Forking and cloning repositories

GitHub and similar tools allow for cloning or forking repositories. Cloning is used by developers that have push permission to the official repository. In this case, the developers are asked to follow the git flow methodology. Forking is used by developers that do not have push permission to the official repository. Developers working in a forked repository are free to use the workflow of their choice, but git-flow is recommended.

In the context of a collaborative unified data assimilation and forecasting system, it is best to use the forking mechanism. A central repository should be agreed between all the partners. From there, each partner can create a fork, preferably with automatic syncing. Within each partner organisation, each developer then forks their organisation’s fork as their central repository. For large partner organisations, it is even possible to add another level by team, group or division.

Each developer will work on their own fork of the repository and clone from that work for editing code. They can push to their own work freely (it is recommended to push often). Developers issue a pull request when contributions are ready to be merged into the central repository. It is possible for developers to pull branches from each other’s repositories and collaborate on a common feature. They can also share a branch on the central repository if the branch is pulled there by someone with sufficient permissions. This should be used for features that require interactions between more than a few developers.

In the proposed model, operational users can have their own fork of the repositories they require. For compiling the code, a clone of that repository is created on a local disk. If the fork and clone are synced manually nothing can happen until the operational user actively pulls new changes. Even if synced automatically, users can add their own tag or use a specific commit to prevent accidental changes. The operational clones can be located inside firewalls and on backed-up disks as required by operational guidelines. GitHub exists as a cloud based service but it is possible to install it on an organisation’s own server (GitHub Enterprise), thus the fork itself can be inside a protected network as well.