As of Launchpad 2.1.12, Launchpad now supports creating merge proposals using bzr send.

One-time set-up

Please make sure you have your public and submit branches set properly. Below is an example ~/.bazaar/locations.conf

[/home/rockstar/Projects/launchpad/]
submit_branch = bzr+ssh://bazaar.launchpad.net/~path-to/launchpad/trunk
push_location = bzr+ssh://bazaar.launchpad.net/~rockstar/launchpad/
push_location:policy = appendpath
public_location = bzr+ssh://bazaar.launchpad.net/~rockstar/launchpad/
public_location:policy = appendpath
submit_to = merge@code.launchpad.net

In bazaar.conf, add an entry to your aliases:

[ALIASES]
lpsend=send --no-bundle

For thunderbird users: It's recommended that you tell bazaar about your mail client in ~/.bazaar/bazaar.conf

[DEFAULT]
mail_client = thunderbird

Creating a New Merge Proposal

Once your environment is set up, bzr send is as easy as

bzr lpsend

This will create a merge proposal and a diff and place them in your preferred email client to polish off and send to Launchpad. The body of your message will be used as the initial comment.

This example uses the lpsend alias, to ensure you specify --no-bundle. If you forget to supply --no-bundle, bzr send will not verify that your public branch is up-to-date. (Bundle support for Launchpad is coming soon.)

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: How do I specify revisions to generate the diff from?

Answer:When doing bzr submit, you may want to only generate a diff from a range of revisions. You can use -r parameter to specify the range, as below:

bzr send -no-bundle --mail-to merge@code.launchpad.net -r 1234..1239

This will generate a diff from revno 1234 to 1239.

Question: Does this work with looms?

Answer: Launchpad's Loom support needs some work, and this doesn't make it better or worse. You can specify a diff between threads by doing

bzr send -r thread:..-1

Question: Does this handle dependent branches.

Answer: No, dependent branches are not currently supported for merge proposals. We do expect to resurrect the feature at some point.

Question: Can I download the diff from the merge proposal in the web UI?

Answer: Not yet, but this is a planned feature. However, if you receive an email about the merge proposal being created, it will include the diff.

Question: What URLs are recognized?

Answer: lp: bzr+ssh:, sftp: and http: are all recognized. Remote URLs for Remote Branches and Mirrored Branches will work.

Question: Can I submit a branch that is not hosted on Launchpad?

Answer: Yes. As long as the target branch is represented on Launchpad, it will create RemoteBranch for the source branch if the source is not a Launchpad branch.

Question: Should I use the --no-patch option to bzr send?

Answer: No. Launchpad uses that patch verbatim. If it's not present, LP cannot show a diff.

Question: What if I want to use my editor, like review-submit did?

Answer: You can configure Bazaar to use the "editor" mail client.