IGSTK/Git/Develop

This page documents how to develop IGSTK through Git. See our table of contents for more information.

Git is an extremely powerful version control tool that supports many different "workflows" for indivudal development and collaboration. Here we document procedures used by the IGSTK development community. In the interest of simplicity and brevity we do not provide an explanation of why we use this approach. Furthermore, this is not a Git tutorial. Please see our Git resource links for third-party documentation, such as the ProGit Book.

Setup

Before you begin, perform initial setup:

1. Register Git push access.
2. Follow the download instructions to create a local IGSTK clone:
$ git clone git://igstk.org/IGSTK.git	Connection refused?
3. Run the developer setup script to prepare your IGSTK work tree and create Git command aliases used below:
$ ./Utilities/SetupForDevelopment.sh	SetupForDevelopment.sh Pro Git: Setup

Workflow

IGSTK development uses a branchy workflow based on topic branches. Our collaboration workflow consists of three main steps:

1. Local Development

Update

Create a Topic

2. Code Review

Share a Topic (requires Git push access)

Revise a Topic

3. Integrate Changes

Merge a Topic (requires Git push access)

Delete a Topic

Update

Update your local master branch:
$ git checkout master $ git pullall	git help checkout alias.pullall (pull and submodule update)

Create a Topic

All new work must be committed on topic branches. Name topics like you might name functions: concise but precise. A reader should have a general idea of the feature or fix to be developed given just the branch name.

To start a new topic branch:
$ git fetch origin $ git checkout -b my-topic origin/master $ git submodule update	git help fetch git help checkout git help submodule Pro Git: Basic Branching
Edit files and create commits (repeat as needed):
$ edit file1 file2 file3 $ git add file1 file2 file3 $ git commit	git help add git help commit Pro Git: Recording Changes

Share a Topic

When a topic is ready for review and possible inclusion, share it by pushing to the topic stage. Only authorized developers with Git push access to igstk.org may perform this step.

Checkout the topic if it is not your current branch:
$ git checkout my-topic	git help checkout
Check what commits will be pushed to the topic stage:
$ git prepush	alias.prepush (log origin/master..)
Push commits in your topic branch to the topic stage:
$ git stage-push	alias.stage-push
The topic is now published on the IGSTK Topic Stage and may be (optionally) reviewed by others. To fetch staged topics for review, run
$ git fetch stage --prune	git help fetch

Revise a Topic

If a topic is approved after review, skip to the next step. Otherwise, revise the topic and push it back to the topic stage for another review.

Checkout the topic if it is not your current branch:
$ git checkout my-topic	git help checkout
To revise the 3rd commit back on the topic:
$ git rebase -i HEAD~3 (Substitute the correct number of commits back, as low as 1.) Follow Git's interactive instructions.	git help rebase Pro Git: Rebasing
Return to the previous step to share the revised topic.

Merge a Topic

After a topic has been reviewed and approved, merge it into the upstream repository. Only authorized developers with Git push access to igstk.org may perform this step.

Checkout the topic if it is not your current branch:
$ git checkout my-topic	git help checkout
Merge the topic:
$ git stage-merge (If the merge conflicts follow the printed instructions to resolve them.)	alias.stage-merge (push to topic stage and stage IGSTK merge my-topic) Branch-to-Topic Conflict Resolution

Delete a Topic

After a topic has been merged upstream, delete your local branch for the topic.

Checkout and update the master branch:
$ git checkout master $ git pullall	git help checkout alias.pullall (pull and submodule update)
Delete the local topic branch:
$ git branch -d my-topic	git help branch
The branch -d command works only when the topic branch has been correctly merged. Use -D instead of -d to force the deletion of an unmerged topic branch (warning - you could lose commits).