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Git Decorum

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Lahiru de Alwis edited this page Mar 8, 2022 · 3 revisions

These set of guidelines are set to make sure that the git process is followed for long-term codebase maintainability. The sections discussed are,

  1. Git flow

  2. Branch name convention

  3. Commit convention

  4. Releasing and tagging

Git Flow

We use an adapted version Git flow to meet our needs in the development process. Git flow in it’s core is meant for large scale codebases with many integrated teams. So the boiler down variant is as follows,

  • The project codebase will have 2 active branches

    • master / main
      Branch that will contain the code that is released to the client’s purview. This can be staging or production servers

    • dev / develop
      Branch that collects on-going development efforts. This will generally be deployed to our internal staging servers

  • Branches will fall under one of the below categories,

    • Feature

    • Work in progress

    • Bugfix

    • Hotfix
      Check Branch naming conventions for more information

  • You should not directly merge code into dev. Always create a PR from the feature branch to dev and the TL will review

  • All bugfix, hotfix, and wip branches should be closed (deleted in origin) after merging

  • Project owner can create PR to merge dev to master. Each such PR would corresponds to a minor or major release

  • When the master is ready, a release tag need to be attached to signify the release version

Branch Name Convention

Category

Process

Naming

Feature

  • Correponds to a user story or a sub task

  • Examples: File download module, Creating a screenshare widget

  • Has a clear monorepo submodule. Common submodules in use in our repos are
    webapp / backend / service

  • Include the Asana ticket ID is available.

  • Feature branch should always branch out from the latest dev branch

  • If the dev branch has a PR from another feature branch that is not yet merged, the new feature branch can merge the unmerged feature branch (This is similar to branching out from the feature branch)

  • Feature branch should be pushed to origin

feat//-short-description

ex:
feat/webapp/345-firebase-login

Work in progress

  • WIP branches are for features that are not going to be completed just yet

  • Process is to create a WIP branch from a feature branch to prevent unnecessary updates to the feature branch

  • This is more of a personal branch, and is completly optional

wip//short-description

ex:
wip/manujith/firebase-integration

Bug fix

  • A bug fix branch corresponds to an issue identified in code that has been already merged to dev

  • It can either be a collection of minor bug fixes or one major bug fix

  • Do NOT make single branch for multiple major bug fixes

  • Always create a new fix branch and associate is with a

  • Bug fix branch should always branch out from dev

bugfix/-short-description

bugfix/functional-module

ex:
bugfix/232-email-service-issue
bugfix/checkout

Hot fix

  • Similar to bug fix, but branch out from master than dev

  • Hot fixes are quick patches that should be sent to the production/staging instances

  • Sometimes dev branches might contain code that can not be merged at that point of time to master

  • In order to fix bugs in master at that point of time, hot fix branches are used

  • Hot fix will always bran

hotfix/-short-description

ex:
hotfix/232-user-registration

Commit Convention

It’s important to have a unified structure to the commit messages. The following structure will make sure that standard release notes are generated at the end of the Sprint using the commit messages. We are following the Conventional Commits guidelines. Please read the link in detail - below is an excerpt.

Commit message structure should be:

[optional scope]: [issue number if any] 
[optional body]
[optional footer(s)]

ex:

feat: #65 Added question creation workflow

fix!: Updated order view endpoint
Input parameters are not changed
BREAKING CHANGE

refactor(firebase): Refactor firebase connector

Type

Description

fix

a commit of the type fix patches a bug in your codebase

feat

a commit of the type feat introduces a new feature to the codebase

fix!
feat!

a commit that has a footer BREAKING CHANGE:, or appends a ! after the type/scope, introduces a breaking API change

refactor

includes any code refatoring, does not include any change in program logic or UI

docs, style

These are optional types you can use

Specification

  1. Commits MUST be prefixed with a type, which consists of a noun, feat, fix, etc., followed by the OPTIONAL scope, OPTIONAL !, and REQUIRED terminal colon and space.

  2. The type feat MUST be used when a commit adds a new feature to your application or library.

  3. The type fix MUST be used when a commit represents a bug fix for your application.

  4. A scope MAY be provided after a type. A scope MUST consist of a noun describing a section of the codebase surrounded by parenthesis, e.g., fix(parser):

  5. A description MUST immediately follow the colon and space after the type/scope prefix. The description is a short summary of the code changes, e.g., fix: array parsing issue when multiple spaces were contained in string.

  6. A longer commit body MAY be provided after the short description, providing additional contextual information about the code changes. The body MUST begin one blank line after the description.
    To add a longer commit body use the following code

    git commit -m "fix: #545 Bug in login page" -m "This commit fixes the bug in password validation"

  7. A commit body is free-form and MAY consist of any number of newline separated paragraphs.

  8. One or more footers MAY be provided one blank line after the body. Each footer MUST consist of a word token, followed by either a :<space> or <space># separator, followed by a string value (this is inspired by the git trailer convention).

  9. A footer’s token MUST use - in place of whitespace characters, e.g., Acked-by (this helps differentiate the footer section from a multi-paragraph body). An exception is made for BREAKING CHANGE, which MAY also be used as a token.

  10. A footer’s value MAY contain spaces and newlines, and parsing MUST terminate when the next valid footer token/separator pair is observed.

  11. Breaking changes MUST be indicated in the type/scope prefix of a commit, or as an entry in the footer.

  12. If included as a footer, a breaking change MUST consist of the uppercase text BREAKING CHANGE, followed by a colon, space, and description, e.g., BREAKING CHANGE: environment variables now take precedence over config files.

  13. If included in the type/scope prefix, breaking changes MUST be indicated by a ! immediately before the :. If ! is used, BREAKING CHANGE: MAY be omitted from the footer section, and the commit description SHALL be used to describe the breaking change.

  14. Types other than feat and fix MAY be used in your commit messages, e.g., docs: updated ref docs.

  15. The units of information that make up Conventional Commits MUST NOT be treated as case sensitive by implementors, with the exception of BREAKING CHANGE which MUST be uppercase.

  16. BREAKING-CHANGE MUST be synonymous with BREAKING CHANGE, when used as a token in a footer.

Releasing and Tagging

WIP

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