The Contributor's How to Guide

The Contributor's How to Guide

How to make changes

If you are on Windows open up the git bash, everyone else grab a terminal. Remember, commit early and often and always check your work before committing. Check everything again before pushing to github!

1. Check for changes upstream:

   cd /path/to/Observatory
   git pull origin
   

2. Make sure you are on the right branch, you probably want the rcos branch:

   git branch
   > * master
   > rcos
   > rcos_production
   git checkout rcos
   

3. Make whatever changes you want to any files you need to.

4. Git can tell you what branch you are on and what you have done at any time:

   git status
   

5. Test out your changes using manage.py:

   cd Observatory/observatory
   python manage.py runserver
   #Check it out in your browser @ localhost:8000
   

6. Decide if the changes belong on master or rcos:

   master is for generic changes to the system
   rcos is for rcos specific information and changes
   If you don't know what rcos-production is for, don't commit to it
   

7. Checkout the right branch, add your changes, and commit:

   git checkout rcos
   git add path/to/file1 path/to/file2 path/to/file3
   git status #Review what you are committing
   git commit -m "Your message here. Be descriptive"
   

8. Check everything again, if you push something broken, its hard to fix

9. Push your changes up to github:

   git push
   

10. Check github for your changes!

    http://github.com/NateStedman/Observatory/commits/<branchname>

11. Repeat as necessary

How to handle pull requests

Github has a pretty nice and simple help page for this if you view the pull request and click the Merge Help button.

In general there are 3 steps

1. Add a new remote location for their repository:

   git remote add bamnet-observatory https://github.com/bamnet/Observatory.git
   

2. Grab and review their changes on a new branch:

   git checkout -b bamnet rocs
   git pull bamnet-observatory rcos
   cd observatory
   python manage.py runserver
   

3. If everything checks out, merge the changes and push:

   git checkout rcos
   git pull bamnet-observatory rcos
   git pull #check for changes in origin
   git push #push the new commits
   

How to push changes to production

All the tasks here could probably be wrapped into shell scripts

Plan A (Everything just works)

1. Log onto the server (if you have access):

   ssh <user>@rcos.cs.rpi.edu
   > Password: **********
   

2. Grab the deployment permissions:

   sudo su www-data
   > Password: **********
   

3. Grab the changes from github:

   cd /var/www/Observatory/
   git fetch origin
   

4. Make sure you are on rcos-production:

   git branch
   > ...
   > rcos
   > * rcos-production
   > ...
   

5. Merge the fetched changes into production:

   git merge origin/rcos
   

6. Restart Apache (only required if Python files changed, but do it anyways):

   sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
   

6. Make sure that everything worked:

   http://rcos.cs.rpi.edu
   

Plan B (Everything just broke)

1. Make sure you are in the repo with deployment permissions:

   sudo su www-data
   cd /var/www/Observatory
   

2. Revert the changes to before the merge:

   git checkout HEAD^
   

3. Call for help!!