[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]] [[!meta license="""[[!toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[!toggleable id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled [[GNU Free Documentation License|/fdl]]."]]"""]] Git repositories on Savannah: . # Branches Members of the [[Hurd_Savannah_group|savannah_group]] are allowed to create branches without formal permission: * named `SAVANNAH_LOGIN/BASE_BRANCH[-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 * unionfs * `master` -- the mainline branch * `master-unionmount` -- develop `unionmount` based on `unionfs`' master branch To give a concrete example, the latter one was created like this: $ git clone --no-checkout ssh://git.savannah.gnu.org/srv/git/hurd/unionfs.git $ cd unionfs/ $ git checkout -b master-unionmount origin/master $ ... $ git push master-unionmount ## 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]]. It is explicitly encouraged to *merge* changes from working branches into the mainline branches (as opposed to *rebase* them on top), as the former mode easily allows to determine the context under which a patch has been developed. # Tags Equivalent rules apply. # Behavior 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. ## Commit messages We no longer maintain parallel `ChangeLog` and commit messages. When needed, the `ChangeLog` files can be created automatically from the commit messages. Commit messages have this mandatory format: One-line summary. Blank line. ChangeLog-like list of changes, but without leading tabs. The header line of each former `ChangeLog` snippet (DATE NAME EMAIL) is no longer to be included in the commit message, and instead the author and committer of a change, together with the dates, will be maintained natively by Git. Example: commit 3054666a46e0142cacef895c13edb4391435c722 Author: Some One AuthorDate: Thu Jun 11 15:59:55 2005 +0000 Commit: Some One CommitDate: Thu Jun 11 15:59:55 2005 +0000 Frobnicate the foo. * frob.c (foo): Frob it. * oldfoo.c [OLD] (oldfoo): Likewise. [OLD_OLD_FOO] (oofoo): Permute every second word with itself, and beginning with the tenth line, every third one also. Pure nonsense. Read about how to write [GNU-style `ChangeLog` messages](http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Change-Logs.html). Don't waste time writing exhaustive `ChangeLog`-like commit messages for, e.g., debugging stuff that will be removed again before merging your development branch into the mainline. Sometimes the one-line summary might already suffice. But please do write something. ## 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 an imaginary `master-proposed_for_general_testing` branch.