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- Committer: Ian Clatworthy
- Date: 2007-09-05 11:25:49 UTC
- mto: (2800.1.1 ianc-integration)
- mto: This revision was merged to the branch mainline in revision 2802.
- Revision ID: ian.clatworthy@internode.on.net-20070905112549-86ehh7odw9ncloar
Merge Core Developer Hanbook into HACKING
- files modified:
- NEWS
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removed
doc/developers/HACKING.txt
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(The current version of this document is available in the file
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``doc/developers/HACKING.txt`` in the source tree, or at
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http://doc.bazaar-vcs.org/bzr.dev/developers/HACKING.html)
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http://doc.bazaar-vcs.org/bzr.dev/en/developer-guide/HACKING.html)
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Getting Started
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http://bazaar-vcs.org/BzrWin32Installer
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Core Developer Tasks
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####################
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Overview
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========
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What is a Core Developer?
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-------------------------
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While everyone in the Bazaar community is welcome and encouraged to
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propose and submit changes, a smaller team is reponsible for pulling those
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changes together into a cohesive whole. In addition to the general developer
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stuff covered above, "core" developers have responsibility for:
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* reviewing changes
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* reviewing blueprints
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* planning releases
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* managing releases.
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.. note::
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Removing barriers to community participation is a key reason for adopting
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distributed VCS technology. While DVCS removes many technical barriers,
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a small number of social barriers are often necessary instead.
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By documenting how the above things are done, we hope to
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encourage more people to participate in these activities, keeping the
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differences between core and non-core contributors to a minimum.
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The Development Lifecycle
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-------------------------
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As a rule, Bazaar development follows a 4 week cycle:
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* 2 weeks - general changes
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* 1 week - feature freeze
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* 1 week+ - Release Candidate stabilization
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During the FeatureFreeze week, the trunk (bzr.dev) is open in a limited
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way: only low risk changes, critical and high priority fixes are accepted
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during this time. At the end of FeatureFreeze, a branch is created for the
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first Release Candidate and the trunk is reopened for general development
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on the *next* release. A week or so later, the final release is packaged
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assuming no serious problems were encountered with the one or more Release
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Candidates.
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.. note::
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There is a one week overlap between the start of one release and
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the end of the previous one.
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Communicating and Coordinating
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------------------------------
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While it has many advantages, one of the challenges of distributed
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development is keeping everyone else aware of what you're working on.
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There are numerous ways to do this:
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#. Assign bugs to yourself in Launchpad
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#. Mention it on the mailing list
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#. Mention it on IRC
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As well as the email notifcations that occur when merge requests are sent
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and reviewed, you can keep others informed of where you're spending your
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energy by emailing the **bazaar-commits** list implicitly. To do this,
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install and configure the Email plugin. One way to do this is add these
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configuration settings to your central configuration file (e.g.
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``~/.bazaar/bazaar.conf`` on Linux)::
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[DEFAULT]
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email = Joe Smith <joe.smith@internode.on.net>
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smtp_server = mail.internode.on.net:25
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Then add these lines for the relevant branches in ``locations.conf``::
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post_commit_to = bazaar-commits@lists.canonical.com
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post_commit_mailer = smtplib
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While attending a sprint, RobertCollins' Dbus plugin is useful for the
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same reason. See the documentation within the plugin for information on
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how to set it up and configure it.
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Reviewing Changes
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=================
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Setting Up Your Workspace for Reviews
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-------------------------------------
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TODO: Incorporate John Arbash Meinel's detailed email to Ian C on the
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numerous ways of setting up integration branches.
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The Review Checklist
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--------------------
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There are broadly three gates for code to get in:
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* Doesn't reduce test coverage: if it adds new methods or commands, there
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should be tests for them. There is a good test framework and plenty of
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examples to crib from, but if you are having trouble working out how to
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test something feel free to post a draft patch and ask for help.
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* Doesn't reduce design clarity, such as by entangling objects we're
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trying to separate. This is mostly something the more experienced
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reviewers need to help check.
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* Improves bugs, features, speed, or code simplicity.
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As we approach and pass 1.0, a fourth gate - performance impact - will
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also be a consideration.
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Communicating Review Results
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----------------------------
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The preferred way of communicating review results is via email, i.e. by
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replying to the original merge/patch submission. It isn't necessary to
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include every bit of the diff in your response - just the bits you have
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feedback on.
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Good reviews do take time. They also regularly require a solid
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understanding of the overall code base. In practice, this means a small
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number of people often have a large review burden - with knowledge comes
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responsibility. No one like their merge requests sitting in a queue going
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nowhere, so reviewing sooner rather than later is strongly encouraged.
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Recording Votes on Changes
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--------------------------
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Everyone in the community is welcome to review
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and vote on whatever they like, though 2 positive votes from core
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developers are required before a change will be approved. Merge requests
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are tracked using Aaron Bentley's nifty Bundle Buggy (BB) tool:
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http://bundlebuggy.aaronbentley.com/. To get a login on BB, contact Aaron
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directly.
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For very small changes, simply voting on BB can be enough, together with a
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brief comment made while voting. The more common case though is sending a
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detailed review to the mailing list including an embedded directive
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(like "bb: approve") in the email. Alternatively, small changes can be
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voted for directly on BB.
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Submitting Changes
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==================
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An Overview of PQM
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------------------
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Of the many workflows supported by Bazaar, the one adopted for Bazaar
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development itself is known as "Decentralized with automatic gatekeeper".
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To repeat the explanation of this given on
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http://bazaar-vcs.org/Workflows:
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.. pull-quote::
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In this workflow, each developer has their own branch or
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branches, plus read-only access to the mainline. A software gatekeeper
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(e.g. PQM) has commit rights to the main branch. When a developer wants
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their work merged, they request the gatekeeper to merge it. The gatekeeper
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does a merge, a compile, and runs the test suite. If the code passes, it
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is merged into the mainline.
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In a nutshell, here's the overall submission process:
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#. get your work ready (including review except for trivial changes)
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#. push to a public location
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#. ask PQM to merge from that location
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.. note::
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At present, PQM always takes the changes to merge from a branch
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at a URL that can be read by it. For Bazaar, that means a public,
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typically http, URL.
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As a result, the following things are needed to use PQM for submissions:
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#. A publicly available web server
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#. Your OpenPGP key registered with PQM (contact RobertCollins for this)
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#. The PQM plugin installed and configured (not strictly required but
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highly recommended).
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Selecting a Public Branch Location
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----------------------------------
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If you don't have your own web server running, branches can always be
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pushed to Launchpad. Here's the process for doing that:
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Depending on your location throughout the world and the size of your
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repository though, it is often quicker to use an alternative public
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location to Launchpad, particularly if you can set up your own repo and
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push into that. By using an existing repo, push only needs to send the
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changes, instead of the complete repository every time. Note that it is
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easy to register branches in other locations with Launchpad so no benefits
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are lost by going this way.
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.. note::
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For Canonical staff, http://people.ubuntu.com/~<user>/ is one
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suggestion for public http branches. Contact your manager for information
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on accessing this system if required.
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It should also be noted that best practice in this area is subject to
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change as things evolve. For example, once the Bazaar smart server on
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Launchpad supports server-side branching, the performance situation will
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be very different to what it is now (Jun 2007).
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Configuring the PQM Plug-In
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---------------------------
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While not strictly required, the PQM plugin automates a few things and
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reduces the chance of error. Before looking at the plugin, it helps to
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understand a little more how PQM operates. Basically, PQM requires an
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email indicating what you want it to do. The email typically looks like
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this::
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star-merge source-branch target-branch
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For example::
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star-merge http://bzr.arbash-meinel.com/branches/bzr/jam-integration http://bazaar-vcs.org/bzr/bzr.dev
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Note that the command needs to be on one line. The subject of the email
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will be used for the commit message. The email also needs to be ``gpg``
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signed with a key that PQM accepts.
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The advantages of using the PQM plugin are:
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#. You can use the config policies to make it easy to set up public
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branches, so you don't have to ever type the full paths you want to merge
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from or into.
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#. It checks to make sure the public branch last revision matches the
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local last revision so you are submitting what you think you are.
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#. It uses the same public_branch and smtp sending settings as bzr-email,
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so if you have one set up, you have the other mostly set up.
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#. Thunderbird refuses to not wrap lines, and request lines are usually
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pretty long (you have 2 long URLs in there).
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Here are sample configuration settings for the PQM plugin. Here are the
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lines in bazaar.conf::
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[DEFAULT]
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email = Joe Smith <joe.smith@internode.on.net>
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smtp_server=mail.internode.on.net:25
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And here are the lines in ``locations.conf`` (or ``branch.conf`` for
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dirstate-tags branches)::
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[/home/joe/bzr/my-integration]
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push_location = sftp://joe-smith@bazaar.launchpad.net/%7Ejoe-smith/bzr/my-integration/
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push_location:policy = norecurse
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public_branch = http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~joe-smith/bzr/my-integration/
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public_branch:policy = appendpath
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pqm_email = Bazaar PQM <pqm@bazaar-vcs.org>
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pqm_branch = http://bazaar-vcs.org/bzr/bzr.dev
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Note that the push settings will be added by the first ``push`` on
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a branch. Indeed the preferred way to generate the lines above is to use
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``push`` with an argument, then copy-and-paste the other lines into
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the relevant file.
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Submitting a Change
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-------------------
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Here is one possible recipe once the above environment is set up:
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#. pull bzr.dev => my-integration
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#. merge patch => my-integration
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#. fix up any final merge conflicts (NEWS being the big killer here).
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#. commit
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#. push
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#. pqm-submit
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.. note::
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The ``push`` step is not required if ``my-integration`` is a checkout of
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a public branch.
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Because of defaults, you can type a single message into commit and
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pqm-commit will reuse that.
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Tracking Change Acceptance
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--------------------------
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The web interface to PQM is https://pqm.bazaar-vcs.org/. After submitting
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a change, you can visit this URL to confirm it was received and placed in
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PQM's queue.
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When PQM completes processing a change, an email is sent to you with the
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results.
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Reviewing Blueprints
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====================
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Blueprint Tracking Using Launchpad
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----------------------------------
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New features typically require a fair amount of discussion, design and
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debate. For Bazaar, that information is often captured in a so-called
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"blueprint" on our Wiki. Overall tracking of blueprints and their status
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is done using Launchpad's relevant tracker,
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https://blueprints.launchpad.net/bzr/. Once a blueprint for ready for
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review, please announce it on the mailing list.
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Alternatively, send an email begining with [RFC] with the proposal to the
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list. In some cases, you may wish to attach proposed code or a proposed
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developer document if that best communicates the idea. Debate can then
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proceed using the normal merge review processes.
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Recording Blueprint Review Feedback
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-----------------------------------
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Unlike its Bug Tracker, Launchpad's Blueprint Tracker doesn't currently
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(Jun 2007) support a chronological list of comment responses. Review
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feedback can either be recorded on the Wiki hosting the blueprints or by
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using Launchpad's whiteboard feature.
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Planning Releases
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=================
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Roadmaps
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--------
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As the two senior developers, Martin Pool and Robert Collins coordinate
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the overall Bazaar product development roadmap. Core developers provide
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input and review into this, particularly during sprints. It's totally
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expected that community members ought to be working on things that
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interest them the most. The roadmap is valuable though because it provides
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context for understanding where the product is going as a whole and why.
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Using Releases and Milestones in Launchpad
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------------------------------------------
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TODO ... (Exact policies still under discussion)
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Bug Triage
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----------
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Keeping on top of bugs reported is an important part of ongoing release
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planning. Everyone in the community is welcome and encouraged to raise
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bugs, confirm bugs raised by others, and nominate a priority. Practically
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though, a good percentage of bug triage is often done by the core
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developers, partially because of their depth of product knowledge.
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With respect to bug triage, core developers are encouraged to play an
1644
active role with particular attention to the following tasks:
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* keeping the number of unconfirmed bugs low
1647
* ensuring the priorities are generally right (everything as critical - or
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medium - is meaningless)
1649
* looking out for regressions and turning those around sooner rather than later.
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1651
.. note::
1652
As well as prioritizing bugs and nominating them against a
1653
target milestone, Launchpad lets core developers offer to mentor others in
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fixing them. Nice.
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Managing a Release
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==================
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Starting a Release
1661
------------------
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TODO: Things to cover:
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* RFI on release objectives
1666
* RFI on higher risk things that are best done early, e.g. changes to file
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format defaults
1668
* Communication of proposed dates
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Weekly Status Updates
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---------------------
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TODO: Things to cover:
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* Early communication to downstream teams (e.g. Launchpad) about changes in dependencies.
1677
* Reminder re lifecycle and where we're up to right now
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* Summary of recent successes and pending work
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* Reminder re release objectives
1680
* Reminder re things needing attention, e.g. bug triage, reviews, testing of certain things, etc.
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1683
Feature Freeze
1684
--------------
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1686
TODO: Get material from http://bazaar-vcs.org/FeatureFreeze.
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1689
Release Candidates
1690
------------------
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1692
TODO: Get material from http://bazaar-vcs.org/ReleaseChecklist and clean
1693
it up to make it clearer what the RC vs final vs both tasks are.
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1696
The Final Release
1697
-----------------
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TODO: Get material from http://bazaar-vcs.org/ReleaseChecklist and clean
1700
it up to make it clearer what the RC vs final vs both tasks are.
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..
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vim: ft=rst tw=74 ai
Loggerhead is a web-based interface for Breezy
Version: 2.0.1