[Biopython-dev] Protecting master branch on GitHub?

[Peter Cock]

On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 10:07 AM, Christian Brueffer
<christian at brueffer.de> wrote:
> On 2015-09-04 11:02, Peter Cock wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> GitHub have rolled out some interesting new functionality:
>> https://github.com/blog/2051-protected-branches-and-required-status-checks
>>
>> The ability to protect the main branch should prevent any accidental
>> rewriting of the history (from a forced push), which would cause
>> widespread inconvenience now we have so many forks. I'd like to
>> enable this if no one objects.
>>
>> The second new feature would disable the web-GUI merge button
>> until our TravisCI tests have passed. I usually do the merges at
>> the command line anyway (sometimes rebasing, often to add a
>> note to the NEWS and CONTRIB files), but again these seems like
>> a sensible precaution? What do people think?
>>
>
> 1. sounds great

Good.

> 2. sounds great in principle, however there are cases where Travis fails due
> to reasons other than broken code (e.g., timeouts etc).  Is there a way to
> say "I really really want this to go in despite Travis failing"?
>
> Chris

I agree this feature is more contentious.

TravisCI does occasionally fail due to timeouts, typically installing
packages. A couple of our tests do have stochastic failures as well.
I (and I presume anyone else with commit rights) can request a
retest via the TravisCI web interface.

In any case, I *presume* one could do the merge at the git command
line and side-step the (disabled) big green merge button on GitHub.

Peter