Assignment 6 - Git/GitHub Flow

Objectives

• More practice with Git branching and merging
• Practice of a proper Git workflow to handle merge conflicts properly in a team environment

Interactive class

The Setup, Part A, and Part B of this assignment were worked on in an interactive class. The video of that class is below:

Setup

1. You must have completed Lab: GitHub CLI setup prior to starting this assignment.
2. Click this link: https://classroom.github.com/a/hl0Jq6SR
3. Teams:
   • The first teammate: Create a name like “Team A” that reflects the team assignment in class.
   • The second (and third) teammate: Join the team your partner made.
4. Finally, accept the assignment.
5. Click the link to your team repo on the confirmation page.
6. You will see a repo like the following:

   

7. git clone the repository to your computer, and open the directory in Visual Studio Code.

PAUSE HERE and wait for the instructor

Part A - race to main

1. Run main.py, which won’t do much, but may create some additional files in your workspace.
2. You should be on the main branch. Add a comment with only your name to the top of main.py in a comment, e.g., # Alice Bobberton.
3. Stage, commit, and push the change. Some of you will not be able to…

PAUSE HERE and wait for the instructor

What happens? How do you fix the problem?

1. The partners need to pull, resolve the conflicts, add, commit, and push the changes.
2. Make sure that each partner has added, committed, and pushed their name.
3. Once done, all partners git pull the main branch.

PAUSE HERE and wait for the instructor

Committing to the same branch in a remote repository is a race. Two, three, five, or 10 people committing to the same branch is chaos.

Part B - proper git flow

B.1 - Group discussion

1. Make sure that main.py in the remote repo’s main branch contains all team members’ names.
2. Make sure everyone’s local main branch is up to date with the remote main branch by running git pull.
3. Open string_stuff.py and discuss:
   1. Who will implement reverse_words()
   2. Who will implement count_vowels()
   3. (If you have a 3-person team): who will implement is_palindrome()

B.2 - Individual work

1. Each person creates a new branch to work in. Use a descriptive branch name reflective of the work you will be doing, not your name.

PAUSE HERE and wait for the instructor

2. Each person implements their function on their branch. Talk to and help one another. You can use internet resources, but cite them in a comment if you do.
   • All of your work should be in string_stuff.py
   • Do not worry about writing test code yet.
3. Remember to do small, incremental commits when appropriate.
4. Run main.py and manually test your work.
5. Stage, commit, and push your changes to the remote. Pay attention to the console because you may have to run a variant of the git push command.

PAUSE HERE and wait for the instructor

Integrate your work with main

Now it is time to integrate your changes into main. It will not be painless as there is still a race, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. We already did the wrong way. Here is the right way:

1. git checkout main
2. git pull: make sure you have the latest changes from the main branch in case someone else committed something.
3. git checkout <your-branch>
4. git merge main: this merges the changes from main into your branch.
5. Resolve any conflicts in your branch and commit the changes to your branch.
6. git checkout main: now we switch back to main
7. git merge <your-branch>: bring the changes from your branch into main. This should be smooth because you already resolved merge conflicts between your-branch and main.
8. git push: now push the updated main to the remote.

This flow will help ensure that main is “good, clean, code”. Merge conflicts will usually only happen in your branch, which is where you want to deal with them.

If each person completes steps 1-7 before anyone else pushes to main, the process will be smooth. If main changes while you are in the middle of these steps, you will not be allowed to push in step 7. You will have to pull main and resolve the merge conflicts either in main or in your-branch.

Good communication helps

A simple heads-up to your partner of, “Hey, I just pushed some changes to main. Make sure to integrate them into your branch” goes a long way.

And “I’m getting ready to integrate to main. Please don’t push anything yet” also helps.

B.3 - Integrate group work

Ensure that everyone’s changes to their branches are integrated into the main branch using proper merging. Make sure main.py runs and works properly for the completed functions.

Part C - In class on Thursday

Part C will add tests to the project to give you some more practice writing test cases in addition to practicing your Git workflow. Code really isn’t complete until it is tested, and developers write unit tests for the code they implement.

Preparation

1. Complete Part B first.
2. Ensure that your main remote branch is up-to-date, correct, and “good code”.
3. Ensure that each partner has checked out and pulled the main branch updates.
4. Ensure that each partner has merged main into their branch.

At this point, all branches and main should be at the same version, so everyone is starting from the same place.

Instructions

You will write pytest unit test cases in test_string_stuff.py for each of the functions. Refer to the testing labs as necessary. Work with your partners.

• Individual work
  • The partner who wrote a function also writes the tests for that same function in test_string_stuff.py.
  • Each partner must write a minimum of two test cases: (1) testing “normal” input, (2) verifying the assertions are raised correctly.
  • Commit and push your work to the same branch you worked on while implementing the function, not to main.
  • You do not need to write test cases for main.py.
• Group integration: Follow the Git Flow from your worksheet to integrate your work into main. Each person:
  1. git checkout main
  2. git pull: make sure you have the latest changes from the main branch in case someone else committed something.
  3. git checkout <your-branch>
  4. git merge main: this merges the changes from main into your branch.
  5. Resolve any conflicts in your branch and commit the changes to your branch.
  6. git checkout main: now we switch back to main
  7. git merge <your-branch>: bring the changes from your branch into main. This should be smooth because you already resolved merge conflicts between your-branch and main.
  8. git push: now push the updated main to the remote.
• Finishing up:
  • Make sure that all functions and tests work in the main branch.
  • Ensure that you have total branch coverage of the functions you implemented in string_stuff.py.
    • You do not need to commit any coverage information to your repo. The .gitignore file should be ignoring these files, and that’s okay!
  • Make sure that your “final” version of main is pushed to GitHub.

Assignment 6 Rubric

• (15pts) git log history shows multiple commits to each partner’s branch and integration into main following the prescribed Git Flow
• (15pts) Final version of main contains functionally correct implementations and test cases achieving 100% branch coverage of all functions implemented in string_stuff.py.

Final submission due Sunday, Nov 17

You will push all your branches and finished code to GitHub.

An optional, individual Extra Credit Assignment is due at the same time.