Should I use push or switch to create branch in bazaar?

Question

To create a branch in bazaar, I can do two things:

• Checkout the trunck, do modifications, local commit and then push my version to MyProject/MyBranch

or

• create MyProject/MyBranch and switch my checkout to the new branch, then do modification and commit.

My questions:

• Does this two operations produce the same result ?
• What is the best pratices about branch ?

Answer 1

I wasn't sure what would happen when a checkout with local commits was pushed, so I tried it out.

It turns out that in both cases, you'll end up with history like:

trunk:

1. old commit
2. etc.

branch:

1. new commit
2. old commit
3. etc.

However, branching first and working with a checkout of the branch is a much better way to do it. If you have a checkout with local commits and do a bzr update you won't be able to bzr push before committing.

Secondly, if you have a checkout of the trunk with local commits, 'bzr push' to create the branch, then try to 'bzr switch` to the branch, you first have to commit or revert to avoid the "Cannot switch as local commits found in the checkout" error.