Git Commands for Common Tasks

A) Getting the latest changes for use at a beamtime

git fetch
# if beamtime is across multiple days, use 1st day's date
git switch beamtime_<month>_<day>_<year>

B) Getting the latest changes from the development branch

git checkout development
git pull origin development

C) Saving a new feature/script/bugfix/etc:

  • make sure you have the latest changes from the remote:
git checkout development
git pull origin development
  • make a branch for your feature from the development branch:
git checkout -b <feature_branch_name> development
  • modify and commit the code, which will probably involve usage of the following commands:
git status
git add <filename>
git commit -m <commit-message>
  • push your feature branch to remote
git push origin <feature_branch_name>

if want to merge your changes into the development branch * follow F) and make a pull-request from your feature-branch into development

D) pulling down someone else's branch (non main/development branch):

  • get updated branch info from remote
git fetch origin
  • see list of remote branches to find the correct branch-name
git branch -r
  • checkout their branch (use the branch name without the 'origin/' prefix)
git checkout <other_persons_branch_name>

E) Switching between two branches:

  • the following command lists the local branches you can switch to:
git branch
  • then switch between them with:
git checkout <branch_want_to_switch_to>

F) Making pull request (one branch has been pushed to the remote):

  • go to: https://github.com/slaclab/beamtime-calibration-suite/pulls
  • click green 'New pull request' button in upper right
  • you will see two grey boxes containing branch names and an arrow pointing from one box to the other
  • the "compare: ..." box is the branch that will get merged into the "base: ..." box's branch
  • the base should be the branch named development
  • once the grey boxes are set correctly, click the green 'Create pull request' button
  • once branch is ready to merge, you can click the ''Merge pull request' button to merge the commit
  • being ready means: potentially reviewed (if big change), passing any automated checks/tests, etc
  • if github is not allowing the merge automatically, you will need to merge or rebase locally and manually handle the conflicts

G) Check out tagged commit (old beamtime code will be tagged):

  • same syntax as checking-out a branch, but use the tag name instead:
git checkout <tag_name>
# ex: git checkout v1.0.0