Merge branch 'tr/workflow-doc'

* tr/workflow-doc:
  Documentation: add manpage about workflows
  Documentation: Refer to git-rebase(1) to warn against rewriting
  Documentation: new upstream rebase recovery section in git-rebase
This commit is contained in:
Junio C Hamano 2008-10-19 16:07:23 -07:00
commit 310d188f7e
6 changed files with 500 additions and 8 deletions

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@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ MAN5_TXT=gitattributes.txt gitignore.txt gitmodules.txt githooks.txt \
gitrepository-layout.txt
MAN7_TXT=gitcli.txt gittutorial.txt gittutorial-2.txt \
gitcvs-migration.txt gitcore-tutorial.txt gitglossary.txt \
gitdiffcore.txt
gitdiffcore.txt gitworkflows.txt
MAN_TXT = $(MAN1_TXT) $(MAN5_TXT) $(MAN7_TXT)
MAN_XML=$(patsubst %.txt,%.xml,$(MAN_TXT))

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@ -145,6 +145,10 @@ It is a rough equivalent for:
------
but can be used to amend a merge commit.
--
+
You should understand the implications of rewriting history if you
amend a commit that has already been published. (See the "RECOVERING
FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1].)
-i::
--include::

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@ -36,7 +36,9 @@ the objects and will not converge with the original branch. You will not
be able to easily push and distribute the rewritten branch on top of the
original branch. Please do not use this command if you do not know the
full implications, and avoid using it anyway, if a simple single commit
would suffice to fix your problem.
would suffice to fix your problem. (See the "RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM
REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1] for further information about
rewriting published history.)
Always verify that the rewritten version is correct: The original refs,
if different from the rewritten ones, will be stored in the namespace

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@ -259,11 +259,10 @@ include::merge-strategies.txt[]
NOTES
-----
When you rebase a branch, you are changing its history in a way that
will cause problems for anyone who already has a copy of the branch
in their repository and tries to pull updates from you. You should
understand the implications of using 'git-rebase' on a repository that
you share.
You should understand the implications of using 'git-rebase' on a
repository that you share. See also RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
below.
When the git-rebase command is run, it will first execute a "pre-rebase"
hook if one exists. You can use this hook to do sanity checks and
@ -398,6 +397,127 @@ consistent (they compile, pass the testsuite, etc.) you should use
after each commit, test, and amend the commit if fixes are necessary.
RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE
-------------------------------
Rebasing (or any other form of rewriting) a branch that others have
based work on is a bad idea: anyone downstream of it is forced to
manually fix their history. This section explains how to do the fix
from the downstream's point of view. The real fix, however, would be
to avoid rebasing the upstream in the first place.
To illustrate, suppose you are in a situation where someone develops a
'subsystem' branch, and you are working on a 'topic' that is dependent
on this 'subsystem'. You might end up with a history like the
following:
------------
o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
\
o---o---o---o---o subsystem
\
*---*---* topic
------------
If 'subsystem' is rebased against 'master', the following happens:
------------
o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
\ \
o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
\
*---*---* topic
------------
If you now continue development as usual, and eventually merge 'topic'
to 'subsystem', the commits from 'subsystem' will remain duplicated forever:
------------
o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
\ \
o---o---o---o---o o'--o'--o'--o'--o'--M subsystem
\ /
*---*---*-..........-*--* topic
------------
Such duplicates are generally frowned upon because they clutter up
history, making it harder to follow. To clean things up, you need to
transplant the commits on 'topic' to the new 'subsystem' tip, i.e.,
rebase 'topic'. This becomes a ripple effect: anyone downstream from
'topic' is forced to rebase too, and so on!
There are two kinds of fixes, discussed in the following subsections:
Easy case: The changes are literally the same.::
This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase was a simple rebase and
had no conflicts.
Hard case: The changes are not the same.::
This happens if the 'subsystem' rebase had conflicts, or used
`\--interactive` to omit, edit, or squash commits; or if the
upstream used one of `commit \--amend`, `reset`, or
`filter-branch`.
The easy case
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Only works if the changes (patch IDs based on the diff contents) on
'subsystem' are literally the same before and after the rebase
'subsystem' did.
In that case, the fix is easy because 'git-rebase' knows to skip
changes that are already present in the new upstream. So if you say
(assuming you're on 'topic')
------------
$ git rebase subsystem
------------
you will end up with the fixed history
------------
o---o---o---o---o---o---o---o master
\
o'--o'--o'--o'--o' subsystem
\
*---*---* topic
------------
The hard case
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Things get more complicated if the 'subsystem' changes do not exactly
correspond to the ones before the rebase.
NOTE: While an "easy case recovery" sometimes appears to be successful
even in the hard case, it may have unintended consequences. For
example, a commit that was removed via `git rebase
\--interactive` will be **resurrected**!
The idea is to manually tell 'git-rebase' "where the old 'subsystem'
ended and your 'topic' began", that is, what the old merge-base
between them was. You will have to find a way to name the last commit
of the old 'subsystem', for example:
* With the 'subsystem' reflog: after 'git-fetch', the old tip of
'subsystem' is at `subsystem@\{1}`. Subsequent fetches will
increase the number. (See linkgit:git-reflog[1].)
* Relative to the tip of 'topic': knowing that your 'topic' has three
commits, the old tip of 'subsystem' must be `topic~3`.
You can then transplant the old `subsystem..topic` to the new tip by
saying (for the reflog case, and assuming you are on 'topic' already):
------------
$ git rebase --onto subsystem subsystem@{1}
------------
The ripple effect of a "hard case" recovery is especially bad:
'everyone' downstream from 'topic' will now have to perform a "hard
case" recovery too!
Authors
------
Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> and

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@ -82,7 +82,9 @@ $ git reset --hard HEAD~3 <1>
+
<1> The last three commits (HEAD, HEAD^, and HEAD~2) were bad
and you do not want to ever see them again. Do *not* do this if
you have already given these commits to somebody else.
you have already given these commits to somebody else. (See the
"RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE" section in linkgit:git-rebase[1] for
the implications of doing so.)
Undo a commit, making it a topic branch::
+

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@ -0,0 +1,364 @@
gitworkflows(7)
===============
NAME
----
gitworkflows - An overview of recommended workflows with git
SYNOPSIS
--------
git *
DESCRIPTION
-----------
This document attempts to write down and motivate some of the workflow
elements used for `git.git` itself. Many ideas apply in general,
though the full workflow is rarely required for smaller projects with
fewer people involved.
We formulate a set of 'rules' for quick reference, while the prose
tries to motivate each of them. Do not always take them literally;
you should value good reasons for your actions higher than manpages
such as this one.
SEPARATE CHANGES
----------------
As a general rule, you should try to split your changes into small
logical steps, and commit each of them. They should be consistent,
working independently of any later commits, pass the test suite, etc.
This makes the review process much easier, and the history much more
useful for later inspection and analysis, for example with
linkgit:git-blame[1] and linkgit:git-bisect[1].
To achieve this, try to split your work into small steps from the very
beginning. It is always easier to squash a few commits together than
to split one big commit into several. Don't be afraid of making too
small or imperfect steps along the way. You can always go back later
and edit the commits with `git rebase \--interactive` before you
publish them. You can use `git stash save \--keep-index` to run the
test suite independent of other uncommitted changes; see the EXAMPLES
section of linkgit:git-stash[1].
MANAGING BRANCHES
-----------------
There are two main tools that can be used to include changes from one
branch on another: linkgit:git-merge[1] and
linkgit:git-cherry-pick[1].
Merges have many advantages, so we try to solve as many problems as
possible with merges alone. Cherry-picking is still occasionally
useful; see "Merging upwards" below for an example.
Most importantly, merging works at the branch level, while
cherry-picking works at the commit level. This means that a merge can
carry over the changes from 1, 10, or 1000 commits with equal ease,
which in turn means the workflow scales much better to a large number
of contributors (and contributions). Merges are also easier to
understand because a merge commit is a "promise" that all changes from
all its parents are now included.
There is a tradeoff of course: merges require a more careful branch
management. The following subsections discuss the important points.
Graduation
~~~~~~~~~~
As a given feature goes from experimental to stable, it also
"graduates" between the corresponding branches of the software.
`git.git` uses the following 'integration branches':
* 'maint' tracks the commits that should go into the next "maintenance
release", i.e., update of the last released stable version;
* 'master' tracks the commits that should go into the next release;
* 'next' is intended as a testing branch for topics being tested for
stability for master.
There is a fourth official branch that is used slightly differently:
* 'pu' (proposed updates) is an integration branch for things that are
not quite ready for inclusion yet (see "Integration Branches"
below).
Each of the four branches is usually a direct descendant of the one
above it.
Conceptually, the feature enters at an unstable branch (usually 'next'
or 'pu'), and "graduates" to 'master' for the next release once it is
considered stable enough.
Merging upwards
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The "downwards graduation" discussed above cannot be done by actually
merging downwards, however, since that would merge 'all' changes on
the unstable branch into the stable one. Hence the following:
.Merge upwards
[caption="Rule: "]
=====================================
Always commit your fixes to the oldest supported branch that require
them. Then (periodically) merge the integration branches upwards into each
other.
=====================================
This gives a very controlled flow of fixes. If you notice that you
have applied a fix to e.g. 'master' that is also required in 'maint',
you will need to cherry-pick it (using linkgit:git-cherry-pick[1])
downwards. This will happen a few times and is nothing to worry about
unless you do it very frequently.
Topic branches
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Any nontrivial feature will require several patches to implement, and
may get extra bugfixes or improvements during its lifetime.
Committing everything directly on the integration branches leads to many
problems: Bad commits cannot be undone, so they must be reverted one
by one, which creates confusing histories and further error potential
when you forget to revert part of a group of changes. Working in
parallel mixes up the changes, creating further confusion.
Use of "topic branches" solves these problems. The name is pretty
self explanatory, with a caveat that comes from the "merge upwards"
rule above:
.Topic branches
[caption="Rule: "]
=====================================
Make a side branch for every topic (feature, bugfix, ...). Fork it off
at the oldest integration branch that you will eventually want to merge it
into.
=====================================
Many things can then be done very naturally:
* To get the feature/bugfix into an integration branch, simply merge
it. If the topic has evolved further in the meantime, merge again.
(Note that you do not necessarily have to merge it to the oldest
integration branch first. For example, you can first merge a bugfix
to 'next', give it some testing time, and merge to 'maint' when you
know it is stable.)
* If you find you need new features from the branch 'other' to continue
working on your topic, merge 'other' to 'topic'. (However, do not
do this "just habitually", see below.)
* If you find you forked off the wrong branch and want to move it
"back in time", use linkgit:git-rebase[1].
Note that the last point clashes with the other two: a topic that has
been merged elsewhere should not be rebased. See the section on
RECOVERING FROM UPSTREAM REBASE in linkgit:git-rebase[1].
We should point out that "habitually" (regularly for no real reason)
merging an integration branch into your topics -- and by extension,
merging anything upstream into anything downstream on a regular basis
-- is frowned upon:
.Merge to downstream only at well-defined points
[caption="Rule: "]
=====================================
Do not merge to downstream except with a good reason: upstream API
changes affect your branch; your branch no longer merges to upstream
cleanly; etc.
=====================================
Otherwise, the topic that was merged to suddenly contains more than a
single (well-separated) change. The many resulting small merges will
greatly clutter up history. Anyone who later investigates the history
of a file will have to find out whether that merge affected the topic
in development. An upstream might even inadvertently be merged into a
"more stable" branch. And so on.
Throw-away integration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you followed the last paragraph, you will now have many small topic
branches, and occasionally wonder how they interact. Perhaps the
result of merging them does not even work? But on the other hand, we
want to avoid merging them anywhere "stable" because such merges
cannot easily be undone.
The solution, of course, is to make a merge that we can undo: merge
into a throw-away branch.
.Throw-away integration branches
[caption="Rule: "]
=====================================
To test the interaction of several topics, merge them into a
throw-away branch. You must never base any work on such a branch!
=====================================
If you make it (very) clear that this branch is going to be deleted
right after the testing, you can even publish this branch, for example
to give the testers a chance to work with it, or other developers a
chance to see if their in-progress work will be compatible. `git.git`
has such an official throw-away integration branch called 'pu'.
DISTRIBUTED WORKFLOWS
---------------------
After the last section, you should know how to manage topics. In
general, you will not be the only person working on the project, so
you will have to share your work.
Roughly speaking, there are two important workflows: merge and patch.
The important difference is that the merge workflow can propagate full
history, including merges, while patches cannot. Both workflows can
be used in parallel: in `git.git`, only subsystem maintainers use
the merge workflow, while everyone else sends patches.
Note that the maintainer(s) may impose restrictions, such as
"Signed-off-by" requirements, that all commits/patches submitted for
inclusion must adhere to. Consult your project's documentation for
more information.
Merge workflow
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The merge workflow works by copying branches between upstream and
downstream. Upstream can merge contributions into the official
history; downstream base their work on the official history.
There are three main tools that can be used for this:
* linkgit:git-push[1] copies your branches to a remote repository,
usually to one that can be read by all involved parties;
* linkgit:git-fetch[1] that copies remote branches to your repository;
and
* linkgit:git-pull[1] that does fetch and merge in one go.
Note the last point. Do 'not' use 'git-pull' unless you actually want
to merge the remote branch.
Getting changes out is easy:
.Push/pull: Publishing branches/topics
[caption="Recipe: "]
=====================================
`git push <remote> <branch>` and tell everyone where they can fetch
from.
=====================================
You will still have to tell people by other means, such as mail. (Git
provides the linkgit:request-pull[1] to send preformatted pull
requests to upstream maintainers to simplify this task.)
If you just want to get the newest copies of the integration branches,
staying up to date is easy too:
.Push/pull: Staying up to date
[caption="Recipe: "]
=====================================
Use `git fetch <remote>` or `git remote update` to stay up to date.
=====================================
Then simply fork your topic branches from the stable remotes as
explained earlier.
If you are a maintainer and would like to merge other people's topic
branches to the integration branches, they will typically send a
request to do so by mail. Such a request looks like
-------------------------------------
Please pull from
<url> <branch>
-------------------------------------
In that case, 'git-pull' can do the fetch and merge in one go, as
follows.
.Push/pull: Merging remote topics
[caption="Recipe: "]
=====================================
`git pull <url> <branch>`
=====================================
Occasionally, the maintainer may get merge conflicts when he tries to
pull changes from downstream. In this case, he can ask downstream to
do the merge and resolve the conflicts themselves (perhaps they will
know better how to resolve them). It is one of the rare cases where
downstream 'should' merge from upstream.
Patch workflow
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you are a contributor that sends changes upstream in the form of
emails, you should use topic branches as usual (see above). Then use
linkgit:git-format-patch[1] to generate the corresponding emails
(highly recommended over manually formatting them because it makes the
maintainer's life easier).
.format-patch/am: Publishing branches/topics
[caption="Recipe: "]
=====================================
* `git format-patch -M upstream..topic` to turn them into preformatted
patch files
* `git send-email --to=<recipient> <patches>`
=====================================
See the linkgit:git-format-patch[1] and linkgit:git-send-email[1]
manpages for further usage notes.
If the maintainer tells you that your patch no longer applies to the
current upstream, you will have to rebase your topic (you cannot use a
merge because you cannot format-patch merges):
.format-patch/am: Keeping topics up to date
[caption="Recipe: "]
=====================================
`git pull --rebase <url> <branch>`
=====================================
You can then fix the conflicts during the rebase. Presumably you have
not published your topic other than by mail, so rebasing it is not a
problem.
If you receive such a patch series (as maintainer, or perhaps as a
reader of the mailing list it was sent to), save the mails to files,
create a new topic branch and use 'git-am' to import the commits:
.format-patch/am: Importing patches
[caption="Recipe: "]
=====================================
`git am < patch`
=====================================
One feature worth pointing out is the three-way merge, which can help
if you get conflicts: `git am -3` will use index information contained
in patches to figure out the merge base. See linkgit:git-am[1] for
other options.
SEE ALSO
--------
linkgit:gittutorial[7],
linkgit:git-push[1],
linkgit:git-pull[1],
linkgit:git-merge[1],
linkgit:git-rebase[1],
linkgit:git-format-patch[1],
linkgit:git-send-email[1],
linkgit:git-am[1]
GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite.