[00:00] <fullermd> So: you had a branch in the place where you're using the files.
[00:00] <fullermd> You used 'push' to make a copy of that branch somewhere else.
[00:00] <jvelasquez> so different people will be able to checkout that branch, from the file server, and all work on it like other VCS?
[00:00] <fullermd> You socially want that "somewhere else" to be the central home, so you declare it such.
[00:00] <fullermd> So you socially want that original branch to function like a checkout of the branch branch, and you use 'bind' to make it act like that.
[00:01] <fullermd> Then you use 'checkout' from that central branch to make new checkouts of it anywhere else you want 'em.
[00:01]  * fullermd nods.
[00:01] <fullermd> And then you use 'update' in those various other branches any time you want to catch up to the central repo.
[00:02] <fullermd> You usually don't want to use "pull" in a checkout.  Or rather, you maybe often do, but it may not do what you think if you're used to standalone branches.  So for simplicity...
[00:04] <jvelasquez> Would I have been better off,  tar cf of my branch,  and then untared it into the central repo,  so that way the central repo has stuff that's versioned ?
[00:04] <jvelasquez> using tar instead of push ?
[00:04] <fullermd> No, your central repo has stuff that's versioned.
[00:05] <fullermd> It just doesn't have a useful working tree.  And probably shouldn't.
[00:06] <fullermd> Generally you'd just have branches and their repos (individual or shared; doesn't make a fundamental difference) in the central place.  You'd only have WT's in the various checkouts.
[00:07] <fullermd> Or alternately, if it's anything other than the stuff in .bzr/, none of push/pull/branch/checkout/merge/etc will ever read or write or care anything about it.
[00:08] <fullermd> (leaving aside various edge cases that don't affect the main point)
[00:09] <fullermd> So if a central place exists to store the history and provide a target to be checkout'd etc (which is generally the case), there's no reason for it to have any files other than the .bzr/ stuff.
[00:25] <fullermd> Is that all making things clearer, or muddier?
[20:16] <abentley> fullermd: --use-shared changes a branch to *use* a shared repository.  It doesn't convert a repository into a shared repository.
[22:58] <fullermd> abentley: Yeah, I knew it did that; I thought I remembered it doing the slightly-unsettling double duty too.