- We use [Versionist](https://github.com/resin-io/versionist) to manage versioning (and in particular, [semantic versioning](https://semver.org)) and generate the changelog for this project.
- At least one commit in a PR should have a `Change-Type: type` footer, where `type` can be `patch`, `minor` or `major`. The subject of this commit will be added to the changelog.
- Commits should be squashed as much as makes sense.
These are the system requirements for developing and testing the balenaSupervisor on a local machine
- [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/en) v18 or latest
- [Rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/) v1.64 or latest for installing the [@balena/systemd](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@balena/systemd) NPM package.
- If developing on an architecture not supported by default by [node-sqlite3](https://github.com/TryGhost/node-sqlite3#prebuilt-binaries), a C++ compiler and linker are also required, plus the libsqlite development headers.
To get the codebase setup on your development machine follow these steps. For running the supervisor on a device see [Developing the supervisor](#developing-the-supervisor) or [Using balenaOS-in-container](#using-balenaos-in-container).
We explicitly use `npm ci` over `npm install` to ensure the correct package versions are installed. More documentation for this can be found [here](https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/ci) on the npm cli docs.
This process will allow you to run a development instance of the supervisor on your local computer. It is not recommended for production scenarios, but allows someone developing on the supervisor to test changes quickly.
The supervisor is run inside a balenaOS instance running in a container, so effectively it's a Docker-in-Docker instance (or more precisely, [balenaEngine](https://github.com/resin-os/balena-engine)-in-Docker).
To run the supervisor in a balenaOS-in-container instance, first follow the installation instructions on the [balenaOS-in-container repository](https://github.com/balena-os/balenaos-in-container/). Make sure
you have the image configured in [development mode](https://www.balena.io/docs/reference/OS/overview/#development-vs-production-mode). After the image starts you should be able to use the [sync](#Sync) method described above for running a livepush Supervisor on the docker container.
The supervisor is built automatically by the CI system, but a docker image can be also be built locally using the [balena CLI](https://www.balena.io/docs/reference/balena-cli/#build-source).
You can run specific tests quickly with the `test:unit` script or the `test:integration` script (if working in a test environment) by matching with test suites (describe) or test cases (it) using a string or regexp:
The Supervisor will always be forwards compatible so you can just simply run newer versions. If there is data that must be normalized to a new schema such as the naming of engine resources, values in the sqlite database, etc then the new version will automatically take care of that either via [migrations](/src/migrations) or at runtime when the value is queried.
However, these transformations of data are one way. You cannot run older versions of the Supervisor because the migrations are tracked in the sqlite database which will cause exceptions to be thrown once the Supervisor detects the source code is missing migration scripts that the database has. To resolve this just return to your previous Supervisor version or upgrade to the latest version if you don't remember.