Learn Git

To learn more about Git, refer to its homepage, and official documentation.

Here are a couple of links to get started with Git:

• OpenHatch Missions: Using Git
• Git For Ages 4 And Up

General information

Git hosting setup at immerda

Documentation for our Git hosting setup at immerda:

• main documentation
• SSL and SSH fingerprints

Merge policy

See our merge policy.

Caution!

If you want to commit patches that may be published later, you might want to anonymize them a bit; to do so, run the following commands in every of your local clones' directories:

git config user.name 'Tails developers'
git config user.email amnesia@boum.org

If you intend to prepare Tails releases, you'll also need to make the development team signing key the default one for Git tags:

git config user.signingkey 1202821CBE2CD9C1

Creating a new repository

1. Create a new repository at immerda.
2. Create a pull-style mirror at repo.or.cz.

Repositories

Main repository

This repository contains the Tails source code and the wiki source.

Anyone can check it out like this:

git clone https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails

Developers with write access to the repositories should instead:

git clone 'ssh://boum_org_amnesia@webmasters.boum.org/~/wiki.git'

We have a web interface available for the main repository.

Branches

Tails development uses several branches modeled a bit like the Debian development process. Here they are.

master

The master branch is used by the online wiki.

FIXME: document what should go in there, when other branches are merged into it, etc.

stable

The stable branch is intended to contain:

• the state of the code tagged for the last stable release
• fixes for security or important bugs.

Its purpose is to prepare minor releases.

testing

The testing branch is used to prepare an imminent release: at some point of the development process, the devel branch code is merged into testing, frozen, and endures careful testing and bug-fixing until this branch is considered good enough to become a stable release. The testing branch is then merged into the stable and master ones, images built and shipped and we go back to code shiny new stuff in the devel branch.

Please note that the testing branch generally has not been granted the same testing and attention as code that has made it into a stable release: please use it for testing purposes but do not rely on it for anything. No guarantee, blablabla.

devel

Most of the development work that is done in Tails, is done in the devel branch. This branch will never get released; instead, code from it will be merged into testing and then into a real release.

Please note that the devel branch can be broken, have awful security problems and so on. No guarantee, blablabla.

The master branch is merged into devel from time to time.

Topic branches

We use topic branches called bugfix/* and feature/*, respectively aimed at fixing a single bug and implementing a single new feature. Once ready, a topic branch is merged (with --no-ff) into the appropriate branch (generally devel). Until it has been merged, a topic branch's history may be rewritten, e.g. it may be rebased on top of devel.

Unless there are good reasons to do otherwise, bugfix branches must be forked off the latest stable release tag, while feature branches should are forked off the devel branch.

experimental

Generally, it's devel plus a few topic branches merged in. These topic branches are not ready enough to be merged into devel, but we seriously would like to get them fit for the next stable release, so this branch serves to test all these new features and bugfixes by building / getting a single image. The history of this branch is frequently rewritten and must not be used as the basis of any development.

Please note that the experimental branch can be broken, have awful security problems and so on. No guarantee, blablabla.

Puppet modules

Those who have SSH access to these repositories must configure their SSH client a bit, e.g.:

Host git.puppet.tails.boum.org
    HostName d53ykjpeekuikgoq.onion
    ProxyCommand torsocks monkeysphere ssh-proxycommand %h %p

tails

This is the main public Puppet module to manage Tails infrastructure, including classes such as tails::reprepro and tails::whisperback::relay.

Anyone can check it out like this:

git clone git://git.puppet.tails.boum.org/puppet-tails

Developers with write access to the repositories should instead:

git clone gitolite@git.puppet.tails.boum.org:puppet-tails

Other Puppet modules

We use and publish a lot of other Puppet modules. See the section about our other repositories.

tails_lizard_manifests

Developers with access to the APT secrets can check it out like this:

git clone gitolite@git.puppet.tails.boum.org:puppet-lizard-manifests

tails_secrets_apt

Developers with access to the APT secrets can check it out like this:

git clone gitolite@git.puppet.tails.boum.org:puppet-tails_secrets_apt

tails_secrets_whisperback

Developers with access to the WhisperBack secrets can check it out like this:

git clone gitolite@git.puppet.tails.boum.org:puppet-tails_secrets_whisperback

Other repositories

All other public Tails Git repositories are at https://git-tails.immerda.ch/.

Unauthenticated access is of the form:

git clone https://git-tails.immerda.ch/$REPOSITORY

Developers with write access to the repositories should instead:

git clone tails@git.tails.boum.org:$REPOSITORY