76 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
76 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
|
---
|
||
|
|
layout: post
|
||
|
|
title: Give credit where credit's due
|
||
|
|
date: 2023-04-15 09:17 -0400
|
||
|
|
---
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
I love pair programming. It is a great way to improve solutions, share context,
|
||
|
|
and continuously review code. But the passenger in a pairing session often ends
|
||
|
|
up being the unsung hero, not showing up in the commit history for their
|
||
|
|
invaluable contributions because they were not typing on the keyboard.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Commit logs are obviously not the authority on an individual's contributions to
|
||
|
|
a codebase, but I still like to give credit where credit is due. Fortunately,
|
||
|
|
using git's [trailers][1], Github allows you to [commit together][2]. Including
|
||
|
|
a `Co-authored-by:` citation with your pairing partner's name and email will
|
||
|
|
properly attribute them in Github's commit log.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
I have used this to share credit for several years, but it is a bit painful.
|
||
|
|
Making sure to type your partner's name and email is a hassle. Any typo will
|
||
|
|
not credit appropriately and become permanantly engraved in the history of your
|
||
|
|
repository when you merge it to master!
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
So avoid the typos!
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
First, I created a simple git alias that will allow me to easily modify a commit
|
||
|
|
to add a trailer. In your global `.gitconfig` file, add
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
```
|
||
|
|
[alias]
|
||
|
|
add-trailer = commit --no-edit --amend --trailer
|
||
|
|
```
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
This can be used as part of a two step process:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
1. Make your commit as you normally would
|
||
|
|
1. Use the alias to add a trailer
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
- `git add-trailer "Co-authored-by: Partner <a@example.com>"`
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
We can still have typos though. But if our pairing partner has worked on this
|
||
|
|
repository in the past, we can find their information in the git log. This is
|
||
|
|
still painful to do manually. [Fzf][3] can help us here though. We can pass our
|
||
|
|
log information into fzf and then pass our selection on to our newly created git
|
||
|
|
alias:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
```
|
||
|
|
git log --pretty="%an <%ae>" \
|
||
|
|
| sort -u \
|
||
|
|
| fzf \
|
||
|
|
| xargs -I "{}" git add-trailer "Co-authored-by: {}"
|
||
|
|
```
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Breaking this down:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
- `git log --pretty="%an <%ae>"`
|
||
|
|
- List the author of every commit in our repositry and format it appropriately
|
||
|
|
for attribution
|
||
|
|
- `sort -u`
|
||
|
|
- Make the list sorted and unique
|
||
|
|
- `fzf`
|
||
|
|
- Prompt us to make a selection from the list
|
||
|
|
- `xargs -I "{}" git add-trailer "Co-authored-by: {}"`
|
||
|
|
- Take the result from our prompt and pass it into our new git alias
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
And when everything is in place, attribution is a breeze!
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
And in the spirit of attribution, thanks to last week's pairing partner:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Encouraged-by: nichol alexander \<nichol.alexander@gmail.com>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
[1]: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-interpret-trailers
|
||
|
|
[2]: https://github.blog/2018-01-29-commit-together-with-co-authors/
|
||
|
|
[3]: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
|