We are hosting a c/c++ based repo with multiple branches in Github , while doing CI , there are usually on the average 10 pull requests in each integration build , and if something fails , we have to track it in all of the merged PRs to figure out which one did the mess , i want to work it programaticaly so that i can know which pull requests fails the build. What can be the best approach to work on this problem.
One thing that i forgot to mention is that each PR is individually build and tested already before the merge into feature branch.
Thanks.
The best approach is to change your process a bit and only allow merging of Pull Requests that:
Build without errors (including running integration tests)
Are rebased to fit on the tip of your master branch (fast forward commits only)
Since the branch build without errors, and it was rebased on the latest master, merging it will never break master. Unrebased branches that are seemingly without conflicts can still break things if changes in not directly related files conflict with each other as the conflict algorithm is pretty simplistic.
Lacking that, git also has an option that can be used during an interactive rebase to run a command (the exec option) after each rebase step. In other words, you could rewind your branch back to a known working state, and then let git apply each commit in turn and run a command that checks if everything passes your tests with the exec option.
In this way you can automatically discover which commit broke your tests.
Related
Github has the option to allow a PR to be squashed when merged ("Squash and Merge")
Is there anyway I can configure the branch so it only allows the "Squash and Merge" option?
My scenario is this
we have a develop branch, that feature requests are pushed to
sometimes developers will forget to choose "Squash and Merge" and will commit their feature branch, with 10-20 tiny commits to the develop branch.
These changes eventually get merged to master, and feature history becomes hard to read
I have looked in hooks in branch protection rules, but didn't see any such option
Unfortunately the option to change what type of PR merge is available on Github is set on a per repo basis. Since PRs are a github thing, not a git thing, I can't think of a way that you'd be able to do anything with githooks either.
I don't see a great option for your workflow as long as you require the intermediate develop branch that eventually gets merged into master. Workflows that have multiple layers of PRs get messy on Github. The one real option would be that you require squash to merge on Github PRs and then the regular merge from develop to master happens outside a PR (could be local on a machine or via a Github action potentially).
But, your best option if this is really a big problem may be to modify your workflow. One common workflow would be that master is the development branch. Then when it is time for a release a release branch or tag, depending on your needs, is created from master. The you will have no issue turning on the repo wide requirement for squashing.
Caveat: I am fairly new to both git and GitHub.
So, in my current setup, my team uses git flow Hotfixes (usually started and finished by a graphical tool such as GitKraken or IntelliJ) to make changes that have to be merged into two branches and pushed upstream in both. So for example the flow would be:
Pull latest from master
Start hotfix
Commit changes
Merge hotfix branch into both master and develop and push both upstream
We're now looking at moving our code into GitHub and would like to start using Pull Requests, for a couple of reasons:
CI hooks to run tests and stuff
a place to put code-specific comments not directly related to the underlying "issue"
avoiding the need for everyone to constantly be pulling the latest master/develop to their local machine so that they can merge changes
But in the case of Hotfixes, I'm not sure what to do because I'm merging into two branches but it really is one "action" so manually creating two pull requests seems weird, particularly since step 4) in our current flow is a single click.
Is there a smart way of handling this? My ideal case would be that pushing the Merge button on the Pull Request would just merge into both, but that doesn't seem to be an available option.
As you mentioned, a Pull Request has only one target branch, so you won't be able to push the hotfix to both master and develop by merging one Pull Request.
I'm also surprised you mention your step #4 - merging the hotfix branch to both master and develop and push upstream - is one action. While there's a high chance the merge from hotfix to master won't run into merge conflicts, I can't say the same for the merge from hotfix to develop since it could have been worked on since the last deployment to production.
My recommendation would then be the following:
Create one PR from hotfix to master and have someone review it to validate the fix
Once it's merged into master, create another PR from hotfix to develop and see if you run into merge conflicts
If that's the case, resolve the merge conflicts so the PR ends up in a state to be merged, and have someone review the PR
If there's no merge conflicts, then have someone review the PR
An alternative solution, if you really want to go down the automated path, would be to leverage both GitHub webhooks and API.
The webhook would allow you to be notified when a PR is merged. You could inspect the payload to make sure that the base branch starts with hotfix/ and the target branch is master. You could then react to that event by using the API to create a new PR from the same hotfix branch to develop.
It will involve some development, and the effort might not be worth since creating a PR via the UI is still quite easy and quick.
My development team recently doubled in size from one (myself) to two. As the sole developer, I was maintaining the trunk as the stable version of our software. I'd make changes in my working copy, test, and only push to trunk once I was sure it was stable.
With the new team member we are trying to come up with the best flow for co-developing the codebase. We have decided that trunk will stay stable; changes are pushed there only after code review and thorough testing. The teammate will create feature branches for features he works on; when he requests a code review, I will do it and then once approved, he will merge the branch into trunk and delete the branch.
We are both using eclipse and the subclipse plugin to manage our working copies.
The problem is that while I can view differences between my working copy and his branch (Team -> Compare To -> Branch), I do not know how to get the code from his branch to merge with my working copy. I want to be able to get his changes without losing any local changes I have made, run his code locally, and have none of this affect trunk. That seems to rule out the option in Eclipse/SVN to switch to another branch/tag/revision, since I need to have his code merged with mine (in order to make sure my working copy's code is consistent with my local database).
We've looked at the SVN Patch feature, instead of using branches perhaps he should send his changes over through a patch which I run?
So the concrete question here is: how do I merge/incorporate changes from a branch with my working copy without touching trunk? I would also be grateful to get suggestions on how we should implement our workflow in a way that takes advantage of the power of svn and eclipse in a way I am missing.
Both of you should have checkouts of trunk and any branches you're both working on. When he is ready to have his branch merged into trunk, you should:
Ensure that his branch builds successfully.
Ensure that your trunk checkout is pristine (no SVN added, modified, deleted, unversioned or ignored files).
Conduct the merge, resolving any conflicts with his help.
Perform a code review, including ensuring that trunk is stable with his changes.
Commit the merge.
Conduct the merge outside of Eclipse, using the SVN command-line. I've seen enough questions here on SO related to Eclipse and Subclipse that tells me the plugin is unreliable.
If it was me managing this workflow, I'd have two checkouts of trunk: one which is meant for merging and is always in a pristine condition, and another in which I can actively develop. That way, I wouldn't need to create a patch of my changes, then merge, then apply the patch.
Hope this helps.
The sad truth is that SVN will probably not be fit for this pattern. Branching creates a lot of pain in Subversion
Check here to get more details.
It was enough for me to update the branch from command line with 'svn up'.
I often see the below errors on doing git pull on totally untouched files which I am NOT working on.
Pull is not possible because you have unmerged files
It is clear the conflicted files have changed in the git repo. But I don't understand why git pull cannot over-write on these untouched files - which I've not touched?
What can I or my team do to avoid getting these errors?
Edited -
Along with the solution I want to understand why the errors are coming.
Just to make clear, the other team members are working on other files (say xyz). And I am working on a separate set of files having no dependency on xyz files. So if I pull the repo changes after a long time with no changes from my side in xyz, why the conflicts in those files?
use git diff to see problem files
look at this git cheat shets for usefull commands
http://www.cheat-sheets.org/saved-copy/git-cheat-sheet.pdf
http://jan-krueger.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/git-cheat-sheet-v2-back.svg
There are some tips from my own experience. i'm not sure whether they're 100% corerect)
Split work with your team on paralel threads. Try not to work in the same files.
Try to avoid situations when 2 or more persons are adding new files simalteniously. When one added new files others should make pull as soon as possible
the last but not least - make git push very often. this will keep your project git up to date
Since git pull does not pull individual files, it's git merge phase will stop for manual correction of any merge conflicts. git merge and/or git pull (and by nature of the fact that git pull is essentially git fetch followed by git merge) is an all-or-nothing operation - you either successfully merge the changes introduced on both (or all) of the branches you are merging together, or you don't merge any of them. The catch in that is when conflicts arise that must be manually resolved - but in that situation, you are in an in-between state, having neither completed and committed the merge nor rolled it back to your previous state.
The message you are getting implies that you have previously done a git pull or a git merge, which stopped in the middle, requesting that you manually resolve some conflicts, which you have not yet done, but have rather continued on doing other stuff, and are now trying to do another git pull / git merge without ever having completed the first one.
Take a look at git status, and follow the suggested directions for either resolving your in-progress merge issues or resetting back to a not-in-the-middle-of-a-merge state.
Me and my friend are two days into using Git now but we still lack the know-how to use it properly and utilize its full power though it is a tremendous step in the right direction, compared to using Facebook messages to sending and syncing files. We have searched over the net and most of the guides for Egit either assume you work alone or that someone else clones and branches off to their own repo. However we are collaborating on the same project (a 2D RPG) and don't know how to properly use Egit to work together. Some of the problems we face:
1. We had the exact same copy of the project, he changed some of the methods we used, I changed some of the classes and resources we use. He committed and pushed to repo first. Now I cannot push or commit or even pull because of conflicts in the files (repo vs local) which Egit complains must be resolved.
2. How do you properly synchronize code that you are collaborating on? Lets say either one of us is first out to push to repo, what must the other (the puller) do to make sure his own code is not completely overwritten, only accept parts that have changed, parts that we think should be changed.
3. Do we always have to make a (new) local branch, pull to this, see changes, and merge the changes we want with the master/main? How do you properly do this.
Any input is most welcome, we are already much more efficient with our broken knowledge, more will only do good :)
Ok here are my answers:
We had the exact same copy ... because of conflicts in the files (repo vs local) which Egit complains must be resolved.
First you should make sure you use separate branches so that you can always commit.
Then you have to resolve any conflicts when you merge.
How do you properly synchronize code ...
Use separate branches to make sure code is ok before you pull it into master branch.
Do we always have to make a (new) local branch ...
Yes, git is built on the assumption that this is the best way to work. "Everything is local"
This is the way I or we usually use branches:
Main dev branch (Master)
Project branch, used to merge in features added by this project. When all features have been added and seems to work this is pushed/merged into the master branch.
Developer branches, every developer has his/her own branch to develop a specific feature before pushing/merging that into the project branch.
What could sometimes be good to have is also specific release branches. I.e. when a project has merged all added features into the master branch and everything seems ok, a release branch is created for regression testing. This branch will eventually contain the released software when all testing has been done.
The benefit of doing a separate release branch is that the main branch can continue to be developed, but if a fast bugfix has to be done on an earlier release it can be done on that release branch and then later merged into the master branch.
//jk