Linking bug reports to branches

If your project uses both Launchpad Bugs and Launchpad Code -- whether directly hosting Bazaar or Git branches on Launchpad or importing from elsewhere -- you can link bug reports directly to the code where someone is working on a fix.

Fixing bugs in dedicated branches

Let's say you're new to a project. You spot a bug report and you're pretty certain you can fix it. You pull down your own branch of the project's trunk and hack away. Every now and then, you push your branch up to Launchpad.

You can tell everyone who's interested in the bug about your work by linking your branch to the report. Now, anyone looking at the bug report can click straight through to see your branch.

Creating a link is easy

Using the Launchpad web interface:

Step 1: Visit your bug report in Launchpad.

Step 2: Click Link to related branch.

Step 3: Select the branch and you're done!

Creating a link using Bazaar

Just as you can register and push a branch of code to Launchpad directly from Bazaar, you can also create a bug-branch link.

$ bzr commit --fixes lp:12345

Creating a link using Git

If you manage your code using Git instead, then you can link to bugs by adding appropriate text to your commit message instead. For example, your commit message might look like this:

Shorten error message

The previous 3000-line message was too hard to read.

LP: #12345

Note that Git bug links will only be recorded once you propose a merge that includes such commits.

See Launchpad's Git hosting documentation for more details.

Finding links to branches

In branch listings, and on the branch overview page itself, Launchpad uses an icon to indicate a link between a bug report and a branch of code. Similarly, there's a yellow Bazaar icon in bug listings to show which reports are linked to a branch of code.

Next step

Launchpad helps you to stay on top of the bugs you're interested in, both by email and Atom feeds. Let's take a look at bug subscriptions.

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