General information

We recommend to use distributed version control for keeping track of the development of code for the different projects. There are many different tool for version control, we use git. There are many cloud services that offer development with git (e.g.,  and ). 

If you are new to version control or prefer to work in a Graphical User Interface (GUI) rather than in the Command-line Interface (CLI), this is in the terminal, you can use a git GUI, for example sourcetree, which offers a nice cross platform experience. Else, you can also opt for using a mixed approach (i.e., 50% GUI and 50% CLI), for example by installing Atom and the git-gui package.

LRZ offers an enterprise service with GitLab. This means that while all your code will be stored in the LRZ servers, you can enjoy all the functionalities offered by GitLab. Moreover, the LRZ servers are backup on regular basis, so your code is always safe.

To use GitLab services you need to to check that the current GitLab status for your ID (i.e., TUM credentials –xx88xxx) in the LRZ identity management portal is "active". To do this please visit https://idmportal.lrz.de 

1. Go to "view permissions".
2. Check that gitlab, status reads "active".
   1. In case the GitLab status is not active, you need to request its activation to the LRZ Servicedesk by calling 089/35831 8800 or filling the form at https://servicedesk.lrz.de/

Once the GitLab service is active you can login using your TUM credentials (i.e., xx88xxx) by visiting https://gitlab.lrz.de/. To work on a particular repository you will need to be added as contributor to that specific project. You can request this to Dr. Christine Preibisch or the respective repository senior maintainer.

Local setup

Once you are in the contributors list of the repositories you would like to contribute. You need to setup your local environment (e.g., in your laptop or regular working computer). This setup is required to use git on your machine, thus to create branches modify any code from the repositories. To perform the local setup please go through the following steps:

1. Check id you have git installed in your machine by typing "git --version" in terminal or GitBatch. You should receive a message that tells you which Git version you have on your computer. If you don’t receive a “Git version” message, it means that you need to download Git.
2. Add your user name und email address
3. Test for the existence of and Secure Shell (SSH) public key in your machine. This can be done by typing -> "cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub",
   1. If you have one, place copy it and paste it online in your GitLab profile keys section. At this point you should assign a name to the machine you want to register e.g., CP_laptop. Then click in "Add key".
   2. If you do not have a SSH key, you should generate one by following the steps here -> Configure SSH KEY. Then follow step 3.a.

Branching a repository

To start working you need to create a local copy of the respective repository. This is can be done by creating a branch or a fork. We recommend to create a branch because: 

• Keeps all of the work being done around a project in one place.
• All collaborators can push to the same branch to collaborate on it.
• There's only one Git remote to deal with.