About Git write access:
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 Before everything else, you should know how to use GIT properly.
 Luckily Git comes with excellent documentation.
 
   git --help
   man git
 
 shows you the available subcommands,
 
   git <command> --help
   man git-<command>
 
 shows information about the subcommand <command>.
 
 The most comprehensive manual is the website Git Reference
 
 http://gitref.org/
 
 For more information about the Git project, visit
 
 http://git-scm.com/
 
 Consult these resources whenever you have problems, they are quite exhaustive.
 
 You do not need a special username or password.
 All you need is to provide a ssh public key to the Git server admin.
 

 What follows now is a basic introduction to Git and some FFmpeg-specific

 guidelines. Read it at least once, if you are granted commit privileges to the

 FFmpeg project you are expected to be familiar with these rules.

 
 
 
 I. BASICS:
 ==========
 
 0. Get GIT:
 
   You can get git from http://git-scm.com/
 
 
 1. Cloning the source tree:
 

     git clone git://git.videolan.org/ffmpeg <target>

   This will put the FFmpeg sources into the directory <target>.

     git clone git@git.videolan.org:ffmpeg <target>

   This will put the FFmpeg sources into the directory <target> and let

   you push back your changes to the remote repository.
 
 
 2. Updating the source tree to the latest revision:
 

     git pull (--ff-only)

   pulls in the latest changes from the tracked branch. The tracked branch
   can be remote. By default the master branch tracks the branch master in
   the remote origin.
   Caveat: Since merge commits are forbidden at least for the initial
           months of git --ff-only or --rebase (see below) are recommended.
           --ff-only will fail and not create merge commits if your branch
           has diverged (has a different history) from the tracked branch.

 
 2.a Rebasing your local branches:
 
     git pull --rebase
 
   fetches the changes from the main repository and replays your local commits

   over it. This is required to keep all your local changes at the top of

   FFmpeg's master tree. The master tree will reject pushes with merge commits.

 
 
 3. Adding/removing files/directories:
 
     git add [-A] <filename/dirname>
     git rm [-r] <filename/dirname>
 
   GIT needs to get notified of all changes you make to your working
   directory that makes files appear or disappear.
   Line moves across files are automatically tracked.
 
 
 4. Showing modifications:
 
     git diff <filename(s)>
 
   will show all local modifications in your working directory as unified diff.
 
 
 5. Inspecting the changelog:
 
     git log <filename(s)>
 
   You may also use the graphical tools like gitview or gitk or the web

   interface available at http://git.videolan.org

 
 6. Checking source tree status:
 
     git status
 
   detects all the changes you made and lists what actions will be taken in case
   of a commit (additions, modifications, deletions, etc.).
 
 
 7. Committing:
 
     git diff --check
 

   to double check your changes before committing them to avoid trouble later

   on. All experienced developers do this on each and every commit, no matter
   how small.
   Every one of them has been saved from looking like a fool by this many times.
   It's very easy for stray debug output or cosmetic modifications to slip in,
   please avoid problems through this extra level of scrutiny.
 
   For cosmetics-only commits you should get (almost) empty output from
 

     git diff -w -b <filename(s)>

 
   Also check the output of
 
     git status
 
   to make sure you don't have untracked files or deletions.
 
     git add [-i|-p|-A] <filenames/dirnames>
 

   Make sure you have told git your name and email address, e.g. by running
     git config --global user.name "My Name"
     git config --global user.email my@email.invalid
   (--global to set the global configuration for all your git checkouts).
 

   Git will select the changes to the files for commit. Optionally you can use
   the interactive or the patch mode to select hunk by hunk what should be
   added to the commit.
 
     git commit
 
   Git will commit the selected changes to your current local branch.
 
   You will be prompted for a log message in an editor, which is either

   set in your personal configuration file through

 
     git config core.editor
 
   or set by one of the following environment variables:
   GIT_EDITOR, VISUAL or EDITOR.
 
   Log messages should be concise but descriptive. Explain why you made a change,
   what you did will be obvious from the changes themselves most of the time.
   Saying just "bug fix" or "10l" is bad. Remember that people of varying skill
   levels look at and educate themselves while reading through your code. Don't
   include filenames in log messages, Git provides that information.
 
   Possibly make the commit message have a terse, descriptive first line, an
   empty line and then a full description. The first line will be used to name
   the patch by git format-patch.
 
 
 8. Renaming/moving/copying files or contents of files:
 
   Git automatically tracks such changes, making those normal commits.
 
     mv/cp path/file otherpath/otherfile
 
     git add [-A] .
 
     git commit
 
   Do not move, rename or copy files of which you are not the maintainer without
   discussing it on the mailing list first!
 
 9. Reverting broken commits
 
     git revert <commit>
 
   git revert will generate a revert commit. This will not make the faulty
   commit disappear from the history.
 
     git reset <commit>
 
   git reset will uncommit the changes till <commit> rewriting the current
   branch history.
 
     git commit --amend
 
   allows to amend the last commit details quickly.
 
     git rebase -i origin/master
 
   will replay local commits over the main repository allowing to edit,
   merge or remove some of them in the process.
 
   Note that the reset, commit --amend and rebase rewrite history, so you
   should use them ONLY on your local or topic branches.
 
   The main repository will reject those changes.
 
 10. Preparing a patchset.
 
     git format-patch <commit> [-o directory]
 
   will generate a set of patches out of the current branch starting from
   commit. By default the patches are created in the current directory.
 
 11. Sending patches for review
 
     git send-email <commit list|directory>
 
   will send the patches created by git format-patch or directly generates
   them. All the email fields can be configured in the global/local
   configuration or overridden by command line.
 
 12. Pushing changes to remote trees
 
     git push
 
   Will push the changes to the default remote (origin).
   Git will prevent you from pushing changes if the local and remote trees are
   out of sync. Refer to 2 and 2.a to sync the local tree.
 
     git remote add <name> <url>
 
   Will add additional remote with a name reference, it is useful if you want
   to push your local branch for review on a remote host.
 
     git push <remote> <refspec>
 
   Will push the changes to the remote repository. Omitting refspec makes git
   push update all the remote branches matching the local ones.
 

 13. Finding a specific svn revision

 
   Since version 1.7.1 git supports ':/foo' syntax for specifying commits
   based on a regular expression. see man gitrevisions
 
     git show :/'as revision 23456'
 
   will show the svn changeset r23456. With older git versions searching in
   the git log output is the easiest option (especially if a pager with
   search capabilities is used).

   This commit can be checked out with
 
     git checkout -b svn_23456 :/'as revision 23456'
 
   or for git < 1.7.1 with
 
     git checkout -b svn_23456 $SHA1
 
   where $SHA1 is the commit SHA1 from the 'git log' output.
 

 Contact the project admins <root at ffmpeg dot org> if you have technical

 problems with the GIT server.