DVCS - How often and when to commit changes

Question

There is another thread here on StackOverflow, dealing wih how often to commit changes to source control. I want to put that in the context of using a DVCS like git or mercurial.

1. How often and when do you commit?

2. Do you only commit changes when they build correctly?

3. How often and when do you push your changes (or file a pull request or similar)?

4. How do you approac developing a complex feature / doing a complex refactoring requiring many places to be touched? Are "private commits" that won't build ok? When finished, do you push them also to the master repository or do you bundle all your changes into a single changeset before pushing?

Answer 1

It depends on the nature of the branch ("line of development") you are working on.

The main advantage with those DVCS (git or mercurial) is the ease you can:

• branch
• merge

So:

1/ How often and when do you commit?
2/ Do you only commit changes when they build correctly?

As many time as necessary on a private branch (for instance, if it compiles).
The practice to only commit if unit tests pass is a good one, but should only apply to an "official" (as in "could be published or 'pushed'") branch: in your private branch, you merge a gazillon times if you need to.
The only thing is: do some merge --interactive to reorganize your many commits on your private branch, before replaying them on your main development branch, where you can pass some tests.

3/ How often and when do you push your changes (or file a pull request or similar)?

Publication is another matter and should be done with a "clear" history (coherent merges, representing a content which compile and pass some tests).
The branch you publish should be one where the history is never rewritten, always updated.
The pace of the publications depends on the nature of the remote branch and of the population pulling that branch. For instance, if it is for another team, you could push quite often. If it is for a system-wide integration testing team, you will push a lot less often.

4/ How do you approach developing a complex feature / doing a complex refactoring requiring many places to be touched? Are "private commits" that won't build ok? When finished, do you push them also to the master repository or do you bundle all your changes into a single changeset before pushing?

See 1. and 2.: patch first in your own private branch, then reorganize your commits on an official (published) patch branch. One single commit is not always the best option if the patch involves several different "activities" (or bug fix).

Answer 2

How often and when do you commit?

Very frequently. It could be as much as a few times in a hour, if the changes I've made work and make up a nice patch. Or it could be every few hours, depending on whether I am spending longer debugging things, or experimenting with risky changes.

Do you only commit changes when they build correctly?

Yes, almost always. I can't think of a reason right to check in code that didn't build correctly. There's plenty of reasons you might check in code that doesn't run correctly (in a branch) though.

How often and when do you push your changes (or file a pull request or similar)?

Normally only when a feature is complete and ready for integration testing. That means it has passed unit tests and other relevant tests, and the code/patch is clean enough that I consider it ready for review.

How do you approac developing a complex feature / doing a complex refactoring requiring many places to be touched? Are "private commits" that won't build ok? When finished, do you push them also to the master repository or do you bundle all your changes into a single changeset before pushing?

I would create a named branch for the feature (which would have traceability across design docs and Issue Tracking system). Commits that don't build would only really be ok on a private branch as an intermediate step, but would still be exceptional. Currently I don't rebase and merge the entire feature branch into a single changeset, though it is something I'm looking at doing in future. Changes are only pushed when appropriate tests are all passed.

Answer 3

I commit a lot; when adding functions or even reformatting my sources.

I use git and do most of my work on non-shared branches. And when I've added enough little changes that count as a block, I use git rebase to collect the smaller related changes into larger chunks and commit that to the main branches.

This way, I have all the advantages of committed code that I can go backwards or forwards in, but I don't have to commit all my mistakes, and bactracks to the main history.

Answer 4

I'd commit changes to my DVCS (my own topic or task branch) very, very often, this way I can use it not only for "delivering changes" but also to help me while I work: like "why this was working 5 minutes ago and it's not working anymore?" If you commit often you can just run a diff.

Also, a technique I found very, very good is using it to "self-document refactors". Let me explain: if you've to do a big refactor on a topic branch and then review the change as a whole (having modified a nice set of files), you'd probably get lost. But, suppose you checkin on every "intermediate step" and document it with a comment, then you're creating some sort of "movie" of your own changes helping to describe what you've done! Huge for reviewers.