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Git repositories on Savannah, see <http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/> (search
for *hurd*).

# Branches

Members of the [[Hurd_Savannah_group|savannah_group]] are allowed to create
branches without formal permission:

  * named *BASE_BRANCH-SAVANNAH_LOGIN[-TOPIC]* for private general-purpose or
    topic branches, respectively, or
  * named *BASE_BRANCH-TOPIC* for public topic branches basing on
    *BASE_BRANCH*.

*TOPIC* shall be a suitable tag describing the branch's main concern.  These
tags can be applied recursively (*TOPIC-SUBTOPIC-SUBSUBTOPIC*).

*private* vs. *public* does, of course, in this scenario not mean visibility,
but instead authority: *private* branches are those that the user
*SAVANNAH_LOGIN* has authority over, whereas public branches are open for
every committer to install changes on.  The private branches are those that
you would typically host on your own machine and publish through your own web
server, but we offer that you can instead do this from the centralized Savannah
repository, as a number of people don't have an always-accessible web server
running on their own machines.

Examples:

  * GNU Mach

      * *master* -- the mainline branch
      * *master-oskit* -- port to OSKit; branched off of *master* at some point
      * *master-gdb_stubs* -- add support for GDB stubs; branched off of
        *master* at some point

  * libpthread

      * *master* -- the mainline branch
      * *master-viengoos* -- port to Viengoos; branched off of *master* at some
        point
      * *master-viengoos-on-bare-metal* -- port to Viengoos running on bare
        metal; branched off of *master-viengoos* at some point

## Merging

Merging between Git branches is trivial, at least as long as no conflicts
arise.

Due to this, you are encouraged to freely make use of separate branches for
different working topics, as this really faciliates concentrating on one
specific working topic.

You are encouraged to regularely merge from the respective mainline branches
(*BASE_BRANCH*; should be *master* in most cases) into your working branches,
and ensure that your modifications are still fine in the context of new
mainline changes.

Merging from working branches into the mainline branches will usually be done
by one of the project administrators, unless negotiated otherwise.  For this to
happen, the copyright of your changes has to be assigned to the Free Software
Foundation; read about the
[[copyright_assignment_process|savannah_group#copyright_assignment]].

# Tags

Equivalent rules apply.

# Behavior

## Behavior on branches

Usually, branches are to be eventually merged back into their respective
mainline branches.  To faciliate (and also to help other contributors) we'd
like you to write a short summary log in a top-level (or wherever else
appropriate) `ChangeLog.*TOPIC*` file.

Examples:

  * GNU Mach

      * *master-gdb_stubs*: `ChangeLog.gdb`

This need not be a full-fledged [GNU-style *ChangeLog*
file](http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Change-Logs.html).  E.g.,
don't waste time writing *ChangeLog* entries for debugging stuff that will be
removed again before merging back into mainline.  But please do write
something.  Short notes.

### Behavior on *private* branches

Even though you are said to be the owner of branches tagged with your
*SAVANNAH_LOGIN*, it is generally nevertheless good to not do history-rewriting
stuff and the like (`git rebase` and friends), as others may in turn be basing
their work on your private branches.

We could establish a branch-tagging policy for branches that others should
expect their history possibly to be rewritten.  This may be useful for branches
that are only meant for aggregating the changes of (several) development
branches, like *master-proposed_for_general_testing*.

## Behavior in general

Try to not introduce spurious, unneeded changes, e.g., whitespace changes.

Adhere to the coding conventions that are already used.  These are usually the
[GNU Coding Standards](http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/) for stuff
written by ourselves, including new files, of course.

GNU Mach code is largely based on external code.  Don't GNU-ify it, as this
would make merging external patches unnecessarily difficult.