Branch-naming convention#

Our branch-naming convention ensures software can be built by our CI and tested easily by other developers.

Every Git repository’s README file should state which branch-naming convention is used and any deviations from the norm.

Click-Packages#

Software exclusively distributed as a click-package (and not also as a DEB) only uses one master branch that is protected. Separate temporary development branches with arbitrary descriptive names can be created and merged into master when the time comes. Ideally Git tags or GitHub releases should be used to mark and archive milestones in the development history.

DEB Packages#

To help us deliver our code into Ubuntu Touch as effortlessly as possible, our CI automatically build our Git repositories into a number of APT archives hosted at http://repo.ubports.com/, according to the branch name.

We maintain the following branches across Git repositories:

Git branches

Description

Corresponding APT archives

Name

Base distro

main, ubports/latest

Represents the latest development of Ubuntu Touch. All kinds of changes are allowed in this branch.

devel-<Ubuntu LTS> (e.g. devel-noble)

Latest or upcoming Ubuntu LTS.

devel-debian

Debian testing.

ubports/<major version>.x (e.g. ubports/24.6.x)

Represents the code in a particular major version. It branches off of the main branch before the major release, and will become a part of the releases of that major version. Only bugfixes and non-breaking changes are allowed in this branch.

<major version>.x (e.g. 24.6.x)

Ubuntu LTS at the time of branching.

ubports/focal

A special case of ubports/<major version>.x, which is branched after the release of Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-4.

focal

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

ubports/focal_-_<ext>

Branches which use the deprecated “branch extensions” system for cross-components changes. No longer recommended for usage.

focal_-_<ext>

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

personal/<user>/<name>, and any other branches.

All other branches may be used for proposing merge requests or for other reasons. Theses branches are not built by the CI unless proposed as a merge request.

N/A, unless proposed as an MR against aforementioned branches (see below).

To ensure the main branch doesn’t miss any changes, all changes must be made against main branch first before backporting to the major release branches. An exception is when a change is not applicable to the main branch anymore due to other changes in that branch.

Not

If the next development version is not available for testing yet, and you need the change to be made available for install for testing, it’s allowed to temporarily target the changeset to the major version branch to get packages built against that version. When the changeset is ready for merge, the changeset must be re-targeted to the main branch.

APT archives for Merge Requests#

In addition to archives mentioned above, we also create APT archives for MRs made against our Git repositories. This allows us to test the result of the build on real devices using ubports-qa before merging the code. For each MR, the CI will build the code against all the same targets as the MR’s target branch, and then will append _-_PR_<repository name>_<MR number> to them [1]. For example:

  • An MR numbered 100 made against the main branch of Git repository lomiri (when the current Ubuntu LTS is noble) will have APT archives named devel-noble_-_PR_lomiri_100 and devel-debian_-_PR_lomiri_100.

  • An MR numbered 125 made against the ubports/24.6.x branch of Git repository morph-browser will have an APT archive named 24.6.x_-_PR_morph-browser_125.