Create your Pull Request

Owned by Holger Hagen (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Aug 03, 2021 by Sofie Hofmann (Unlicensed)
3 min read

Preparations before Starting

Understanding the Git basics

Not sure what a pull request is, or how to submit one? Take a look at GitHub's excellent documentation at https://help.github.com/articles/about-pull-requests/ and https://help.github.com/en/articles/creating-a-pull-request first.

To create a pull request, please refer to GIT basic, which gives a detailed description of the commands needed.

Configure Git to use real name in commits

Please configure git to use your real first and last name and your git noreply email adress for any commits you intend to submit as pull requests, e.g.
Author: First Last <your_account@users.noreply.github.com>

You can configure this globally with:

git config --global user.name "John Doe" git config --global user.email john_does_github_account@users.noreply.github.com

These settings will be written to ~/.gitconfig on Unix and %APPDATA%\.gitconfig on Windows, see https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git/

Alternatively, you can configure this locally for the taskana repository only by omitting the `--global` flag:

cd taskana git config user.name "John Doe" git config user.email john_does_github_account@users.noreply.github.com

 

Where to find my github noreply email

Go to Settings→Email in your account. Under "Keep my email addresses private" you can find the no reply email with your specific account. Also be sure to set this check box and the  check box "Block command line pushes that expose my mail" also to avoid check ins with email other than the noreply address.

 

Pull Request Pipeline

Each change to the master branch is done by a pull request (PR). A PR has to be reviewed and approved by one or many reviewers before merging into production code. A submitter is a person who creates the pull request. A reviewer is a person who will approve or decline the pull request at its current state. A merger is a person who finally integrates the PR into the master branch.

Our definition of a good pull request

  • Single responsibility → split PR if possible

  • Preferring small PRs

  • No unneeded changes (like different formatting, makes hard to read the diff)

  • Comment on important reasons of “why this changes” on the PR (not the code itself)

  • Solve merge conflicts (may also happen after PR is created)

  • Leave code a little better than you checked it out

Before creating a pull request

  • Run all tests, verify checkstyle

  • Format your commit messages in the following way:

    • Prefix Git commit messages with the ticket number, e.g. "TSK-140: xyz"

    • Describe why you are making the change, e.g. "TSK-140: Added logback to suppress the debug messages during maven build" (not only "changed logging")

  • Review your diff & changes → be happy or rework your PR

  • Remove unneeded changes to make the review simpler

  • Don’t use a ticket again if the ticket is already part of a release

When creating a pull request

After approval

  • The submitter merges his PR, not the reviewer

  • If PR is changed after approval, approval is removed

After the merge

  • After successful integration of a pull request, verify bluemix test environment is not broken

  • The merger puts the ticket to “integrated”

 

Git Command Pipeline

The Git infrastructure is set up as follows:

  • The upstream repository contains the taskana repository on Github

  • The origin repository contains your private repository on Github

  • The local repository contains your private repository locally.

If you start to work on a new ticket, you first go to your local repository in the master branch:

git checkout master

Then, bring this branch in sync with the upstream (i.e. taskana) master branch:

Then, bring your private remote master branch (origin) in sync:

Now, create your new branch that contains your work:

Now, do your development work, stage modified, deleted and new files and commit locally.

Now, push your local branch into your remote private repository.

This creates a new branch in your remote private Github repository. From there, create a pull request against the taskana repository on Github.