Branches in Openconsole

In OpenConsole, dev/main is the primary branch for the repo.

Any branch that begins with dev/ is recognized by our CI system and will automatically run x86 and amd64 builds and run our unit and feature tests. For feature branches the pattern we use is dev/<alias>/<whatever you want here>. ex. dev/austdi/SomeCoolUnicodeFeature. The important parts are the dev prefix and your alias.

inbox is a special branch that coordinates OpenConsole code to the main OS repo.

The code will be checked into the OS repo at /onecore/windows/core/console/open. It would be prudent to make sure that directory builds in razzle with your submitted changes.

Code Submission Process

Because we build outside of the OS repo, we need a way to get code back into it once it's been merged into dev/main. This is done by cherry-picking the PR to the inbox branch once it has been merged (and preferably squashed) into dev/main. We have a tool called Git2Git that listens for new merges into inbox and replicates the commits over to the OS repo. Feel free to approve and complete the inbox PR yourself. About a minute after the inbox PR is submitted, Git2Git will create a PR in the OS repo under the alias miniksa. It will automatically target the OS branch we're using at the time, it just needs you to go approve and complete it. Once that merge is completed it is a good idea to build the OS branch with the new code in it to make sure that the PR won't be the cause of a build break that evening.

What to do when cherry-picking to inbox fails

Sometimes VSTS doesn't want to allow a cherry pick to the inbox branch. It might have a valid reason, or it might just be finicky. You'll need to complete the merge manually on a local machine. The steps are:

1. make sure you have pulled the latest commits for the dev/main and inbox branches
2. make a new branch from inbox
3. cherry-pick the commits from the PR to the newly created branch (this is easier if you squashed your commits when you merged into dev/main
4. fix any merge conflicts and commit
5. push the new branch to the remote
6. create a new PR of that branch in inbox
7. complete PR and continue on to completing the auto-created PR in the OS repo