Rules
=====

Introduction
------------

Rules are defined in ini file format where the sections are file glob
patterns and the contents of each section are the preferences for files
matching that pattern(s). For example::

    [name *.bat]
    eol = native

    [name *.html *.xml]
    keywords = xml_escape

Preferences like these are useful for commands and plugins wishing to
provide custom behaviour for selected files.  For more information on 
end of line conversion see :doc:`eol-help`.
Keyword support is provided by the `keywords plugin
<http://doc.bazaar.canonical.com/plugins/en/keywords-plugin.html>`_.

Files
-----

Default rules for all branches are defined in the optional file
``BZR_HOME/rules``. 

Rule Patterns
-------------

Patterns are ordered and searching stops as soon as one matches.
As a consequence, more explicit patterns should be placed towards
the top of the file. Rule patterns use exactly the same conventions
as ignore patterns. See :doc:`patterns-help` for details.

.. note::

   Patterns containing square brackets or spaces should be
   surrounded in quotes to ensure they are correctly parsed.