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Developer Process
The Stan developer process is based on the gitflow model described by Vincent Driessen in the blog post "A successful Git branching model." The rest of this document details the steps required from developers. If you don't read anything else, please remember:
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Never push directly into the master or development branches, nor the hotfix-* or release-* branches.
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For working on new features, branch from develop into a branch called
feature/<some-descriptive-name>, and when the work is done (thoroughly tested and documented), create a pull request back intodevelop.
Master branch: The master branch is always at our most recent, production-ready release. Only production-ready releases should be pushed to this branch. Each point on this branch will be tagged with the most recent version number.
Development branch: The develop branch is the current working branch for development integration. We require this branch to pass all unit tests so that all development branches may branch from it. To enforce the functional state of the development branch, all pushes to it will be mediated by pull request. Before a pull request is merged with the development branch, the unit tests, distribution tests and model tests must pass.
Feature branches: All development work on features that have not been released go in feature branches. Feature branches branch from develop and should be named feature/<some-descriptive-name>. After development is complete on a feature, submit a pull request back to develop.
Hotfix branches: Patches to the current release go in hotfix branches. Hotfix branches branch from master and are named hotfix/<some-issue-number>. There should be an issue created for the bug in Stan's GitHub issue tracker prior to branching to provide an issue number. Once the patch is complete, submit a pull request back to master and it will be merged into both master and develop branches.
Release branches: Work to complete a new release go in release branches. Release branches branch from develop and are named release/<some-release-number>. Once a release branch is complete, it will be merged into both master and develop.
We are working on an honor system. The active developers with push permission on the Stan repository will still technically have the ability to push to the master, development, release, and hotfix branches.
Developers should take the following steps to configure git to prevent unintentional pushes to the master or development branches.
First, install git version 1.8 or later.
Second, configure git's push and merge behavior to match the gitflow process requirements. To configure push and merge behavior just for Stan, change directories to stan and execute the following two commands.
> git config push.default simple
> git config merge.ff false
To make these commands global to all git projects (not just Stan), use the following.
> git config --global push.default simple
> git config --global merge.ff false
The simple push default implies that only the current branch is git pushed to the specified remote
repository (typically origin), as opposed to the default behavior of git pushing all local branches to the specified remote repository.
The fast-forward merge configuration tweak prevents any fast-forward merges, since they are inconsistent with the gitflow development model.
Third, download the git pre-push script
to your local directory stan/.git/hooks/pre-push
Note that the file must not have any extension and must be executable. For anything but Windows, the file can be made executable with the command
> chmod +x stan/.git/hooks/pre-push
The pre-push script will be run whenever you git push but before anything is actually pushed. This gives the script the opportunity to check whether the remote repository is the origin (i.e., the stan-dev/stan repository on GitHub) and whether the branch is among those that you should not push to (i.e., master, development, release, or hotfix). You can still push to a feature branch on the origin or push anything to a remote repository that is not the origin.
Using this method, we can share feature branches with ease for collaboration. It involves the following steps.
First, clone the GitHub stan-dev/stan repository. From the command line:
> git clone https://github.com/stan-dev/stan.git
> cd stan
Second, verify you are in the correct default repository, develop, with the command.
> git branch
Third, create a branch. To create a feature branch, use the following
> git checkout develop
> git checkout -b feature/foo
> git push
For a hotfix branch (less common), suppose we are currently at version v3.2.1.
> git checkout master
> git checkout -b hotfix/v3.2.2
> git push
The last push command is to make the branch public. This will be necessary in order to create a pull request to have the work merged into the development (or master) branch.
Fourth, code and document using the usual git commands. Collaboration is easy since all the developers have push access to the feature (or hotfix) branch.
Fifth, when finished, create a pull request. A pull request indicates that the work is done and should be merged back to the appropriate branch.
When a pull request is made, it is expected that the current code passes:
> make manual
> make doxygen
> make test-unit
> make test-distributions
> make test-models
If these tests do not pass on your local machine, the pull request won't be accepted. Passing these tests do not guarantee that the pull request will be merged. It will first go through code review and then be tested on the integration server.
First, merge the current state of the branch develop back into the current feature branch. Update branch develop and merge it into the current branch .
Second, Deal with any conflicts arising from the merge.
Third, push the result of the merge so that the changes are available to GitHub.
> git pull origin develop
> git merge --no-ff develop
> git push
Fourth, create the pull request through GitHub.
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Go to https://github.com/stan-dev/stan (refresh the page if necessary)
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Select the feature branch you are working on in the drop-down list. (Below the "Clone in ..." row) A
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Click the "Pull Request" button that pops up underneath feature branch drop-down list.
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Fill in form and press "Send pull request".
Alternative directions to create a pull request:
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Go to https://github.com/stan-dev/stan (refresh page if necessary).
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Click
Pull Requestbutton. It's towards the top right, on the same row as the repository name,stan-dev/stan. -
Select the correct base repo,
stan-dev/stan, and base branch,develop. -
Select the correct head repository,
stan-dev/stan, and head branch,feature/foo. -
Fill in form and press "Send pull request".
For a hotfix branch:
Create a pull request.
Go to https://github.com/stan-dev/stan (refresh page if necessary)
Select the hotfix branch you are working on in the drop-down list. (Below the "Clone in ..." row)
A "Pull Request" button should pop up underneath the hotfix branch drop-down list. Click it.
Fill in form and press "Send pull request".
Alternate directions:
Go to https://github.com/stan-dev/stan (refresh page if necessary)
Click "Pull Request" button. It's towards the top right, on the same row as the repo name
"stan-dev/stan"
Select the correct base repo, "stan-dev/stan", and base branch, "develop"
Select the correct head repo, "stan-dev/stan", and head branch, "feature/foo"
Fill in form and press "Send pull request".
Relax.
At this point, one or more of the developers will check the pull request and do an informal code
review. At the same time, our Jenkins box will verify that all tests pass on Windows. If both are
good, then the pull request will be accepted, the code will get into the correct branch, and the
branch will be deleted.
If the pull request is not accepted immediately, fix the issues.
Check out the branch
> git checkout feature/foo
> git pull origin feature/foo
(Or you can set upstream tracking so you can do "git pull feature/foo")
Do work.
Others can help at this point since the branch is available to everyone else.
The work will update the pull request.
Go back to "5. Relax"
That's it. That's how it works.
How to Contribute with a Fork of the Repository (we should be using a clone)
(This is how some of us have been working. The downside: if you want others to help, you need to give people permissions to your personal fork of the stan repository.)
Fork the GitHub stan-dev/stan repository. Done through either the web or the GitHub application.
Create a branch. For a feature branch (most common):
> git checkout develop
> git checkout -b feature/foo
> git push
For a hotfix branch (less common):
If we're currently at v3.2.1
> git checkout master
> git checkout -b hotfix/v3.2.2
> git push
The last command, git push, is to make the branch public. This is necessary for when a pull request is
created.
Do work.
Use the regular git commands to work. If you want collaborators, let them have access to the branch.
Create a pull request.
A pull request indicates that the work is done and should be merged back to the appropriate place.
When the pull request is made, it is expected that the current code passes:
> make manual
> make doxygen
> make test-unit
> make test-distributions
> make test-models
If it does not pass on your local machine, it won't be accepted. Passing these tests do not guarantee
acceptance.
For a feature branch:
Merge the current state of "develop" back into the current feature branch:
Update "develop", merge "develop" into current branch (deal with any conflicts using git), push so
the changes are available to github.
> git pull origin develop
> git merge --no-ff develop
> git push
Create a pull request.
Go to https://github.com/stan-dev/stan (refresh page if necessary)
Select the feature branch you are working on in the drop-down list. (Below the "Clone in ..." row)
A "Pull Request" button should pop up underneath the feature branch drop-down list. Click it.
Fill in form and press "Send pull request".
Alternate directions:
Go to https://github.com/stan-dev/stan (refresh page if necessary)
Click "Pull Request" button. It's towards the top right, on the same row as the repo name
"stan-dev/stan"
Select the correct base repo, "stan-dev/stan", and base branch, "develop"
Select the correct head repo, "personal/stan", and head branch, "feature/foo"
Fill in form and press "Send pull request".
For a hotfix branch:
Create a pull request.
Go to https://github.com/stan-dev/stan (refresh page if necessary)
Select the hotfix branch you are working on in the drop-down list. (Below the "Clone in ..." row)
A "Pull Request" button should pop up underneath the hotfix branch drop-down list. Click it.
Fill in form and press "Send pull request".
Alternate directions:
Go to https://github.com/stan-dev/stan (refresh page if necessary)
Click "Pull Request" button. It's towards the top right, on the same row as the repo name
"stan-dev/stan"
Select the correct base repo, "stan-dev/stan", and base branch, "master"
Select the correct head repo, "personal/stan", and head branch, "feature/foo"
Fill in form and press "Send pull request".
Relax.
At this point, one or more of the developers will check the pull request and do an informal code
review. At the same time, our Jenkins box will verify that all tests pass on Windows. If both are
good, then the pull request will be accepted, the code will get into the correct branch, and the
branch will be deleted.
If the pull request is not accepted immediately, fix the issues.
Check out the branch
> git checkout feature/foo
> git pull origin feature/foo
(Or you can set upstream tracking so you can do "git pull feature/foo")
Do work.
Others can help if you've given them access. If this workflow is a problem, follow directions for
cloning.
The work will update the pull request.
Go back to "5. Relax"
How to Update Your Current Stan Directory
If you have no changes, just follow the above directions on cloning. If that doesn't work, do:
git pull
That will pull down all the current branches. If you were on working on branch "foo", the new branch will be at "feature/foo".
Commit all changes to foo:
git checkout foo git commit -m "mesage" -a
Check out the new feature branch named "feature/foo"
git checkout feature/foo
Merge the changes in your current branch:
git merge foo
Delete old branch:
git branch -d foo (shouldn't get warnings -- you've already merged into feature/foo)
Start working like normal. You're at step "3. Do Work" from the sections above.
(Informal) Code Review
We need to define what we're looking for, but to start:
- unit tests
- style
- correctness (by eye)
Here, it helps to be on the shared repo because this will allow other developers to help create tests if you're bogged down to finish out the process.
That should be most of the things we need for developers. If anything is unclear, please let me know. The Stan repo is back to being operational.
Rule 1. Branch master is in a releasable state.
Rule 2. All contributions come through pull requests.
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Anyone can create a pull request. We need you to explicitly assign copyright to the Stan development team.
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A pull request should be unit-tested,
make test-unit, at the very least. If your code touches anything that goes into distributions, a pull request should test the distributions,make test-distributions. If your code touches the modeling language, you should run the model tests,make test-models. -
Anyone can do an informal code review for a pull request and leave comments on the pull request's page on GitHub.
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One of the admins can start the tests on Jenkins (this may take hours).
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One of the admins can declare code review done and push the patch to
develop.