If you do not have a (free) GitHub account, you’ll need to get one via https://github.com/join .
First, you’ll need to fork the repository on GitHub you want to work with. Go to https://github.com/E-CAM/best-practices, and click the grey ‘Fork’ button beside the repository name.
You also need to register an SSH public key, so you can easily clone, push to and pull from your repository. This can be done via https://github.com/settings/keys if you’re logged in on GitLab.
In the following it is assumed that an SSH public key has been registered, the possibility of using the HTTP protocol to access GitHub is not covered (but is possible).
Clone your fork of the repository to your favorite workstation.
git clone git@github.com:<Your GitLab username>/best-practices.git
Pull the master branch from the main repository:
cd best-practices
git remote add github_ecam https://github.com/E-CAM/best-practices.git
git pull github_ecam master
Make sure you update it every time you create a feature branch (see below):
git checkout master
git pull gitlab_ecam master
Pick a branch name for your work that makes sense, so you can track things easily and make sense if you end up having several branches in flight at once (each PR is a new branch).
Examples:
update_gromacs_module
new_esdw_lammps_module
industry_devel_module
Create a feature branch for your work (after updating your master), and check it out
git checkout master
git branch BRANCH_NAME
git checkout BRANCH_NAME
Make sure to always base your features branches on master!
After creating the branch, implement your contributions: new modules, enhancements or updates to existing modules, bug fixes, structure changes, whatever you like. Make sure you commit your work, and try to do it in bite-size chunks, so the commit log remains clear.
For example:
git add modules/gromacs_gpu/readme.rst
git commit -m "add details on GPU support within GROMACS"
If you are working on several things at the same time, try and keep things isolated in separate branches, to keep it manageable (both for you, and for reviewing your contributions).
You can locally build the documentation to check that the changes you make look as you expect them. To do this you will need the Sphinx python package to be installed (see this link for information on how to install this tool on your operating system).
make html # in root directory of repository
firefox _build/html/index.html # Use your browser to view the end result
If you do not have Latex installed on your system you are likely to get related errors. Other (non-latex) errors are likely to come from your additions.
When you’ve finished the implementation of a particular contribution, here’s how to get it into the main repository.
Push your branch to your copy of the repository on GitLab
git push origin <BRANCH_NAME>
Issue a Pull Request for your branch into the main repository. To do this go to https://github.com/E-CAM/best-practices/pulls and select the New pull request button.
Make sure the branch you just pushed is selected (not master!) issue a merge request for your branch to the master branch of the main repository.
It is common for there to be updates required to contributions, you do not need to open a new Merge Request to do this.
To update your contribution you update the appropriate files on your contribution branch. Firstly you need to ensure that you are up to date with the remote repository on GitLab. Make sure you are in the directory of the cloned repository and then check which branch you want to check out:
git branch # List all available local branches, to include remote branches add the -r flag
git checkout <BRANCH_NAME> # Check out the branch we want to update
git pull origin <BRANCH_NAME> # Make sure we have any updates we made to our own branch
git pull gitlab_ecam master # Also pull in any changes to the main repository
Now that everything is in sync, you can edit your update your files, when you are finished you commit your changes and push the changes back to GitLab:
git add modules/gromacs_gpu/readme.rst
git commit -m "update documention on how to trigger the GPU support"
git push origin <BRANCH_NAME>
The Merge Request will now be automatically updated with the changed files.
