Installing Breezy

GNU/Linux

Breezy packages are available for most popular GNU/Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat and Gentoo. See https://www.breezy-vcs.org/pages/download.html for the latest instructions.

Windows

Windows is currently not supported. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/brz/+bug/1951124 for details.

Other operating systems

Beyond Linux, Breezy packages are available for a large range of other operating systems include Mac OS X, FreeBSD and Solaris. See https://www.breezy-vcs.org/pages/download.html for the latest instructions.

Installing from scratch

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

  1. If it is not installed already, install Python 3.10 or later and rust.

  2. Download the breezy-xxx.tar.gz file (where xxx is the version number) from https://www.breezy-vcs.org/pages/download.html or from Launchpad (https://launchpad.net/~brz/).

  3. Unpack the archive using tar, WinZip or equivalent.

  4. Run pip install . in the unpacked directory. This will install Breezy and all its dependencies.

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

brz version

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

Installing into site-wide locations

Instead of adding the directory to your PATH, you can install brz into the system locations using:

pip install .

Running the development version

You may wish to always be using the very latest development version of Breezy. 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 Breezy using one of the methods given above.

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

    brz branch lp:brz

  3. Run pip install -e . in the directory you just created. This will install Breezy in “editable” mode, meaning that any changes you make to the source code will be immediately reflected when you run the brz command.

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

Running multiple versions

It’s easy to have multiple versions of Breezy installed and to switch between them. To do this, simply provide the full pathname to the brz 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 brz 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.