.
Before creating a branch, you first have to choose a base of your branch. Then you can create your branch:
Let's assume your name is me, your branch will be called feature1 and your base will be master.
There are several ways of creating a branch:
You can simply create it by doing this from the xonotic directory and selecting where to branch:
./all branch me/feature1
This will create the branch locally and nothing else. It will not checkout the branch. You can do this now with:
git checkout me/feature1
Another possibility would be to checkout your base, and then use git checkout -b me/feature1. This is usually nice if you already are on your base branch because it is a single command.
In case you want to make it available publicly, the most efficient way would be to first push the base branch as your branch on the remote:
git push origin master:refs/heads/me/feature1
git branch --track me/feature1 origin/me/feature1
git checkout me/feature1
The reason for this are tracking branches.
h4. Tracking branches
Whenever you are working with a branch that is available to the public, you want to know the state of your branch on the remote repository.
You can either do this manually by getting diffs and logs from origin/me/feature1..me/feature1 using
git log origin/me/feature1..me/feature1
git diff origin/me/feature1..me/feature1
Or you make sure you have tracking branches.
This can be done by using git branch --track ... to create the branch.
h4. Making a non-tracking branch a tracking branch
Most of gits magic is done in the config file. A tracking branch simple has merge information in the config. If your branch is not a tracking one and you wish to make it one, you can either push it, then remove the local version, and use git branch --track me/feature1 origin/me/feature1 to recreate it as a tracking one, or you add the necessary config lines:
git config branch.me/feature1.remote origin
git config branch.me/feature1.merge refs/heads/me/feature1
h2. Committing changes
After editing the code, you need to commit your changes. Since in git all your changes are local and you usually push to the repository after you added a set of changes, it is usually a good idea to make small commits with a good commit-message, instead of committing huge chunks of changes.
Some useful commands:
* To add new files to the index to be committed on git commit: git add file1 [file2...]
* To commit the files which have been added using git add: git commit
or git commit -m "message"
* To commit ALL changed files (without adding new files): git commit -a
or again: git commit -am "message"
In git all your changes are local. This includes your commits! If you want your branch to be updated on the remote repository, you have to push it.
* Usually, you can push your changes doing: git push me/feature1
* If your branch is not a tracking branch: git push origin me/feature1
or if you have an older git version you may have to do git push origin me/feature1:refs/heads/me/feature1
h2. Reverting
Remember that git revert creates a *new commit* which reverts the changes of the commit you are reverting.
This is important to avoid conflicts for others who pull from your branch.
If the change you are reverting is not yet pushed to any repository, you can also try to erase it from the history.
TODO: Add information about removing a commit from the history, and about how to remove the last commit by checkout out the previous one.
h2. Merging and rebasing
In git you have two ways of combining two branches: You can either merge them, which does exactly what its name suggests: it merges the commits together. Or you can rebase the branch.
Rebasing means that all your changes will be put at the end. This works by first collecting and removing all your changes, then replacing your branch with the base branch, then applying all your changes to it. Whenever something fails to apply you'll be asked to fix it, and then issue a git rebase --continue
* Merging master into me/feature1: git checkout me/feature1
git merge master
* Merging some other branches into me/feature1: git checkout me/feature1
git merge branch1 branch2 brnach3
* Rebasing my branch - you should only do this when the branch is not pushed to a remote repository regularly: git checkout me/feature1
git rebase master
in case of conflicts, edit the conflicting files, then do:
git add conflicting_file1 [conflicting_file2...]
git rebase --continue
TODO...