ParaView/Git/Develop

This page documents how to develop ParaView through Git. See our table of contents for more information.

Git is an extremely powerful version control tool that supports many different "workflows" for indivudal development and collaboration. Here we document procedures used by the ParaView development community. In the interest of simplicity and brevity we do not provide an explanation of why we use this approach. Furthermore, this is not a Git tutorial. Please see our Git resource links for third-party documentation, such as the ProGit Book.

Target Audience

This document is intended for developers from the larger ParaView open-source community who want to contribute patches back to ParaView. Registered developers of ParaView (with write access to the git repository) should refer to ParaView Developers Wiki for instructions on using the ParaView integration branches for contributing code. The rest of the community can push contributions to ParaView using the workflow described here. Contributors are also free to simply push their topics to github or Gitorious and request integration to the ParaView repository on the ParaView mailing lists.

Setup

Before you begin, perform initial setup:

1. Register Gerrit access.
2. Follow the download instructions to create a local ParaView clone:
$ git clone --recursive git://paraview.org/ParaView.git	Connection refused?
3. Run the developer setup script to prepare your ParaView work tree and create Git command aliases used below:
$ ./Utilities/SetupForDevelopment.sh	SetupForDevelopment.sh Pro Git: Setup

Workflow

ParaView development uses a branchy workflow based on topic branches. If you have changes affecting the VTK submodule, refer to Contribute VTK Changes. Our collaboration workflow consists of three main steps:

1. Local Development
Update
Create a Topic
2. Testing and Review
Share a Topic (requires Gerrit access)	Gerrit Code Review
Revise a Topic
3. Integrate Changes
Suggest a Topic for Inclusion
Delete a Topic

Update

Update your local master branch:
$ git checkout master $ git pullall	git help checkout alias.pullall (pull and submodule update)

Create a Topic

All new work must be committed on topic branches. Name topics like you might name functions: concise but precise. A reader should have a general idea of the feature or fix to be developed given just the branch name.

To start a new topic branch:
$ git fetch origin $ git checkout -b my-topic origin/master (If you are fixing a bug in the latest release then substitute origin/release for origin/master. Then run git submodule update.)	git help fetch git help checkout git help submodule Pro Git: Basic Branching
Edit files and create commits (repeat as needed):
$ edit file1 file2 file3 $ git add file1 file2 file3 (To change VTK create a VTK topic and use git add VTK.) $ git commit	git help add git help commit Pro Git: Recording Changes

Share a Topic

When a topic is ready for review and possible inclusion, share it by pushing to Gerrit. Be sure you have registered for Gerrit access.

Checkout the topic if it is not your current branch:
$ git checkout my-topic	git help checkout
Check what commits will be pushed to Gerrit for review:
$ git prepush	alias.prepush (log origin/master..)
Push commits in your topic branch for review by the community:
$ git gerrit-push The output will include a link to the topic review page in ParaView Gerrit.	alias.gerrit-push
Find your topic/change in the ParaView Gerrit instance and add reviewers. If you are not sure whom to add as a reviewer, send an email on the ParaView Developer mailing-list with a link to your Gerrit topic. A member from the ParaView development team can now take over your topic and have it tested and merged into master as per the ParaView Development Workflow.

Revise a Topic

If a topic is approved during Gerrit review, skip to the next step. Otherwise, revise the topic and push it back to Gerrit for another review.

Checkout the topic if it is not your current branch:
$ git checkout my-topic	git help checkout
To revise the 3rd commit back on the topic:
$ git rebase -i HEAD~3 (Substitute the correct number of commits back, as low as 1.) Follow Git's interactive instructions. Preserve the Change-Id: line at the bottom of each commit message.	git help rebase Pro Git: Rebasing
Return to the previous step to share the revised topic.

Extend a Topic

If your topic runs cleanly after a night of dashboard builds, it is ready for the next step. Otherwise, extend the topic with additional commits to fix the problems.

Checkout the topic if it is not your current branch:
$ git checkout my-topic $ git submodule update	git help checkout git help submodule
Edit files and create commits (repeat as needed):
$ edit file1 file2 file3 $ git add file1 file2 file3 (To fix VTK contribute your VTK topic and use git add VTK.) $ git commit	git help add git help commit Pro Git: Recording Changes
Return to the earlier step to share the extended topic.

Suggest a Topic for Inclusion

Once you are satisfied with your topic, report a bug/feature-request on the ParaView Bug Tracker with details on the issue being addressed with a link to the Gerrit topic. Additionally, send an email to the ParaView mailing list to suggest inclusion of your topic into the ParaView official repository. A member from the ParaView development team will then work with you to get your changes tested on the ParaView dashboards and then have them merged into ParaView git repository.

Delete a Topic

After a topic has been merged upstream, delete your local branch for the topic.

Checkout and update the master branch:
$ git checkout master $ git pullall	git help checkout alias.pullall (pull and submodule update)
Delete the local topic branch:
$ git branch -d my-topic (If you changed VTK delete the VTK topic.)	git help branch
The branch -d command works only when the topic branch has been correctly merged. Use -D instead of -d to force the deletion of an unmerged topic branch (warning - you could lose commits).

Contribute VTK Changes

If you have any VTK changes, then you are required to get your changes incorporated into VTK using VTK's development workflow. Once your VTK topic has been approved and merged into VTK, add your VTK topic head (or the latest VTK origin/master which includes your VTK topic head) to a commit in a ParaView topic and follow the process documented earlier.