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735 <body class=
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737 <h1>How to maintain Git
</h1>
738 <span id=
"revdate">2024-
01-
12</span>
742 <h2 id=
"_activities">Activities
</h2>
743 <div class=
"sectionbody">
744 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>The maintainer
’s Git time is spent on three activities.
</p></div>
745 <div class=
"ulist"><ul>
750 <div class=
"literalblock">
751 <div class=
"content">
752 <pre><code>Mailing list discussions on general design, fielding user
753 questions, diagnosing bug reports; reviewing, commenting on,
754 suggesting alternatives to, and rejecting patches.
</code></pre>
761 <div class=
"literalblock">
762 <div class=
"content">
763 <pre><code>Applying new patches from the contributors while spotting and
764 correcting minor mistakes, shuffling the integration and
765 testing branches, pushing the results out, cutting the
766 releases, and making announcements.
</code></pre>
773 <div class=
"literalblock">
774 <div class=
"content">
775 <pre><code>Scratching my own itch and sending proposed patch series out.
</code></pre>
782 <h2 id=
"_the_policy">The Policy
</h2>
783 <div class=
"sectionbody">
784 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>The policy on Integration is informally mentioned in
"A Note
785 from the maintainer" message, which is periodically posted to
786 this mailing list after each feature release is made.
</p></div>
787 <div class=
"ulist"><ul>
790 Feature releases are numbered as vX.Y
.0 and are meant to
791 contain bugfixes and enhancements in any area, including
792 functionality, performance and usability, without regression.
797 One release cycle for a feature release is expected to last for
803 Maintenance releases are numbered as vX.Y.Z and are meant
804 to contain only bugfixes for the corresponding vX.Y
.0 feature
805 release and earlier maintenance releases vX.Y.W (W
< Z).
810 <em>master
</em> branch is used to prepare for the next feature
811 release. In other words, at some point, the tip of
<em>master
</em>
812 branch is tagged with vX.Y
.0.
817 <em>maint
</em> branch is used to prepare for the next maintenance
818 release. After the feature release vX.Y
.0 is made, the tip
819 of
<em>maint
</em> branch is set to that release, and bugfixes will
820 accumulate on the branch, and at some point, the tip of the
821 branch is tagged with vX.Y
.1, vX.Y
.2, and so on.
826 <em>next
</em> branch is used to publish changes (both enhancements
827 and fixes) that (
1) have worthwhile goal, (
2) are in a fairly
828 good shape suitable for everyday use, (
3) but have not yet
829 demonstrated to be regression free. New changes are tested
830 in
<em>next
</em> before merged to
<em>master
</em>.
835 <em>seen
</em> branch is used to publish other proposed changes that do
836 not yet pass the criteria set for
<em>next
</em>.
841 The tips of
<em>master
</em> and
<em>maint
</em> branches will not be rewound to
842 allow people to build their own customization on top of them.
843 Early in a new development cycle,
<em>next
</em> is rewound to the tip of
844 <em>master
</em> once, but otherwise it will not be rewound until the end
850 Usually
<em>master
</em> contains all of
<em>maint
</em> and
<em>next
</em> contains all
851 of
<em>master
</em>.
<em>seen
</em> contains all the topics merged to
<em>next
</em>, but
852 is rebuilt directly on
<em>master
</em>.
857 The tip of
<em>master
</em> is meant to be more stable than any
858 tagged releases, and the users are encouraged to follow it.
863 The
<em>next
</em> branch is where new action takes place, and the
864 users are encouraged to test it so that regressions and bugs
865 are found before new topics are merged to
<em>master
</em>.
869 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Note that before v1.9
.0 release, the version numbers used to be
870 structured slightly differently. vX.Y.Z were feature releases while
871 vX.Y.Z.W were maintenance releases for vX.Y.Z.
</p></div>
875 <h2 id=
"_a_typical_git_day">A Typical Git Day
</h2>
876 <div class=
"sectionbody">
877 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>A typical Git day for the maintainer implements the above policy
878 by doing the following:
</p></div>
879 <div class=
"ulist"><ul>
882 Scan mailing list. Respond with review comments, suggestions
883 etc. Kibitz. Collect potentially usable patches from the
884 mailing list. Patches about a single topic go to one mailbox (I
885 read my mail in Gnus, and type \C-o to save/append messages in
886 files in mbox format).
891 Write his own patches to address issues raised on the list but
892 nobody has stepped up to solve. Send it out just like other
893 contributors do, and pick them up just like patches from other
894 contributors (see above).
899 Review the patches in the saved mailboxes. Edit proposed log
900 message for typofixes and clarifications, and add Acks
901 collected from the list. Edit patch to incorporate
"Oops,
902 that should have been like this" fixes from the discussion.
907 Classify the collected patches and handle
<em>master
</em> and
908 <em>maint
</em> updates:
913 Obviously correct fixes that pertain to the tip of
<em>maint
</em>
914 are directly applied to
<em>maint
</em>.
919 Obviously correct fixes that pertain to the tip of
<em>master
</em>
920 are directly applied to
<em>master
</em>.
925 Other topics are not handled in this step.
927 <div class=
"literalblock">
928 <div class=
"content">
929 <pre><code>This step is done with
"git am".
</code></pre>
931 <div class=
"literalblock">
932 <div class=
"content">
933 <pre><code>$ git checkout master ;# or
"git checkout maint"
934 $ git am -sc3 mailbox
935 $ make test
</code></pre>
937 <div class=
"literalblock">
938 <div class=
"content">
939 <pre><code>In practice, almost no patch directly goes to 'master' or
940 'maint'.
</code></pre>
945 Review the last issue of
"What’s cooking" message, review the
946 topics ready for merging (topic
→master and topic
→maint). Use
947 "Meta/cook -w" script (where Meta/ contains a checkout of the
948 <em>todo
</em> branch) to aid this step.
950 <div class=
"literalblock">
951 <div class=
"content">
952 <pre><code>And perform the merge. Use
"Meta/Reintegrate -e" script (see
953 later) to aid this step.
</code></pre>
955 <div class=
"literalblock">
956 <div class=
"content">
957 <pre><code>$ Meta/cook -w last-issue-of-whats-cooking.mbox
</code></pre>
959 <div class=
"literalblock">
960 <div class=
"content">
961 <pre><code>$ git checkout master ;# or
"git checkout maint"
962 $ echo ai/topic | Meta/Reintegrate -e ;#
"git merge ai/topic"
963 $ git log -p ORIG_HEAD.. ;# final review
964 $ git diff ORIG_HEAD.. ;# final review
965 $ make test ;# final review
</code></pre>
970 Handle the remaining patches:
975 Anything unobvious that is applicable to
<em>master
</em> (in other
976 words, does not depend on anything that is still in
<em>next
</em>
977 and not in
<em>master
</em>) is applied to a new topic branch that
978 is forked from the tip of
<em>master
</em> (or the last feature release,
979 which is a bit older than
<em>master
</em>). This includes both
980 enhancements and unobvious fixes to
<em>master
</em>. A topic
981 branch is named as ai/topic where
"ai" is two-letter string
982 named after author
’s initial and
"topic" is a descriptive name
983 of the topic (in other words,
"what’s the series is about").
988 An unobvious fix meant for
<em>maint
</em> is applied to a new
989 topic branch that is forked from the tip of
<em>maint
</em> (or the
990 oldest and still relevant maintenance branch). The
991 topic may be named as ai/maint-topic.
996 Changes that pertain to an existing topic are applied to
1002 obviously correct ones are applied first;
1007 questionable ones are discarded or applied to near the tip;
1012 Replacement patches to an existing topic are accepted only
1013 for commits not in
<em>next
</em>.
1015 <div class=
"literalblock">
1016 <div class=
"content">
1017 <pre><code>The initial round is done with:
</code></pre>
1019 <div class=
"literalblock">
1020 <div class=
"content">
1021 <pre><code>$ git checkout ai/topic ;# or
"git checkout -b ai/topic master"
1022 $ git am -sc3 mailbox
</code></pre>
1024 <div class=
"literalblock">
1025 <div class=
"content">
1026 <pre><code>and replacing an existing topic with subsequent round is done with:
</code></pre>
1028 <div class=
"literalblock">
1029 <div class=
"content">
1030 <pre><code>$ git checkout master...ai/topic ;# try to reapply to the same base
1031 $ git am -sc3 mailbox
</code></pre>
1033 <div class=
"literalblock">
1034 <div class=
"content">
1035 <pre><code>to prepare the new round on a detached HEAD, and then
</code></pre>
1037 <div class=
"literalblock">
1038 <div class=
"content">
1039 <pre><code>$ git range-diff @{-
1}...
1040 $ git diff @{-
1}
</code></pre>
1042 <div class=
"literalblock">
1043 <div class=
"content">
1044 <pre><code>to double check what changed since the last round, and finally
</code></pre>
1046 <div class=
"literalblock">
1047 <div class=
"content">
1048 <pre><code>$ git checkout -B @{-
1}
</code></pre>
1050 <div class=
"literalblock">
1051 <div class=
"content">
1052 <pre><code>to conclude (the last step is why a topic already in 'next' is
1053 not replaced but updated incrementally).
</code></pre>
1055 <div class=
"literalblock">
1056 <div class=
"content">
1057 <pre><code>Whether it is the initial round or a subsequent round, the topic
1058 may not build even in isolation, or may break the build when
1059 merged to integration branches due to bugs. There may already
1060 be obvious and trivial improvements suggested on the list. The
1061 maintainer often adds an extra commit, with
"SQUASH???" in its
1062 title, to fix things up, before publishing the integration
1063 branches to make it usable by other developers for testing.
1064 These changes are what the maintainer is not
100% committed to
1065 (trivial typofixes etc. are often squashed directly into the
1066 patches that need fixing, without being applied as a separate
1067 "SQUASH???" commit), so that they can be removed easily as needed.
</code></pre>
1072 Merge maint to master as needed:
1074 <div class=
"literalblock">
1075 <div class=
"content">
1076 <pre><code>$ git checkout master
1078 $ make test
</code></pre>
1083 Merge master to next as needed:
1085 <div class=
"literalblock">
1086 <div class=
"content">
1087 <pre><code>$ git checkout next
1089 $ make test
</code></pre>
1094 Review the last issue of
"What’s cooking" again and see if topics
1095 that are ready to be merged to
<em>next
</em> are still in good shape
1096 (e.g. has there any new issue identified on the list with the
1102 Prepare
<em>jch
</em> branch, which is used to represent somewhere
1103 between
<em>master
</em> and
<em>seen
</em> and often is slightly ahead of
<em>next
</em>.
1105 <div class=
"literalblock">
1106 <div class=
"content">
1107 <pre><code>$ Meta/Reintegrate master..jch
>Meta/redo-jch.sh
</code></pre>
1109 <div class=
"literalblock">
1110 <div class=
"content">
1111 <pre><code>The result is a script that lists topics to be merged in order to
1112 rebuild 'seen' as the input to Meta/Reintegrate script. Remove
1113 later topics that should not be in 'jch' yet. Add a line that
1114 consists of '### match next' before the name of the first topic
1115 in the output that should be in 'jch' but not in 'next' yet.
</code></pre>
1120 Now we are ready to start merging topics to
<em>next
</em>. For each
1121 branch whose tip is not merged to
<em>next
</em>, one of three things can
1127 The commits are all next-worthy; merge the topic to next;
1132 The new parts are of mixed quality, but earlier ones are
1133 next-worthy; merge the early parts to next;
1138 Nothing is next-worthy; do not do anything.
1140 <div class=
"literalblock">
1141 <div class=
"content">
1142 <pre><code>This step is aided with Meta/redo-jch.sh script created earlier.
1143 If a topic that was already in 'next' gained a patch, the script
1144 would list it as
"ai/topic~1". To include the new patch to the
1145 updated 'next', drop the
"~1" part; to keep it excluded, do not
1146 touch the line. If a topic that was not in 'next' should be
1147 merged to 'next', add it at the end of the list. Then:
</code></pre>
1149 <div class=
"literalblock">
1150 <div class=
"content">
1151 <pre><code>$ git checkout -B jch master
1152 $ sh Meta/redo-jch.sh -c1
</code></pre>
1154 <div class=
"literalblock">
1155 <div class=
"content">
1156 <pre><code>to rebuild the 'jch' branch from scratch.
"-c1" tells the script
1157 to stop merging at the first line that begins with '###'
1158 (i.e. the
"### match next" line you added earlier).
</code></pre>
1160 <div class=
"literalblock">
1161 <div class=
"content">
1162 <pre><code>At this point, build-test the result. It may reveal semantic
1163 conflicts (e.g. a topic renamed a variable, another added a new
1164 reference to the variable under its old name), in which case
1165 prepare an appropriate merge-fix first (see appendix), and
1166 rebuild the 'jch' branch from scratch, starting at the tip of
1167 'master'.
</code></pre>
1169 <div class=
"literalblock">
1170 <div class=
"content">
1171 <pre><code>Then do the same to 'next'
</code></pre>
1173 <div class=
"literalblock">
1174 <div class=
"content">
1175 <pre><code>$ git checkout next
1176 $ sh Meta/redo-jch.sh -c1 -e
</code></pre>
1178 <div class=
"literalblock">
1179 <div class=
"content">
1180 <pre><code>The
"-e" option allows the merge message that comes from the
1181 history of the topic and the comments in the
"What's cooking" to
1182 be edited. The resulting tree should match 'jch' as the same set
1183 of topics are merged on 'master'; otherwise there is a mismerge.
1184 Investigate why and do not proceed until the mismerge is found
1185 and rectified.
</code></pre>
1187 <div class=
"literalblock">
1188 <div class=
"content">
1189 <pre><code>$ git diff jch next
</code></pre>
1191 <div class=
"literalblock">
1192 <div class=
"content">
1193 <pre><code>Then build the rest of 'jch':
</code></pre>
1195 <div class=
"literalblock">
1196 <div class=
"content">
1197 <pre><code>$ git checkout jch
1198 $ sh Meta/redo-jch.sh
</code></pre>
1200 <div class=
"literalblock">
1201 <div class=
"content">
1202 <pre><code>When all is well, clean up the redo-jch.sh script with
</code></pre>
1204 <div class=
"literalblock">
1205 <div class=
"content">
1206 <pre><code>$ sh Meta/redo-jch.sh -u
</code></pre>
1208 <div class=
"literalblock">
1209 <div class=
"content">
1210 <pre><code>This removes topics listed in the script that have already been
1211 merged to 'master'. This may lose '### match next' marker;
1212 add it again to the appropriate place when it happens.
</code></pre>
1217 Rebuild
<em>seen
</em>.
1219 <div class=
"literalblock">
1220 <div class=
"content">
1221 <pre><code>$ Meta/Reintegrate jch..seen
>Meta/redo-seen.sh
</code></pre>
1223 <div class=
"literalblock">
1224 <div class=
"content">
1225 <pre><code>Edit the result by adding new topics that are not still in 'seen'
1226 in the script. Then
</code></pre>
1228 <div class=
"literalblock">
1229 <div class=
"content">
1230 <pre><code>$ git checkout -B seen jch
1231 $ sh Meta/redo-seen.sh
</code></pre>
1233 <div class=
"literalblock">
1234 <div class=
"content">
1235 <pre><code>When all is well, clean up the redo-seen.sh script with
</code></pre>
1237 <div class=
"literalblock">
1238 <div class=
"content">
1239 <pre><code>$ sh Meta/redo-seen.sh -u
</code></pre>
1241 <div class=
"literalblock">
1242 <div class=
"content">
1243 <pre><code>Double check by running
</code></pre>
1245 <div class=
"literalblock">
1246 <div class=
"content">
1247 <pre><code>$ git branch --no-merged seen
</code></pre>
1249 <div class=
"literalblock">
1250 <div class=
"content">
1251 <pre><code>to see there is no unexpected leftover topics.
</code></pre>
1253 <div class=
"literalblock">
1254 <div class=
"content">
1255 <pre><code>At this point, build-test the result for semantic conflicts, and
1256 if there are, prepare an appropriate merge-fix first (see
1257 appendix), and rebuild the 'seen' branch from scratch, starting at
1258 the tip of 'jch'.
</code></pre>
1263 Update
"What’s cooking" message to review the updates to
1264 existing topics, newly added topics and graduated topics.
1266 <div class=
"literalblock">
1267 <div class=
"content">
1268 <pre><code>This step is helped with Meta/cook script.
</code></pre>
1270 <div class=
"literalblock">
1271 <div class=
"content">
1272 <pre><code>$ Meta/cook
</code></pre>
1274 <div class=
"literalblock">
1275 <div class=
"content">
1276 <pre><code>This script inspects the history between master..seen, finds tips
1277 of topic branches, compares what it found with the current
1278 contents in Meta/whats-cooking.txt, and updates that file.
1279 Topics not listed in the file but are found in master..seen are
1280 added to the
"New topics" section, topics listed in the file that
1281 are no longer found in master..seen are moved to the
"Graduated to
1282 master" section, and topics whose commits changed their states
1283 (e.g. used to be only in 'seen', now merged to 'next') are updated
1284 with change markers
"<<" and
">>".
</code></pre>
1286 <div class=
"literalblock">
1287 <div class=
"content">
1288 <pre><code>Look for lines enclosed in
"<<" and
">>"; they hold contents from
1289 old file that are replaced by this integration round. After
1290 verifying them, remove the old part. Review the description for
1291 each topic and update its doneness and plan as needed. To review
1292 the updated plan, run
</code></pre>
1294 <div class=
"literalblock">
1295 <div class=
"content">
1296 <pre><code>$ Meta/cook -w
</code></pre>
1298 <div class=
"literalblock">
1299 <div class=
"content">
1300 <pre><code>which will pick up comments given to the topics, such as
"Will
1301 merge to 'next'", etc. (see Meta/cook script to learn what kind
1302 of phrases are supported).
</code></pre>
1307 Compile, test and install all four (five) integration branches;
1308 Meta/Dothem script may aid this step.
1313 Format documentation if the
<em>master
</em> branch was updated;
1314 Meta/dodoc.sh script may aid this step.
1319 Push the integration branches out to public places; Meta/pushall
1320 script may aid this step.
1327 <h2 id=
"_observations">Observations
</h2>
1328 <div class=
"sectionbody">
1329 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Some observations to be made.
</p></div>
1330 <div class=
"ulist"><ul>
1333 Each topic is tested individually, and also together with other
1334 topics cooking first in
<em>seen
</em>, then in
<em>jch
</em> and then in
<em>next
</em>.
1335 Until it matures, no part of it is merged to
<em>master
</em>.
1340 A topic already in
<em>next
</em> can get fixes while still in
1341 <em>next
</em>. Such a topic will have many merges to
<em>next
</em> (in
1342 other words,
"git log --first-parent next" will show many
1343 "Merge branch <em>ai/topic</em> to next" for the same topic.
1348 An unobvious fix for
<em>maint
</em> is cooked in
<em>next
</em> and then
1349 merged to
<em>master
</em> to make extra sure it is Ok and then
1350 merged to
<em>maint
</em>.
1355 Even when
<em>next
</em> becomes empty (in other words, all topics
1356 prove stable and are merged to
<em>master
</em> and
"git diff master
1357 next" shows empty), it has tons of merge commits that will
1358 never be in
<em>master
</em>.
1363 In principle,
"git log --first-parent master..next" should
1364 show nothing but merges (in practice, there are fixup commits
1365 and reverts that are not merges).
1370 Commits near the tip of a topic branch that are not in
<em>next
</em>
1371 are fair game to be discarded, replaced or rewritten.
1372 Commits already merged to
<em>next
</em> will not be.
1377 Being in the
<em>next
</em> branch is not a guarantee for a topic to
1378 be included in the next feature release. Being in the
1379 <em>master
</em> branch typically is.
1384 Due to the nature of
"SQUASH???" fix-ups, if the original author
1385 agrees with the suggested changes, it is OK to squash them to
1386 appropriate patches in the next round (when the suggested change
1387 is small enough, the author should not even bother with
1388 "Helped-by"). It is also OK to drop them from the next round
1389 when the original author does not agree with the suggestion, but
1390 the author is expected to say why somewhere in the discussion.
1397 <h2 id=
"_appendix">Appendix
</h2>
1398 <div class=
"sectionbody">
1400 <h3 id=
"_preparing_a_merge_fix">Preparing a
"merge-fix"</h3>
1401 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>A merge of two topics may not textually conflict but still have
1402 conflict at the semantic level. A classic example is for one topic
1403 to rename a variable and all its uses, while another topic adds a
1404 new use of the variable under its old name. When these two topics
1405 are merged together, the reference to the variable newly added by
1406 the latter topic will still use the old name in the result.
</p></div>
1407 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>The Meta/Reintegrate script that is used by redo-jch and redo-seen
1408 scripts implements a crude but usable way to work around this issue.
1409 When the script merges branch $X, it checks if
"refs/merge-fix/$X"
1410 exists, and if so, the effect of it is squashed into the result of
1411 the mechanical merge. In other words,
</p></div>
1412 <div class=
"literalblock">
1413 <div class=
"content">
1414 <pre><code>$ echo $X | Meta/Reintegrate
</code></pre>
1416 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>is roughly equivalent to this sequence:
</p></div>
1417 <div class=
"literalblock">
1418 <div class=
"content">
1419 <pre><code>$ git merge --rerere-autoupdate $X
1421 $ git cherry-pick -n refs/merge-fix/$X
1422 $ git commit --amend
</code></pre>
1424 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>The goal of this
"prepare a merge-fix" step is to come up with a
1425 commit that can be squashed into a result of mechanical merge to
1426 correct semantic conflicts.
</p></div>
1427 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>After finding that the result of merging branch
"ai/topic" to an
1428 integration branch had such a semantic conflict, say seen~
4, check the
1429 problematic merge out on a detached HEAD, edit the working tree to
1430 fix the semantic conflict, and make a separate commit to record the
1432 <div class=
"literalblock">
1433 <div class=
"content">
1434 <pre><code>$ git checkout seen~
4
1435 $ git show -s --pretty=%s ;# double check
1436 Merge branch 'ai/topic' to seen
1438 $ git commit -m 'merge-fix/ai/topic' -a
</code></pre>
1440 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Then make a reference
"refs/merge-fix/ai/topic" to point at this
1442 <div class=
"literalblock">
1443 <div class=
"content">
1444 <pre><code>$ git update-ref refs/merge-fix/ai/topic HEAD
</code></pre>
1446 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Then double check the result by asking Meta/Reintegrate to redo the
1448 <div class=
"literalblock">
1449 <div class=
"content">
1450 <pre><code>$ git checkout seen~
5 ;# the parent of the problem merge
1451 $ echo ai/topic | Meta/Reintegrate
1452 $ git diff seen~
4</code></pre>
1454 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>This time, because you prepared refs/merge-fix/ai/topic, the
1455 resulting merge should have been tweaked to include the fix for the
1456 semantic conflict.
</p></div>
1457 <div class=
"paragraph"><p>Note that this assumes that the order in which conflicting branches
1458 are merged does not change. If the reason why merging ai/topic
1459 branch needs this merge-fix is because another branch merged earlier
1460 to the integration branch changed the underlying assumption ai/topic
1461 branch made (e.g. ai/topic branch added a site to refer to a
1462 variable, while the other branch renamed that variable and adjusted
1463 existing use sites), and if you changed redo-jch (or redo-seen) script
1464 to merge ai/topic branch before the other branch, then the above
1465 merge-fix should not be applied while merging ai/topic, but should
1466 instead be applied while merging the other branch. You would need
1467 to move the fix to apply to the other branch, perhaps like this:
</p></div>
1468 <div class=
"literalblock">
1469 <div class=
"content">
1470 <pre><code>$ mf=refs/merge-fix
1471 $ git update-ref $mf/$the_other_branch $mf/ai/topic
1472 $ git update-ref -d $mf/ai/topic
</code></pre>
1478 <div id=
"footnotes"><hr /></div>
1480 <div id=
"footer-text">
1482 2024-
01-
12 16:
27:
46 PST