Using git for gPXE development

During development, you will be working with three git repositories:

• The master project repository

• Your local working repository

• Your personal public repository

You will edit code in your local working repository. As applicable, you should push changes from your local working repository to your personal public repository. This allows us to see your code.

You will occasionally need to pull changes from the master project repository, in order to keep your local working repository up to date with the main gPXE codebase.

When your code is ready to be merged into the main gPXE codebase, we will pull from your personal public repository.

There are numerous sources for documentation and tutorials about git usage.

• Git Docs offers numerous links to helpful documentation
• http://help.github.com/ has information and tutorials for git to get you started
• gittutorial, gittutorial-2, Everyday GIT and the git man pages offer a good starting point and quick commands
• Git from the Bottom Up offers a good resource to understand how git works

Older versions of git also offered commands in the style of “git-command” as an aid as shells didn't have the logic to complete “git command”. Newer versions don't use that style by default as some newer shells now offer this logic.

Start by downloading the source tree as per the instructions on the Download page:

  git clone git://git.etherboot.org/scm/gpxe.git

This will create your local working repository.

Add a link to your personal public repository:

  cd gpxe
  git remote add personal git+ssh://USERNAME@git.etherboot.org//pub/scm/people/USERNAME/gpxe.git

where USERNAME is your username on rom.etherboot.org.

Make sure that your personal public repository is up to date:

  git push personal

Several other sites offer a place to store a free public git repository. Two such sites are GitHub and repo.or.cz.

• http://help.github.com/fork-a-repo/ has an example of forking a repo to your own.

This example shows you the various stages of creating code and publishing it.

Start by creating a branch to work in:

  cd gpxe/src
  git checkout -b mywork origin/master
  git push personal mywork

Edit and commit some files:

  emacs drivers/net/mydriver.c
  git commit drivers/net/mydriver.c

Publish your changes:

  git push personal