Getting Started

Contribution is not easy, so we created this document to describe how to get you setup so you can contribute back and make everyone’s life easier.

GitHub Account

If you don’t have a GitHub account please register your account

Fork the repo

First, you’ll need to fork the repo https://github.com/buildtesters/buildtest

You might need to setup your SSH keys in your git profile if you are using ssh option for cloning. For more details on setting up SSH keys in your profile, follow instruction found in https://help.github.com/articles/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/

SSH key will help you pull and push to repository without requesting for password for every commit. Once you have forked the repo, clone your local repo:

git clone git@github.com:YOUR\_GITHUB\_LOGIN/buildtest.git

Adding Upstream Remote

First you need to add the upstream repo, to do this you can issue the following:

git remote add upstream git@github.com/buildtesters/buildtest.git

The upstream tag is used to sync changes from upstream repo to keep your repo in sync before you contribute back.

Make sure you have set your user name and email set properly in git configuration. We don’t want commits from unknown users. This can be done by setting the following:

git config user.name "First Last"
git config user.email "abc@example.com"

For more details see First Time Git Setup

Sync your branch from upstream

The devel from upstream will get Pull Requests from other contributors, in-order to sync your forked repo with upstream, run the commands below:

cd buildtest
git checkout devel
git fetch upstream devel
git pull upstream devel

Once the changes are pulled locally you can sync devel branch with your fork as follows:

git checkout devel
git push origin devel

Repeat this same operation with master branch if you want to sync it with upstream repo

Feature Branch

Please make sure to create a new branch when adding and new feature. Do not push to master or devel branch on your fork or upstream.

Create a new branch from devel as follows:

cd buildtest
git checkout devel
git checkout -b featureX

Once you are ready to push to your fork repo do the following:

git push origin featureX

Once the branch is created in your fork, you can create a PR for the devel branch for upstream repo (https://github.com/buildtesters/buildtest)

General Tips

1. It’s good practice to link PR to an issue during commit message. Such as stating Fix #132 for fixing issue 132.

2. If you have an issue, ask your question in slack before reporting issue. If your issue is not resolved check any open issues for resolution before creating a new issue.

3. For new features or significant code refactor please notify maintainers and open an issue before working on task to keep everyone informed.

4. If you open an issue, please respond back during discussion, if there is no activity the issue will be closed.

5. Please refrain from opening duplicate issue, check if there is an existing issue addressing similar problem, instead you can participate in discussion in the issue or contact appropriate individuals directly in slack.

6. There should not be any branches other than master or devel. Feature branches should be pushed to your fork and not to origin.

Pull Request Review

Once you have submitted a Pull Request, please check the automated checks that are run for your PR to ensure checks are passed. Most common failures in CI checks are black and pyflakes issue, this can be done by Configuring Black Pre-Commit Hook and running pyflakes. Once all checks have passed, maintainer will review your PR and provide feedback so please be patient. Please coordinate with maintainer through PR or Slack.

Resolving PR Merge Conflicts

Often times, you may start a feature branch and your PR get’s out of sync with devel branch which may lead to conflicts, this is a result of merging incoming PRs that may cause upstream HEAD to change over time which can cause merge conflicts. This may be confusing at first, but don’t worry we are here to help. For more details about merge conflicts click here.

Syncing your feature branch with devel is out of scope for this documentation, however you can use the steps below as a guide when you run into this issue.

You may want to take the steps to first sync devel branch and then selectively rebase or merge devel into your feature branch.

First go to devel branch and fetch changes from upstream:

git checkout devel
git fetch upstream devel

Note you shouldn’t be making any changes to your local devel branch, if git fetch was successful you can merge your devel with upstream as follows:

git merge upstream/devel

Next, navigate to your feature branch and sync feature changes with devel:

git checkout <feature-branch>
git merge devel

Note

Running above command will sync your feature branch with devel but you may have some file conflicts depending on files changed during PR. You will need to resolve them manually before pushing your changes

Instead of merge from devel you can rebase your commits interactively when syncing with devel. This can be done by running:

git rebase -i devel

Once you have synced your branch push your changes and check if file conflicts are resolved in your Pull Request:

git push origin <feature-branch>