I am a Git-rookie, and this information may need corrections, but I think that rough documentation is better than no documentation. I'm hoping that this will turn into a fully polished page. Please comment or contribute, or just complain in order to make it better.

VIVO 1.6 is the first release cycle since we switched our version control system from Subversion to Git.

We are trying to adhere to the "GitFlow" model. It is a git-based work flow that was originally decribed here: http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/. One of the major changes from our previous work flow is the way that the release branch is used.

Do I have to merge? Can I just make my changes twice?

We would like to take full advantage of Git's merge ability. We want to be able to merge the entire maintenance branch back to develop. Git might actually be clever enough to deal with that if you make your changes manually in both places. But until we know...

What if I accidentally make the change on the develop branch first?

Check out the section below entitled Doing it Backwards

To obtain the maintenance branch:

These steps must be performed on:

your copy of the VIVO repository
your copy of the Vitro repository

using the command line:

Commands Comments

git pull

It may be necessary to update the develop branch first.

git checkout --track origin/maint-rel-1.6

(note: that's dash-dash track)

This will create a maint-rel-1.6 branch in your repository. This local branch is tracking the remote branch on GitHub (origin).

using SourceTree:

Actions Comments

Click the "Checkout" icon in the tool bar.

Select the "Checkout New Branch" tab

In the selection box for "Checkout remote branch:" choose origin/maint-rel-1.6

"Local branch should track remote branch" should be checked.

Click "OK"

This will create a maint-rel-1.6 branch in your repository. This local branch is tracking the remote branch on GitHub (origin).

To commit a change on the maintenance branch

using the command line:

Commands	Comments
git fetch origin	Make sure that your repository is up to date.
git checkout maint-rel-1.6	Do this even if you were on `maint-rel-1.6` already. This insures that you have the latest changes from the fetch.
Make your changes
git add --all	Stage all of your changes (including new files) for committing.
git status	This is optional. It lets you see: What changes will be committed. What changes are not stages for commit. If any new files are "untracked".
git commit -m "I'm fixing this."	Commit the change to the maintenance branch.

using SourceTree:

Actions	Comments
Click on the "Fetch" icon in the toolbar. Click on "OK"	Make sure that your repository is up to date.
Double-click on `maint-rel-1.6` in the `BRANCHES` list.	This checks out the maintenance branch. Do this even if you were on `maint-rel-1.6` already. This insures that you have the latest changes from the fetch.
Make your changes
Drag the changed files to the Index (staging area)
Click the "Commit" icon in the toolbar. Enter a commit message, and click "OK".	Commits the changes to the maintenance branch.

To merge your change to the develop branch

using the command line:

Commands	Comments
git checkout develop	Switch to the `develop` branch, so you can merge the change.
git merge maint-rel-1.6	Note: this merges ALL of the changes from the maintenance branch, including the ones that the previous person forgot to merge.
git push origin develop maint-rel-1.6	Push both branches to GitHub ( `origin` )

using SourceTree:

Actions	Comments
Double-click on `develop` in the `BRANCHES` list.	Switch to the `develop` branch, so you can merge the change.
Click the "Merge" icon in the toolbar. In the dialog box, see that your commit in the maint-rel-1.6 is selected (see below), and click "OK"

Click the "Push" icon in the toolbar. Select both "develop" and "maint-rel-1.6" (see below), and click "OK".

Doing it backwards

You made your change to the develop branch instead of to the maintenance branch. Now what?

Don't panic. Get the number of the commit, pull it into the maintenance branch with git cherry-pick, merge, and push.

using the command line:

Commands	Comments
git checkout maint-rel-1.6	Change to the maintenance branch.
git cherry-pick 0cc3817	Copy your commit from the develop branch to the maintenance branch. If you have more than one commit, you can list them all on this command, or use multiple `cherry-pick` commands.
git checkout develop	I don't know if these steps are necessary. Your changes are already in the `develop` branch, so do you still have to do the merge? In other systems like Subversion, you would do the merge to keep the system's internal "paperwork" up to date. Is this necessary on Git? Until someone explains it to me, I'm going to recommend the merge.
git merge maint-rel-1.6
git push origin develop maint-rel-1.6	Push both branches to GitHub ( `origin` )

Page tree

Git: working with the maintenance branch

Do I have to merge? Can I just make my changes twice?

What if I accidentally make the change on the develop branch first?

To obtain the maintenance branch:

using the command line:

using SourceTree:

To commit a change on the maintenance branch

using the command line:

using SourceTree:

To merge your change to the develop branch

using the command line:

using SourceTree:

Doing it backwards

using the command line: