master is now a GitHub protected branch

[Stephen E. Baker]

I have set master as a protected branch in github. This means no one
will be able to delete it or force push to it. Only pull requests that
have passed their Travis and AppVeyor checks will be able to be merged,
except by the project owners.

If one of these checks were to stop working one of the owners will
remove it from the restriction list until the problem can be resolved.

Enjoy,

Stephen E. Baker

[Stephen E. Baker]

On 2016-02-11 12:13 PM, Stephen E. Baker wrote:
> I have set master as a protected branch in github. This means no one
> will be able to delete it or force push to it. Only pull requests that
> have passed their Travis and AppVeyor checks will be able to be
> merged, except by the project owners.
>

William brought up the point that this means we will not be able to fix
up other people's pull requests and merge them directly. In a way this
is good, since the changes have not been checked, there is the potential
that they could break the master build. On the other hand, it is
inconvenient when some of our contributors do not know how manage git
themselves.

In the mean time I've suggested the following escalation of action:
Request that the owner of the pull request make the changes (e.g.
rebase) themselves.
If they are unable to do it themselves, request commit access to their
public repository and make the changes in the branch the pull request is
from.
If they cannot or will not give us permission to access their repository
then we (the reviewer) will pull the changes into our own public repo,
close the existing pull request and open a new one.

If this turns out to be too much of a burden I will disable the
requirement for appveyor and travis checks.

[Stephen E. Baker]

I have made a couple changes to the protected branch policies in github.

1. I have disabled the 'up to date' check, PRs can now be merged as long
as they don't conflict even if they aren't based on the latest master
commit. If anyone feels I should reinstate this check I will, but my
current feeling is that it's annoying and unlikely to catch a real issue.

2. I have restricted who can push (merge pull requests) to master to
those in the Owners and Contributors teams. This means that we can add
people to the Testing team who can manage issues without fear that they
might break master. (An experience we're all too familiar with.) If
anyone is now missing access who should have it let me know so I can
assign you to the appropriate team.

Stephen E. Baker

On 2016-02-11 12:13 PM, Stephen E. Baker wrote: