Re: wip push- rebase first

["J. Lewis Muir" <jlmuir%imca-cat.org@localhost>]

On 10/7/15 4:56 AM, Martin Husemann wrote:
> IMHO there should be a step by step guide on all relevant git command
> line invocations needed to use pkgsrc-wip. That is very much != a "git
> tutorial site", but a jumpstart for convenience of our users.

Hi, Martin.

I agree that the above would be helpful.  I'll use myself as an example
why.

To date, I have never properly learned Git.  That is, I have never read
a tutorial or book about Git to properly understand it.  I've mostly
used Mercurial, but that's beside the point.  I don't hate Git, but I
have so far not needed to learn it.  For all I know, today could be the
day that I need to learn Git properly, but right now, I don't really
know it.

However, I have contributed fixes using Git to various software projects
by simply following their respective instructions for how to contribute
changes even though I don't fully understand exactly what all the Git
commands I'm running are doing.  For example, here's a command I used
once to push a fix to a GitHub repo:

$ git push origin accept-feedparser-encoding-override

I have no idea what "origin" means nor why I need it.  And perhaps I
could figure that out in less time than it's taking me to write this
email. :-)

Or take the following paragraph from Greg Troxel's message (ID:
rmiio6ljiaq.fsf%fnord.ir.bbn.com@localhost) earlier in this thread:

  Each commit on master should have as its first parent ancestor the
  previous main line of master.  (This follows from not having merge
  commits, but is the normal best practice to keep straight "what is my
  direct ancestor in development along this branch" vs "what just got
  merged in".)

I have almost no idea what that first sentence means.  Now, I think Greg
was talking about very specific details of the workflow on purpose for
those who do know Git and not intending that for the step-by-step guide,
but if I'm wrong and that were in the step-by-step guide, that wouldn't
be easy to follow for someone who doesn't know Git.

So, I think it really comes down to whether you want a proper
understanding of Git to be a prerequisite of contributing to pkgsrc-wip.
If there was a step-by-step guide like you, Martin, suggested, it would
make the barrier to entry significantly lower for someone wishing
to contribute who doesn't know Git.  If it doesn't exist, then I'd
have to take the time to learn Git properly in order to contribute to
pkgsrc-wip.  That wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be a
barrier.

Regards,

Lewis