git is used for version control for all GNOME projects. This page assumes good working knowledge of git; some introductory material is available here, and a git cheatsheet is here.
Make atomic, revertable commits. (Guidelines for Making Commits)
Include full reasoning in commit messages, plus links to relevant bug reports or specifications. (Guidelines for Making Commits)
Keep large changes, such as renames, in separate commits. (Guidelines for Making Commits)
Merge changes from feature branches by rebasing. (Use of Git)
Most GNOME repositories follow these rules:
No forced pushes. Except for branches with the wip/ prefix (work-in-progress), the commits’ history must not be modified, as contributors rely on it.
Rebase commits rather than merging, to have a linear history (which is easier to follow).
Work on feature branches on GNOME git in wip/ branches, then rebase on master and fast-forward merge the changes. It is a good practice to also add your nickname to the branch name, as wip/nickname/feature.
Hide sausage making by squashing commits before merging.
Commits should be as small as possible, but no smaller. Each commit should address a single issue, containing only changes related to that issue. The message for each commit should describe the issue, explain what causes it, and explain how it has been fixed if it is not obvious. If the commit is associated with a bug report, the full URI for the bug report should be put on a line by itself at the bottom of the commit message. Similarly, the ID for the git commit (from git log --oneline) should be copied into the bug report once the commit has been pushed, so it is easy to find one from the other.
The changes in each commit should be easy to read. For example, they should not unnecessarily change whitespace or indentation. Large, mechanical changes, such as renaming a file or function, should be put in separate commits from modifications to code inside that file or function, so that the latter changes do not get buried and lost in the former.
The following principles give the reasoning for all the advice above:
Each commit should take the repository from one working state to another, otherwise bisection is impossible.
Each commit should be individually revertable. If it later turns out that the commit was a bad idea, git revert commit ID should take the repository from a working state to another working state.
The reasoning for each commit, and its relationship to external resources like specifications and bug reports, should be clear, to the extent that commits written by one developer a year in the past should still be understandable by a second developer without having to trace through the changes and work out what they do.
Each commit should be written once, and designed to be read many times, by many reviewers and future programmers.
To merge a feature branch named my-branch into master, use the following commands:
git checkout master git pull git checkout wip/my-branch git rebase --interactive master # Ensure the rebase is successful; test the changes git checkout master git merge wip/my-branch git push # wip/my-branch can now be deleted git push origin :wip/my-branch git branch -D wip/my-branch
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