**Parts of this HOWTO are work in progress.**

===== READ HERE FIRST =====

This howto is currently a **lie**, it doesn't work, because of [[http://bugs.launchpad.net/bzr-git/+bug/719238|this bug]].

===== Introduction =====

[[http://launchpad.net|Launchpad]] only supports [[http://bazaar.canonical.com/|Bazaar]] as content versioning tool, and presumably always will since [[http://www.canonical.com|Canonical]], the company behind both, wants to push its usage.

Lots of people prefer [[http://git-scm.com|Git]] as content versioning tool. I am one of those. However, Launchpad does offer other very nice features, such as the [[https://translations.launchpad.net|localization system]] which can automatically push contributors-translated strings into your repo.

So it is natural to ask: is it possible to use Launchpad with git? Or even better: is it possible to migrate an already existing bzr branch pushed on bazaaar to git?

**Quick remark:** in many places it is suggested to just use the //fastimport// method: it's OK for a one-time migration, but not to represent a durable two-ways bridge!

===== Yes, it is possible =====

Thanks to **bzr-git** (package **bzr-git** in Debian/Ubuntu).

Let's assume you have a bzr branch in "~/bzr_branch" and you want to work in a git repo at "~/git_repo". Once you have bzr-git installed, just
  - mkdir ~/git_repo
  - cd ~/git_repo
  - git init
  - cd ~/bzr_branch
  - bzr push ~/git_repo
  - cd ~/git_repo
  - git checkout

Edit the file //~/bzr_branch/.bzr/branch/branch.conf//, which should look like the following:

  parent_location = ../git_repo
  push_location = bzr+ssh://your_lp_id@bazaar.launchpad.net/the/branch/path

("the/branch/path" is usually "~your_lp_id/project_name/branch_name").

Now you can work in your git repo as you love to. When you want to push changes to Launchpad, just
  - cd ~/bzr_branch
  - bzr pull
  - bzr push

===== TODO =====

  - verify that merging in changes from Launchpad is similarly easy
  - verify which quantity of magic can be done with git hooks
  - verify how bzr-git behaves with respect to branches (does it pulled master? or checked one?)