HOW-TO:Create add-on PRs using Git Subtree Merging

Example git setup using Subtree merging

First time setup

Clone the XBMC addon repository:

git clone [email protected]:xbmc/repo-plugins.git
cd repo-plugins

For this example we will use an addon named "myaddon". Add the git repo where you addon resides as a remote:

git remote add myaddon [email protected]:me/myaddon.git
git fetch myaddon

Create a new branch for the addon:

git checkout -b myaddon_branch myaddon/master

The current directory should contain the files from the myaddon repository. To switch back to gotham branch of the "repo-plugins" repository:

git checkout gotham

Note: If your addon already exist in repo, it must first be removed with:

git rm -r plugin.my.addon/

Now we use subtree merge to pull myaddon into the gotham branch of repo-plugins:

git read-tree --prefix=plugin.my.addon/ -u myaddon_branch

To see the changes that are about to be committed:

git diff --staged

Finally, commit the changes:

git commit -m "[plugin.my.addon] 1.0.1"
git push origin gotham

Updating addon to a new version

Updating the addon is now easy. For this example we pull the master branch from myaddon:

git checkout gotham
git pull --strategy subtree --squash myaddon master
git diff --staged
git commit -m "[plugin.my.addon] 1.0.2"
git push origin gotham

For more info about Subtree Merging see http://git-scm.com/book/en/v1/Git-Tools-Subtree-Merging