions. They can represent user
298
errors, environmental errors or program bugs. Sometimes we can't be sure
299
at the time it's raised which case applies. See bzrlib/errors.py for
300
details on the error-handling practices.
1112
To skip a particular test (or set of tests), use the --exclude option
1113
(shorthand -x) like so::
1115
./bzr selftest -v -x blackbox
1117
To list tests without running them, use the --list-only option like so::
1119
./bzr selftest --list-only
1121
This option can be combined with other selftest options (like -x) and
1122
filter patterns to understand their effect.
1125
Handling Errors and Exceptions
1126
==============================
1128
Commands should return non-zero when they encounter circumstances that
1129
the user should really pay attention to - which includes trivial shell
1132
Recommended values are:
1135
1. Conflicts in merge-like operations, or changes are present in
1136
diff-like operations.
1137
2. Unrepresentable diff changes (i.e. binary files that we cannot show
1139
3. An error or exception has occurred.
1140
4. An internal error occurred (one that shows a traceback.)
1142
Errors are handled through Python exceptions. Exceptions should be defined
1143
inside bzrlib.errors, so that we can see the whole tree at a glance.
1145
We broadly classify errors as either being either internal or not,
1146
depending on whether ``internal_error`` is set or not. If we think it's our
1147
fault, we show a backtrace, an invitation to report the bug, and possibly
1148
other details. This is the default for errors that aren't specifically
1149
recognized as being caused by a user error. Otherwise we show a briefer
1150
message, unless -Derror was given.
1152
Many errors originate as "environmental errors" which are raised by Python
1153
or builtin libraries -- for example IOError. These are treated as being
1154
our fault, unless they're caught in a particular tight scope where we know
1155
that they indicate a user errors. For example if the repository format
1156
is not found, the user probably gave the wrong path or URL. But if one of
1157
the files inside the repository is not found, then it's our fault --
1158
either there's a bug in bzr, or something complicated has gone wrong in
1159
the environment that means one internal file was deleted.
1161
Many errors are defined in ``bzrlib/errors.py`` but it's OK for new errors
1162
to be added near the place where they are used.
1164
Exceptions are formatted for the user by conversion to a string
1165
(eventually calling their ``__str__`` method.) As a convenience the
1166
``._fmt`` member can be used as a template which will be mapped to the
1167
error's instance dict.
1169
New exception classes should be defined when callers might want to catch
1170
that exception specifically, or when it needs a substantially different
1173
Exception strings should start with a capital letter and should not have a
1174
final fullstop. If long, they may contain newlines to break the text.
1180
When you change bzrlib, please update the relevant documentation for the
1181
change you made: Changes to commands should update their help, and
1182
possibly end user tutorials; changes to the core library should be
1183
reflected in API documentation.
1188
If you make a user-visible change, please add a note to the NEWS file.
1189
The description should be written to make sense to someone who's just
1190
a user of bzr, not a developer: new functions or classes shouldn't be
1191
mentioned, but new commands, changes in behaviour or fixed nontrivial
1192
bugs should be listed. See the existing entries for an idea of what
1195
Within each release, entries in the news file should have the most
1196
user-visible changes first. So the order should be approximately:
1198
* changes to existing behaviour - the highest priority because the
1199
user's existing knowledge is incorrect
1200
* new features - should be brought to their attention
1201
* bug fixes - may be of interest if the bug was affecting them, and
1202
should include the bug number if any
1203
* major documentation changes
1204
* changes to internal interfaces
1206
People who made significant contributions to each change are listed in
1207
parenthesis. This can include reporting bugs (particularly with good
1208
details or reproduction recipes), submitting patches, etc.
1213
The docstring of a command is used by ``bzr help`` to generate help output
1214
for the command. The list 'takes_options' attribute on a command is used by
1215
``bzr help`` to document the options for the command - the command
1216
docstring does not need to document them. Finally, the '_see_also'
1217
attribute on a command can be used to reference other related help topics.
1222
Functions, methods, classes and modules should have docstrings
1223
describing how they are used.
1225
The first line of the docstring should be a self-contained sentence.
1227
For the special case of Command classes, this acts as the user-visible
1228
documentation shown by the help command.
1230
The docstrings should be formatted as reStructuredText_ (like this
1231
document), suitable for processing using the epydoc_ tool into HTML
1234
.. _reStructuredText: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html
1235
.. _epydoc: http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/
1244
The copyright policy for bzr was recently made clear in this email (edited
1245
for grammatical correctness)::
1247
The attached patch cleans up the copyright and license statements in
1248
the bzr source. It also adds tests to help us remember to add them
1249
with the correct text.
1251
We had the problem that lots of our files were "Copyright Canonical
1252
Development Ltd" which is not a real company, and some other variations
1253
on this theme. Also, some files were missing the GPL statements.
1255
I want to be clear about the intent of this patch, since copyright can
1256
be a little controversial.
1258
1) The big motivation for this is not to shut out the community, but
1259
just to clean up all of the invalid copyright statements.
1261
2) It has been the general policy for bzr that we want a single
1262
copyright holder for all of the core code. This is following the model
1263
set by the FSF, which makes it easier to update the code to a new
1264
license in case problems are encountered. (For example, if we want to
1265
upgrade the project universally to GPL v3 it is much simpler if there is
1266
a single copyright holder). It also makes it clearer if copyright is
1267
ever debated, there is a single holder, which makes it easier to defend
1268
in court, etc. (I think the FSF position is that if you assign them
1269
copyright, they can defend it in court rather than you needing to, and
1270
I'm sure Canonical would do the same).
1271
As such, Canonical has requested copyright assignments from all of the
1274
3) If someone wants to add code and not attribute it to Canonical, there
1275
is a specific list of files that are excluded from this check. And the
1276
test failure indicates where that is, and how to update it.
1278
4) If anyone feels that I changed a copyright statement incorrectly, just
1279
let me know, and I'll be happy to correct it. Whenever you have large
1280
mechanical changes like this, it is possible to make some mistakes.
1282
Just to reiterate, this is a community project, and it is meant to stay
1283
that way. Core bzr code is copyright Canonical for legal reasons, and
1284
the tests are just there to help us maintain that.
1287
Miscellaneous Topics
1288
####################
1293
Bazaar has a few facilities to help debug problems by going into pdb_, the
1296
.. _pdb: http://docs.python.org/lib/debugger-commands.html
1298
If the ``BZR_PDB`` environment variable is set
1299
then bzr will go into pdb post-mortem mode when an unhandled exception
1302
If you send a SIGQUIT signal to bzr, which can be done by pressing
1303
Ctrl-\\ on Unix, bzr will go into the debugger immediately. You can
1304
continue execution by typing ``c``. This can be disabled if necessary
1305
by setting the environment variable ``BZR_SIGQUIT_PDB=0``.
309
1314
indexes into the branch's revision history.
315
The ``Transport`` layer handles access to local or remote directories.
316
Each Transport object acts like a logical connection to a particular
317
directory, and it allows various operations on files within it. You can
318
*clone* a transport to get a new Transport connected to a subdirectory or
321
Transports are not used for access to the working tree. At present
322
working trees are always local and they are accessed through the regular
323
Python file io mechanisms.
328
Transports work in URLs. Take note that URLs are by definition only
329
ASCII - the decision of how to encode a Unicode string into a URL must be
330
taken at a higher level, typically in the Store. (Note that Stores also
331
escape filenames which cannot be safely stored on all filesystems, but
332
this is a different level.)
334
The main reason for this is that it's not possible to safely roundtrip a
335
URL into Unicode and then back into the same URL. The URL standard
336
gives a way to represent non-ASCII bytes in ASCII (as %-escapes), but
337
doesn't say how those bytes represent non-ASCII characters. (They're not
338
guaranteed to be UTF-8 -- that is common but doesn't happen everywhere.)
340
For example if the user enters the url ``http://example/%e0`` there's no
341
way to tell whether that character represents "latin small letter a with
342
grave" in iso-8859-1, or "latin small letter r with acute" in iso-8859-2
343
or malformed UTF-8. So we can't convert their URL to Unicode reliably.
345
Equally problematic if we're given a url-like string containing non-ascii
346
characters (such as the accented a) we can't be sure how to convert that
347
to the correct URL, because we don't know what encoding the server expects
348
for those characters. (Although this is not totally reliable we might still
349
accept these and assume they should be put into UTF-8.)
351
A similar edge case is that the url ``http://foo/sweet%2Fsour" contains
352
one directory component whose name is "sweet/sour". The escaped slash is
353
not a directory separator. If we try to convert URLs to regular Unicode
354
paths this information will be lost.
356
This implies that Transports must natively deal with URLs; for simplicity
357
they *only* deal with URLs and conversion of other strings to URLs is done
358
elsewhere. Information they return, such as from ``list_dir``, is also in
359
the form of URL components.
1317
Unicode and Encoding Support
1318
============================
1320
This section discusses various techniques that Bazaar uses to handle
1321
characters that are outside the ASCII set.
1326
When a ``Command`` object is created, it is given a member variable
1327
accessible by ``self.outf``. This is a file-like object, which is bound to
1328
``sys.stdout``, and should be used to write information to the screen,
1329
rather than directly writing to ``sys.stdout`` or calling ``print``.
1330
This file has the ability to translate Unicode objects into the correct
1331
representation, based on the console encoding. Also, the class attribute
1332
``encoding_type`` will effect how unprintable characters will be
1333
handled. This parameter can take one of 3 values:
1336
Unprintable characters will be represented with a suitable replacement
1337
marker (typically '?'), and no exception will be raised. This is for
1338
any command which generates text for the user to review, rather than
1339
for automated processing.
1340
For example: ``bzr log`` should not fail if one of the entries has text
1341
that cannot be displayed.
1344
Attempting to print an unprintable character will cause a UnicodeError.
1345
This is for commands that are intended more as scripting support, rather
1346
than plain user review.
1347
For exampl: ``bzr ls`` is designed to be used with shell scripting. One
1348
use would be ``bzr ls --null --unknows | xargs -0 rm``. If ``bzr``
1349
printed a filename with a '?', the wrong file could be deleted. (At the
1350
very least, the correct file would not be deleted). An error is used to
1351
indicate that the requested action could not be performed.
1354
Do not attempt to automatically convert Unicode strings. This is used
1355
for commands that must handle conversion themselves.
1356
For example: ``bzr diff`` needs to translate Unicode paths, but should
1357
not change the exact text of the contents of the files.
1360
``bzrlib.urlutils.unescape_for_display``
1361
----------------------------------------
1363
Because Transports work in URLs (as defined earlier), printing the raw URL
1364
to the user is usually less than optimal. Characters outside the standard
1365
set are printed as escapes, rather than the real character, and local
1366
paths would be printed as ``file://`` urls. The function
1367
``unescape_for_display`` attempts to unescape a URL, such that anything
1368
that cannot be printed in the current encoding stays an escaped URL, but
1369
valid characters are generated where possible.
1375
The ``bzrlib.osutils`` module has many useful helper functions, including
1376
some more portable variants of functions in the standard library.
1378
In particular, don't use ``shutil.rmtree`` unless it's acceptable for it
1379
to fail on Windows if some files are readonly or still open elsewhere.
1380
Use ``bzrlib.osutils.rmtree`` instead.
1386
We write some extensions in C using pyrex. We design these to work in
1389
* User with no C compiler
1390
* User with C compiler
1393
The recommended way to install bzr is to have a C compiler so that the
1394
extensions can be built, but if no C compiler is present, the pure python
1395
versions we supply will work, though more slowly.
1397
For developers we recommend that pyrex be installed, so that the C
1398
extensions can be changed if needed.
1400
For the C extensions, the extension module should always match the
1401
original python one in all respects (modulo speed). This should be
1402
maintained over time.
1404
To create an extension, add rules to setup.py for building it with pyrex,
1405
and with distutils. Now start with an empty .pyx file. At the top add
1406
"include 'yourmodule.py'". This will import the contents of foo.py into this
1407
file at build time - remember that only one module will be loaded at
1408
runtime. Now you can subclass classes, or replace functions, and only your
1409
changes need to be present in the .pyx file.
1411
Note that pyrex does not support all 2.4 programming idioms, so some
1412
syntax changes may be required. I.e.
1414
- 'from foo import (bar, gam)' needs to change to not use the brackets.
1415
- 'import foo.bar as bar' needs to be 'import foo.bar; bar = foo.bar'
1417
If the changes are too dramatic, consider
1418
maintaining the python code twice - once in the .pyx, and once in the .py,
1419
and no longer including the .py file.
1422
Making Installers for OS Windows
1423
================================
1424
To build a win32 installer, see the instructions on the wiki page:
1425
http://bazaar-vcs.org/BzrWin32Installer
1428
Core Developer Tasks
1429
####################
1434
What is a Core Developer?
1435
-------------------------
1437
While everyone in the Bazaar community is welcome and encouraged to
1438
propose and submit changes, a smaller team is reponsible for pulling those
1439
changes together into a cohesive whole. In addition to the general developer
1440
stuff covered above, "core" developers have responsibility for:
1443
* reviewing blueprints
1445
* managing releases.
1448
Removing barriers to community participation is a key reason for adopting
1449
distributed VCS technology. While DVCS removes many technical barriers,
1450
a small number of social barriers are often necessary instead.
1451
By documenting how the above things are done, we hope to
1452
encourage more people to participate in these activities, keeping the
1453
differences between core and non-core contributors to a minimum.
1456
The Development Lifecycle
1457
-------------------------
1459
As a rule, Bazaar development follows a 4 week cycle:
1461
* 2 weeks - general changes
1462
* 1 week - feature freeze
1463
* 1 week+ - Release Candidate stabilization
1465
During the FeatureFreeze week, the trunk (bzr.dev) is open in a limited
1466
way: only low risk changes, critical and high priority fixes are accepted
1467
during this time. At the end of FeatureFreeze, a branch is created for the
1468
first Release Candidate and the trunk is reopened for general development
1469
on the *next* release. A week or so later, the final release is packaged
1470
assuming no serious problems were encountered with the one or more Release
1474
There is a one week overlap between the start of one release and
1475
the end of the previous one.
1478
Communicating and Coordinating
1479
------------------------------
1481
While it has many advantages, one of the challenges of distributed
1482
development is keeping everyone else aware of what you're working on.
1483
There are numerous ways to do this:
1485
#. Assign bugs to yourself in Launchpad
1486
#. Mention it on the mailing list
1487
#. Mention it on IRC
1489
As well as the email notifcations that occur when merge requests are sent
1490
and reviewed, you can keep others informed of where you're spending your
1491
energy by emailing the **bazaar-commits** list implicitly. To do this,
1492
install and configure the Email plugin. One way to do this is add these
1493
configuration settings to your central configuration file (e.g.
1494
``~/.bazaar/bazaar.conf`` on Linux)::
1497
email = Joe Smith <joe.smith@internode.on.net>
1498
smtp_server = mail.internode.on.net:25
1500
Then add these lines for the relevant branches in ``locations.conf``::
1502
post_commit_to = bazaar-commits@lists.canonical.com
1503
post_commit_mailer = smtplib
1505
While attending a sprint, RobertCollins' Dbus plugin is useful for the
1506
same reason. See the documentation within the plugin for information on
1507
how to set it up and configure it.
1513
Setting Up Your Workspace for Reviews
1514
-------------------------------------
1516
TODO: Incorporate John Arbash Meinel's detailed email to Ian C on the
1517
numerous ways of setting up integration branches.
1520
The Review Checklist
1521
--------------------
1523
See `A Closer Look at the Merge & Review Process`_
1524
for information on the gates used to decide whether code can be merged
1525
or not and details on how review results are recorded and communicated.
1528
The Importance of Timely Reviews
1529
--------------------------------
1531
Good reviews do take time. They also regularly require a solid
1532
understanding of the overall code base. In practice, this means a small
1533
number of people often have a large review burden - with knowledge comes
1534
responsibility. No one like their merge requests sitting in a queue going
1535
nowhere, so reviewing sooner rather than later is strongly encouraged.
1544
Of the many workflows supported by Bazaar, the one adopted for Bazaar
1545
development itself is known as "Decentralized with automatic gatekeeper".
1546
To repeat the explanation of this given on
1547
http://bazaar-vcs.org/Workflows:
1550
In this workflow, each developer has their own branch or
1551
branches, plus read-only access to the mainline. A software gatekeeper
1552
(e.g. PQM) has commit rights to the main branch. When a developer wants
1553
their work merged, they request the gatekeeper to merge it. The gatekeeper
1554
does a merge, a compile, and runs the test suite. If the code passes, it
1555
is merged into the mainline.
1557
In a nutshell, here's the overall submission process:
1559
#. get your work ready (including review except for trivial changes)
1560
#. push to a public location
1561
#. ask PQM to merge from that location
1564
At present, PQM always takes the changes to merge from a branch
1565
at a URL that can be read by it. For Bazaar, that means a public,
1566
typically http, URL.
1568
As a result, the following things are needed to use PQM for submissions:
1570
#. A publicly available web server
1571
#. Your OpenPGP key registered with PQM (contact RobertCollins for this)
1572
#. The PQM plugin installed and configured (not strictly required but
1573
highly recommended).
1576
Selecting a Public Branch Location
1577
----------------------------------
1579
If you don't have your own web server running, branches can always be
1580
pushed to Launchpad. Here's the process for doing that:
1582
Depending on your location throughout the world and the size of your
1583
repository though, it is often quicker to use an alternative public
1584
location to Launchpad, particularly if you can set up your own repo and
1585
push into that. By using an existing repo, push only needs to send the
1586
changes, instead of the complete repository every time. Note that it is
1587
easy to register branches in other locations with Launchpad so no benefits
1588
are lost by going this way.
1591
For Canonical staff, http://people.ubuntu.com/~<user>/ is one
1592
suggestion for public http branches. Contact your manager for information
1593
on accessing this system if required.
1595
It should also be noted that best practice in this area is subject to
1596
change as things evolve. For example, once the Bazaar smart server on
1597
Launchpad supports server-side branching, the performance situation will
1598
be very different to what it is now (Jun 2007).
1601
Configuring the PQM Plug-In
1602
---------------------------
1604
While not strictly required, the PQM plugin automates a few things and
1605
reduces the chance of error. Before looking at the plugin, it helps to
1606
understand a little more how PQM operates. Basically, PQM requires an
1607
email indicating what you want it to do. The email typically looks like
1610
star-merge source-branch target-branch
1614
star-merge http://bzr.arbash-meinel.com/branches/bzr/jam-integration http://bazaar-vcs.org/bzr/bzr.dev
1616
Note that the command needs to be on one line. The subject of the email
1617
will be used for the commit message. The email also needs to be ``gpg``
1618
signed with a key that PQM accepts.
1620
The advantages of using the PQM plugin are:
1622
#. You can use the config policies to make it easy to set up public
1623
branches, so you don't have to ever type the full paths you want to merge
1626
#. It checks to make sure the public branch last revision matches the
1627
local last revision so you are submitting what you think you are.
1629
#. It uses the same public_branch and smtp sending settings as bzr-email,
1630
so if you have one set up, you have the other mostly set up.
1632
#. Thunderbird refuses to not wrap lines, and request lines are usually
1633
pretty long (you have 2 long URLs in there).
1635
Here are sample configuration settings for the PQM plugin. Here are the
1636
lines in bazaar.conf::
1639
email = Joe Smith <joe.smith@internode.on.net>
1640
smtp_server=mail.internode.on.net:25
1642
And here are the lines in ``locations.conf`` (or ``branch.conf`` for
1643
dirstate-tags branches)::
1645
[/home/joe/bzr/my-integration]
1646
push_location = sftp://joe-smith@bazaar.launchpad.net/%7Ejoe-smith/bzr/my-integration/
1647
push_location:policy = norecurse
1648
public_branch = http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~joe-smith/bzr/my-integration/
1649
public_branch:policy = appendpath
1650
pqm_email = Bazaar PQM <pqm@bazaar-vcs.org>
1651
pqm_branch = http://bazaar-vcs.org/bzr/bzr.dev
1653
Note that the push settings will be added by the first ``push`` on
1654
a branch. Indeed the preferred way to generate the lines above is to use
1655
``push`` with an argument, then copy-and-paste the other lines into
1662
Here is one possible recipe once the above environment is set up:
1664
#. pull bzr.dev => my-integration
1665
#. merge patch => my-integration
1666
#. fix up any final merge conflicts (NEWS being the big killer here).
1672
The ``push`` step is not required if ``my-integration`` is a checkout of
1675
Because of defaults, you can type a single message into commit and
1676
pqm-commit will reuse that.
1679
Tracking Change Acceptance
1680
--------------------------
1682
The web interface to PQM is https://pqm.bazaar-vcs.org/. After submitting
1683
a change, you can visit this URL to confirm it was received and placed in
1686
When PQM completes processing a change, an email is sent to you with the
1690
Reviewing Blueprints
363
1691
====================
365
If you'd like to propose a change, please post to the
366
bazaar-ng@lists.canonical.com list with a patch, bzr changeset, or link to a
367
branch. Please put '[patch]' in the subject so we can pick them out, and
368
include some text explaining the change. Remember to put an update to the NEWS
369
file in your diff, if it makes any changes visible to users or plugin
370
developers. Please include a diff against mainline if you're giving a link to
373
Please indicate if you think the code is ready to merge, or if it's just a
374
draft or for discussion. If you want comments from many developers rather than
375
to be merged, you can put '[rfc]' in the subject lines.
377
Anyone is welcome to review code. There are broadly three gates for
380
* Doesn't reduce test coverage: if it adds new methods or commands,
381
there should be tests for them. There is a good test framework
382
and plenty of examples to crib from, but if you are having trouble
383
working out how to test something feel free to post a draft patch
386
* Doesn't reduce design clarity, such as by entangling objects
387
we're trying to separate. This is mostly something the more
388
experienced reviewers need to help check.
390
* Improves bugs, features, speed, or code simplicity.
392
Code that goes in should pass all three.
394
If you read a patch please reply and say so. We can use a numeric scale
395
of -1, -0, +0, +1, meaning respectively "really don't want it in current
396
form", "somewhat uncomfortable", "ok with me", and "please put it in".
397
Anyone can "vote". (It's not really voting, just a terse expression.)
399
If something gets say two +1 votes from core reviewers, and no
400
vetos, then it's OK to come in. Any of the core developers can bring it
401
into their integration branch, which I'll merge regularly. (If you do
402
so, please reply and say so.)
1693
Blueprint Tracking Using Launchpad
1694
----------------------------------
1696
New features typically require a fair amount of discussion, design and
1697
debate. For Bazaar, that information is often captured in a so-called
1698
"blueprint" on our Wiki. Overall tracking of blueprints and their status
1699
is done using Launchpad's relevant tracker,
1700
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/bzr/. Once a blueprint for ready for
1701
review, please announce it on the mailing list.
1703
Alternatively, send an email begining with [RFC] with the proposal to the
1704
list. In some cases, you may wish to attach proposed code or a proposed
1705
developer document if that best communicates the idea. Debate can then
1706
proceed using the normal merge review processes.
1709
Recording Blueprint Review Feedback
1710
-----------------------------------
1712
Unlike its Bug Tracker, Launchpad's Blueprint Tracker doesn't currently
1713
(Jun 2007) support a chronological list of comment responses. Review
1714
feedback can either be recorded on the Wiki hosting the blueprints or by
1715
using Launchpad's whiteboard feature.
1724
As the two senior developers, Martin Pool and Robert Collins coordinate
1725
the overall Bazaar product development roadmap. Core developers provide
1726
input and review into this, particularly during sprints. It's totally
1727
expected that community members ought to be working on things that
1728
interest them the most. The roadmap is valuable though because it provides
1729
context for understanding where the product is going as a whole and why.
1732
Using Releases and Milestones in Launchpad
1733
------------------------------------------
1735
TODO ... (Exact policies still under discussion)
1741
Keeping on top of bugs reported is an important part of ongoing release
1742
planning. Everyone in the community is welcome and encouraged to raise
1743
bugs, confirm bugs raised by others, and nominate a priority. Practically
1744
though, a good percentage of bug triage is often done by the core
1745
developers, partially because of their depth of product knowledge.
1747
With respect to bug triage, core developers are encouraged to play an
1748
active role with particular attention to the following tasks:
1750
* keeping the number of unconfirmed bugs low
1751
* ensuring the priorities are generally right (everything as critical - or
1752
medium - is meaningless)
1753
* looking out for regressions and turning those around sooner rather than later.
1756
As well as prioritizing bugs and nominating them against a
1757
target milestone, Launchpad lets core developers offer to mentor others in
1767
To start a new release cycle:
1769
#. Send mail to the list with the key dates, who will be the release
1770
manager, and the main themes or targetted bugs. Ask people to nominate
1771
objectives, or point out an high-risk things that are best done early,
1772
or that interact with other changes.
1774
#. Add a new "series" in Launchpad at <https://launchpad.net/bzr/+addseries>. There is one
1775
series for every *x.y* release.
1777
Weekly Status Updates
1778
---------------------
1780
TODO: Things to cover:
1782
* Early communication to downstream teams (e.g. Launchpad) about changes in dependencies.
1783
* Reminder re lifecycle and where we're up to right now
1784
* Summary of recent successes and pending work
1785
* Reminder re release objectives
1786
* Reminder re things needing attention, e.g. bug triage, reviews, testing of certain things, etc.
1792
TODO: Get material from http://bazaar-vcs.org/FeatureFreeze.
1796
Making a Release or Release Candidate
1797
-------------------------------------
1799
.. Was previously at http://bazaar-vcs.org/ReleaseChecklist
1801
.. TODO: Still needs more clarity on what's in a RC versus a final
1804
.. TODO: Too much of this is manual but could be automated...
1806
This is the procedure for making a new bzr release:
1808
#. If the release is the first candidate, make a new branch in PQM. (Contact RobertCollins for this step).
1810
Register the branch at https://launchpad.net/products/bzr/+addbranch
1812
#. Run the automatic test suite and any non-automated tests. (For example, try a download over http; these should eventually be scripted though not automatically run.). Try to have all optional dependencies installed so that there are no tests skipped. Also make sure that you have the c extensions compiled (``make`` or ``python setup.py build_ext -i``).
1814
#. In the release branch, update ``version_info`` in ``./bzrlib/__init__.py``
1816
#. Add the date and release number to ``./NEWS``.
1818
#. Update the release number in the README. (It's not there as of 0.15, but please check).
1820
#. Commit these changes to the release branch, using a command like::
1822
bzr commit -m "(jam) Release 0.12rc1."
1824
The diff before you commit will be something like::
1826
=== modified file 'NEWS'
1827
--- NEWS 2006-10-23 13:11:17 +0000
1828
+++ NEWS 2006-10-23 22:50:50 +0000
1831
+bzr 0.12rc1 2006-10-23
1836
=== modified file 'bzrlib/__init__.py'
1837
--- bzrlib/__init__.py 2006-10-16 01:47:43 +0000
1838
+++ bzrlib/__init__.py 2006-10-23 22:49:46 +0000
1840
# Python version 2.0 is (2, 0, 0, 'final', 0)." Additionally we use a
1841
# releaselevel of 'dev' for unreleased under-development code.
1843
-version_info = (0, 12, 0, 'dev', 0)
1844
+version_info = (0, 12, 0, 'candidate', 1)
1846
if version_info[3] == 'final':
1847
version_string = '%d.%d.%d' % version_info[:3]
1849
#. Submit those changes to PQM for merge into the appropriate release
1852
#. When PQM succeeds, pull down the master release branch.
1854
#. Run ``make dist`` from a clean copy of the release branch; this will
1855
produce a tarball and prompt you to sign it.
1857
#. Unpack the tarball into a temporary directory and run ``make check`` in
1860
#. Run ``setup.py install`` --root=prefix to do a test install into your system directory, home directory, or some other prefix. Check the install worked and that the installed version is usable. (run the bzr script from the installed path with PYTHONPATH set to the site-packages directory it created). i.e. ::
1862
python setup.py install --root=installed
1863
PYTHONPATH=installed/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages installed/usr/bin/bzr
1866
Publishing the release
1867
----------------------
1869
Now you have the releasable product. The next step is making it
1870
available to the world.
1872
#. In <https://launchpad.net/bzr/> click the "Release series" for this
1873
series, to take you to e.g. <https://launchpad.net/bzr/1.1>. Then
1874
click "Register a release", and add information about this release.
1876
#. Within that release, upload the source tarball and the GPG signature.
1878
(These used to also be uploaded to
1879
<sftp://escudero.ubuntu.com/srv/bazaar.canonical.com/www/releases/src>
1880
but that's not accessible to all developers, and gets some mime types
1881
wrong... This upload can still be done with ``make
1882
dist-upload-escudero``.)
1884
#. Link from http://bazaar-vcs.org/Download to the tarball and signature.
1886
#. Update http://doc.bazaar-vcs.org/ to have a directory of documentation
1887
for this release. (Controlled by the ``update-bzr-docs`` script on
1888
escudero, and also update the ``latest`` symlink in
1889
``/srv/bazaar.canonical.com/doc/``.)
1891
#. Announce on the `Bazaar home page`__
1893
__ http://bazaar-vcs.org/
1896
Announcing the release
1897
----------------------
1899
Now that the release is publicly available, tell people about it.
1901
#. Announce to ``bazaar-announce`` and ``bazaar`` mailing lists.
1902
The announce mail will look something like this:
1904
| Subject: bzr 0.11 release candidate 1
1906
| INTRO HERE. Mention the release number and date, and why the release. (i.e. release candidate for testing, final release of a version, backport/bugfix etc).
1909
| http://bazaar-vcs.org/releases/src/bzr-VERSION.tar.gz
1910
| and GPG signature:
1911
| http://bazaar-vcs.org/releases/src/bzr-VERSION.tar.gz.sig
1913
| DESCRIBE-CHANGES-IN-OVERVIEW-HERE
1915
| DESCRIBE-when the next release will be (if there is another - i.e. this is a release candidate)
1917
| Many thanks to all the contributors to this release! I've included the
1918
| contents of NEWS for VERSION below:
1920
To generate the data from NEWS, just copy and paste the relevant news section and clean it up as appropriate. The main clean-up task is to confirm that all major changes are indeed covered. This can be done by running ``bzr log`` back to the point when the branch was opened and cross checking the changes against the NEWS entries.
1922
(RC announcements should remind plugin maintainers to update their plugins.)
1924
* For point releases (i.e. a release candidate, or an incremental fix to a released version) take everything in the relevant NEWS secion : for 0.11rc2 take everything in NEWS from the bzr 0.11rc2 line to the bzr 0.11rc1 line further down.
1926
* For major releases (i.e. 0.11, 0.12 etc), take all the combined NEWS sections from within that version: for 0.11 take all of the 0.11 specific section, plus 0.11rc2, plus 0.11rc1 etc.
1928
#. Update the `news side menu`__ -- this currently requires downloading the file, editing it, deleting it, and uploading a replacement.
1930
__ http://bazaar-vcs.org/site/menu?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=news.html
1932
#. Update the IRC channel topic. Use the ``/topic`` command to do this, ensuring the new topic text keeps the project name, web site link, etc.
1934
#. Announce on http://freshmeat.net/projects/bzr/
1936
This should be done for both release candidates and final releases. If you do not have a Freshmeat account yet, ask one of the existing admins.
1938
#. Update http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bzr -- this should be done for final releases but not Release Candidates.
1940
#. Package maintainers should update packages when they see the
1945
#. Post to http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-announce-list for major releases
1947
#. Update the python package index: <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/bzr> - best
1950
python setup.py register
1952
Remember to check the results afterwards.
1955
Merging the released code back to trunk
1956
---------------------------------------
1958
Merge the release branch back into the trunk. Check that changes in NEWS
1959
were merged into the right sections. If it's not already done, advance
1960
the version number in ``bzr`` and ``bzrlib/__init__.py``. Submit this
1961
back into pqm for bzr.dev.
1965
Making Win32 installers
1966
-----------------------
1968
**XXX:** This information is now probably obsolete, as Alexander uploads
1969
direct to Launchpad. --mbp 20080116
1971
Alexander Belchenko has been very good about getting packaged installers compiled (see Win32ReleaseChecklist for details). He generally e-mails John Arbash Meinel when they are ready. This is just a brief checklist of what needs to be done.
1973
#. Download and verify the sha1 sums and gpg signatures. Frequently the sha1 files are in dos mode, and need to be converted to unix mode (strip off the trailing ``\r``) before they veryify correctly.
1975
#. Upload to the Launchpad page for this release.
1977
#. Upload to escudero (to the b.c.c/www/releases/win32 directory) using sftp, lftp or rsync
1979
#. Cat the contents of the .sha1 files into the SHA1SUM.
1981
#. Update the SHA1SUM and MD5SUM files using something like ``md5sum bzr-0.14.0.win32.exe >> MD5SUM``. Make sure you use append (>>) rather than overwrite (>).
1983
#. Verify once again that everything is correct with ``sha1sum -c SHA1SUM`` and ``md5sum -c MD5SUM``.
1985
#. Update ``.htaccess`` so that the 'bzr-latest.win32.exe' links point to the latest release. This is not done for candidate releases, only for final releases. (example: bzr-0.14.0, but not bzr-0.14.0rc1).
1987
#. Make sure these urls work as expected:
1989
http://bazaar-vcs.org/releases/win32/bzr-latest.win32-py2.5.exe
1991
http://bazaar-vcs.org/releases/win32/bzr-latest.win32-py2.5.exe.asc
1993
http://bazaar-vcs.org/releases/win32/bzr-latest.win32-py2.4.exe
1995
http://bazaar-vcs.org/releases/win32/bzr-latest.win32-py2.4.exe.asc
1997
http://bazaar-vcs.org/releases/win32/bzr-setup-latest.exe
1999
http://bazaar-vcs.org/releases/win32/bzr-setup-latest.exe.asc
2001
They should all try to download a file with the correct version number.
2003
#. Update http://bazaar-vcs.org/Download to indicate the newly available versions.
2005
#. Update http://bazaar-vcs.org/WindowsDownloads to have the correct version number as well as the correct sha1sum displayed.
2008
The Bazaar PPA archive
2009
----------------------
2011
We build Ubuntu ``.deb`` packages for Bazaar as an important part of the release
2012
process. These packages are hosted in a `Personal Package Archive (PPA)`__ on
2013
Launchpad, at <https://launchpad.net/~bzr/+archive>.
2015
__ https://help.launchpad.net/PPAQuickStart
2017
We build packages for every supported Ubuntu release
2018
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases>. Packages need no longer be updated
2019
when the release passes end-of-life because all users should have then
2022
The ``debian/`` directory containing the packaging information is kept in
2023
branches on Launchpad, named like
2024
<https://code.launchpad.net/~bzr/bzrtools/packaging-dapper>
2026
Updating the PPA for a new release
2027
----------------------------------
2029
Preconditions for building these packages:
2031
* You must have a Launchpad account and be a member of the `~bzr`__ team
2033
__ https://edge.launchpad.net/~bzr/+members>
2035
* You must have a GPG key registered to your Launchpad account.
2037
* Configure ``dput`` to upload to our PPA with this section in your
2041
fqdn = ppa.launchpad.net
2043
incoming = ~bzr/ubuntu
2045
allow_unsigned_uploads = 0
2047
* You need a Ubuntu (or probably Debian) machine, and ::
2049
sudo apt-get install build-essential devscripts dput
2051
Here is the process; there are some steps which should be automated in
2054
#. You will need a working directory for each supported release, such as
2055
``~/bzr/Packaging/dapper``
2057
#. Download the official tarball of the release to e.g. ``~/bzr/Releases``
2059
#. Copy the original tarball into your per-disto directory, then untar it
2060
and if necessary rename it::
2062
cp -l ~/bzr/Releases/bzrtools-1.3.0.tar.gz bzrtools_1.3.0.orig.tar.gz
2063
tar xfvz bzrtools_1.3.0.orig.tar.gz
2064
mv bzrtools bzrtools-1.3.0
2066
#. Change into that directory and check out the packaging branch::
2070
bzr+ssh://bazaar.launchpad.net/~bzr/bzrtools/packaging-dapper \
2073
#. For Bazaar plugins, change the ``debian/control`` file to express a
2074
dependency on the correct version of ``bzr``.
2076
For bzrtools this is typically::
2078
Build-Depends-Indep: bzr (>= 1.3~), rsync
2079
Depends: ${python:Depends}, bzr (>= 1.3~), bzr (<< 1.4~), patch
2081
#. Make a new ``debian/changelog`` entry for the new release,
2082
either by using ``dch`` or just editing the file::
2084
dch -v '1.3.0-1~bazaar1~dapper1' -D dapper
2086
dch will default to the distro you're working in and this isn't checked
2087
against the version number (which is just our conversion). So make
2090
Make sure you have the correct email address for yourself, version
2091
number, and distribution. It should look something like this::
2093
> bzrtools (1.3.0-1~bazaar1~dapper1) dapper; urgency=low
2095
> * New upstream release.
2097
> -- John Sample <sample@example.com> Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:36:27 +1100
2099
If you need to upload the package again to fix a problem, normally you
2100
should increment the last number in the version number, following the
2101
distro name. Make sure not to omit the initial ``-1``, and make sure
2102
that the distro name in the version is consistent with the target name
2103
outside the parenthesis.
2105
#. Commit these changes into the packaging branch::
2107
bzr ci -m '1.3.0-1~bazaar1~dapper1: New upstream release.' debian
2109
#. Build a source package::
2113
This will create a ``.changes`` file in the per-distro directory,
2114
and should invoke gpg to sign it with your key.
2115
Check that file is reasonable: it should be uploading to the intended
2116
distribution, have a .orig file included, and the right version number.
2118
#. Upload into the PPA::
2120
dput bzr-ppa ../bzrtools__1.3.0-1\~bazaar1\~dapper1_source.changes
2122
Don't forget the ``bzr-ppa`` component or dput will try to upload into
2123
the main archive by default. You can disable this by adding this
2124
section to your ``.dput.cf``::
2127
fqdn = SPECIFY.A.PPA.NAME
2129
#. You should soon get an "upload accepted" mail from Launchpad, which
2130
means that your package is waiting to be built. You can then track its
2131
progress in <https://launchpad.net/~bzr/+archive> and
2132
<https://launchpad.net/~bzr/+archive/+builds>.
2136
vim: ft=rst tw=74 ai
added
removed
doc/developers/HACKING.txt
