Development process of the Accellera SystemC implementation =========================================================== This document focuses on the technical aspects related to the development of the SystemC implementation. Legal and formal procedures are documented at http://accellera.org/about/policies. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Repository setup --------------------------------------------------------------------- The central source code repository of the Accellera SystemC implementation is hosted in two [Git][6] repositories at [GitHub](http://github.com). The main repositories are **private** to the [`OSCI-WG` organization][7] and can be found at: * https://github.com/OSCI-WG/systemc (core SystemC library) * https://github.com/OSCI-WG/systemc-regressions (regression test suite) A read-only, **public** copy of these repositories can be found at * https://github.com/accellera-official/systemc (core SystemC library) * https://github.com/accellera-official/systemc-regressions (regression test suite) Members of the GitHub [`OSCI-WG` organization][7] with the necessary access rights can clone the repositories via SSH from the locations git clone -o osci-wg git@github.com:OSCI-WG/systemc.git git clone -o osci-wg git@github.com:OSCI-WG/systemc-regressions.git respectively. To obtain access to the repositories and the GitHub organization in general, LWG members can contact the LWG chairs at including their GitHub account name. > *Note:* > Using an explicit name of the 'remote' (`-o osci-wg`) is recommended > to allow using the default remote name `origin` for a personal fork > where you can push your changes by default, see [below](#basic-branch-setup). Comprehensive documentation about [Git][6], a distributed version control system, can be found in the [Pro Git book][8], also available online. Since Git is 'distributed', it is a very natural choice for the distributed development process needed for collaboratively evolving the reference implementation of SystemC. ### Relationship between private and public repositories New features and enhancements are developed by the LWG in the **private** repositories, see below. Please check the [CONTRIBUTING][9] guidelines how to join Accellera and its working groups to contribute to the development of SystemC. The **public** repositories are typically updated only together with public releases of the Accellera SystemC reference implementation. In-between public releases, bug fixes may be published via the public repositories as well. In this case, the updated `public` branch including the new bug fixes, is then merged back into the `master` branch to make sure the fix is part of the next release. ### Creating a personal fork In order to contribute changes to the different repositories, it is recommended to create personal (or company-based) [forks][10] of the repositories on GitHub and push the proposed changes (bugfixes, features, ...) there. These forks are also only accessible to members of the [`OSCI-WG` GitHub organization][7]. Details of the intended work-flow are described in the next [section](#basic-branch-setup). It is convenient to add this GitHub fork as a remote to your local clone of the repository: cd / git remote add origin git@github.com:/.git git branch --set-upstream master origin/master Any changes can then be pushed to GitHub using: git push [options] [] [...] * If you omit the ``, the default destination is the remote of the current branch (or `origin`). * The `` basically follows the format `:`, or just ``, if both are the same. * Omitting the `` pushes all branches with 'matching' remote branches to the repository. A basic cheat sheet containing the an overview of the general Git commands and workflow can be found [online][11]. [6]: http://git-scm.com "Git version control system" [7]: https://github.com/osci-wg "Accellera WG GitHub organization" [8]: http://git-scm.com/book "Pro Git Book" [9]: ../CONTRIBUTING.md "Contriubting to SystemC" [10]: https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo [11]: http://zrusin.blogspot.de/2007/09/git-cheat-sheet.html "Git Cheat Sheet" --------------------------------------------------------------------- Development flow --------------------------------------------------------------------- ### Basic branch setup The main idea is to have two main branches, one for the development, one for the releases. * **master** The latest and greatest `HEAD` of the LWG development. This is where all the new features and fixes go. * **public** The latest revision pushed to the public repository of SystemC. This may also include changes, that are not yet part of an official release package. * **release** This branch is used to create the release tarballs, both internal and public snapshots, typically based on the `public` branch. For the **regressions**, the `release` branch is more or less just a pointer to the latest revision of a snapshot (or release). It is still useful to keep a named branching point, in case of required hotfixes. For the **core library**, the `release` branch is to be different from the `master` branch. The idea is to fully track the contents of the released tarball. This requires the following changes compared to the `master` branch: - The Automake generated files are added to this tree. - Accellera internal files are stripped (`.gitignore`, internal documentation, ...). To prepare a release, the `master` branch would then be merged into the `release` branch, the automake files would be updated (if necessary) and the clean working tree could be used as baseline for the tarball (e.g., via `git-archive(1)`). Details are described in the next section [release management](#release-management). The history of the (core library) repostitory could then look like shown in the following graph (time progresses upwards): time feature master hotfix release branches | | | ^ | | | [master] | | [release] ^ ----- o | | / | o - [systemc-2.3.0.1] | / -- o /| | / / | o | ^ | o-- ... \| | o ... | -------- o - [systemc-2.3.0] | | o .../ | | o \---- o -[public] .. ^ \ \| | | ------- o o (internal snapshot) | ... | ^ o - [systemc-2.2.0] It should usually be sufficient to keep the two branches `master` and `release`, and cherry-pick hotfixes for emergency releases directly on top of the `release` branch. For convenience, an additional `public` branch could be used to mark the branching point for the last `release`. If more sophisticated version branches are needed, a development model similar to the well-known ["successful branching model"][12] can be deployed. Not all aspects of this model are expected to be needed for the SystemC implementation, as we usually maintain only a single (i.e., the latest) public release of the kernel. [12]: http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/ "'A successful Git branching model' by Vincent Driessen" ### Adding a feature (set) The development of a new contribution in form of a feature or a complex bug fix is best done in a new feature branch, which is forked and checked out from the Accellera `master` branch: git checkout -b - master Then code up the new contribution. Please try to facilitate code review by other Accellera members by logically grouping your changes into one commit per addressed issue. For the commit messages, please consider to follow these suggestions: > *Note:* **Commit messages** > > Though not required, it's a good idea to begin the commit message with > a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the change, > followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description. Tools > that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line on the > `Subject:` line and the rest of the commit in the body. During the development of the contribution, the `master` branch may receive other commits. In that case, consider rebasing the commits in your feature branch onto the `HEAD` of the `master` branch to keep the history clean. Once the contribution is ready for review by the working group, push the feature branch in your fork of the respective repository on GitHub: git push - Then, send a [pull request][13] either manually or via [GitHub][13] to initiate the code review by the working group members. The summary can be manually generated by git request-pull master git@github.com//.git \ to be sent to the LWG reflector. To review the proposed contributions, one can either browse the repository at GitHub, or add the remote location to a local clone of the repository # add the fork to your set of "remotes" git remote add git@github.com//.git git fetch # examine differences git diff master../ git log / After the contribution is accepted, it will be merged into the working group's `master` branch by the responsible source code maintainer. This should be done with an explicit *merge commit*, to keep the individual contributions separated: git merge --no-ff --log \ / Instead of fully merging the contribution, the maintainer may choose to cherry-pick individual commits or to rebase the feature branch on an intermittently updated `master`. He may also request additional changes to be done by the submitter. In that case, the submitter may need to merge recent changes to the `master` branch into his feature branch before carrying out the requested changes. After the contribution has been fully merged into `master`, the feature branch in the local and Github fork may be deleted. git branch -d # delete local branch git push origin : # delete remote branch [13]: https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests "Using Pull Requests - github:help" ### Maintaining a private (set of) branches Vendors may be interested in maintaining their own, in-house flow to align the internal development of a derived SystemC implementation, while being able to pick fixes from the Accellera Working Group's tree (and hopefully) contributing fixes and features back to the reference implementation. For this purpose members may employ the already mentioned ["successful branching model"][12] by Vincent Driessen. The vendor can branch its own development branch, e.g., `develop-` from the already tracked working group development branch `master` in his clone of the WG repository. The vendor is then able to integrate commits on the WG development branch by merging it into his his vendor development branch. Bug fixes to be contributed back to the WG consist usually of one or several isolated commits. They need to be cherry-picked from the vendor's development branch into a new branch created from the WG development branch: git checkout -b -fix- origin/master git cherry-pick ... Once, the bug fix branch is ready, it should be pushed into the vendor's github account and a pull request created, as described in the [feature branch section](#adding-a-feature-set). A new feature consists usually of a series of commits developed in a dedicated feature branched of the vendor's or WG's development branch. Only in the first case, a rebase on the top of the WG's development branch is necessary. To this end, branch first from the feature branch: git checkout -b - git rebase [-i|--interactive] --onto origin/master develop- Once, the bug fix branch is ready, it should be pushed into the vendor's github account and a pull request created, as described in the [feature branch section](#adding-a-feature-set). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Versioning scheme --------------------------------------------------------------------- In general, the versioning pattern for the SystemC/TLM reference implementation follows the scheme defined in IEEE Std. 1666-2011 (8.6.5), based on `Major.Minor.Patch` numbers and a date (for prereleases). *Note:* In general, no compatibility guarantees are attached to these version numbers, not even for PoC implementation itself, to avoid burdens across different SystemC implementations. The individual parts of the SystemC/TLM versions reported via the corresponding header files should be be handled according to the following criteria: * Update **major version** only together with * IEEE 1666 update * and/or major new language features (e.g. in pre-releases for IEEE update) * Update **minor version** for new Accellera standard release * Significant language extension proposals to be added to next IEEE release * Update **patch version** for minor API changes * Update `SYSTEMC_VERSION` date macro after every pull-request merge * ISO8601 date format (YYYYMMDD) * Done by the PoC maintainers * The versions of SystemC and TLM are incremented separately * SystemC (`src/sysc/kernel/sc_ver.h`) * TLM (`src/tlm_core/tlm_2/tlm_version.h`) *Note:* Changes only affecting documentation, examples, or the build system should not lead to a change of the version (not even `SYSTEMC_VERSION` macro). The overall release date (see [next section](#release-management)) of the PoC release tarball should reflect the date of the archive creation. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Release management --------------------------------------------------------------------- To prepare a new release tarball, the following set steps are to be performed by the maintainer 0. **Prepare the release in the `master` branch** Before creating a release snapshot, the documentation and version information in the package should be updated within the `master` branch. This includes files like - `ChangeLog`, `RELEASENOTES`, `README`, `INSTALL` - [Version headers](#versioning-scheme) During the release preparation phase, other functional changes should not be added/merged to the `master` branch. 1. **Update the `release` branch** # switch to release branch git checkout release # merge master branch git merge --no-commit master git rm # drop new or changed "private" files git commit -m "merge master branch for x.x.x release" 2. **Update the Autoconf (and other auto-generated) files** autoreconf -if # or config/bootstrap git add -u # add changed files git status # check for untracked files git add git commit -m "update autogenerated files for x.x.x release" 3. **Tag the release revision** In order to keep track of the release snapshots, the revisions used for creating the release tarballs should be marked with an *annotated* and optionally signed Git tag. # git tag -a -m " " git tag -a -m "SystemC 2.3.0" 2.3.0 release The tagname should contain the ``, following the versioning rules in IEEE 1666-2011. There are three standard formats: * `x.x.x_beta_` for beta/internal versions * `x.x.x_pub_rev_` for public review versions, and * `x.x.x` for public release versions. > *NOTE:* The tag should be on the `release` branch, to enable the > automated tarball creation in the next step. 4. **Create the release tarball** `git archive` can then be used to create the release tarball. `git describe` can be used to obtain the correct tarball name based on the current tag. PACKAGE="`basename $(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)`" # or directly 'systemc' VERSION="`git describe release`" git archive -o ${PACKAGE}-${VERSION}.tgz \ --prefix=${PACKAGE}-${VERSION}/ release > *NOTE:* Even without a tag, a quick-shot release of the > release branch can be generated this way. 5. **Publish the release** Upload the archive to the LWG area for internal review and push the changes to GitHub. git push osci-wg master release > *NOTE:* The tag needs to be pushed explicitly. > *NOTE:* For each tag pushed to the GitHub repository, the corresponding release archive can be downloaded from GitHub directly via `https://github.com/osci-wg/systemc/releases/tag/`. For **public** releases, update the `public` branch and repeat the same steps for the public repositories: git push osci-wg master:public git push accellera-official master release --------------------------------------------------------------------- Issue tracking --------------------------------------------------------------------- Open issues (bugs, cleanups, features) related to the reference implementation of SystemC/TLM are tracked via GitHub: * (core library) * (regression tests) Some issues might be reported against the public repositories as well: * (core library) * (regression tests) > *NOTE:* For issues discussed in the LWG, the internal issue tracker is preferred. An internal issue clone will be added for publicly reported issues. > *NOTE:* To distinguish between the two different trackers, issue references in commit messages or pull-requests should include the repository (`osci-wg/systemc#`, `accellera-official/systemc#`). Issues are grouped (by using labels) in the following categories for different parts of the implementation: * `core` - SystemC core language, i.e. everything in `sc_core` * `datatypes` - SystemC datatypes, i.e. in `sc_dt` * `tlm` - TLM-1.0, TLM-2.0 * `infrastructure` - build system(s), scripts, etc. Additional labels are used to classify issues according to their severity (10 highest), according to the following guidelines: * `10-critical` Show-stoppers that must be fixed, affects all (or at least most) platforms and violates fundamental specifications for most applications. * `09-serious` At least one of the explicitly supported platforms is affected and causes significant problems for many applications. * `06-medium` Covers an area, where the standard may not be clearly specified. May require changes to external/standard API. * `05-feature` New feature proposal, beyond the current standard. Includes internal (and external, providing adoption by IEEE P1666 WG) API changes. * `04-errata` Inconvenience (errata) for users of many platforms, workaround available. Solution may require internal API changes. * `02-documentation` Documentation inconsistency or insufficiency (e.g. whitepaper unclear or misleading), no code changes. * `01-inconvenience` Inconvenience (workaround available), for some platforms (e.g. users of Visual Studio 2003) * `00-cosmetic` Changes addressing performance or clarity of implementation, no API changes. The discussion on issues usually starts on the LWG reflector or during the LWG meetings. After an initial consensus on the "validity" of the issue, the issue is added to the issue tracking system, a classification is done (including a target milestone), and preferably a responsible person is assigned. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Changelog --------------------------------------------------------------------- * v2.1 (2019-04-23) * Update information about public repositories and their relation to the WG-internal repositories. * v2.0 (2018-10-01) * Reorganize contents between `CONTRIBUTING.md` and `DEVELOPMENT.md` * Add informatin about public repositories * Formatting fixes and cleanups * v1.1 (2015-08-23) * Add versioning scheme section * Dropped obsolete `pristine-tar` section * Changed "ASI" to Accellera throughout the document * Updated contact information * v1.0 - Development flow implemented at GitHub (2013-06-20) * Issue tracking documented * v0.9 - Initial proposal to the Accellera SystemC LWG (2012-09-25) * To be discussed during the October LWG phone conference --------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors --------------------------------------------------------------------- * Philipp A. Hartmann * Torsten Maehne * Mark Burton * Minor cosmetics edits, Lynn Bannister