4
Bazaar has a strong commitment to inter-version compatibility both on disk and
5
over the network. Newer clients should be able to interact with older
6
versions on the server (although perhaps not at optimal speed) and older
7
clients should also be able to communicate with newer versions of Bazaar on
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the server. Divergences from this rule are considered bugs and are fixed in
11
That said, Bazaar is constantly improving and the most recent versions are the
12
most featureful and have better performance. In particular, the Bazaar
13
versions 2.0 and later have significant advantages over earlier versions,
14
including a more compact disk format, faster network operations and overall
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performance improvements. With the 2.0 release, Bazaar has moved to a
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stable/development release model where the 2.x series is maintained with
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bugfixes releases for six months, while simultaneously the 2.(x+1) series is
18
being developed with monthly beta releases that are suitable for everyday use.
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Bazaar development has a stable trunk with an extensive test suite, so there
20
is no reason to fear using the development series for everyday use, it simply
21
changes more often than the stable series. Many users do run the development
22
version of Bazaar and update it regularly, including most of the Bazaar
23
developers themselves.
29
Upgrading the Bazaar software is as simple as re-installing the Python package
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using either the latest binary package for Windows or Mac OS X, the binary
31
package provided by your Linux distribution, or installing from the source
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release. See http://bazaar-vcs.org/Downloads for the latest releases for all
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Bazaar's later versions support all of the earlier disk formats (back to the
36
very first one), so there is no need to upgrade the branches on the disk when
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upgrading the software. To make use of particular new features that might
38
need updated versions on both the server and developer's machines, it does not
39
matter if the clients or the servers are upgraded first.
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In its evolution, Bazaar has used a sequence of disk formats for improved
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storage efficiency and speed. With the new disk format released in version
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2.0, there is a commitment to keep that disk format until version 3.0 is
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released, which has not even been planned yet. (Bazaar 2.0 was released
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almost two years after Bazaar 1.0.) As a result, disk format upgrades should
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be extremely infrequent.
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If there are existing branches in an older format that you would like to
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upgrade to the latest format, you can see the `2.0 Upgrade Guide
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<../upgrade-guide/index.html>`_ for more information. From the system
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administration perspective, it is important to coordinate the timing of
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various upgrades in the process. First, the central branches on the server
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should be upgraded. Next, any local mirrors that developers have should be
58
upgraded. Finally, developers' local branches should be upgraded. These
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upgrades will require an appropriate version of the software whenever they are
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performed. (It is possible to upgrade branches remotely over the network, but
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it may be much slower.)
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When Bazaar does update its version, plugins that use the Bazaar API may need
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to be upgraded to reflect changes in that API. Some plugins have strict
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version dependencies on the version of the Bazaar API that they will accept.
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If this is the case, then you should ensure that the plugins you depend on
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have been updated *before* you upgrade your Bazaar version to avoid a
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situation where your plugins won't work with the installed version of Bazaar.
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If this does happen, then the solution is simply to reinstall the previous
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version of Bazaar that *did* work with the plugins. For installations that
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depend on a large number of plugins, this sort of version upgrade should be
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tested in a safe sandbox to ensure that the entire collection of Bazaar and
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its plugins can all work together.
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doc/en/admin-guide/upgrade.txt
