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- Committer: Canonical.com Patch Queue Manager
- Date: 2007-09-06 04:32:36 UTC
- mfrom: (2800.1.1 ianc-integration)
- Revision ID: pqm@pqm.ubuntu.com-20070906043236-6mcj3cqvtl3i58t8
Document core developer tasks in 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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See `A Closer Look at the Merge & Review Process`_
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for information on the gates used to decide whether code can be merged
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or not and details on how review results are recorded and communicated.
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The Importance of Timely Reviews
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--------------------------------
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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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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
1575
(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
1581
=================
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Roadmaps
1584
--------
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As the two senior developers, Martin Pool and Robert Collins coordinate
1587
the overall Bazaar product development roadmap. Core developers provide
1588
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
1590
interest them the most. The roadmap is valuable though because it provides
1591
context for understanding where the product is going as a whole and why.
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1594
Using Releases and Milestones in Launchpad
1595
------------------------------------------
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TODO ... (Exact policies still under discussion)
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Bug Triage
1601
----------
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1603
Keeping on top of bugs reported is an important part of ongoing release
1604
planning. Everyone in the community is welcome and encouraged to raise
1605
bugs, confirm bugs raised by others, and nominate a priority. Practically
1606
though, a good percentage of bug triage is often done by the core
1607
developers, partially because of their depth of product knowledge.
1608
1609
With respect to bug triage, core developers are encouraged to play an
1610
active role with particular attention to the following tasks:
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1612
* keeping the number of unconfirmed bugs low
1613
* ensuring the priorities are generally right (everything as critical - or
1614
medium - is meaningless)
1615
* looking out for regressions and turning those around sooner rather than later.
1616
1617
.. note::
1618
As well as prioritizing bugs and nominating them against a
1619
target milestone, Launchpad lets core developers offer to mentor others in
1620
fixing them. Nice.
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1623
Managing a Release
1624
==================
1625
1626
Starting a Release
1627
------------------
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1629
TODO: Things to cover:
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1631
* RFI on release objectives
1632
* RFI on higher risk things that are best done early, e.g. changes to file
1633
format defaults
1634
* Communication of proposed dates
1635
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1637
Weekly Status Updates
1638
---------------------
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1640
TODO: Things to cover:
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1642
* Early communication to downstream teams (e.g. Launchpad) about changes in dependencies.
1643
* Reminder re lifecycle and where we're up to right now
1644
* Summary of recent successes and pending work
1645
* Reminder re release objectives
1646
* Reminder re things needing attention, e.g. bug triage, reviews, testing of certain things, etc.
1647
1648
1649
Feature Freeze
1650
--------------
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1652
TODO: Get material from http://bazaar-vcs.org/FeatureFreeze.
1653
1654
1655
Release Candidates
1656
------------------
1657
1658
TODO: Get material from http://bazaar-vcs.org/ReleaseChecklist and clean
1659
it up to make it clearer what the RC vs final vs both tasks are.
1660
1661
1662
The Final Release
1663
-----------------
1664
1665
TODO: Get material from http://bazaar-vcs.org/ReleaseChecklist and clean
1666
it up to make it clearer what the RC vs final vs both tasks are.
1667
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..
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vim: ft=rst tw=74 ai
Loggerhead is a web-based interface for Breezy
Version: 2.0.2.dev0