Using GitLab/GitLab project membership requests

[PatrickW]

In order to push changes to the project repository on GitLab, it is necessary to be a member of the project. (And presumably also the wmtprojectsteam group.)

Neither the group nor the project are currently configured to allow users to request membership through GitLab's user interface. Can that be enabled? Alternatively, if it can't be enabled, then perhaps we can use this forum thread to gather requests instead.

Related: Is there any kind of code review process or set of conventions about how the team uses git, that people should know about before being granted access, or is it pretty ad-hoc?

I'm relatively inexperienced with using git "in the real world". The way I would expect it to work is to commit work in progress into a separate branch, push it to GitLab so that other people can access it easily (and link to it) and then merge it into master if it gains acceptance. However, I get the impression that the process that's actually being used might be more of a case of sharing various separate copies of the code (e.g. via forum posts) in order to reach agreement about its suitability, then committing it directly to master.

This thread is primarily about the river system project, but perhaps it could be moved to the Getting Started forum if people think it should cover all the projects.

[PatrickW]

(P.S. I wish to request membership of the GitLab project!)

[TerryJC]

Patrick,

See my separate email re GitLab membership.

Prior to this, pretty much everything has been committed into branch master or held locally until the developer thought it was 100% ready. This is partly because the main developer has until now been Hamish with me popping in the odd few lines of test code from time to time.

Now there are three of us, then I think that we should make much more use of branching. I was speaking to Ian when you were both at WMT a week or two ago about how he should manage his code for the NAS Box and branching was suggested then, so I'm sure he will be in agreement.

Having said all that, I've never set up a branch in GitLab, but like everything else, I'm sure it's pretty straightforward once you've understood the commands needed.

[PatrickW]

That all makes sense. I don't seem to have a separate email re GitLab membership, but I suppose you might not have sent it yet!

[TerryJC]

Hmmm. I sent it through the forum. I'll send another off-forum in a minute.

[TerryJC]

I just found the address you use for WMT. Do you have an invite?

[PatrickW]

Yes! That seems to have worked. I just tried sending myself a test email using the link on the forum, and that worked too, so it's a bit of a mystery where your email has gone. (I hope my mail provider didn't eat it.)

[TerryJC]

OK. If you haven't already done so, can you install git and connect to the GitLab Repository?

[PatrickW]

I was already able to pull files from the repository without being a member of the group, since it is public. Now it lets me push too. (I didn't have anything to push, but it is letting me go through the motions, where before it just told me off.)

[TerryJC]

Excellent.