Getting access to comm-central

To push a patch to comm-central, you'll need Level 3 Commit Access. You can learn more about Mozilla's commit access policies and start the process of signing up for an account here: Becoming a Mozilla Contributor​

Adding the live server to your Mercurial configuration

You'll need to add the address to your Mercurial configuration file at path/to/comm-central/.hg/hgrc:

[paths]
default = https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central
live-cc = ssh://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central

In this example we used the label live-cc but you can use whatever you like. Using the standard label default-push is not recommended – having to type the name of the repository helps prevent mistakes.

You can of course access the repository via HTTP, but not push to it, hence the ssh:// address.

Before pushing

Is the tree open? Check TreeHerder – the name of the tree in the top-left corner shows you the status of the tree. Usually it's "open" (a green circle is displayed), which means you can push. Other statuses are "approval required" (yellow padlock) and "closed" (red X) which mean you can't push without permission, and in fact the server will prevent you from doing so.

Is it a good time to push? The best time to push is shortly after Mozilla updates the Firefox live server. Since Thunderbird builds on top of Firefox, pushing to live then will ensure that the build will get the latest changes.

Mozilla usually updates the Firefox Live Server around 0400, 1000, 1600, and 2200 UTC on weekdays and 1000 and 2200 UTC on weekends (give or take an hour). If one of these times is approaching, it's probably not a good time to push. You can check mozilla-central on TreeHerder to see when they last pushed.

Is there a build in progress already? If there is, please wait until you're reasonably sure the first build is not broken. In most cases this means that the Linux and OS X builds (B) are complete and tests (bct, X) are starting to turn green (free from major failures).

Is the tree green? If it isn't, do not push. Pushing something on top of an already broken build wastes resources (both computing and human).

Pushing to comm-central

Having gained level 3 access and configured Mercurial, you can push to comm-central. In general, it's just a matter of applying your patch(es) and running hg push, but let's not do that right now as a series of important checks need to happen before.

Steps before pushing

These are a series of recommended steps to always go through before pushing to Live to ensure you're pushing only what you need.

Be sure your commit message is clear and has been approved during review. The standard syntax of a commit message is Bug 000000 - Description of the patch and fix. r=reviewer.

Mercurial Queues

• Run hg qpop -a to clean your local queue.

• Run hg in to check if there are updates on the live server. (This isn't strictly necessary if you always do the next step.)

• Run hg pull -u to download and apply the most recent changes.

• Reorder your queue and run hg qpush to apply only the patches you want to push to Live.

• Run hg qseries to double check your have the right patches applied.

• Run hg qfinish --applied to include all the currently applied patches in your local tree.

• Run hg out to see a list of patches that will be pushed to the Live server. Check your commit message(s) again.

• Run hg push live-cc (or any shorthand you used in your hgrc file) to push your applied patches to comm-central.

Mercurial Bookmarks

• Run hg pull to download and apply the most recent changes.

• Run hg rebase -b my-bookmark-name -d XXX to rebase your patches. Replace the XXX with the latest public revision.

• Run hg out -r my-bookmark-name to see a list of patches that will be pushed to the Live server. Check only the patches you intend to send are listed. Check your commit message(s) again.

• Run hg push live-cc -r my-bookmark-nameto push your applied patches to comm-central. Always specify a bookmark or revision to avoid sending more than one branch.

Take a look at the TreeHerder to see your push show up at the top of the list.

Commit message magic words

Adding some magic words to the commit message of the tip-most revision will cause the build system to do different things. Getting it wrong or making a typo will not get the desired result.

• DONTBUILD tells the build system not to build on this push. Only the decision and linting tasks will happen, unless another process comes along and starts a build, such as the Daily automatic build.

• CLOSED TREE allows you to push to a closed tree. I hope you have permission!

• a=approver You must specify who approved the changes on some trees (not comm-central).

Landing somebody else's patch

To land a patch you didn't write, e.g. from Bugzilla, you'll need to import it into Mercurial: hg import -e https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=0000000

Use the -e flag as above, or hg commit --amend to edit the commit message as necessary.

After landing

If you worded your commit message correctly, a bot will post a message in your bug with a link to the changes you made, and close the bug. To prevent the bot from closing a bug, add the leave-open keyword to the bug before landing. The bot will automatically remove the checkin-needed-tb flag if it is set.

At this point you should set the Target Milestone field in the bug to the current version, which is generally, but not always, the last option for that field.

Landing a patch on beta or ESR

You do not need to land patches on beta or ESR. We have authorised people to do that for you.

Request approval on Bugzilla in the same way you request review, using the approval-comm-beta and approval-comm-esrXX flags. Filling out the request form is not required. At an appropriate point approval will be granted (or denied!) and your patch will be landed for you.

Uplifting patches to earlier versions is for fixes to major bugs, and regressions that break the user interface. It should not be used as a shortcut to get new features to users earlier (some exceptions apply). The release channels ensure that changes are exposed to a test audience for a period of time before being shipped to all users.