2 About Git write access:
3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5 Before everything else, you should know how to use GIT properly.
6 Luckily Git comes with excellent documentation.
11 shows you the available subcommands,
16 shows information about the subcommand <command>.
18 The most comprehensive manual is the website Git Reference
22 For more information about the Git project, visit
26 Consult these resources whenever you have problems, they are quite exhaustive.
28 You do not need a special username or password.
29 All you need is to provide a ssh public key to the Git server admin.
31 What follows now is a basic introduction to Git and some FFmpeg-specific
32 guidelines. Read it at least once, if you are granted commit privileges to the
33 FFmpeg project you are expected to be familiar with these rules.
42 You can get git from http://git-scm.com/
45 1. Cloning the source tree:
47 git clone git://git.videolan.org/ffmpeg <target>
49 This will put the FFmpeg sources into the directory <target>.
51 git clone git@git.videolan.org:ffmpeg <target>
53 This will put the FFmpeg sources into the directory <target> and let
54 you push back your changes to the remote repository.
57 2. Updating the source tree to the latest revision:
61 pulls in the latest changes from the repository to your local master branch.
63 2.a Rebasing your local branches:
67 fetches the changes from the main repository and replays your local commits
68 over it. This is useful to keep all your local changes at the top of your
72 3. Adding/removing files/directories:
74 git add [-A] <filename/dirname>
75 git rm [-r] <filename/dirname>
77 GIT needs to get notified of all changes you make to your working
78 directory that makes files appear or disappear.
79 Line moves across files are automatically tracked.
82 4. Showing modifications:
84 git diff <filename(s)>
86 will show all local modifications in your working directory as unified diff.
89 5. Inspecting the changelog:
93 You may also use the graphical tools like gitview or gitk or the web
94 interface available at http://git.videolan.org
96 6. Checking source tree status:
100 detects all the changes you made and lists what actions will be taken in case
101 of a commit (additions, modifications, deletions, etc.).
108 to doublecheck your changes before committing them to avoid trouble later
109 on. All experienced developers do this on each and every commit, no matter
111 Every one of them has been saved from looking like a fool by this many times.
112 It's very easy for stray debug output or cosmetic modifications to slip in,
113 please avoid problems through this extra level of scrutiny.
115 For cosmetics-only commits you should get (almost) empty output from
117 git diff -wb <filename(s)>
119 Also check the output of
123 to make sure you don't have untracked files or deletions.
125 git add [-i|-p|-A] <filenames/dirnames>
127 Git will select the changes to the files for commit. Optionally you can use
128 the interactive or the patch mode to select hunk by hunk what should be
133 Git will commit the selected changes to your current local branch.
135 You will be prompted for a log message in an editor, which is either
136 set in your personal configuration file throught
138 git config core.editor
140 or set by one of the following environment variables:
141 GIT_EDITOR, VISUAL or EDITOR.
143 Log messages should be concise but descriptive. Explain why you made a change,
144 what you did will be obvious from the changes themselves most of the time.
145 Saying just "bug fix" or "10l" is bad. Remember that people of varying skill
146 levels look at and educate themselves while reading through your code. Don't
147 include filenames in log messages, Git provides that information.
149 Possibly make the commit message have a terse, descriptive first line, an
150 empty line and then a full description. The first line will be used to name
151 the patch by git format-patch.
154 8. Renaming/moving/copying files or contents of files:
156 Git automatically tracks such changes, making those normal commits.
158 mv/cp path/file otherpath/otherfile
164 Do not move, rename or copy files of which you are not the maintainer without
165 discussing it on the mailing list first!
167 9. Reverting broken commits
171 git revert will generate a revert commit. This will not make the faulty
172 commit disappear from the history.
176 git reset will uncommit the changes till <commit> rewriting the current
181 allows to amend the last commit details quickly.
183 git rebase -i origin/master
185 will replay local commits over the main repository allowing to edit,
186 merge or remove some of them in the process.
188 Note that the reset, commit --amend and rebase rewrite history, so you
189 should use them ONLY on your local or topic branches.
191 The main repository will reject those changes.
193 10. Preparing a patchset.
195 git format-patch <commit> [-o directory]
197 will generate a set of patches out of the current branch starting from
198 commit. By default the patches are created in the current directory.
200 11. Sending patches for review
202 git send-email <commit list|directory>
204 will send the patches created by git format-patch or directly generates
205 them. All the email fields can be configured in the global/local
206 configuration or overridden by command line.
208 12. Pushing changes to remote trees
212 Will push the changes to the default remote (origin).
213 Git will prevent you from pushing changes if the local and remote trees are
214 out of sync. Refer to 2 and 2.a to sync the local tree.
216 git remote add <name> <url>
218 Will add additional remote with a name reference, it is useful if you want
219 to push your local branch for review on a remote host.
221 git push <remote> <refspec>
223 Will push the changes to the remote repository. Omitting refspec makes git
224 push update all the remote branches matching the local ones.
226 13. Finding a specific svn revission
228 Since version 1.7.1 git supports ':/foo' syntax for specifying commits
229 based on a regular expression. see man gitrevisions
231 git show :/'as revision 23456'
233 will show the svn changeset r23456. With older git versions searching in
234 the git log output is the easiest option (especially if a pager with
235 search capabilities is used).
237 Contact the project admins <root at ffmpeg dot org> if you have technical
238 problems with the GIT server.