gitolite/contrib/adc/hub.mkd

# the 'hub' ADC

In this document:

  * <a href="#_a_home_grown_hub_for_git_repos">a home grown 'hub' for git repos</a>
  * <a href="#_general_syntax">general syntax</a>
      * <a href="#_Bob_s_commands">Bob's commands</a>
      * <a href="#_Alice_s_just_looking_commands">Alice's "just looking" commands</a>
      * <a href="#_Alice_s_action_commands">Alice's "action" commands</a>
  * <a href="#_what_next_">what next?</a>
  * <a href="#_note_to_the_admin_configuration_variables">note to the admin: configuration variables</a>

<a name="_a_home_grown_hub_for_git_repos"></a>

### a home grown 'hub' for git repos

This ADC (admin-defined command) helps collaboration among repos.  The name is
in honor of github, which is the primary host for gitolite itself.

[Note that github is a web-based service, and does a lot more, like comments,
code reviews, etc., none of which are possible here.  We're only talking about
some basic stuff to make the most common operations easier.  In particular,
this system is not a replacement for normal project communications like
email!]

**Conventions used**: all through the following description, we will assume
that **Alice** has a repo **parent**, **Bob** has a fork of parent called
**child**, and he is asking Alice to pull a branch he made called **b1** from
child to parent.

In plain git (without using github or similar), the pull request process
starts with an email from Bob to Alice, followed by Alice running a `git fetch
<Bob's URL> b1` (optionally preceded by a `git remote add` for convenience of
long term use).  Until this happens she can't see much detail about the
commits to be pulled.

**What this ADC does** is (a) collect all the pull requests she needs to look
at in one place, and (b) allow her to examine the changes with any combination
of `git log` and `git diff` options *without having to fetch the content
first*, and (c) act as a trusted intermediary to allow Alice to fetch *just
one branch* from Bob even if she does not have any access to Bob's repository!

In a situation where there may be lots of requests, being able to take a quick
look at them (and possibly reject some), without having to pull down anything
at all, could be very useful.

Once past that level, she could get the changes down to her workstation using
`git fetch` as normal.  With this ADC, however, she has another alternative:
get them over to `parent` (her repo) on the same gitolite server, then later
do a normal `git fetch [origin]` to get it to her workstation.  This has the
added advantage that other people, who may be watching her repo but not Bob's,
now get to see what Bob sent her and send comments etc.

<a name="_general_syntax"></a>

### general syntax

The general syntax is

    ssh git@server hub <hub-command> <args>

<a name="_Bob_s_commands"></a>

#### Bob's commands

The following commands do not cause a fetch, and should be quite fast:

  * Bob sends a pull request for branch b1 to repo parent.  Notice he does not
    mention Alice by name.  This command expects a message to be piped/typed
    in via STDIN [this message is meant to be transient and is not stored long
    term; use email for more "permanent" communications].

        echo "hi Alice, please pull" | ssh git@server hub request-pull child b1 [parent]

    If `child` was created by a recent version of the 'fork' ADC (or the KDE
    'clone' ADC), which records the name of the parent repo on a fork, and it
    is *that* repo to which Bob wishes to send the pull request, the third
    argument is optional.

  * Bob lists the status (fetched/rejected/pending) of pull requests he has
    made from his repo child to repo parent.  (Note we don't say "accepted" but
    "fetched"; see later for why):

        ssh git@server hub request-status child [parent]

    The second argument is optional the same way as the 3rd argument in the
    previous command.

<a name="_Alice_s_just_looking_commands"></a>

#### Alice's "just looking" commands

  * Alice lists requests waiting for her to check and possibly pull into
    parent.  For each waiting pull request, she will see a serial number, the
    originating repo name (child, in our example), the requestor (Bob, here),
    and the branch/tag-name (b1) being pulled:

        ssh git@server hub list-requests parent

    This command also takes an optional list of search strings that are OR-d
    together and matched against the 'status' field.  So saying

        ssh git@server hub list-requests parent fetched pending

    would list only items that were 'fetched' or 'pending' (meaning 'accepted'
    and 'rejected' would not show up).

  * Alice views request # 1 waiting to be pulled into parent.  Shows the same
    details as above for that request, followed by the message that Bob typed
    in when he ran `request-pull`:

        ssh git@server hub view-request parent 1

  * Alice views the log of the branch she is being asked to pull.  Note that
    this does NOT involve a fetch, so it will be pretty fast.  The log starts
    from b1, and stops at a SHA that represents any of the branches in parent.
    Alice can use any git-log options she wants to; for instance `--graph`,
    `--decorate`, `--boundary`, etc., could be quite useful.  However, she
    can't use any GUI; it has to be 'git log':

        ssh git@server hub view-log parent 1 <git log options>

    Notice that the repo name Alice supplies is still her own, although the
    log comes from the child repo that Bob wants Alice to pull from.  It's
    best if you think of this as "view the commits from pull request #1 in
    'parent'".

  * Alice views the diff between arbitrary commits on child:

        ssh git@server hub view-diff parent 1 <git diff options>

    Again, she mentions *her* reponame but the diff's come from `child`.  Also
    note that, due to restrictions on what characters are allowed in arguments
    to ADCs, you probably can't do things like `pu^` or `master~3`, and have
    to use SHAs instead.

<a name="_Alice_s_action_commands"></a>

#### Alice's "action" commands

  * Alice doesn't like what she sees and decides to reject it.  This command
    expects some text on STDIN as the rejection message:

        echo "hi Bob, your patch needs work; see email" | ssh git@server hub reject parent 1

  * Alice likes what she sees so far and wants to fetch the branch Bob is
    asking her to pull.  Note that we are intentionally not using the word
    "accept", because this command does not (and cannot, since it is running
    on a bare repo on the server) do a pull.  What it does is it fetches into
    a branch whose name will be `requests/child/b1`.

    Note that when multiple requests from the same repo (child) for the same
    branch (b1) happen, each "fetch" overwrites the branch.  This allows Bob
    to continually refine the branch he is requesting for a pull based on
    (presumably emailed) comments from Alice.  In a way, this is a "remote
    tracking branch", just like `refs/remotes/origin/b1`.

        ssh git@server hub fetch parent 1

    This command will actually fetch from child into parent, and may take time
    when the changes are large.  However all this is on the server so it does
    not involve network traffic:

  * Alice has fetched the stuff she wants, looked at it/tested it, and decides
    to merge it into `parent`.  Once that is done, she runs:

        echo "thanks for the frobnitz patch Bob" | ssh git@server hub accept parent 1

    to let Bob know next time he checks 'request-status'.  Like the `reject`
    sub-command, this is also just a status update; no actual 'git' changes
    happen.

Notice the sequence of Alice's action commands: it's either 'reject', or a
'fetch' then 'accept'.

<a name="_what_next_"></a>

### what next?

At this point, you're done with the `hub` ADC.  However, all this is on the
bare `parent.git` on the server, and nothing has hit Alice's workstation yet!
Alice will still have to run a fetch or a pull on her workstation if she wants
to check the code in detail, use a tool like gitk, and especially to
compile/test it.  *Then* she decides whether to accept or reject the request,
which will have to be communicated via email, of course; see the second para
of this document ;-)

Finally, note that Alice does not actually need to use the `fetch` subcommand.
She can do the traditional thing and fetch Bob's repo/branch directly to her
*workstation*.

<a name="_note_to_the_admin_configuration_variables"></a>

### note to the admin: configuration variables

There are 2 configuration variables.  `BASE_FETCH_URL` should be set to a
simple "read" URL (so it doesn't even have to be ssh) that almost anyone using
this server can use.  It's only used in producing the `git fetch` command
mentioned just above.

`GL_FORKED_FROM` is set to `gl-forked-from` by default, but if your initials
are `JM` you can set it to `kde-cloned-from` to save time and trouble ;-)