[netcdf-java] For developers using THREDDS github

• To: NetCDF-Java community <netcdf-java@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, THREDDS community <thredds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Subject: [netcdf-java] For developers using THREDDS github
• From: John Caron <caron@xxxxxxxx>
• Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2015 09:23:33 -0600

Hi all:

If you build TDS/NetCDF-java from source, you may have noticed that many
branches  disappeared from the thredds GitHub repository yesterday. The
most notables changes are the removal of the 4.6.0 branch and the renaming
of the 4.6.1 branch to master.

The rationale behind these changes is to simplify the development process,
both for the main developers and for external contributions through github.
Our previous model involved creating new branches for each version under
development, such as 4.6.1. Once a new version was released, that branch
was considered frozen, and the new version branch was created. This process
of continually switching branches creates problems with easily merging
community contributed pull requests (among other problems).

We have now moved to a model where the branch `master` denotes the current
active development branch. This is the branch to use for any contributions
to THREDDS. The code for all previous releases is still easily accessible
using the tags created for each release. For instance, the code for 4.6.0
can be checked out from the v4.6.0 tag:

  git checkout -b 4.6.0 v4.6.0

If you had code changes on 4.6.0, you'll need to rebase them on master:

  git rebase master your_branch_name

If you were working based on 4.6.1, you just need to point the existing
branch at master:

  git branch -u origin master

So, in general, you want to be working with the source code on the master
branch. (There may be exceptions where you need to be on an older or newer
branch, please let us know if you think that's the case).

We apologize for any inconvenience these changes have caused. Please let us
know if you see any problems.

The THREDDS development team