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An ancestor is one of any of the revisions that this revision is based on.
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The immediately prior revision has a special name, the
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:term:`parent revision`.
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Any branch that has been merged by another branch and then committed
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becomes that branches ancestral parent.
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a line of development. In the simplest of terms, a branch is the record of
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all the commits that have been done. Every :term:`working tree` has a
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branch, but it may be in a different location. The actual revisions
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produced by the commits are stored in a repository, which is sometimes
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A frequent activity done by users within the working tree of a branch is to
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merge another branch. In this way users can share changes between two
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branches -- even if the branch is run by someone else.
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Bazaar's default behavior is to put the repository, branch, and working
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tree all in the same place. This combination is called a standalone tree.
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If there is no tree, it is called a :term:`standalone branch`. If the
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repository is shared with other branches, it is called a repository branch.
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A working tree in a different location from its branch is called a
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A bound branch is a branch that does not commit a new revision until after
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the revision has been applied to another branch and first.
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A bound branch is a part of a :term:`heavyweight checkout`.
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A cherrypick is an operation in which the delta between two revisions is
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applied to a working tree. The process is roughly similiar to generating a
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diff between two revisions and applying it to a working tree.
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A cherrypick is a merge in which a range of revisions are selected and
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merged into a working tree . Performing a limited merge is different than a
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normal merge because normal merges imply all missing revisions should be
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merged. One of the results of cherrypicking is the creation of intransitive
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ancestors, which are revisons that are missing one or more of their
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A cherrypick in Bazaar is a bit more advanced than the cherrypick with some
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other revision control systems, in that a three way merge is performed
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rather than a strict delta between revisions.
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The downside to cherrypicking is that Bazaar does not track cherrypicked
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revisions, although this feature is firmly on the wish list.
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A common use-case for cherrypicking is the back-porting of fixes from an
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ongoing branch of development to stable release branches.
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A checkout is essentially a working tree that is linked to a branch at a
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Checkouts also have local branches, which function as a local cache. This
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means that checkouts can be used effectively even with branches that are
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accessed through the Internet. Normal checkouts are sometimes called
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heavyweight checkouts to distinguish them from lightweight checkouts.
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A lightweight checkout is a related construct that lacks the local branch.
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Lightweight checkouts are smaller, but require fast access to the branch,
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such as on a LAN or local hard disk.
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Checkouts provide a location for people to hack on code and commit. Once a
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user commits, the associated branch is updated with a new revision that
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represents the changes for the commit.
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Directed Acyclic Graph. The graph of revisions where each revision is
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connected to its parent revisions.
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A delta is defined as the changes between two revisions. Any RCS that has
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revisions typically builds a delta in order to perform a diff
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Merging is the process of applying all the changes that were introduced in
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one branch into another branch, without applying any changes that are
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already common to both branches. Sometimes a user will not want all of the
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changes. For these cases, a user may instead prefer a cherrypick, which
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gives the user the option to apply only those revisions that are wanted.
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As well as altering the working tree, bzr's merge command will also get all
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of the revisions that a branch has, and add metadata indicating that a
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merge has been performed.
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A failed type of merge caused by two branches merging each other at the
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Nuclear launch codes are an example of data that has been committed to a
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branch that must be removed at all costs. Imagine if one had access to the
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launch codes for a nuclear warhead, accidentally committed them to a branch
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and then pushed the branch to a public place.
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In real world situations most people do not have access to nuclear
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launchcodes. Users may have data such as passwords, proprietary code and
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other sensitive data. Accidental release of this type of data is
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potentially damaging to the branch owner -- perhaps damaging enough that
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the developer may hope for a nuclear disaster!
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A user dealing with a nuclear launch code problem needs specific data in
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the branch to be exised at all costs and in a rapid manner.
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A library of revisions for branches.
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A revision is one state of the code.
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bzr is snapshot based, meaning that conceptually it stores the whole state
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of the tree at each revision. This is in contrast to changeset based, where
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a revision refers to just the changes that were made in that revision. I
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said "conceptually", as internally bzr uses delta compression to reduce the
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amount of data that it stores, and so may only record the changes in a
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revision. However you must always think of a revision as referring to a
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A revision also contains some metadata. In particular it stores the
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committer, and the timestamp when the commit was made, the log message that
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was given, and the nick of the branch on which the commit was made. It also
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stores pointers to the parent revisions, i.e. the revision preceeding it,
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and the tip revisions of any branches that were merged. Lastly it stores a
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number of revision properties, these is extra information that can be
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stored with the revision and is immutable, some uses of them are to store
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the author of the patch if it wasn't the committer (when given using the
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--author option of bzr commit), or to store information about the bugs
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fixed in that revision if using the bug-tracker integration.
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A revision also has a name, referred to as a revision id. This is a
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globally unique identifier for the revision so that it can be referred to
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without ambiguity. This means that two revisions are identical, if, and
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only if, they have the same revision id.
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A revision may also be referred to using a revision number, however this is
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not a globally unique identifier, meaning that revision 14 of your branch
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may not be the same as revision 14 of my branch, even if they are the same
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project. The only way to know if they are the same revision is to compare
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the revision ids. This means that when talking about a revision you must
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either use it's revision id, or also explain which branch you are referring
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to when you specify a revision number.
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Tags point at a revision, and so they may also be used to when referring to
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a commit, but again, two different branches may have the same tag name
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pointing to two different revisions, and so you should also give the branch
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to which you are referring when stating a tag name.
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An ancestor is one of any of the revisions that this revision is based on.
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The immediately prior revision has a special name, the parent revision.
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A ghost :term:`revision`, also called a ghost, is a revision that a
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:term:`branch` knows about but does not have.
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Ghost revisions can occur in unusual situations such as the migration of
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branches from foreign revision control systems into Bazaar format.
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Ghost revisions can be scary the first time that a user bumps into them.
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Thankfully though, revision ghosts are just like real ghosts (such as they
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are) in that their discorporeal existence typically causes little, if any,
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The revision that comes immediately prior to this revision.
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A shared repository is similar to the traditional concept of a repository
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in other VCSs like CVS and Subversion. For example, in Subversion you have
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a remote repository, which is where all of the history is stored, and
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locally you don't have any history information, only a checkout of the
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working tree files. Note that "Shared" in this context means shared between
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branches. It *may* be shared between people, but standalone branches
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can also be shared between people.
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In Breezy_ terms, a "Shared Repository" is a location where multiple
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branches can **share** their revision history information. In order to
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support decentralized workflows, it is possible for every branch to
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store its own revision history information. But this is often
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inefficient, since related branches share history, and they might as
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well share the storage as well.
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A tag is a nickname for a particular :term:`revision`. The typical use is to mark a
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release of the software so you can easily refer to it later.
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A working tree is a directory with project files that a user can edit.
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Unlike a normal directory, a working tree is associated with a
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:term:`branch`. The working tree is the space in which commands such as
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commit and revert operate.