ITK/Git/Develop

This page documents how to develop ITK 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 ITK 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.

Setup

Before you begin, perform initial setup:

1. Register Gerrit access and possibly Git push access.
2. Optionally download our one page PDF desk reference.
3. Follow the download instructions to create a local ITK clone:
$ git clone git://itk.org/ITK.git	Connection refused?
4. Run the developer setup script to prepare your ITK work tree and create Git command aliases used below:
$ ./Utilities/SetupForDevelopment.sh	Pro Git: Setup

Workflow

ITK development uses a branchy workflow based on topic branches. Our collaboration workflow consists of three main steps:

1. Local Development
Update
Create a Topic
2. Code Review
Share a Topic (requires Gerrit access)	Gerrit Code Review
Revise a Topic
3. Integrate Changes
Merge a Topic (requires Git push access)
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.)	git help fetch git help checkout Pro Git: Basic Branching
Edit files and create commits (repeat as needed):
$ edit file1 file2 file3 $ git add file1 file2 file3 $ 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	alias.gerrit-push (push gerrit HEAD:refs/for/master/my-topic)

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.

Merge a Topic

After a topic has been reviewed and approved in Gerrit, merge it into the upstream repository. Only authorized developers with Git push access to itk.org may perform this step.

Checkout the topic if it is not your current branch:
$ git checkout my-topic	git help checkout
Merge the topic:
$ git gerrit-merge	alias.gerrit-merge (push to topic stage and stage ITK merge my-topic)

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	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).