CMake/Git/Develop

This page documents how to develop CMake 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 CMake 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.

Audience

The instructions on this page are meant for those whom have been invited to gain direct push access to our Git repository. If you do not have access already, please see CONTRIBUTING.rst at the top of the source tree. We ask that newcomers join the developer mailing list and send patches. Productive contributors and module maintainer volunteers may be invited to gain direct access.

Setup

Before you begin, perform initial setup:

1. Register Git push access (after having been invited as described above).
2. Follow the download instructions to create a local CMake clone:
$ git clone https://cmake.org/cmake.git $ cd cmake
3. Run the developer setup script to prepare your CMake work tree:
$ ./Utilities/SetupForDevelopment.sh	SetupForDevelopment.sh

Workflow

CMake development uses a branchy workflow based on topic branches using the CMake Topics Stage.

Our collaboration workflow consists of three main steps:

1. Local Development

Update

Create a Topic

2. Testing and Review

Share a Topic

Merge a Topic for Testing

Extend a Topic

3. Integration by Maintainers

Merge a Topic for Inclusion

Delete a Topic

Update

Update your local master branch:
$ git checkout master $ git pull	git help checkout git help pull

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
If your change is user-facing please create a Help/release/dev/my-topic.rst document with release notes. (This is not necessary for minor or internal bug fixes.) (If your change modifies the "Source/kwsys" directory please contribute directly to KWSys instead.)
If you started from origin/release and the topic conflicts with origin/master, finish the topic with a merge from master to resolve them:
$ git fetch origin master:master $ git merge master

Share a Topic

When a topic is ready for testing and review by others, share it by pushing it to the "topic stage". Be sure you have registered for Git push 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 the topic stage:
$ git log origin/master..	git help log
Push commits in your topic branch to the topic stage (be sure to have set up for development):
$ git push stage HEAD	git help push
The topic is now published on the CMake Topic Stage and may be (optionally) reviewed by others. If you would like review by others before merging for testing in the next step, please post to the cmake-developers mailing list. Note: Please do not push a topic to the stage unless you are ready to immediately send an email to the mailing list to ask for review and/or merge it to next for testing. If you push a topic and then change your mind, please remove it with $ git push stage :my-topic We do not want to accumulate partially completed topics that obscure those really ready for review and integration.

Merge a Topic for Testing

When your topic is ready, merge it to the CMake next branch for testing.

Ask the topic stage to automatically merge the topic to next:
$ ssh git@cmake.org stage cmake merge -b next my-topic (If the merge conflicts follow the printed instructions to resolve them.)	Topic-to-Topic Conflict Resolution
The topic is now integrated into CMake's next branch and will be tested by dashboard builds. After merging, please check the Continuous section of the dashboard for the rest of the day and diligently follow up on any problems introduced. If the topic modifies documentation, check the Continuous Help section of the dashboard for errors and warnings from sphinx-build. On the day after merging, check the Entire Dashboard and follow up with fixes as described in the next step. Documentation generated from the next branch will be published within 10 minutes here. This is intended for reference by developers to see how the documentation renders as changes are made. Do not publish links pointing anywhere but the top-level page because deeper pages are not stable.

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 help checkout
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
Return to the earlier step to share the extended topic.

Merge a Topic for Inclusion

Only core maintainers have access to merge a topic to master. They meet weekly to evaluate topics in next based on dashboard results and manual review. If your topic is accepted it will be merged to master for permanent inclusion after which you may delete it. Otherwise the maintainers will contact you with feedback. Respond by returning to the above step to address their concerns.

Documentation generated from the master branch will be published within 10 minutes here. This is intended for reference by developers to see how the documentation renders as changes are made. Do not publish links pointing anywhere but the top-level page because deeper pages are not stable.

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 pull	git help checkout git help pull
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).