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werkator/docs/prs/2026-08-31-PR#000-build-current-head-from-the-branches-view.md
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Michael HönnigandClaude Opus 5 06fc3e4b39 Build current head from branches-page (#3)
* renaming from gitTally to Werkator

* Rename GitTally to Werkator

`gitTally` is the name of another product in the git space, so the
rename is a precaution; nothing about what the build system does changes.

The name follows one rule: `Werkator` where it is prose, capitalized
where it is a Kotlin type and its file, lowercase everywhere a machine
reads it — the command, packages, paths, configuration keys and values,
the Gitea check context. Environment variables keep their convention and
are uppercase throughout.

Every configuration file is still found under its pre-rename name
(`ConfigFiles`): `.gittally.yml` at the repository root, in a build
worktree and as committed on a branch, `.git/gittally/.gittally.yml` for
the machine layer. The current name wins where both exist, and the old
file is then ignored rather than merged — two files side by side are a
half-done rename, not a layering. Without the fallback an installation
that updated without renaming would not fail: a configuration that is
not found leaves every setting at its default, so it would come up
looking healthy while having forgotten its credentials and its builds.

`docs/werkator-migrationsplan.md` lists what the fallback does not
cover and has to be moved by hand — above all the state directory
`.git/werkator/`, which holds the build history, the control token and
the worktrees, and has no fallback of its own.

`docs/migration-from-legacy.md` is deleted with this: it mapped the
legacy script's environment variables, and every host it addressed has
long since moved to the YAML configuration.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Move the pre-rename state directory at the first start

The configuration is found under either name, the state is not: build
history, control token, auto-build slots and worktrees live at one fixed
path. An installation that updates without moving `.git/gittally` would
not fail — it would come up with an empty history and a fresh control
token, quietly. So the first start moves it instead of the release notes
asking for it.

Only when the old directory exists and the new one does not. Where both
exist nothing is touched and a warning names the leftover: which of the
two is the live state is not something to guess. A failed move is an
error in the log, never an abort — a CI must not hang on it.

The worktrees are dropped rather than moved, since they point at their
old path in both directions; `GitWorktreeWorkspaces` prunes the stale
admin entry and recreates each on its branch's next build. A generated
systemd unit moves with the directory and leaves its symlink dangling,
which is warned about — the running service is unaffected, the next
start is not.

Runs from `CliRunner`, before any command resolves a path under the
directory, and so before the second context of `server` exists.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Document PR#1: the rename to Werkator

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Drop the legacy env-to-YAML conversion from the setup tool

The old bash script configured itself through `GITTALLY_*` environment
variables. The blanket rename rewrote those literals, so the converter
was looking for `WERKATOR_*` — a spelling no host has ever written. Fed
a real legacy file it would have found nothing and written an almost
empty configuration, without an error, which is the same silent failure
this rename is otherwise careful to avoid.

The conversion has served its purpose with the vm2176 to vm4006
migration, so it goes instead of being repaired. What remains is the
setup of a new instance: the preconditions, the credential prompt, and
the machine configuration written mode 600 — now carrying the host's
public URL as well, since that is host-specific too. Everything the
repository builds comes from `init` and its templates.

It also stops emitting a legacy `branches:` section, which step 18 is
about to reject outright.

`docs/plan/00-legacy-analysis.md` and `13-nginx-tls.md` get the real
`GITTALLY_*` spelling back: they record what the old script read.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Describe this repository's build with a build definition

Its own `.werkator.yml` still used the deprecated `branches` section
with an `autoBuild` schedule that was switched off. That section is read
only while nothing defines a build at all, and step 18 rejects it by
name — so this repository would have blocked the precondition of that
step, which asks that no configuration still in play carries it.

Nothing about the build changes: `builds.default` with `trigger.onPush`
is a build of every new commit on every branch, which is what the branch
section said. `config:print --full` resolves the definition completely
and logs no deprecation warning any more.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Stop documenting the pre-rename fallback for users

Exactly one repository is configured with the old names, and it is
migrated by hand in the same move as this release. The fallback is
therefore a transition of days, not a feature anyone reading the release
notes or the configuration reference has to plan around.

Removed from `releases.html` and `docs/configuration.md`. The mechanism
itself is unchanged and stays described where it is worked on: in
`ConfigFiles`, in `StateDirMigration`, and in the migration plan.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Bring the PR-doc to its final state

The `statusContext` question is answered and marked as decided rather
than left standing: it is the one value a human reads as a label, and it
stays lowercase because Gitea matches it and the client reads it back,
which makes it a value.

Also records that the pre-rename fallback is deliberately absent from
the release notes and the configuration reference.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Release v1.0.0: Werkator

The release after 0.9.21 is 1.0.0, because a product that changes its
name is better off counting from one under it. The release note says as
much, so the jump is not read as a claim about maturity — plan steps 14,
17 and 18 are still open.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Correct the PR-doc about the version

It claimed the PR carries no version bump, which the release commit made
untrue, and records why the number is 1.0.0 instead of 0.9.22.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Point the legacy references at the history

`legacy/gitTally` was removed from the tree with the rename, but the
README still described it as a reference kept in the repository, and the
plan told an executing session to read parts of it — including step 14,
which is open.

The README section is gone; `docs/plan/README.md`, step 14 and the
legacy analysis now say where the script actually is
(`git show 7f55068^:legacy/gitTally`). Executed steps and ADR 0004 keep
their wording: they record what was true when they ran.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Retarget the links in the historic PR-docs

The package rename moved every file the older PR-docs link to, leaving
60 dead links. Only the link targets are rewritten, never the visible
text and never a statement: those documents record what was true when
they were written, GitTally in the prose included. A snapshot may be
outdated; it should still be navigable.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Add the v1.0.0 deployment procedure for vm4006

Measured, not estimated: the state directory is 878 MB, of which 878 MB
are the nine build worktrees. What cannot be recreated is 84 KB, so the
snapshot before an in-place switch is instant and the rollback is one
sequence of moves.

Records the three expected non-failures — a cold Gradle volume, one
image rebuild, containers left under the old label — and that
`gitea.statusContext` needs no attention because it comes from the
watched repository's committed configuration.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Rename the machine configuration along with its directory

Found by the deployment to vm4006: the move renames the directory and
leaves the file inside it alone, so the machine configuration ended up at
`.git/werkator/.gittally.yml` — a pair of names the lookup did not
expect, because it pairs directory and file name. The instance resolved
empty credentials, no public URL and none of the host's build
definitions, and said nothing about it. That is the exact failure this
change exists to prevent, produced by the change itself.

`StateDirMigration` now renames the configuration with the directory,
unless one under the current name is already there. `ConfigFiles` carries
`.git/werkator/.gittally.yml` as a third candidate as well, for a
directory somebody moved by hand, where the migration never runs and so
can rename nothing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Let init see a configuration under its previous name

`init --systemd` runs `init`, and its "already exists" check knew only
the current name. On the one repository still carrying `.gittally.yml`
it therefore wrote a fresh template `.werkator.yml` beside it — and
since the current name wins, that repository would have built the
template's `./gradlew test` instead of what its own configuration says.
Found on vm4006, where the file was created in the watched working tree
and removed again by hand.

Both checks now ask `ConfigFiles`, so init decides existence by the same
rule the loader uses to read.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Record the v1.0.0 deployment to vm4006

Deployed from the branch as the final test of PR#1, and it did what a
final test is for: it found two silent-failure defects before the
service was started, both fixed and redeployed in the same window.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Drop the control token left under the old localStorage key

The key is named after the product, so the rename left every browser
with a token under `gittally.controlToken`, which nothing reads any more
and which "forget token" can no longer reach. It is a write-scope token
in a browser store, not a password, but a secret nobody owns is worth
one line to remove.

Removed on load. The token on the server is unchanged, so re-entering it
once per browser is all the rename costs.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Build the branch's current head from the branches view

A row on /branches stands for a branch, not for a past run, so its
restart button now builds what origin has now (`atOriginHead`). Repeating
an overtaken commit answers a question nobody asked, and a build gate
comparing HEAD against origin — hsadmin-ng's `prQuickCheck` — cannot even
pass on it: the retry of a superseded master commit is a guaranteed red.

Latest and history are unchanged. There a row *is* a recorded run, and
repeating it means that commit.

The row keeps its build definition either way: a retry of `main@pitest`
runs the new commit as `pitest`, on the branch the record names. A branch
that is gone from origin is refused by name instead of silently falling
back to the old commit.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Document the branches-view restart (PR#000)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Release v1.0.1: the branches view builds the current head

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-31 13:57:57 +02:00

5.9 KiB

WARNING: This document describes only the change applied in this PR. It may already be outdated once the next PR is merged. Historic PR-documentation is not maintained along with new PRs — treat it as a snapshot, not as current documentation.

The Problem

The restart button repeats the commit a build was recorded on. On the History and Latest views that is exactly right: a row there is a past run, and repeating it means that run.

On the Branches view it is wrong, because a row there is not a run — it is a branch, listed whether it was ever built or not. Pressing restart on master therefore rebuilt whatever commit master happened to point at the last time it was built, not what master is now.

Repeating an overtaken commit answers a question nobody asked, and it can be worse than useless. A build gate that compares the built commit against origin cannot pass on a superseded commit at all: hs.hsadmin.ng's prQuickCheck asserts that HEAD contains origin/master, which an overtaken master commit can never do. Observed in production on 2026-08-31: a restart of master rebuilt a commit from two days earlier and failed, and every further press produced the same red result, because pressing it again cannot change the commit.

Non-Goals

  • No change to the Latest and History views: a row there stands for a recorded run, and repeating it is the point.
  • No change to which build definition a restart uses, and no way to pick one — the row's own definition is re-run either way.
  • No change to the watcher, which decides on its own what to build and when.
  • No new button: the existing one changes what it does on one view, and says so.

The Scenarios

Feature: a restart on the Branches view builds the branch as it is now

Background

  • A row on /branches stands for a branch of origin, with its latest build or an unknown row.
  • A row on / (Latest) and /history stands for a recorded build.
  • A build name is the pool: the branch itself for the default build, <branch>@<build> for a named one.

Scenario#000.01: The Branches view builds the branch's current origin head

So that a restart answers "build this branch as it is", which is what a branch row means.

  • Given a branch whose last recorded build ran on an overtaken commit
  • When the restart button on the Branches view is pressed
  • Then the branch's current origin head is built
    • and the recorded commit is not built
Verified by

Scenario#000.02: The row keeps its build definition and its real branch

So that restarting a named build does not silently turn it into a different build.

  • Given a row for a named build such as main@pitest
  • When it is restarted from the Branches view
  • Then the new commit is built under that same definition
    • and on the branch the record names, not on the pool name
Verified by

Scenario#000.03: A branch that is gone from origin is refused by name

So that a restart cannot quietly fall back to a commit the user did not ask for.

  • Given a row for a branch that no longer exists on origin
  • When it is restarted from the Branches view
  • Then the request is refused, naming the branch
    • and no build is started
Verified by

Scenario#000.04: Latest and History still repeat the recorded run

So that the one view whose rows are runs keeps the behavior that fits them.

  • Given a row on the Latest view
  • When its restart button is pressed
  • Then the recorded commit is built, as before
Verified by

The Solution

One flag, decided by the view, not by the button. /api/builds/restart takes atOriginHead; with it the commit comes from GitService.originHeadCommit instead of the recorded build. UiController sets restartAtOriginHead per view — true for Branches, false for Latest and History — and the template and werkator.js carry it to the button. The decision therefore lives where the meaning of a row is decided, and there is one endpoint, one token check, one place to change.

The button says what it does. On the Branches view it reads "Build current head" instead of "Restart build", server-rendered and in the JavaScript alike. A button whose label promises a repeat while it builds something else would be the same class of quiet surprise this change removes.

A missing branch is an error, not a fallback. Falling back to the recorded commit would produce exactly the behavior the user asked to leave behind, at the moment they can least expect it. The message names the branch.

Additional Changes

  • The endpoint's parameter is still called branch although the views pass a build name (main@pitest). It resolves correctly — the recorded branch is used to build — but the name is misleading and is left for a separate change, to keep this one reviewable.