Tips for git management - JETSCAPE/X-SCAPE GitHub Wiki

The recommended way to develop code and request that it be added to the next X-SCAPE release is to develop your code in a public fork of X-SCAPE, and then make a pull request:

1. First, fork X-SCAPE via the github interface.
2. Next, go to the directory on your machine where you would like to develop your local fork of X-SCAPE, and clone X-SCAPE:

   git clone [email protected]:<my_github_username>/X-SCAPE.git
   

3. Add a remote pointing to the public X-SCAPE repository. This will allow you to keep your fork updated in case there are updates to the X-SCAPE public repository while we are developing our code. Let's also rename your fork's remote to make things clear.

   cd X-SCAPE
   git remote add X-SCAPE [email protected]:JETSCAPE/X-SCAPE.git
   git remote rename origin myFork
   

   You can verify that we now have two "remotes" available that we can pull from and push to:

   git remote -v
   
   [You should see something like the following]
   X-SCAPE    [email protected]:JETSCAPE/X-SCAPE.git (fetch)
   X-SCAPE    [email protected]:JETSCAPE/X-SCAPE.git (push)
   myFork      [email protected]:jdmulligan/X-SCAPE.git (fetch)
   myFork      [email protected]:jdmulligan/X-SCAPE.git (push)
   

4. Create a new development branch (let’s call it "dev") and add your commits:

   git checkout -b dev           # create a new local branch called "dev"
   ...
   git commit -m "my brilliant commit"
   

5. Pull in the latest changes from the public X-SCAPE repository, and then push your changes to your fork:

   git checkout main    
   git pull X-SCAPE             # pull in updates from X-SCAPE to your local main branch
   git checkout -b dev               
   git pull --rebase . main      # pull in updates from your local main branch into your local dev branch
                                 # The "rebase" option will keep your commits at the tip of the branch, which keeps an easy-to-manage linear history.
   ...                           
   git push myFork dev:main      # push your local "dev" branch to the "main" branch on your remote fork
   

   In case you are doing long-term developments, you should repeat this step frequently to minimize the chance of merge conflicts.
6. Open a pull request via the github webpage.

That’s it! You can repeat steps 4-6 for new pull requests.