2. The Git Repository

If you become part of the active development team, you will eventually need write access to our holy grail, the Git repository. One of the team members will need to set this up for you. Please read this chapter completely before accessing via Git.

2.1. Access to Git

The project's Git repository is hosted on the Privoxy webserver. For Privoxy team members with push privileges the Git repository URL is ssh://[email protected]:23/git/privoxy.git.

Contributors without push privileges can "git clone https://www.privoxy.org/git/privoxy.git".

The central repository is called privoxy, and the source branch is called master. Subfolders exist within the project for target-dependent build and packaging tools, each including the name of the target operating system in their name (e.g. Windows, OSXPackageBuilder, debian). There is a webview of the Git hierarchy at https://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=tree, which might help with visualizing how these pieces fit together.

2.2. Branches

Whilst the central repository contains only the master branch, developers are of course free to create branches in their local repositories as they develop features, fixes, or update the target-dependent tools. Only once such changes are fully tested ought they be pushed back to the central repository master branch.

Before pushing stuff, please rebase it on a current master so we get an uncomplicated commit history. Avoid merges where possible.

Here's an example git sesssion that should result in a merge-free history:

  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $git checkout master
  Switched to branch 'master'
  Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.
  # Make sure you have the latest changes
  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $git pull
  Already up to date.
  # Create a local banch for changes
  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $git checkout -b local-branch
  Switched to a new branch 'local-branch'
  # Create some change
  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $gmake dok dok-tidy
  [...]
  # Review your change
  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $git diff
  [...]
  # Commit your changes if they look goood
  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $git commit -m "developer-manual: Regenerate" doc/webserver/
  [local-branch 1abb7316] developer-manual: Regenerate
   1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
  # Review your commit
  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $git show
  [...]
  # Go to the master branch
  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $git checkout master
  Switched to branch 'master'
  Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.
  # Make sure you are still in sync
  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $git pull
  [...]
  Already up to date.
  # Apply the commit you made to the local-branch
  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $git cherry-pick local-branch
  [master 046e85e2] developer-manual: Regenerate
   Date: Tue Dec 15 05:10:07 2020 +0100
   1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
  # Make sure the history looks as expected
  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $git log -p
  # Finally push your change to the Privoxy repository
  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $git push
  [...]
  # Go back to the local branch
  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $git checkout local-branch
  # Rebase on top of master and continue hacking
  fk@t520 ~/git/privoxy $git rebase master
  Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/local-branch.

At one time there were two distinct branches: stable and unstable. The more drastic changes were to be in the unstable branch. These branches have now been merged to minimize time and effort of maintaining two branches.

2.3. Git Commit Guidelines

The source tree is the heart of every software project. Every effort must be made to ensure that it is readable, compilable and consistent at all times. We expect anyone with Git access to strictly adhere to the following guidelines:

Basic Guidelines, for all branches: