gitctl 2.0a8
A particular Git workflow implementation with a development/staging/production code-flow model and support for multiple repositories as part of a larger project.
License: BSD
Keywords: git workflow

.. contents::

Git clone URL: git://github.com/dokai/gitctl.git

Project page: http://github.com/dokai/gitctl


Change history
**************

2.0a8 (2010-04-11)
==================

 - Bound GitPython dependency at version 0.1.7. gitctl is not compatible with
   the newer versions. [dokai]

 - Added experimental Growl support. You need to have the Growl python
   bindings installed for it to work.

2.0a7 (2009-08-03)
==================

 - Added a new --from-file option which tells to read the names of components
   from a given file. The command then applies to the given components only.
   [rnd]

 - Added "gitctl path" command which prints path(s) to directories for given
   component name(s). [rnd]

 - Added "gitctl sh" command which performs specified shell commands (given
   with -c option) in each component's directory. E.g. gitctl sh -c 'git
   status' will execute "git status" for each component. [rnd]

2.0a6 (2009-05-27)
==================

 - Refactored the "gitctl pending" command to support only the comparison
   between the pinned down revisions in the externals configuration and the
   HEADs of the production branches. In practice this means the the former
   --production switch is the default behavior and the --production, --staging
   and --dev options have been removed. The refactored "gitctl status"
   replaces the former functionality. [dokai]

 - Refactored the "gitctl status" command to give more elaborate information
   about the status of the repository. [dokai]

 - Refactored the pretty printer to include a space between the component
   name and the dotted justification. This will make it easier to use the
   output of gitctl in other scripts. [dokai]

 - Added a new --verbose global option. Providing the --verbose option will
   give the same output as 2.0a5. Without the option the gitctl will only
   report changed components which will reduce the output significantly and
   make it easier to see what changed.

 - Print normal program output to stdout and only errors to stderr. [dokai]

 - When updating a hard-pinned revision perform a "git reset --hard" to enforce
   the revision. This fixes some
   issue where the working directory was in an inconsistent state and the
   checkout failed. [dokai]

 - Refactored the ``generate_externals`` function to guarantee the order of
   sections in the generated configuration file. [dokai]

2.0a5 (2008-10-01)
==================

 - Changed 'gitctl update' to attempt a fast-forward merge on all configured
   branches. If fast-forward is not possible a message will be shown and the
   branch left unchanged. [dokai]

2.0a4 (2008-09-25)
==================

 - Fixed 'gitctl pending --production' which compared the wrong trees. When
   using pinned down revisions (HEADless working directories) we need to
   always compare against the remote branches. [dokai]

 - Fixed a bug in 'gitctl pending' if not all branches were available. [dokai]

 - Added the '-v' switch to show the version of the gitctl. [dokai]

2.0a3 (2008-09-21)
==================

 - Added support for specifying the initial commit message by using
   'gitctl create --message'. [dokai]

 - Fixed 'gitctl create' to not leave the upstream repository's HEAD in broken
   state. [dokai]

 - Added support for specifying which projects to operate on in addition to
   performing an operation on all the projects in the externals
   configuration. [dokai]

 - Added a --no-fetch option to 'gitctl pending' to avoid fetching. [dokai]

 - 'gitctl update' now shows which projects were updated and which were not
   when using pinned down revisions [dokai]

2.0a2 (2008-09-15)
==================

 - Fixed a critical bug with 'gitctl update' when using pinned down revisions.
   [dokai]

2.0a1 (2008-09-15)
==================

 - Complete overhaul to implement (a particular) Git workflow process in
   addition to custom externals handling. This breaks backward compatibility
   with the 1.x version but provides somewhat equivalent functionality.
   [dokai]

1.0b1 (2008-06-12)
==================

 - Initial public release [dokai]


Purpose
*******

The purpose of this package is to implement a particular workflow for using
Git to manage a project that consists of multiple independent subprojects. The
original motivation is a zc.buildout driven system, but the implementation is
not dependent on this. This is not a 100% generic tool, but the workflow is
fairly common so it may be adaptable for other use cases also.

The workflow consists of using three pre-defined branches to model the
``development``, ``staging`` and ``production`` phases of code. We assume the
use of a canonical central repository that developers use to sync their
official changes. This repository is considered to be the canonical source and
provides the "official" state of the projects. Developers are free to use any
number of branches, tags and repositories as part of their daily work.

The code normally flows from ``development`` to ``staging`` to ``production``
and the package provides tools to facilitate this process. Each individual Git
repository is managed using any of the tools that Git provides.

In addition, the package provides a light-weight "externals" mechanism for
easily pulling in and managing the subprojects. This differs from the
functionality provided by ``git-submodule`` in that both pinned-down and open
dependencies can be defined. This resembles the way externals are handled in
Subversion. Also, the individual Git repositories are not aware of the
externals and the externals configuration is kept in a single location.


Configuration
*************

The package uses two different configuration files. The ``gitctl.cfg`` file
provides the higher level configuration and allows you to specify things like
the canonical repository and the names of your ``development``, ``staging``
and ``production`` branches. The ``gitexternals.cfg`` defines your project
specific configuration of required sub-components.

gitctl.cfg
**********

``upstream``

    The name used to refer to the canonical repository server, e.g. "origin".

``upstream-url``

    The address of the canonical repository server. This address needs to
    point to the server in a manner that supports pushing. Currently only SSH
    is tested. Example: git@my.gitserver.com

``branches``

    List of newline separated branches that will be tracked in the local
    repository. When the repositories are clone for each branch listed here a
    local tracking branch will be automatically created.

``development-branch``

    Name of the development branch. The above ``branches`` listing will be
    made to implicitly contain this branch.

``staging-branch``

    Name of the staging branch. The above ``branches`` listing will be made to
    implicitly contain this branch.

``production-branch``

    Name of the production branch. The above ``branches`` listing will be made
    to implicitly contain this branch.

``commit-email``

    Email address where commit emails will be sent. Only used when creating
    new repositories.

``commit-email-prefix``

    The commit email prefix. Only used when creating new repositories.


An example configuration follows::

  [gitctl]
  upstream = origin
  upstream-url = git@myserver.com
  branches =
      development
      staging
      production
  development-branch = development
  staging-branch = staging
  production-branch = production
  commit-email = commit@myserver.com
  commit-email-prefix = [GIT]

``gitexternals.cfg``
********************

The externals configuration consists of one or more sections that have the
following properties. Each section name will be used to name the directory
where the external will be cloned into.

``url`` (mandatory)

    Full URL to the remote repository, e.g git@myserver.com:my.project.git

``type`` (optional)

    The type of the remote repository. Currently only ``git`` is supported.

``treeish`` (optional)

    The name of a "treeish" object that is checked out by default when first
    cloning the remote repository. The treeish object may refer, for example,
    to a branch or a tag. Defaults to ``master``.

``container`` (optional)

    The name of the directory where the project will be checked out
    into. An additional directory will be created under this one where
    the project files will be located so it is safe to use the same
    value for multiple projects. Relative paths are considered
    relative to the location of the config file.

An example configuration follows::

  [my.project]
  url = git@myserver.com:my.project.git
  type = git
  treeish = v1.0-dev
  container = src

This results in the my.project.git repository to be cloned into
./src/my.project and the v1.0-dev to be checked out into the working
directory.


``gitctl`` script
*****************

The ``gitctl`` script provides subcommands to implement the workflow. Each
subcommand provides additional options. See ``gitctl [subcommand] --help`` for
details::


  usage: gitctl [-h] [-v] [--config CONFIG] [--externals EXTERNALS] [--verbose]
                {status,create,update,sh,branch,path,fetch,pending} ...

  Git workflow utility for managing projects containing multiple git
  repositories.

  positional arguments:
    {status,create,update,sh,branch,path,fetch,pending}
                          Commands
      create              Initializes a new local repository and creates a
                          matching upstream repository.
      update              Updates the configured repositories by either
                          attempting a fast-forward merge on existing project
                          branches or cloning new projects.
      path                Shows the path to the project directory.
      sh                  Executes shell command for specified projects.
      status              Shows the status of each external project and alerts
                          if any are out of sync with the upstream repository.
      branch              Provides information and operates on the branches of
                          the projects.
      pending             Checks if there are any pending changes in the
                          production branches compared to the pinned down
                          versions in externals configuration.
      fetch               Updates the remote branches on all projects without
                          merging.

  optional arguments:
    -h, --help            show this help message and exit
    -v, --version         show program's version number and exit
    --config CONFIG       Location of the configuration file. If omitted the
                          following locations will be search: $PWD/gitctl.cfg,
                          ~/.gitctl.cfg.
    --externals EXTERNALS
                          Location of the externals configuration file. Defaults
                          to $PWD/gitexternals.cfg
    --verbose             Prints more verbose output about repositories.


Installation
************

Using setuptools::

  $ easy_install gitctl

Examples
********

gitctl path
===========

Outputs the path(s) of the project directories::

  $ cd /Users/rnd/buildout/
  $ gitctl path -f refactoring_these_projects
  /Users/rnd/buildout/products/Project1
  /Users/rnd/buildout/products/Project2
  /Users/rnd/buildout/src/Project3

where the ``refactoring_these_projects`` file contains project names,
one per line::

  ProjectI
  ProjectII
  ProjectIII

These project names map to the sections in the ``gitexternals.cfg``
configuration.

Without providing project names, all project paths will be output.

gitctl sh
=========

Executes shell command in each project directory (that is, the
directory with path ``gitctl path`` shows). Some examples (using the
same file  ``refactoring_these_projects`` as above).

Show branches for each project (``PROJECT`` environment variable holds
the name of the project)::

  gitctl sh -f refactoring_these_projects -c 'echo $PROJECT; git branch'

Making feature branch::

  gitctl sh -f refactoring_these_projects -c 'git checkout -b my_f_branch'

Mass-check out certain feature branch (first, all projects to development,
then checkout feature branch only for projects under refacture)::

  gitctl sh -c 'git checkout development'
  gitctl sh -f refactoring_these_projects -c 'git checkout my_f_branch'


Get a list of projects which have production different from
development (N.B. checked via commit, not diff, so, some listed
project may really be textually identical)::

  gitctl sh -f refactoring_these_projects -c '[ `git rev-parse development` != `git rev-parse origin/production` ] && echo $PROJECT' 2> /dev/null

Make some operations on selected projects::

  gitctl sh -f refactoring_these_projects -c 'git commit -m "Added newfeature"'


Dependencies
************

 * Git_ >= 1.6
 * argparse_
 * GitPython_ == 0.1.7

.. _Git: http://git-scm.com/
.. _argparse: http://argparse.python-hosting.com/
.. _GitPython: http://gitorious.org/projects/git-python

Contributors
************

 - Kai Lautaportti, Author [dokai]
 - Roman Susi, [rnd]