Developer Guide

Building

Gitiles requires Bazel to build.

You need to use Java for building Gitiles. You can install Bazel from bazel.build: https://bazel.build/versions/master/docs/install.html . Alternatively, you can use apt-get.

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install bazel

The best way to build and run gitiles is to use bazelisk.

$ go install github.com/bazelbuild/bazelisk@latest
$ export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin

Make sure to initialize and update the git submodules:

git submodule update --init

You are now ready to build and test.

$ bazelisk build //:gitiles
$ bazelisk test //...

Troubleshooting

If you encounter build errors such as:

Error in execute: Argument 0 of execute is neither a path, label, nor string.

Make sure you have python available in your PATH. Since Debian 11 and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal), there is no /usr/bin/python provided by default. You can install a package to provide a link to Python 3:

sudo apt-get install python-is-python3

Upon uploading your new CL, if you encounter a message related to a missing Change-Id, you are missing the commit hook. Likely the command to download it should appear in the Hint section of the message. If it does not, use the following command:

f=`git rev-parse --git-dir`/hooks/commit-msg ; mkdir -p $(dirname $f) ; curl -Lo $f https://gerrit-review.googlesource.com/tools/hooks/commit-msg ; chmod +x $f

Running Locally and Testing

cd /path/to/repositories  # Don't run from the gitiles repo.
/path/to/gitiles/tools/run_dev.sh

This will recompile and start a development server. Open http://localhost:8080/ to view your local copy of gitiles, which will serve any repositories under /path/to/repositories.

To run unit tests, refer to the aforementioned bazel test command.

Pushing your changes

This repository does not work with repo tool. To push your CL to staging, use the following command.

git push origin HEAD:refs/for/master

Eclipse IDE

If you'd like to use Eclipse to edit Gitiles, first generate a project file:

tools/eclipse/project.sh

Import the project in Eclipse:

File -> Import -> Existing Projects into Workpace

The project only needs to be rebuilt if the source roots or third-party libraries have changed. For best results, ensure the project is closed in Eclipse before rebuilding.

Running/Debugging from Eclipse IDE

Running Gitiles from Eclipse requires setting the com.google.gitiles.sourcePath system property. The property value has to be the root folder of the Gitiles source code, for example:

-Dcom.google.gitiles.sourcePath=/home/johndoe/git/gitiles

Code Style

Java code in Gitiles follows the Google Java Style Guide with a 100-column limit.

Code should be automatically formatted using google-java-format prior to sending a code review. There is currently no Eclipse formatter, but the tool can be run from the command line:

java -jar /path/to/google-java-format.jar -i path/to/java/File.java

CSS in Gitiles follows the SUIT CSS naming conventions.

Code Review

Gitiles uses Gerrit for code review: https://gerrit-review.googlesource.com/

Gitiles uses the “git push” workflow with server https://gerrit.googlesource.com/gitiles. You will need a generated cookie.

Gerrit depends on “Change-Id” annotations in your commit message. If you try to push a commit without one, it will explain how to install the proper git-hook:

curl -Lo `git rev-parse --git-dir`/hooks/commit-msg \
    https://gerrit-review.googlesource.com/tools/hooks/commit-msg
chmod +x `git rev-parse --git-dir`/hooks/commit-msg

Before you create your local commit (which you'll push to Gerrit) you will need to set your email to match your Gerrit account:

git config --local --add user.email foo@bar.com

Normally you will create code reviews by pushing for master:

git push origin HEAD:refs/for/master

Releases

Gitiles artifacts are published to the gerrit-maven bucket. To release a new version, you must have write access to this bucket. See Deploy Gerrit Artifacts for PGP key setup and Google Cloud Storage access setup.

First, increment GITILES_VERSION in version.bzl, Gitiles uses Semantic Versioning. Get your change reviewed and submitted.

Then, run:

./tools/maven/mvn.sh deploy

Tag the release with a signed, annotated tag matching the version number, for example “v0.4-1”.

Once released, Maven projects can consume the new version as long as they point at the proper repository URL. Similarly, Bazel projects using the maven_jar bazlet can use the new version with repository = GERRIT.