Subject: Re: [Mesa3d-dev] mesa_7_7_branch -> master merges

From: Keith Whitwell <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:59:55 +0000

On Mon, 2010-01-25 at 11:04 -0800, tom fogal wrote:
> I think we've touched on a core git workflow issue here, and its likely
> others have hit this && have a solution, so I've added the git ML to
> the CC list.
> 
> Git: the situation in this repo is a fast-moving master that is
> including many changes to internal interfaces.  Stable branches just
> get bugfixes, and are periodically merged to master.  However, the more
> the heads diverge, the more difficult it is for a bugfix to merge into
> the head.  The major issue is that more experienced developers should
> really weigh in on these merges, because they tend to automagically
> undo some of the interface changes.  Yet during such a delay, master
> inevitably moves, and the bugfixer has to do even more work to "redo"
> the merge (and potentially get more review!).
> 
> Of course, if there are two bugfixers trying to make separate changes
> in the same time period, this gets worse.
> 
> Is there a workflow that can solve this issue?
> 

Speaking from the Mesa side, I think part of our problem is that it's
not easy to build the entire mesa tree, which means that the developer
doing the merge cannot even compile-test the result, meaning that many
trivial failures go unnoticed.

I'd argue that if we had a maximal mesa build target that compiled
*everything*, regardless of whether it produced drivers or not, we'd
have a much better chance of catching bogus merge droppings.

Despite Jose's valid concerns, I'd still argue that the situation we
have now is superior to what came before - where people were supposed to
be cherry-picking bugfixes but more likely they were forgotten or it
fell on Brian's shoulders to do manually.

Keith