Git/Github docs lacking on creating new branches at a specific tag for migration purposes

[Ricky Olivier (ricky-lv426)]

The Git/Github docs aren't very clear (or lacking detail) about creating new branches for migration purposes. It seems it got things a bit muddled with creating branches on GitHub and then creating a local branch at a specific tag. When I come to push, the remote branch is obviously ahead of my local branch. The docs is not explicit about how to resolve the issue. I assume I should do a git pull (?), but it would be good to have this explicitly stated somewhere.

[Ricky Olivier (ricky-lv426)]

It would be good to know what exactly is required. Do we need to provide a branch on the forked GitHub repo with changes at a the git_migration tag, or does the branch on forked Github repo need to be at the latest tag with the new changes on top of that. The docs is not explicit about it.

I have a local branch with changes added after the git_migration tag, but this is obviously diverged from the remote branch I created on Github as per the current documentation instructions.

[Yaswant Pradhan (yaswant)]

Hi Ricky Olivier (@ricky-lv426), the git_migration tag serves as the link between svn and git. If your current development fork on GitHub is based on this tag and you want to commit your changes to the upstream main branch, you'll need to merge the latest changes from upstream main into your development branch.

There are different possible ways to achieve this, e.g., synchronise the main branch in your fork with upstream and then compare against your develop branch, and then open a PR.

We recently updated the visibility of several repositories from private to public. As a result, your fork may now be detached from the upstream repository. If this has happened, please reach out to GitHub Support and submit a ticket to have your fork reattached to upstream. You can find more information at https://metoffice.github.io/simulation-systems/git_faq.html#git-migration-faq-s.