Bugs often get fixed in master before release branches. When a bug is fixed in the master branch, it might be desirable or necessary in a stable branch. To put the fix in stable branch we need to backport the fix to stable branch.

Anyone in the community can suggest a backport. If you are interested to suggest a backport, please check the Backport Wishlist.

This page describes the steps needed to backport simple changes. Changes that do not apply cleanly will need some manual modifications and using git cherry-pick may not always be the easiest solution.

via Git command-line

1. Git clone the GlusterFS code

           git clone ssh://username@review.gluster.org/glusterfs
   

2. Create and checkout a new branch for your work, based on the branch for the backport version

           git checkout -t -b bug-123456/release-3.8 origin/release-3.8
   

3. Cherry pick the change from master.

           $ git cherry-pick -x a0b1c2d3e4f5
   

   • verify that the change has been merged in the master branch.

4. Update/correct the commit message.

           $ git commit -s --amend --date="$(date)"
   

   This is one example of the commit message that has a good description for a backport. Notice the indention of the patch-metadata like BUG, Change-ID and Reviewed-on tags. There is also the original commit-id that was cherry picked from the master branch. -make sure to quote the review tags -update the BUG reference, point to the BUG that is used for this particular release-branch -add a Signed-off-by tag

5. Run ./rfc.sh to post the backport for review.

           ./rfc.sh
   

via Gerrit web interface

1. Navigate to the required change in Gerrit from browser.

2. Click on 'Cherry Pick' button. You will now be presented with a dialogue box with two editable fields. First one is to specify the branch to which this particular change needs to be cherry-picked and second one for modifying the already existing commit message.

3. Start entering the branch name in the corresponding field and you can select the required branch from the list of available branches.

4. Make sure that you only edit the following from the commit message:

5. BUG: Replace with the correct bug-id reported against the branch to which change is going to be backported.

6. Prefix all other lines except the commit message, Signed-off-by, cherry picked and Change-Id lines with a greater than symbol and a whitespace '> ' and re-arrange as a whole to have the following format:

           <commit message>
           . . .
           </commit message>
   
           > Reviewed-on: http://review.gluster.org/<change-number>
           > Smoke: Gluster Build System <jenkins@build.gluster.com>
           > CentOS-regression: Gluster Build System <jenkins@build.gluster.com>
           > NetBSD-regression: NetBSD Build System <jenkins@build.gluster.org>
           > Reviewed-by: username1 <user1@example.com>
           > Reviewed-by: username2 <user2@domain.com>
           > Reviewed-by: username3 <user3@abcd.com>
   
           (cherry picked from commit <hash-key>)
   
           Change-Id: <change-id>
           BUG: <bug-id>
           Signed-off-by: username <user@example.com>
   

7. Click on 'Cherry Pick Change'. You will now be re-directed to the new change url.

8. Click on the edit button adjacent to the field named 'Topic'.

9. Add the following as 'Topic':

   bug-<bug-id>
   

   Note:- Replace with the required bug-id for that branch.

10. Click on 'Update' or 'Submit'.

After submitting patch(es), make sure to move the bug to the POST status.