Code/Git

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Revision 11 as of 2015-05-03 21:47:55

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Launchpad Help > Code > Git

Overview

Launchpad supports hosting Git repositories. This is distinct from the code import facility that Launchpad has included for many years; it will shortly be possible to host Git repositories on Launchpad directly.

Git repositories use a somewhat different model from Bazaar branches: operations such as cloning happen at the level of a repository, but it is common for a single repository to contain many branches. This means that the Launchpad interface needs to be laid out somewhat differently to support that.

What's supported?

As of May 2015, a reasonably complete basic version of Git hosting support is live on Launchpad production. This means that you can:

What will be supported?

Launchpad's Bazaar support has grown many features over the years, and it will take some time to bring our Git support up to full parity with it. Here's an incomplete list of some of the features we expect to add:

Here's a short list of known bugs that you don't need to tell us about:

Configuring Git

Git identifies repositories using URLs. Unlike Bazaar, there is no built-in abbreviation for repositories hosted on Launchpad, but it is very easy to add such a thing yourself. Edit ~/.gitconfig and add these lines, where USER is your Launchpad username:

[url "git+ssh://USER@git.launchpad.net/"]
        insteadof = lp:

This allows you to type git clone lp:REPOSITORY instead of git clone git+ssh://git.launchpad.net/REPOSITORY.

The rest of this documentation assumes that you have configured Git this way.

Getting code

You can fetch the default repository for a project like this:

$ git clone lp:PROJECT

For example, git clone lp:launchpad fetches Launchpad itself (or will once we've finished converting it to Git!).

To keep your local clone up to date, run:

$ git pull

Pushing code

You can add a "remote" to your repository like this, if you own the project:

$ git remote add origin lp:PROJECT

Or like this (where USER is your Launchpad username), if you do not own the project:

$ git remote add origin lp:~USER/PROJECT

Now, you can push a branch using a command such as this:

$ git push origin my-changes

Repository URLs

Every Git repository hosted on Launchpad has a full "canonical" URL of one of these forms (these are the versions you'd use in a web browser; you only need to change the scheme and host parts for the command-line Git client):

https://code.launchpad.net/~OWNER/PROJECT/+git/REPOSITORY
This identifies a repository for an upstream project.
https://code.launchpad.net/~OWNER/DISTRIBUTION/+source/SOURCE/+git/REPOSITORY
This identifies a repository for a source package in a distribution.
https://code.launchpad.net/~OWNER/+git/REPOSITORY
This identifies a "personal" repository with no particular connection to any project or package.

These are unique, but can involve quite a lot of typing, and in most cases there's no need for more than one repository per owner and target (project or package). Launchpad therefore has the notion of "default repositories". A repository can be the default for a target, in which case it has one of these forms:

https://code.launchpad.net/PROJECT
This is the default repository for an upstream project.
https://code.launchpad.net/DISTRIBUTION/+source/SOURCE
This is the default repository for a source package in a distribution.

Or a repository can be a person's or a team's default for a target, in which case it has one of these forms:

https://code.launchpad.net/~OWNER/PROJECT
This is an owner's default repository for an upstream project.
https://code.launchpad.net/~OWNER/DISTRIBUTION/+source/SOURCE
This is an owner's default repository for a source package in a distribution.

We expect that projects hosting their code on Launchpad will normally have their primary repository set as the default for the project, and contributors will normally push to branches in owner-default repositories. The extra flexibility with named repositories allows for situations such as separate private repositories containing embargoed security fixes.