Package maintenance guide

Git config needs
A config problem has been discovered which may make fedpkg push or fedpkg commit -p or even git push not understand your intentions. As a short term work around, you can run: git config --global push.default tracking. This option tells git that when it gets a push request with no other arguments, see if it's tracking a remote branch. If it is, push to that remote branch. This seems like it will usually be safe no matter what git repository you are using.

Cookbooks

Refer to How to update a package if you want to update an existing package.

New package process for existing contributors gives step-by-step instructions for that case.

Commands

Here is a basic table of equivalent commands:

OLD CVS	NEW GIT	Notes
cvs checkout libfoo	fedpkg clone libfoo	Note that branches are not separated out by directory with this command. To switch to a different branch with this layout, run: fedpkg switch-branch f13
cvs checkout libfoo (ALTERNATE)	fedpkg clone -B libfoo	This command creates the same branch/directory layout that was used with cvs.
cvs update	git pull	fedpkg will get a pull soon.
cvs commit .	fedpkg commit -p	The -p option to commit invokes a push, just like with git, but you can separate these actions, as shown just below
cvs commit . (ALTERNATE)	fedpkg commit && fedpkg push
cvs commit -m 'breaking things' .	fedpkg commit -m 'breaking things' -p
cvs add foo bar	git add foo bar
make clog	fedpkg clog	Create the "clog" file from the %changelog of the specfile.
cvs commit -F clog .	fedpkg commit -F clog -p	Use the contents of file "clog" as the commit message.
make tag	N/A	Explicitly tagging source states for package builds is no longer necessary.
make build	fedpkg build	When successful on Koji, the build will be tagged in koji with the corresponding koji tag (e.g., dist-f15 for Rawhide and dist-f14-updates-candidate for F14). No git tag will be created as of 2010-08-06. You can use git tag $(fedpkg verrel) && git push --tags to do this manually.
BUILD_FLAGS="--nowait" make build	fedpkg build --nowait	See above. The --nowait option to the build command avoid your waiting (for the build to complete before freeing up the Shell)
make prep	fedpkg prep
make chain-build CHAIN='foo bar : baz'	fedpkg chain-build foo bar : baz	Just like before, the current directory package is always added to the end of the CHAIN list.
make scratch-build	fedpkg scratch-build
make srpm	fedpkg srpm
make srpm-scratch-build	fedpkg srpm fedpkg scratch-build --srpm <name of srpm>	Ideally this would be made a single "fedpkg srpm-scratch-build" command
make local	fedpkg local
make x86_64	fedpkg local --arch x86_64
make upload FILES='apollo starbuck'	fedpkg upload apollo starbuck	Remember, this adds new source files without replacing others.
make new-sources FILES='red_fish blue_fish'	fedpkg new-sources red_fish blue_fish	This replaces any existing source files.
make help	fedpkg help	"fedpkg -h" also works
./cvs-import.sh libfoo-1.2-3.src.rpm	fedpkg clone libfoo cd libfoo fedpkg import libfoo-1.2-3.src.rpm (Review Changes) fedpkg commit -p

Anonymous checkout

If you need anonymous clone (checkout) without fedpkg, you can use git:

git clone git://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/libfoo

for package libfoo

Merging

Merging is one of the things that we can now do directly in the VCS that we had to do with an external diff program in CVS. Getting used to how it works may take a little adjustment though.

Initial Merging

First, the way we imported from cvs means that we have to do a little work to make the older release branches "mergable" (F-14, since it branched after the conversion to git, doesn't need this).

Which branches should you apply this to?
For packages where F-12, F-13, the freshly branched F-14 and rawhide all have the same spec files and packages, merging all the branches together clearly makes sense. However, when, say F-12 and F-13 share a package NVR, and F-14 and rawhide do... what to do then? Merge the branches that are supposed to be the same, then.

fedpkg clone bzrtools
cd bzrtools
git merge origin/f13/master
# If no conflicts proceed to the next step.
# Otherwise, resolve the conflicts, git add & git commit, and then move on
git merge origin/f12/master
git merge origin/el6/master
git merge origin/el5/master

Potentially better alternative to the above (without conflicts, without actually changing the master content, and merging ALL former CVS branches which are supposed to be the same package):

fedpkg clone menu-cache
cd menu-cache
# implicitly we have the master branch checked out here
git merge -m "Initial pseudo merge for dist-git setup" -s ours origin/{f12,f13}/master

Merging in normal operation

Now when you make changes on one branch and want to move them to a different branch, you can use git to merge those changes.

fedpkg clone bzrtools
# Make some changes in the master branch
fedpkg new-sources bzrtools-2.2.tar.gz
vim bzrtools.spec
git commit
fedpkg switch-branch f14
git merge master
# for push into repo
git push

Resolving merge conflicts

When you git merge and a conflict occurs you still edit the files that have conflicts. Remove the conflict markers in the files and merge the changes manually. Then you need to commit your changes. Do that with git add CONFLICTEDFILES ; git commit

Using git mergetool to resolve conflicts

Git allows you to set a graphical diff program to help resolve conflicts. This can be handy for visualizing what changes have occurred and deal with them as a set.

git config --global merge.tool meld
fedpkg switch-branch f13
git merge master
# Conflicts occurred
git mergetool # Opens up a meld showing a three way diff of the merge, working tree, and the last commit
# Resolved all the conflicts in the GUI
git add CONFLICTEDFILES
git commit

Branch names

Old CVS	new remote git	fedpkg local branch names	Notes
devel	origin/master	master	This is the default when you do fedpkg co
F-16	origin/f16/master	f16
F-15	origin/f15/master	f15
F-14	origin/f14/master	f14
EL-6	origin/el6/master	el6
EL-5	origin/el5/master	el5

local branch names
If you use git commands to branch and checkout directly, you can define whatever local branch names you want. If you use fedpkg switch-branch, it will default to creating the names listed in the table above. So you can do fedpkg clone firefox ; fedpkg switch-branch f14 and then you'll have a new local branch named f14

Display current branch in your shell prompt
It is often helpful to know what branch you are working on at a glance. You can add this information to your bash prompt with the information here.

Errors

Access denied

During the next few days and weeks, occasional tweaking to the servers might cause short periods (seconds or minutes) when the git server refuses you access. Just try again.

Unable to switch

If you are trying switch to another branch by fedpkg switch-branch f13 and see this: Unable to switch to another branch: Could not create branch f13

Then you probably have some un-commited changes in master. If you want them, call:

# this "saves" your changes
git stash
# switch to preferred branch, now possible
fedpkg switch-branch f13
# apply "saved" changes into the current branch
git stash apply

ssh fingerprint

The recommended option is to include "VerifyHostKeyDNS yes" in your ~/.ssh/config file. This will result in using DNS to check that the key is correct.

But you can also manually check against the list of keys at https://admin.fedoraproject.org . The strings there are what ends up in your ~/.ssh/known_hosts file. So you can accept the fingerprint when prompted and then check that the correct string for pkgs.fedoraproject.org ended up in your ~/.ssh/known_hosts file.

References

• http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/gitweb/ Listing 10K+ packages is slow, though, so use e.g. http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/gitweb/?p=erlang.git for direct access to the erlang package.
• Package SCM admin requests
• Package_Renaming_Process
• PackageMaintainers/PackagingTricks
• Package_update_HOWTO
• PackageMaintainers/BuildSystemClientSetup#Install_the_Client_Tools_.28Koji.29
• PackageMaintainers/MockTricks#How_do_I_use_Mock.3F
• Package_Review_Process
• Fedora_Release_Life_Cycle
• PackageMaintainers/Join
• Infrastructure/VersionControl/dist-git