A Pull Request is often just the start of a longer process of patching and refining the code until it's ready to merge. In that process it's common to accumulate a lot of commits, some of which are non-functional. Before merging any PR, excess commits need to be "squashed" and sometimes rearranged or reworked to produce a well-packaged set of changes and keep the commit history relatively clean.
In addition, while a PR is being worked on other commits may be merged, leading to conflicts that need resolution. For this reason, it's a best practice to periodically refresh the PR so the working copy closely reflects the final merge.
#### Merge vs Rebase
I recommend not using Github Desktop to sync and merge. Use the command line instead. Github Desktop provides a "merge" option, but for best results "`git rebase`" is recommended. Merge applies new work after your commits. This buries them and makes it hard to bring them together as a final packaged unit. Rebase moves your commits to the end of the branch, ensuring that your commits will be adapted to the current code. This makes it easier to keep revising the commits in-place.
### The Scripts
The following scripts can be used on macOS or Linux to speed up the process of working with Marlin and submitting changes to the project.
mfadd [user]|Add Remote - Add another Github user's fork of Marlin as a remote, then fetch it. After this you can check out one of their branches and either make a PR targeted at their fork or targeted at `bugfix-2.0.x`.
mfinit|Init Working Copy - Creates a remote named '`upstream`' (for use by the other scripts) pointing to the '`MarlinFirmware`' fork. Use once after checking out your fork.
#### Branches
File|Description
----|-----------
mfnew [branch]|New Branch - Creates a new branch based on `upstream/[PR-target]`. All new work should start here.
firstpush|Push the current branch to 'origin' -your fork on Github- and set it to track '`origin`'. The branch needs to reside on Github before you can use it to make a PR.
#### Making / Amending PRs
File|Description
----|-----------
mfpr|Pull Request - Open the Compare / Pull Request page on Github for the current branch.
mfrb|Do a `git rebase` then `git rebase -i` of the current branch onto `upstream/[PR-target]`. Use this to edit your commits anytime.
mfqp|Quick Patch - Commit all current changes as "patch", `mfrb`, and `git push -f`.
#### Documentation
File|Description
----|-----------
mfdoc|Build the documentation and preview it locally.
mfpub|Build the documentation and publish it to marlinfw.org via Github.
#### Utilities
File|Description
----|-----------
ghtp -[h/s]|Set the protocol to use for all remotes. -h for HTTPS, -s for SSL.
mfinfo|This utility script is used by the other scripts to get:<br/>- The upstream project ('`MarlinFirmware`')<br/>- the '`origin`' project (i.e., your Github username),<br/>- the repository name ('`Marlin`'),<br/>- the PR target branch ('`bugfix-2.0.x`'), and<br/>- the current branch (or the first command-line argument).<br/><br/>By itself, `mfinfo` simply prints these values to the console.
