Comment 7 for bug 252894

On Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:17:59 -0000
RLVJ <email address hidden> wrote:
> One is what is the parent branch. that is what ":parent" refers to.
> The other is the repository of the parent branch (parent repository?)
> which is what one needs in the "switch" example.
In many cases, the repository of the parent branch will be at the same
location as the parent branch itself. In this case, it isn't clear
what should happen.

> As far as need goes, being able to refer to the parent branch
> (:parent) seems the more needed feature, but when switching branches
> from the same sever, being able to refer to the repository of the
> parent branch would be a convenience.
bzr considers shared repositories (which seems to be what you mean when
you refer to repositories) to be a storage optimisation only. In that
context, assuming that you will want to switch between branches that
use a particular repository doesn't make a great deal of sense, as they
may well not be related.

Given these two points, I think it's unlikely that a change which
started using shared repositories differently would make it into the
core, as it could easily cause a great deal of confusion.

Having said that, something like this could almost certainly be done in
a plugin, if someone really wanted it (especially if it was just
special-casing switch). That would have the twin advantages of people
having to opt-in to this behaviour, and the bzr core devs not having to
deal with any problems it causes. :)

Regards,
--
Daniel Watkins (Odd_Bloke)