3 perlrepository - Using the Perl source repository
7 All of Perl's source code is kept centrally in a Git repository. The
8 repository contains many Perl revisions from Perl 1 onwards and all
9 the revisions from Perforce, the version control system we were using
10 previously. This repository is accessible in different ways.
12 The full repository takes up about 80MB of disk space. A check out of
13 the blead branch (that is, the master branch, which contains bleadperl,
14 the development version of perl 5) takes up about 160MB of disk space
15 (including the repository). A build of bleadperl takes up about 200MB
16 (including the repository and the check out).
18 =head1 GETTING ACCESS TO THE REPOSITORY
20 =head2 READ ACCESS VIA THE WEB
22 You may access this over the web. This allows you to browse the tree,
23 see recent commits, search for particular commits and more. You may
26 http://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git
28 =head2 READ ACCESS VIA GIT
30 You will need a copy of Git for your computer. You can fetch a copy of
31 the repository using the Git protocol (which uses port 9418):
33 git clone git://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git perl-git
35 This clones the repository and makes a local copy in the 'perl-git'
38 If your local network does not allow you to use port 9418, then you can
39 fetch a copy of the repository over HTTP (this is slower):
41 git clone http://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git perl-http
43 This clones the repository and makes a local copy in the 'perl-http'
46 =head2 WRITE ACCESS TO THE REPOSITORY
48 If you are a committer, then you can fetch a copy of the repository that
49 you can push back on with:
51 git clone ssh://perl5.git.perl.org/gitroot/perl.git perl-ssh
53 This clones the repository and makes a local copy in the 'perl-ssh'
56 If you clone using git, which is faster than ssh, then you will need to
57 modify your config in order to enable pushing. Edit F<.git/config> where
58 you will see something like:
61 url = git://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git
63 change that to something like this:
66 url = ssh://perl5.git.perl.org/gitroot/perl.git
68 NOTE: there are symlinks set up so that the /gitroot is actually optional.
70 You can also set up your user name and e-mail address. For example
72 % git config user.name "Leon Brocard"
73 % git config user.email acme@astray.com
75 It is also possible to keep C<origin> as a git remote, and add a new remote for ssh access:
77 % git remote add camel user@camel:/gitroot/perl.git
79 This allows you to update your local repository by pulling from C<origin>, which is faster and doesn't require you to authentify, and to push your changes back with the C<camel> remote:
84 The C<fetch> command just updates the C<camel> refs, as the objects themselves should have been fetched when pulling from C<origin>.
86 =head1 OVERVIEW OF THE REPOSITORY
88 Once you have changed into the repository directory, you can inspect it.
91 After a clone the repository will contain a single local branch, which
92 will be the current branch as well, as indicated by the asterix.
97 Using the -a switch to branch will also show the remote tracking branches in the
106 The branches that begin with "origin" correspond to the "git remote" that
107 you cloned from (which is named "origin"). Each branch on the remote will
108 be exactly tracked by theses branches. You should NEVER do work on these
109 remote tracking branches. You only ever do work in a local branch. Local
110 branches can be configured to automerge (on pull) from a designated remote
111 tracking branch. This is the case with the default branch C<blead> which
112 will be configured to merge from the remote tracking branch
115 You can see recent commits:
119 And pull new changes from the repository, and update your local repository
120 (must be clean first)
124 Assuming we are on the branch C<blead> immediately after a pull, this command
125 would be more or less equivalent to:
128 % git merge origin/blead
130 In fact if you want to update your local repository without touching your working
135 And if you want to update your remote-tracking branches for all defined remotes
136 simultaneously you can do
140 Neither of these last two commands will update your working directory, however
141 both will update the remote-tracking branches in your repository.
143 To switch to another branch:
145 % git checkout origin/maint-5.8-dor
147 To make a local branch of a remote branch:
149 % git checkout -b maint-5.10 origin/maint-5.10
151 To switch back to blead:
155 =head2 FINDING OUT YOUR STATUS
157 The most common git command you will use will probably be
161 This command will produce as output a description of the current state of the
162 repository, including modified files and unignored untracked files, and in addition
163 it will show things like what files have been staged for the next commit,
164 and usually some useful information about how to change things. For instance the
169 # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/blead' by 1 commit.
171 # Changes to be committed:
172 # (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
174 # modified: pod/perlrepository.pod
176 # Changed but not updated:
177 # (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
179 # modified: pod/perlrepository.pod
182 # (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
184 # deliberate.untracked
186 This shows that there were changes to this document staged for commit, and
187 that there were further changes in the working directory not yet staged. It
188 also shows that there was an untracked file in the working directory, and as
189 you can see shows how to change all of this. It also shows that there
190 is one commit on the working branch C<blead> which has not been pushed to the
191 C<origin> remote yet. B<NOTE>: that this output is also what you see as a
192 template if you do not provide a message to C<git commit>.
194 Assuming we commit all the mentioned changes above:
196 % git commit -a -m'explain git status and stuff about remotes'
197 Created commit daf8e63: explain git status and stuff about remotes
198 1 files changed, 83 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
200 We can re-run git status and see something like this:
204 # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/blead' by 2 commits.
207 # (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
209 # deliberate.untracked
210 nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
213 When in doubt, before you do anything else, check your status and read it
214 carefully, many questions are answered directly by the git status output.
216 =head1 SUBMITTING A PATCH
218 If you have a patch in mind for Perl, you should first get a copy of
221 % git clone git://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git perl-git
223 Then change into the directory:
227 Alternatively, if you already have a Perl repository, you should
228 ensure that you're on the I<blead> branch, and your repository
234 Now that we have everything up to date, we need to create a temporary new
235 branch for these changes and switch into it:
237 % git checkout -b orange
239 which is the short form of
242 % git checkout orange
244 Then make your changes. For example, if Leon Brocard changes his name
245 to Orange Brocard, we should change his name in the AUTHORS file:
247 % perl -pi -e 's{Leon Brocard}{Orange Brocard}' AUTHORS
249 You can see what files are changed:
253 # Changes to be committed:
254 # (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
259 And you can see the changes:
262 diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
263 index 293dd70..722c93e 100644
266 @@ -541,7 +541,7 @@ Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ucc.ie>
267 Laszlo Molnar <laszlo.molnar@eth.ericsson.se>
268 Leif Huhn <leif@hale.dkstat.com>
269 Len Johnson <lenjay@ibm.net>
270 -Leon Brocard <acme@astray.com>
271 +Orange Brocard <acme@astray.com>
272 Les Peters <lpeters@aol.net>
273 Lesley Binks <lesley.binks@gmail.com>
274 Lincoln D. Stein <lstein@cshl.org>
276 Now commit your change locally:
279 % git commit -m 'Rename Leon Brocard to Orange Brocard'
280 Created commit 6196c1d: Rename Leon Brocard to Orange Brocard
281 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
283 Now you should create a patch file for all your local changes:
285 % git format-patch origin
286 0001-Rename-Leon-Brocard-to-Orange-Brocard.patch
288 You should now send an email to perl5-porters@perl.org with a
289 description of your changes, and attach this patch file as an
292 If you want to delete your temporary branch, you may do so with:
295 % git branch -d orange
296 error: The branch 'orange' is not an ancestor of your current HEAD.
297 If you are sure you want to delete it, run 'git branch -D orange'.
298 % git branch -D orange
299 Deleted branch orange.
301 =head1 ACCEPTING A PATCH
303 If you have received a patch file generated using the above section,
304 you should try out the patch.
306 First we need to create a temporary new branch for these changes and
309 % git checkout -b experimental
311 Now we should apply the patch:
313 % git am 0001-Rename-Leon-Brocard-to-Orange-Brocard.patch
314 Applying Rename Leon Brocard to Orange Brocard
316 Now we can inspect the change:
319 commit b1b3dab48344cff6de4087efca3dbd63548ab5e2
320 Author: Leon Brocard <acme@astray.com>
321 Date: Fri Dec 19 17:02:59 2008 +0000
323 Rename Leon Brocard to Orange Brocard
327 diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
328 index 293dd70..722c93e 100644
331 @@ -541,7 +541,7 @@ Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ucc.ie>
332 Laszlo Molnar <laszlo.molnar@eth.ericsson.se>
333 Leif Huhn <leif@hale.dkstat.com>
334 Len Johnson <lenjay@ibm.net>
335 -Leon Brocard <acme@astray.com>
336 +Orange Brocard <acme@astray.com>
337 Les Peters <lpeters@aol.net>
338 Lesley Binks <lesley.binks@gmail.com>
339 Lincoln D. Stein <lstein@cshl.org>
341 If you are a committer to Perl and you think the patch is good, you can
342 then merge it into blead then push it out to the main repository:
345 % git merge experimental
348 If you want to delete your temporary branch, you may do so with:
351 % git branch -d experimental
352 error: The branch 'experimental' is not an ancestor of your current HEAD.
353 If you are sure you want to delete it, run 'git branch -D experimental'.
354 % git branch -D experimental
355 Deleted branch experimental.
357 =head1 CLEANING A WORKING DIRECTORY
359 The command C<git clean> can with varying arguments be used as a replacement for make-clean.
361 To reset your working directory to a pristine condition you can do:
365 However, be aware this will delete ALL untracked content. You can use
369 to remove all ignored untracked files, such as build and test byproduct, but leave any
370 manually created files alone.