Gerrit, Jenkins, and GitHub

For a quick reference, please see GerritWorkflow instead. <<TableOfContents()>>

GitHub is a resource for managing Git code repositories and interacting with other developers. Jenkins is used to continuously test all of the components of OpenStack to ensure functionality and to verify that each change to the code base works as intended. Gerrit is a code review system originally developed for use by the Android Open Source Project and allows us to build a workflow where every change is peer-reviewed and tested by Jenkins before being merged into the main repository.

After making a change in their local Git repository, developers can easily push that change to Gerrit as a proposed change for the project. Jenkins will automatically run functional tests on the code and provide feedback on the change in Gerrit. Any OpenStack developer can provide feedback (in the form of a comment, or even line-by-line annotations) using Gerrit, and the core developers of the project can indicate whether they approve of the patch as is, or would like to see changes before it is integrated. Once patches are merged by Gerrit, the repository is pushed to the canonical public repository on GitHub.

Using Gerrit

The next sections describe how Gerrit fits into the developer workflow.

Gerrit Accounts

Visit https://review.openstack.org/ and click the Sign In link at the top-right corner of the page. Log in with your Launchpad ID.

Because Gerrit uses Launchpad OpenID single sign-on, you won't need a separate password for Gerrit, and once you log in to one of Launchpad, Gerrit, or Jenkins, you won't have to enter your password for the others.

Gerrit accounts are automatically synchronized with Launchpad, so your Gerrit account should already have the same username, full name, email address, ssh keys, and group membership.

Some information in Launchpad is not publicly available and so may not be copied over. The first time you log into Gerrit, you should click the Settings link at the top of the page, and then make sure that your Contact Information, SSH Public Keys, and Groups look correct. If not, please register your email address and SSH keys. If your group membership is not correct, please email openstack-ci-admins@lists.launchpad.net.

Setting up Git for Use with Gerrit

For a more comprehensive look at using Gerrit, see the Gerrit manual.

Change-Id Hook

Gerrit uses a Change-Id footer in commits so that it can link Git commits to changes stored in its database. When you upload a revised change (to correct a problem or respond to code review comments), Gerrit will use the Change-Id footer to attach the commit as a new patchset on the existing gerrit change. This works best if the Change-Id is already in the original commit message, before it is even sent to Gerrit.

The rfc.sh script (or "git review") installs a commit hook into your repository that automatically adds Change-Id lines to your commits..

The Gerrit manual goes into more detail about change IDs.

Pushing Changes from Git

Simply running git review should be sufficient to push your changes to Gerrit, assuming your repository is set up as described above, you don't need to read the rest of this section unless you want to use an alternate workflow.

If you want to push your changes without using rfc.sh, you can push changes to gerrit like you would any other git repository, using the following syntax (assuming "gerrit" is configured as a remote repository):

git push gerrit HEAD:refs/for/$BRANCH[/$TOPIC]

Where $BRANCH is the name of the Gerrit branch to push to (usually "master"), and you may optionally specify a Gerrit topic by appending it after a slash character.

Git SSH Commands

If you find you are frequently executing Gerrit commands via SSH, you may wish to add something like the following to your ~/.ssh/config file:

Host review
  Hostname review.openstack.org
  Port 29418
  User USERNAME

Which may shorten some SSH commands; the following are equivalent:

ssh -p 29418 review.openstack.org gerrit ls-projects
ssh review gerrit ls-projects

Reviewing a Change

Log in to https://review.openstack.org/ to see proposed changes, and review them.

To provide a review for a proposed change in the Gerrit UI, click on the Review button (it will be next to the buttons that will provide unified or side-by-side diffs in the browser). In the code review, you can add a message, as well as a vote (+1,0,-1).

Any Openstack developer may propose or comment on a change (including voting +1/0/-1 on it). A vote of +2 is allowed from core reviewers, but should only be used after another core member has voted +1 and there are no outstanding -1 votes. If you're coming from Launchpad, a +2 vote is equivalent to setting a merge prop status to "Approved". OpenStack projects have a policy of requiring two core reviewers to approve a patch.

Once a review receives one +2 vote, Jenkins will run the proposed change and verify the merge. If Jenkins successfully tests the change, and there are no -2 code review votes, the change will be automatically merged into the repository.

Gerrit Best Practices

If you are working on unrelated changes, you should use a topic branch so that there isn't a dependency between the changes.

When you start working on a new change, make sure you have the current repository head from github.

For more information about uploading changes to gerrit, see the Uploading Changes section of the Gerrit manual.

Gerrit Errors

missing Change-Id in commit message

If you see an error like this:

 ! [remote rejected] HEAD -> refs/for/master (missing Change-Id in commit message)

Make sure that you have the Change-Id hook installed. If you don't, install it now, and the run git commit --amend and re-save your commit message. The hook will then add a Change-Id line.

If you did have the hook installed, there may be a syntax error with the Change-Id line. It must be in the last paragraph of the commit message, and it must be at the beginning of the line. Your commit message should look like this in your editor:

The text of your commit message is here.
    
Change-Id: I5f55e68d1bdb42a0fa6f0b1a5432786d0395da51

squash commits first

If you see this message:

 ! [remote rejected] HEAD -> refs/for/master (squash commits first)

It means that you are trying to update an existing change in Gerrit, but you created two separate commits. Normally to update a change you should ammend an existing commit (see Updating a Change). If you have already made a second commit, you will need squash the last two commits in your tree. To do that, run:

git rebase -i HEAD~2

Your editor should appear with two commits listed, one per line. Change the word "pick" on the second line to "squash", so that it looks like:

pick   xxxxxxx 2nd commit back
squash yyyyyyy head

And save. You should then be able to upload your commit with git review.

Gerrit Merge Problems

Gerrit will fast-forward or merge changes as necessary when they are approved. If a conflict would be created by a merge, gerrit will not merge the change and will record an error message in the comments for the change. In these cases, you may need to rebase or merge the change, or if the repository head has changed significantly, you may need to change the patch.

If you don't already have the patch in your local repository, Gerrit provides commands on the web page for each change indicating how to download that change. You can then use git to correct the problem.

If you encounter other error messages from Gerrit, the Error Messages section of the Gerrit manual may offer some tips.

Release Management

Milestones

Between the Milestone Branch Point and the release of the corresponding milestone, there needs to be a separate branch in Gerrit for changes destined for the milestone release. Meanwhile, development on the master branch should continue as normal (with the addition that changes proposed for the milestone should also be proposed for master, and some changes for master may need to be applied to milestone-proposed).

This process creates an ephemeral milestone-proposed branch that is only available in Gerrit during the milestone process. When the milestone is released, a tag is applied to the final commit to record the state of the branch at the time.

Create milestone-proposed Branch

This step should be performed by the OpenStack Release Manager at the Release Branch Point.

Go to https://review.openstack.org/ and sign in
Select Admin, Projects, then the project
Select Branches
Enter milestone-proposed in the Branch Name field, and HEAD as the Initial Revision, then press Create Branch

In your local checkout:

git checkout master
git pull
git checkout milestone-proposed

Authoring Changes for milestone-proposed

Create topic branches as normal, but branch them from milestone-proposed rather than master.

git checkout milestone-proposed
git pull
git checkout -b MY-TOPIC-BRANCH

Changes for milestone-proposed should be submitted with:

git push gerrit HEAD:refs/for/milestone-proposed

Submit Changes in master to milestone-proposed

If a change to master should also be included in milestone-proposed, use this procedure to cherry-pick that change and submit it for review.

git checkout milestone-proposed
git pull
git checkout -b master-to-mp
git cherry-pick <SHA1 or "master">
git push gerrit HEAD:refs/for/milestone-proposed
git branch -D master-to-mp

git cherry-pick master will pick the most recent commit from master to apply, if you want a different patch, use the SHA1 of the commit instead.

Submitting Changes in milestone-proposed to master

Changes that originate in milestone-proposed should also be submitted to master. Use these commands to make an up-to-date topic branch from master, then cherry-pick changes from milestone-proposed to be applied to master.

git checkout master
git pull
git checkout -b mp-to-master
git cherry-pick <SHA1 or milestone-proposed>
git review
git branch -D mp-to-master

git cherry-pick milestone-proposed will pick the most recent commit from milestone-proposed to apply, if you want a different patch, use the SHA1 of the commit instead.

Tagging a Release

This step should be performed by the OpenStack Release Manager when the release is made.

To tag the tip of the milestone-proposed branch with a release tag and push that tag to gerrit and github, run the following commands:

git checkout milestone-proposed
git pull
git tag RELEASE-TAG-NAME
git push --tags gerrit

End of Milestone

This step should be performed by the OpenStack Release Manager after the release is tagged.

When the milestone process is complete and the released commit is tagged, remove the milestone-proposed branch. The tag will persist, even after the branch is deleted, making it possible to restore the state of the tree.

Go to https://review.openstack.org/ and sign in
Select Admin, Projects, then the project
Select Branches
Select the checkbox next to milestone-proposed and hit Delete

Resources

See the Gerrit documentation, especially the User Guide, for more information on how to use Gerrit. It is also available within Gerrit by clicking on the Documentation link on the top of the page.

The Mahara Project also uses Git, Gerrit, and Jenkins in a similar manner (though with Gitorious instead of GitHub).

A description of many of the elements of the git workflow

Obsolete:GerritJenkinsGit