Albert Lea Data Wiki

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====== Software Development and Deployment Topics ======

===== Revision Control: git =====

Our revision control workflow uses some branching conventions combined with some access policies to ensure that work being done in parallel by a number of developers can proceed with a minimum of collision-caused trouble, and with maximum safety.

==== Repositories ====
There are three tiers of repository:
  * The off-site/archival "vault" repository \\ This repo resides in codehub, and is only read-accessible.  No direct changes will be made to this repository. \\
  * The central development "shared" repository \\ This repo resides on the development server, and is where all developers will push their changes to. \\
  * Individual developer "clone" repositories \\ Every developer will have one or more of these, which serve as the "working space" for code changes to be made and committed. \\

=== Codehub Repository ===
Only build/release admins will have write-access to the "vault" repository in codehub.  The only route for changes into this repository is a push from the shared development repository.  This will only be done per release, by a build/release admin, and can be deferred until all aspects of a release and the associated changes are fully vetted.  This repository also serves as an off-site backup.

=== Central/Shared Development Repository ===
This is the repository that all developers will clone their individual working repositories from, which means it is also the repository that will receive the pushes of changes from developers.  The only direct changes made in this repository will be official release merges to the master branch, performed only by a build/release admin, for the purpose of integrating changes for a release.  When a release has been built, tested, and deployed successfully, it can then be pushed to the codehub repository.

=== Individual/Developer Clone Repositories ===
These are cloned from the shared development repository, and serve as working space to make, and ultimately commit, changes.  When ready, changes are pushed from these, by their respective owners, to the shared central repository.

==== Practices & Policies ====
These practices and policies are implied by the structure of the repositories.

=== Master Branch ===
The master branch of the central shared repository is locked, allowing no changes to be pushed to it from any clones.  This protects the primary change history from accidental damage.  It will only be manipulated via merge from the development branch, and only by a build/release admin, at build/release/patch time.  // This may, at some point, be automated //

=== Development Branch ===
There is a branch which serves as the shared change history, which is eligible to receive changes pushed from individual/developer clones.  This branch has the name ''dev'', and serves as the staging tier for all changes to be integrated and tested prior to builds/releases.  Every individual/developer clone should be "switched" to the dev branch for all revision control activity.  Any changes made on a clone's master branch will be rejected by the central shared repository, so diligence in correct branch usage will be in everyone's best interest.

=== Individual Branches ===
Optionally, further branching can be done in the clones at the developer's discretion.  This is encouraged, and can be helpful in keeping sets of changes isolated and organized, potentially preventing merge/collision difficulties, or even helping to resolve such difficulties once they've occurred.

==== Basic Workflow ====
This would be the highlights of the typical developer change cycle workflow:
  * Developer clones from shared central repository, or updates existing clone with ''git pull''
  * Clone is switched to ''dev'' branch:  ''git checkout dev''
  * Iterations of change-then-commit cycles in clone working space
  * Merge changes from others with a ''git pull'' from the shared repo, and resolve conflicts
  * Push freshly-resolved merge to the central shared repository

The central build cycle workflow:
  * All developers commit, push, and confirm completion on the ''dev'' branch
  * An integration/test release is build from the current ''dev'' branch, and deployed to the central dev environment for testing and verification
  * When the release passes verification, a build/release admin merges the ''dev'' branch to the master branch in the central shared repository, and builds the production release from the master branch
  * After the production release is deployed and verified, the codehub repository can be updated with a push from the central shared repository
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