Are you starting a new software project? Don't reinvent the wheel. Before committing to some hand made procedure, you should really consider the combination of Bazaar and Launchpad. Handling the source code is not enough. A software project requires planning, defect handling, coordination between bugs and blueprints, a visual roadmap, and all the above in relation to your code branches. Don't forget about mailing lists, FAQ, documentation, which are integral part of a project. Whether you are participating to an existing project or starting a new one, Launchpad and Bazaar are a powerful combination for your productivity.

Since you're reading this, you probably know that Sun is switching to the Bazaar version control system for all development work on the MySQL server. Unlike the version control system that we've been using previously, Bazaar is an open source project and freely available to anyone. This means that it is now much easier to follow ongoing development, or even to participate in it! On the downside, just like our previous tool, Bazaar is not quite as straight-forward as traditional version control systems such as CVS or subversion. The aim of this article is to give an overview and a general idea of how to set up Bazaar, how to access the MySQL server source code repositories, and the basic commands for working with the source code.

The MySQL project switched from Bitkeeper to another revision control system, Bazaar, in June 2008. My colleague Daniel Fischer wrote an excellent article describing how to get MySQL's code by using Bazaar, and how to compile a MySQL server binary from this. Here I am going to build on this knowledge and take it further, to show you how to modify MySQL's code for your needs, and share your modifications.

Are you starting a new software project? Don't reinvent the wheel. Before committing to some hand made procedure, you should really consider the combination of Bazaar and Launchpad. Handling the source code is not enough. A software project requires planning, defect handling, coordination between bugs and blueprints, a visual roadmap, and all the above in relation to your code branches. Don't forget about mailing lists, FAQ, documentation, which are integral part of a project. Whether you are participating to an existing project or starting a new one, Launchpad and Bazaar are a powerful combination for your productivity.