Running a second instance of RetroPie-Setup

[sleve_mcdichael]

(RPi4) I've been testing changes directly on my primary Setup installation (in ~/RetroPie-Setup) and then when I'm done testing, revert with git reset --hard so it doesn't complain I have "unstashed changes" when I try to update in the future.

Can I instead run a second instance of Setup in, for example ~/testing/RetroPie-Setup and leave the primary installation alone? Will it integrate properly with my existing system, or is there a problem with this?

Seems like it would probably work but I just want to run it by others before I try something I might regret.

[mitu]

I find it easier to just use a branch and do the needed changes on that branch. If I have to update from the upstream, I just switch to the master branch or just rebase over the current branch.

You can also - as the message suggests - stash the changes (git stash), then pop them back when needed.

[sleve_mcdichael]

@mitu oh, just "use the feature like it was designed," huh? What, like some kind of nerd? :)

No, but I kid, of course. This probably is the best way to go about it. I just need to get more comfortable with git; I've never used it before RetroPie and most of what I have done has been on the GitHub web UI, but I am picking up more of the CLI stuff as I go.

[sleve_mcdichael]

@mitu mind steering me a little? How do I push any changes to my own fork?

Say I've made a new branch, changed or maybe added some files. For argument's sake let's say I just did:

git checkout -b test
touch testfile
git add .
git commit -mtest

I tried to push and it says there's no upstream test branch and I need to do:

git push --set-upstream origin test

...so I did that and got:

remote: Permission to RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup.git denied to s1eve-mcdichae1.
fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/': The requested URL returned error: 403

Can I push to my own fork but still pull updates from the main repo? How would I do that?

[mitu]

Pushing needs an remote repository.

pi@retropie:~/RetroPie-Setup $  git remote -v
# output
cmitu	git@github.com:cmitu/RetroPie-Setup.git (fetch)
cmitu	git@github.com:cmitu/RetroPie-Setup.git (push)
origin	https://github.com/retropie/RetroPie-Setup (fetch)
origin	https://github.com/retropie/RetroPie-Setup (push)

If you haven't added your own repository as a remote, add it first (make sure you set-up SSH keys authentication for the repository, Github doesn't allow pushing over HTTPS anymore with user/pass). Then, when you create a branch and want to push it to your repository, just

git push --set-upstream mine test

where mine is the name of your fork's remote repository.

pi@retropie:~/RetroPie-Setup $ git push --set-upstream cmitu amiberry-5.2
Enumerating objects: 45, done.
Counting objects: 100% (43/43), done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (5/5), done.
Writing objects: 100% (5/5), 871 bytes | 37.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 5 (delta 4), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
remote: Resolving deltas: 100% (4/4), completed with 4 local objects.
remote:
remote: Create a pull request for 'amiberry-5.2' on GitHub by visiting:
remote:      https://github.com/cmitu/RetroPie-Setup/pull/new/amiberry-5.2
remote:
To github.com:cmitu/RetroPie-Setup.git
 * [new branch]        amiberry-5.2 -> amiberry-5.2
Branch 'amiberry-5.2' set up to track remote branch 'amiberry-5.2' from 'cmitu'.