Assignment 5 [30 marks] Due Friday 18 October 2024

Assignment overview [4 marks for general format]

This assignment is based on the Local version control and GitHub repository practicals.

The repository at https://github.com/davmlaw/2024_assignment_5_adelaide_uni_bioinfo is a simulation of an open source project with bugs.

This assignment involves performing actions on GitHub [4 marks total for general format]:

These have timestamps on them, and these will be checked against the submission date.

Answers to theory questions should be submitted to MyUni as a file (plain text or PDF)

Practical questions [21 marks]

Please read the instructions in the initial README of the repository, and only modify the files assigned to you.

There are two kinds of changes/bugs:

These should be treated as two separate incidents, with different severities, and will be handled separately.

  1. Raise an issue in the repo for the XXXXXXX bug
    • Giving a good title succinctly stating the problem and identifying the file (such that it is clear why it is distinct from other issues) [1 point]
    • Thank the maintainer and use a polite, kind and non-accusatory tone [1 point]
    • Provide the commit message of the commit that introduced the error to your file [1 point]
    • Write a expected / actual for the lines affected, only mentioning the high severity bug (XXXXXXX) [2 points]
    • Add a comment that you plan on submitting a pull request [1 point]

(total: 6 points)

  1. Raise an issue in the repo for the UPPERCASE bug
    • Giving a good title succinctly stating the problem and identifying the file (such that it is clear why it is distinct from other issues) [1 point]
    • Provide the date and Git hash of the commit that introduced the error to your file [1 point]
    • Write a expected / actual for the lines affected, only mentioning the low severity bug (UPPERCASE) [2 points]

(total: 4 points)

  1. Fork the repository to your personal account.

    • Make sure you untick the "Copy the main branch only" - you want the other "stable" branch to also be copied

  2. Fix the high severity issue (XXXXXXX), in the "main"" and "stable" branches

    • You will need to clone your private fork of the repo to your local machine.
    • Edit your data/ file, and remove the high severity issue (XXXXXXX) ONLY (ie DO NOT change the low severity (UPPERCASE) at the same time). There should only be 1 space between the words after removing the XXXXX [1 point]
    • Edit your doc/ file, which is in the format of a changelog adding a CHANGED entry for your fix, that links to the high severity issue above [1 points]
    • Write a descriptive commit message, which references the high severity issue above [1 point]
    • This bug needs to be fixed in the "stable" branch as well, so switch to that branch and cherry-pick the commit you just made [3 points]
    • Push both branches to your repo

(total: 5 points)

  1. Fix the low severity issue (UPPERCASE), in the "main"" branch ONLY
    • Edit your data/ file, and remove the low severity issue. [1 points]
    • Edit your doc/ file, which is in the format of a changelog adding a CHANGED entry for your fix, that links to the low severity issue above [1 points]
    • Write a descriptive commit message, which references the low severity issue above [1 point]
    • Push both branches to your repo

(total: 4 points)

  1. Submit a pull request from your main/master branch
    • Comments should link to both issues and give a brief description of the change [2 points]

(total: 2 points)

Theory questions [5 marks]

  1. How do you tell Git to stop tracking / ignore some files. Name 2 types of files you might want to ignore and why. [1 point]

  2. What is the staging area in Git, and why is it used? [1 point]

  3. Why would you want a long lasting branch (eg "stable" above). [1 point]

  4. Why would you want a short lived one (ie a "dev" or "feature" branch) [1 point]

  5. Why is it called a pull request? [1 point]

Resources