Broadcast a GitHub issue to multiple repositories with `scikit-package`

Overview

This is a tutorial for using scikit-package to broadcast a GitHub issue to multiple repositories by running the command

package broadcast <issue-url> <group-name>

The command needs Github Personal Access Token and configuration files to work properly. Please see the following sections for more information.

Setup GitHub Personal Access Token

Create a GitHub Personal Access Token

For detailed information, please check GitHub documentation.

Visit Create GitHub Personal Access Tokens.
Enter the Token name. You may use scikit-package or any other name you like.
Choose the Expiration date.
Select the scope of Repository access.
Click the Generate token green button to create the token.
Copy the generated token into a safe place.

Add the token as an environment variable

For Windows Users

Press Win + R and type sysdm.cpl or SystemPropertiesAdvanced. Either command works.
Click the Environment Variables… tab in the Advanced tab.
Under the User variables section, click the New… button.
Set the Variable name to GITHUB_TOKEN.
Set the Variable value to the GitHub Personal Access Token you created in previous section.
Click OK to save the new environment variable.
Done!

For Linux Users

Open the terminal profile, e.g., .bashrc, .zshrc, etc.

Add the following line to the end of the file:

export GITHUB_TOKEN=<your-personal-access-token>

Save the file and run the following command to apply the changes:
```
source ~/.bashrc
```
Done!

Create configuration files

Configuration files are used to simplify inputs required to specify which repositories the issue should be broadcast to. The complete configurations are divieded into two parts and stored in repos.json and groups.json files.

Note

You may also use repos.yaml or repos.yml instead of repos.json. The same applies to groups.json.

Example of repos.json

{
    "<repo1>": "https://github.come/<org-name>/<repo1>",
    "<repo2>": "https://github.come/<org-name>/<repo2>",
    "<repo3>": "https://github.come/<org-name>/<repo3>",
    "<repo4>": "https://github.come/<org-name>/<repo4>",
    ...
}

Example of groups.json

{
    "even_group" : ["<repo2>", "<repo4>", ...],
    "odd_group" : ["<repo1>", "<repo3>", ...],
}

scikit-package will look for the configuration files in this order:

The GitHub repository URL or directory path provided by --url-to-repo-info.
Current working directory.
The GitHub repository URL or directory path specified by the variable url_to_repo_info set in ~/.skpkgrc.

In the next sections, we will show you how to use the command under different scenarios.

Example usage

Suppose Mr Neutron wants to broadcast an issue with issuer number 42 in the repository source-repo to repo1 and repo2. Since it is the first time Mr Neutron use this functionality, he choose the simplest way:

Use the configuration files in the current working directory

Mr Neutron create two files in the current working directory

repos.json

{
    "repo1": "https://github.come/MrNeutron/repo1",
    "repo2": "https://github.come/MrNeutron/repo2"
}

groups.json

{
    "tmp_group" : ["repo1", "repo1"]
}

Mr Neutron run the command:

package broadcast https://github.come/MrNeutron/source-repo/issues/42 tmp_group

The program runs in dry-run mode by default. After examining the output and finding everything is correct, Mr Neutorn adds the --dry-run n in the command:
```
package broadcast https://github.come/MrNeutron/source-repo/issues/42 tmp_group --dry-run n
```
Done! The issue is created in both repo1 and repo2.

It works, but creating new configuration files every time Mr. Neutron wants to broadcast an issue would be very inconvenient. Therefore, he decides to organize and store the repository information for future use in a GitHub repository. Mr. Neutron does the following:

Use the configuration files in a GitHub repository

Mr Neutron create a GitHub repository called repo-info. Please see Create a new GitHub repository for more information.

Mr Neutron organizes and classifies his repositories information in repos.json and groups.json files as below, so it can be better reused:

repos.json

{
    "repo1": "https://github.come/MrNeutron/repo1",
    "repo2": "https://github.come/MrNeutron/repo2",
    "repo3": "https://github.come/MrNeutron/repo3",
    "repo4": "https://github.come/MrNeutron/repo4",
    "repo101": "https://github.come/MrNeutron/repo101",
    "repo102": "https://github.come/MrNeutron/repo102"
}

groups.json

{
    "even_group" : ["repo2", "repo4", "repo102"],
    "odd_group" : ["repo1", "repo3", "repo101"],
    "small_group" : ["repo1", "repo2", "repo3", "repo4"],
    "large_group" : [ "repo101", "repo102"],
    "prime_group" : ["repo2", "repo3"],
    "divisible_by_3_group" : ["repo3", "repo102"],
    ...
}

Mr Neutron updates these two files in the repo-info repository.
Done!

Now, suppose Mr Neutron needs to broadcast another issue with issue number 43 in the repository source-repo to repo1, repo2, repo3, and repo4.

Mr Neutron simply run the command:

package broadcast https://github.come/MrNeutron/source-repo/issues/43 small_group --url-to-repo-info https://github.come/MrNeutron/repo-info

After examining the output in the dry-run mode and finding everything is correct, Mr Neutron adds the --dry-run n in the command:

package broadcast https://github.come/MrNeutron/source-repo/issues/43 small_group --url-to-repo-info https://github.come/MrNeutron/repo-info --dry-run n

Done! The issue is created in repo1, repo2, repo3, and repo4.

Note

You can also provide the path to the directory containing configuration files at the top level using the --url-to-repo-info argument.

Mr. Neutron is still a bit unsatisfied, as he must provide the URL of the repo-info repository every time he wants to broadcast an issue. To avoid repeated typing, he decides to store the URL in ~/.skpkgrc:

Use the configuration files specified in `~/.skpkgrc`

Mr Neutron open the ~/.skpkgrc file in a text editor.

Mr Neutron edit the file to include the following line:

{
    # other configurations
    # ...
    "url_to_repo_info": "https://github.come/MrNeutron/repo-info"
}

Save the file and done!

Suppose Mr Neutron needs to broadcast another issue with issue number 44 in the repository source-repo to repo101 and repo102.

After making sure there are no repos.json and groups.json files in the current directory, Mr Neutron simply run the command:
```
package broadcast https://github.come/MrNeutron/source-repo/issues/44 large_group
```

The output in dry-run mode shows that everything is correct, so Mr Neutron adds --dry-run n in the command:

package broadcast https://github.come/MrNeutron/source-repo/issues/44 large_group --dry-run n

Done! The issue is created in repo101 and repo102.

Note

If there are repos.json and groups.json files in the current working directory, scikit-package will use these files instead of the ones specified in ~/.skpkgrc.

Note

You may also set the variable url_to_repo_info to a directory path in ~/.skpkgrc if you prefer to store the configuration files locally.

Mr Neutron is very happy that he can now broadcast GitHub issues to multiple repositories so easily with scikit-package!

Broadcast a GitHub issue to multiple repositories with scikit-package

Overview

Setup GitHub Personal Access Token

Create a GitHub Personal Access Token

Add the token as an environment variable

For Windows Users

For Linux Users

Create configuration files

Example usage

Use the configuration files in the current working directory

Use the configuration files in a GitHub repository

Use the configuration files specified in ~/.skpkgrc

Broadcast a GitHub issue to multiple repositories with `scikit-package`

Use the configuration files specified in `~/.skpkgrc`