Github

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Quick instructions for downloading current versions of WeBWorK and PG

  • We'll assume that your current webwork installation is located in the directory
/opt/webwork/

with subdirectories 

 /opt/webwork/webwork2
 /opt/webwork/pg
 /opt/webwork/courses
  • For safety we will move the webwork2 and pg directories to "old" versions and create links that redirect pg and webwork2 to these renamed directories
 cd /opt/webwork
 mv webwork2 webwork2_old
 mv pg pg_old
 ln -s webwork2_old webwork2
 ln -s pg_old pg

At this point our current webwork installation should work as before. Calls to webwork2 and pg are directed to the "old" (actually your current) versions of webwork.

  • Next we will create new versions of webwork and pg from the code base at github.com
 git clone https://github.com/openwebwork/webwork2 webwork2_github
 git clone https://github.com/openwebwork/pg pg_github
  • We set up the configuration files in the new code base.
  • Next we switch our links so that they point to the new code base.
 cd /opt/webwork
 rm webwork2
 rm pg
 ln -s webwork2_github webwork2
 ln -s pg_github pg
  • If something goes wrong and we need to back up to our previous version of WeBWorK simply change the links as described below and restart the apache server.
 cd /opt/webwork
 ln -s webwork2_old webwork2
 ln -s pg_old pg

Quick instructions for using other branches of webwork

You may want to use the current stable candidate release branch

of WeBWorK instead of using the "master" branch. You might want to do this because the upcoming release branch has a new feature that you want to use right away, or you might like to help out with the final testing of the new branch. These instructions tell you how to

download the new branch, how to switch to it, and how to easily revert back to the original "master" branch if there are difficulties or when you are done testing.

  • These instructions tell you how to obtain recent branches of the webwork2 repository. The analogous procedures on the pg directory will obtain the various branches of the pg repository.
  • To download the information about the branches of WeBWorK in addition to the master branch.
 cd /opt/webwork/webwork2
 git remote -v
      origin	https://github.com/openwebwork/webwork2 (fetch)
      origin	https://github.com/openwebwork/webwork2 (push)

This is the default setup. The reply to the remote command says that "origin" is connected to the standard repo at github.com. 

 git fetch origin
 git branch -a
   * master
    remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
    remotes/origin/develop
    remotes/origin/master
    remotes/origin/release/2.7
 git branch -t release/2.7 origin/release/2.7
    Branch release/2.7 set up to track remote branch        release/2.7 from origin.
 git branch
    * master
    release/2.7
  • This sequence of commands does the following
    • Obtain information about all of the branches at the "origin" repository.
    • List all of the branches available. The * indicates that we are currently using the "master" branch.
    • The "git branch -t..." sets up a local branch which tracks (syncs with) the current release candidate (which is "release/2.7" in this case)
    • The final check "git branch" shows that you now have access to two versions on the software, downloaded to your machine. The * indicates that you are currently using the master version.
  • Switch over the release candidate release/2.7
  cd /opt/webwork
  git branch
    * master
    release/2.7
  git checkout release/2.7

Now restart your apache server (the command for this might be "sudo apachectl graceful")

  • To switch back
  git branch
    master
    * release/2.7
  git checkout master

and restart your apache server.

Quick instructions for updating one of your branches

  • To update one of the standard webwork branches
 cd /opt/webwork/webwork2
 git branch 
    * master
    release/2.7
 git pull

This updates the current branch "master" to agree with any changes that have been made on the openwebwork repo. If you wish to update the release/2.7 which is tracking release/2.7 on the openwebwork repo then follow the same procedure but first switch to the release/2.7 branch using the command 

  git checkout release/2.7
  • Those wishing to update from other sources than github.com/openwebwork should read the WeBWorK developer instructions for using the advanced features of git.

Understanding Github and git

Git and Github Overview

Git is the name of a distributed version control system. It plays the role of the CVS or SVN control systems that WeBWorK has used in the past but the details of how it works are somewhat different. For obtaining up-to-date copies of software there is not much difference between git and previous VCS. Developers however should read closely since git has a different conceptualization of how version control should be handled. The difference allows considerably more flexibility for collaborative development. Consolidation no longer depends on a single site or single administrator. Updates are also more modular and therefore easier to check and repair or remove if they cause trouble.


Git has many capabilities and can be used in many different ways. This page outlines a subset of git commands and workflows that seems to work well for WeBWorK.


Github.com is a site which facilitates the collaborative development of open source projects. These sites are open (read-only) to the world. WeBWorK has a master site at https://www.github.com/openwebwork where accepted modifications are being consolidated. The following repositories are available at that site.

  • webwork2 -- the course management face of WeBWorK
  • pg -- the macros that help render the PG questions


  • webwork-open-problem-library -- (formerly NationalProblemLibrary) -- a collection of homework questions contributed from institutions around the world.
  • webwork-model-course-library -- a collection of mathematics courses that can be used "out of the box" -- under construction.
  • wwmoodle -- plugins that connect moodle and webwork
  • ww_question_server -- another plugin project connecting moodle question types to the WeBWorK webservice
  • admintools -- a collection of command line scripts used by larger sites serving WeBWorK

Following WeBWorK Development

You can get a view of development using git by clicking on the "Network" button on a github site. For example at https://github.com/mgage/webwork2 click on the "Network" button to see a graph of changes incorporated into Mike Gage's (bleeding edge) version of WeBWorK. Clicking on the commit dots along the lines will show the commit comments describing what was done with this commit. With git you concentrate on the "dots" the individual commits, more than the branch lines. You can often grab individual commits and apply them to your own branch; cherry picking some features for your branch while leaving other features behind. Your branch and the branch you are borrowing from must have a shared history somewhere in the past. Having a fairly recent shared history minimizes the chances that there will be conflicts when you try to apply the commit or "patch".


You can scroll the network graph to explore the past history of WeBWorK and when (and to some extent by who) each feature was added. Please follow or improve on the style of the later commit comments. Earlier commits represent a learning phase. :-)

Github project network graph.png


The top lines indicate worked done by Mike Gage locally on his laptop and eventually merged into his master branch and uploaded to the github repository. The other lines indicate work uploaded by other developers to their sites and where their development repos stand compared to Gage's.

Contributing to WeBWorK

Workflow

On your local git repository the following workflow seems to minimize clashes with work being done elsewhere. Commit early and often to your local branch. 


clone the remote repo  
git checkout -b my_new_feature (start a new branch to work on a single feature)
 ..work and commit some stuff
git pull origin master    (pull changes from the upstream github repository into your master copy)
git rebase master         (apply updates to your my_new_feature branch so that it looks like it branched from the updated master copy)
 ..work and commit some stuff
git pull origin master 
git rebase master
 ..finish the feature
git checkout master
git merge my_new_feature  (merge your changes back into your local master copy)
git push origin master    (publish the changes in your master copy to your github account)
git branch -d my_new_feature  (delete this branch. Since you don't want to use it with rebase after you have submitted to the github repository? )

Issue pull request to openwebwork


The use of "rebase" means that your chain of commits will all appear together, one after another, without any intervening commits from other developers which makes it easier to understand the flow of development. In general, even without rebase issues, it is better to delete your feature branch once you have merged it with your master branch and tested it in order to avoid clutter. git will not allow you to delete a branch (easily) if it has not been merged with the master branch.


Individual developers for webwork also have their own sites (analogous to the branches in SVN, but more easily accessible)

Writing a good commit line

Writing good commit lines is important. Imagine that you will be reading a series of commits in order to understand how the software development is progressing. Write accordingly.

When making commits I found this advice to be useful.

  • Write a good first line that describes the feature you are committing . (It's like the subject line of an email but more important) This is the line that summarizes the commit so that when searching the commit tree one can find where a feature was added.
  • Good style: Start with a verb in the present tense. These read well in the commit tree. For example:
Add slider bar to library browser.
or
Fix bug in level_curve_checker  subroutine
  • Follow the subject line with a blank line.
  • Then add as much as you want to explain what changes were made and any other information you want preserved. (A diff of the changed files is preserved automatically.)
  • You can use git log to see how previous commits were worded. (Don't copy any of my first examples, but the later ones are getting better.)


  • when possible make each commit an atomic unit. One step in the development process

Download WeBWorK via svn to an svn repository

  • Quick-instructions. Type the following in the directory where you wish to have the repository. For example:
          cd webwork
          svn checkout https://github.com/openwebwork/webwork2/trunk webwork2
          svn checkout https://github.com/openwebwork/pg/trunk pg  
          svn checkout https://github.com/openwebwork/webwork-open-problem-library/trunk   webwork-open-problem-library
          
 will produce the directories webwork2 and pg inside the directory webwork containing all the files from 
 the master versions of webwork2 and pg at the github.com/openwebwork repository respectively.

References for GitHub and Git

(unreviewed at the moment -- YMVV)

Version_Control

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