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Bazaar is a tool for helping people collaborate. It does this by
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tracking how a group of files evolves and using that information to help
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people merge their changes together as safely as possible.
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In general, tools that do this are known as revision control systems or
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version control systems (VCS). In the past, VCS tools have been popular
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with software developers. In the future, VCS tools will undoubtedly also be
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important for other groups of people looking to work together on
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files and documents, e.g. technical writers and translators.
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Bazaar is a tool for helping people collaborate. It tracks the changes
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that you and other people make to a group of files - such as software
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source code - to give you snapshots of each stage of their evolution.
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Using that information, Bazaar can effortlessly merge your work with
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Tools like Bazaar are called version control systems (VCS) and have
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long been popular with software developers. Bazaar's ease of use,
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flexibility and simple setup make it ideal not only for software
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developers but also for other groups who work together on files and
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documents, such as technical writers, web designers and translators.
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This guide takes you through installing Bazaar and how to use it,
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whether on your own or with a team of other people. If you're already
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familiar with distributed version control and want to dive straight in,
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you may wish to skim this section and jump straight to
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A brief history of version control systems
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VCS tools have been evolving for several decades now. In simple terms,
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there have been 5 generations of tools:
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Version control tools have been evolving for several decades now. In
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simple terms, there have been 5 generations of tools:
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1. file versioning tools, e.g. SCCS, VCS
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1. file versioning tools, e.g. SCCS, RCS
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2. tree versioning tools - central style, e.g. CVS
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3. tree versioning tools - central style, done right, e.g. Subversion
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4. tree versioning tools - distributed style, e.g. Arch
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users need to connect to the server and *checkout* the files. This gives
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them a directory or *working tree* in which a person can make changes.
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To record or *commit* these changes, the user needs access to the central
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server and they need to unsure they have merged their work with the latest
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server and they need to ensure they have merged their work with the latest
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version stored before trying to commit. This approach is known as the
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* `Bazaar in five minutes`_ - a mini-tutorial
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* `Bazaar Quick Start Guide`_ - a one page summary of commonly used commands.
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* `Bazaar Quick Start Card`_ - a one page summary of commonly used commands.
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The online help and `Bazaar User Reference`_ are also particularly useful as
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they provide all the gory details on the commands and options available.
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.. _Bazaar in five minutes: ../mini-tutorial/index.html
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.. _Bazaar Quick Start Guide: ../quick-reference/quick-start-summary.svg
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.. _Bazaar Quick Start Card: ../quick-reference/quick-start-summary.svg
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.. _Bazaar User Reference: ../user-reference/bzr_man.html
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We hope you find this manual useful. If you have suggestions on how it
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doc/en/user-guide/introducing_bazaar.txt
