Cherry-Picking of Code Commits in Long-Running, Multi-release Software

TL;DR

This paper introduces Tartarian, a tool that aids developers in efficiently managing cherry-picking of commits across multiple long-running software releases by using commit hashtags and dependency graphs.

Contribution

Tartarian is a novel tool that automates the identification of applicable branches for cherry-picking using commit hashtags and dependency graphs.

Findings

Supports maintenance of multi-release software more efficiently

Automates branch identification for cherry-picks

Improves consistency in multi-branch development

Abstract

This paper presents Tartarian, a tool that supports maintenance of software with long-running, multi-release branches in distributed version control systems. When new maintenance code, such as bug fixes and code improvement, is committed into a branch, it is likely that such code can be applied or reused with some other branches. To do so, a developer may manually identify a commit and cherry pick it. Tartarian can support this activity by providing commit hashtags, which the developer uses as metadata to specify their intentions when committing the code. With these tags, Tartarian uses dependency graph, that represents the dependency constraints of the branches, and Branch Identifier, which matches the commit hashtags with the dependency graph, to identify the applicable branches for the commits. Using Tartarian, developers may be able to maintain software with multiple releases more efficiently.