Spack Package PR Migration Tool

June 6, 2025 ยท View on GitHub

A command-line tool to copy open package pull requests from spack/spack to spack/spack-packages.

Requirements

  • git
  • gh CLI tool (authenticated with GitHub)
  • jq for JSON processing
  • Current directory should be a clone of spack/spack-packages

Installation Instructions

  1. Either use Spack to install the tool: 
    spack install migrate-package-prs
spack load migrate-package-prs
  2. Or, if you already have the gh and jq utilities, you can simply clone the repository and add it to your PATH. 
    git clone https://github.com/spack/migrate-package-prs.git
export PATH="$PWD/migrate-package-prs/bin:$PATH"

Usage Instructions

  1. Clone the new package repository and navigate to it:

    git clone https://github.com/spack/spack-packages.git
cd spack-packages

  2. Do a dry-run of the migration tool from within the spack-packages directory:

    migrate-pkg-prs

  3. If that looks good, run the tool with the --migrate option to create actual PRs:

    migrate-pkg-prs --migrate

Command Syntax

For advanced usage, you can specify options and PR numbers:

migrate-pkg-prs [OPTIONS] [PR_NUMBERS...]

Arguments

  • PR_NUMBERS - (Optional) Specific PR numbers to process

Options

  • --author USER - Process all open PRs for the specified GitHub user
  • --migrate - Create PRs in spack/spack-packages (default: local branches only)
  • -h, --help - Show help message

Behavior Rules

  • --author and PR_NUMBERS are mutually exclusive
  • If PR_NUMBERS are specified: process only those PRs
  • If --author is specified: process all open PRs for that user
  • If neither: process all open PRs for the currently authenticated GitHub user (default behavior)

Examples

Copy all open PRs for current GitHub user to local branches

migrate-pkg-prs

Copy and create PRs in spack/spack-packages

migrate-pkg-prs --migrate

Copy all open PRs for a specific user

migrate-pkg-prs --author johndoe

Copy specific PRs and create PRs in target repo

migrate-pkg-prs --migrate 12345 67890

Copy only a single PR to a local branch

migrate-pkg-prs 12345

How It Works

  1. Fetches the specified PR from spack/spack
  2. Cherry-picks commits (excluding merges) from the PR
  3. Creates a local branch named spack-pr-{PR_NUMBER}
  4. Optionally creates a new PR in spack/spack-packages with the --migrate flag

Branch Naming

Local branches are created with the format: spack-pr-{PR_NUMBER}

PR Migration

When using --migrate, the tool:

  • Preserves the original PR title
  • Adds a note to the PR body linking to the original PR
  • Creates the PR against the develop branch in spack/spack-packages

Error Handling

The tool handles various failure scenarios:

  • Failed fetches
  • Cherry-pick conflicts
  • Non-package PRs
  • Branch creation issues
  • Authentication problems

Failed PRs are skipped and reported in the summary.

Authentication

Ensure you're authenticated with GitHub CLI:

gh auth login