Linux

Bazaar packages are available for most popular Linux distributions including Ubuntu/Debian, Red Hat and Gentoo. See http://bazaar-vcs.org/Download for the latest instructions.

Windows

For Windows users, an installer is available that includes the core Bazaar package together with necessary pre-requisites and some useful plug-ins. See http://bazaar-vcs.org/Download for the latest instructions.

Note: If you are running Cygwin on Windows, a Bazaar for Cygwin package is available and ought to be used instead of the Windows version.

Other operating systems

Beyond Linux and Windows, Bazaar packages are available for a large range of other operating systems include Mac OS X, FreeBSD and Solaris. See http://bazaar-vcs.org/Download for the latest instructions.

Installing from scratch

If you wish to install Bazaar from scratch rather than using a pre-built package, the steps are:

1. If it is not installed already, install Python 2.4 or later.
2. Download the bazaar-xxx.tar.gz file (where xxx is the version number) from http://bazaar-vcs.org/Download or from Launchpad (https://launchpad.net/~bzr/).
3. Unpack the archive using tar, WinZip or equivalent.
4. Put the created directory on your PATH.

To test the installation, try running the bzr command like this:

bzr version

This will display the version of Bazaar you have installed. If this doesn’t work, please contact us via email or IRC so we can help you get things working.

python setup.py install

python setup.py install build_ext --allow-python-fallback

Running the development version

You may wish to always be using the very latest development version of Bazaar. Note that this is not recommended for the majority of users as there is an increased risk of bugs. On the other hand, the development version is remarkably solid (thanks to the processes we follow) and running it makes it easier for you to send us changes for bugs and improvements. It also helps us by having more people testing the latest software.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Install Bazaar using one of the methods given above.

2. Get a copy of the development version like this:

   bzr branch lp:bzr

3. Put the created directory on your PATH.

Advanced users may also wish to build the optional C extensions for greater speed. This can be done using make and requires pyrex and a C compiler. Please contact us on email or IRC if you need assistance with this.

Running multiple versions

It’s easy to have multiple versions of Bazaar installed and to switch between them. To do this, simply provide the full pathname to the bzr command you wish to run. The relevant libraries will be automatically detected and used. Of course, if you do not provide a pathname, then the bzr used will be the one found on your system path as normal.

Note that this capability is particularly useful if you wish to run (or test) both the latest released version and the development version say.