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Git for Macaulay2 Contributors

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David Eisenbud edited this page Sep 26, 2023 · 7 revisions

There are two reasons you may wish to download the source code of Macaulay2: you may have a machine for which we have not distributed a recently compiled version of Macaulay2, and thus you want to compile it yourself; you may want to propose a change to Macaulay2, such as adding a new package, modifying an existing package, or modifying some other part of the source code of Macaulay2, such as the interpreter written in the D language, or the engine, written in C++. We distinguish those two cases below.

You may also wish to download the files in a workshop repository and modify them. Eventually we'll write a third section to cover that case, but for now, please refer to Git-Info.

The source code of Macaulay2 is stored in a git repository, hosted on the web site GitHub, and downloaded with the aid of the command line program git. Install git, if necessary, by getting it here:

Then follow the instructions in one of the following two sections.

For those who want the source code but don't intend to propose changes

To get the source code of Macaulay2 if you are not a package developer, one "clones" our git repository with the following shell command:

  • git clone https://github.com/Macaulay2/M2

The source code will appear in a directory called M2, which you may rename if you wish. In that directory you can find the following items of interest:

  • The source code for the package Foo: the file M2/Macaulay2/packages/Foo.m2 and possibly the directory M2/Macaulay2/packages/Foo/ and its contents.
  • The instructions for building Macaulay2: M2/INSTALL

For those who want the source code and intend to propose changes

Start by "forking" the Macaulay2 repository, by following the following steps in a browser.

Tell git what your name and email address are, for correct labelling of your updates, with shell commands like the following, except that the name and email address are replaced by yours.

  • git config --global user.name "John Doe"
  • git config --global user.email johndoe@example.com

Then use the following shell command to get a copy of your copy of the source code of Macaulay2:

  • git clone git@github.com:USERNAME/M2

Now build Macaulay2 according to the instructions in M2/INSTALL and use the result in the following steps.

Edit and test your code. Whenever you want to send your changes to your local copy of M2, proceed as follows:

  • Review the status of your files with
    • git status
  • Review your changes, if necessary, with git diff
  • Add the files whose changes are to be committed with git add FILENAME ...
  • Commit the files to your local copy of the repository:
    • Issue the command git commit
    • An editor window will pop up in which you should type a message describing the changes, with this format:
      • First line is 50 characters or less
      • Then a blank line
      • Remaining text should be wrapped at 72 characters
  • An alternative to the two steps above, if you are ready to commit all the files that you have changed, is git commit -a
  • Push the committed changes to your fork of M2 at github: git push

To import the latest changes from the Macaulay2 repository into your repository and try to merge your code with them, use:

  • git pull https://github.com/Macaulay2/M2 master

To import the latest changes from the Macaulay2 repository into your repository without trying to merge your code with them, use:

  • git fetch https://github.com/Macaulay2/M2 master

To display the history of your changes graphically, use this command: (gitk doesn't work on my mac using zsh--D Eisenbud)

  • gitk

To show the history of all of your branches and any branches imported from the Macaulay2 repository, use:

  • gitk --all

When you want to send your changes to the central Macaulay2 repository, do this in a browser:

  • If you are submitting a new package, remember to add its name to the end of the list in the file M2/Macaulay2/packages/=distributed-packages.
  • Submit a pull request at https://github.com/USERNAME/M2/pull/new/BRANCHNAME, or find the pull request button on the page of your fork at https://github.com/USERNAME/M2. The pull request should be directed toward our branch named "master" or "development".
  • After submitting your pull request, push no further commits to your branch, so we can have a chance to review your submission. Once the review is done, comments about your code will be posted on github, and requested changes are easily submitted by committing them to your branch. Once you finish addressing our comments, let us know by adding a comment, and we'll repeat the process until your code is accepted and "pulled".

Once your pull request is submitted on github, some automatic checks will be performed (continuous integration). One of these checks is using codespell to verify the orthograph. It will report in which lines of which files there are possibly wrong words, and suggest how to replace them. If you think that you must use this precise word nevertheless, consider adding it as another exception to the file .codespell_ignore.

Other links:

Macaulay2

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