Re:git-appraise – Distributed Code Review for Git
by mike_hearn on Friday August 11, 2023 @03:17PM
(#37092716)
There's no overhead because the forks are done serverside and hosted on the same machine. Git knows how to use hard links to rapidly do local clones, so disk space isn't wasted.
Yes, it makes ownership clear and prevents code from being merged without being reviewed. GitHub offers CODEOWNERS files but often ownership doesn't map neatly to source code layout (and nor should it).
Most devs have not been comfortable enough with git to do this when they first joined but they learned quickly enough, and I helped them learn. The operations needed aren't that complicated. For example you don't need to do rebases in this workflow. It's just branching and pushing.
I should write up a proper blog post on the workflow. The code review author creates the branch by pushing into the reviewer's repository. The reviewer deletes the branch once they merge it. The author knows the review was finished because the code either gets merged, or it gets another commit on top that adds requests for changes. The branch in the reviewer's repository is where collaboration happens once the review process starts.
Yes, it makes ownership clear and prevents code from being merged without being reviewed. GitHub offers CODEOWNERS files but often ownership doesn't map neatly to source code layout (and nor should it).
Most devs have not been comfortable enough with git to do this when they first joined but they learned quickly enough, and I helped them learn. The operations needed aren't that complicated. For example you don't need to do rebases in this workflow. It's just branching and pushing.
I should write up a proper blog post on the workflow. The code review author creates the branch by pushing into the reviewer's repository. The reviewer deletes the branch once they merge it. The author knows the review was finished because the code either gets merged, or it gets another commit on top that adds requests for changes. The branch in the reviewer's repository is where collaboration happens once the review process starts.