Facebook Buck is needed to compile the code, and an SQL database to house the review metadata. H2 is recommended for development databases, as it requires no external server process.
Getting the Source
Create a new client workspace:
git clone --recursive https://gerrit.googlesource.com/gerrit cd gerrit
The --recursive option is needed on git clone to ensure that
the core plugins, which are included as git submodules, are also
cloned.
Compiling
For details on how to build the source code with Buck, refer to: Building on the command line with Buck.
Switching between branches
When switching between branches with git checkout, be aware that
submodule revisions are not altered. This may result in the wrong
plugin revisions being present, unneeded plugins being present, or
expected plugins being missing.
After switching branches, make sure the submodules are at the correct revisions for the new branch with the commands:
git submodule update git clean -fdx
Configuring Eclipse
To use the Eclipse IDE for development, please see Eclipse Setup.
For details on how to configure the Eclipse workspace with Buck, refer to: Eclipse integration with Buck.
Mac OS X
On Mac OS X ensure "Java For Mac OS X 10.5 Upate 4" (or later) has
been installed, and that JAVA_HOME is set to
"/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home".
Check the installed version by running java -version and looking
for build 1.6.0_13-b03-211. Versions of Java 6 prior to this
version crash during the build due to a bug in the JIT compiler.
Site Initialization
After compiling (above), run Gerrit’s init command to create a testing site for development use:
java -jar buck-out/gen/gerrit.war init -d ../gerrit_testsite
Accept defaults by pressing Enter until init completes, or add the --batch command line option to avoid them entirely. It is recommended to change the listen addresses from * to localhost to prevent outside connections from contacting the development instance.
The daemon will automatically start in the background and a web browser will launch to the start page, enabling login via OpenID.
Shutdown the daemon after registering the administrator account through the web interface:
../gerrit_testsite/bin/gerrit.sh stop
Testing
Running the Acceptance Tests
Gerrit has a set of integration tests that test the Gerrit daemon via REST, SSH and the git protocol.
A new review site is created for each test and the Gerrit daemon is started on that site. When the test has finished the Gerrit daemon is shutdown.
For instructions on running the integration tests with Buck, please refer to: Running integration tests with Buck.
Running the Daemon
The daemon can be directly launched from the build area, without copying to the test site:
java -jar buck-out/gen/gerrit.war daemon -d ../gerrit_testsite
Running the Daemon with Gerrit Inspector
Gerrit Inspector is an interactive scriptable environment to inspect and modify internal state of the system.
This environment is available on the system console after the system starts. Leaving the Inspector will shutdown the Gerrit instance.
The environment allows interactive work as well as running of Python scripts for troubleshooting.
Gerrit Inspect can be started by adding -s option to the command used to launch the daemon:
java -jar buck-out/gen/gerrit.war daemon -d ../gerrit_testsite -s
Gerrit Inspector examines Java libraries first, then loads its initialization scripts and then starts a command line prompt on the console:
Welcome to the Gerrit Inspector Enter help() to see the above again, EOF to quit and stop Gerrit Jython 2.5.2 (Release_2_5_2:7206, Mar 2 2011, 23:12:06) [OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (Sun Microsystems Inc.)] on java1.6.0 running for Gerrit 2.3-rc0-163-g01967ef >>>
With the Inspector enabled Gerrit can be used normally and all interfaces (HTTP, SSH etc.) are available.
Care must be taken not to modify internal state of the system when using the Inspector.
Querying the Database
The embedded H2 database can be queried and updated from the command line. If the daemon is not currently running:
java -jar buck-out/gen/gerrit.war gsql -d ../gerrit_testsite
Or, if it is running and the database is in use, connect over SSH using an administrator user account:
ssh -p 29418 user@localhost gerrit gsql
Debugging JavaScript
When debugging browser specific issues add ?dbg=1 to the URL so the
resulting JavaScript more closely matches the Java sources. The debug
pages use the GWT pretty format, where function and variable names
match the Java sources.
http://localhost:8080/?dbg=1
To use the GWT DETAILED style the package must be recompiled and
?dbg=1 must be omitted from the URL:
mvn package -Dgwt.style=DETAILED
Release Builds
To create a release build for a production server, or deployment through the download site:
./tools/release.sh
If AsciiDoc isn’t installed or is otherwise unavailable, the WAR can still be built without the embedded documentation by passing an additional flag:
./tools/release.sh --without-documentation
Client-Server RPC
The client-server RPC implementation is gwtjsonrpc, not the stock RPC system that comes with GWT. This buys us automatic XSRF protection. It also makes all of the messages readable and writable by any JSON implementation, facilitating "mashups" and 3rd party clients.
The programming API is virtually identical, except service interfaces extend RemoteJsonService instead of RemoteService.
Why GWT?
We like it. Plus we can write Java code once and run it both in the browser and on the server side.