Assignments created from Template repositories keep git history

lwcooper · November 1, 2020, 10:28pm

There has been a recent change to Classrooms, that when students accept an assignment from a template repository, it keeps all the commit history from the original source repository, instead of squashing them to an ‘initial commit’, like what happens when you use the Template Repository feature in GitHub

Is this change intentional and permanent?
Why is the behaviour different from the GitHub template repositories feature? It makes for really confusing UX

NickWhiu · November 1, 2020, 10:36pm

Yeah I agree, this seems like a bug because it is in conflict with the GH classroom docs:

From the docs @ https://classroom.github.com/help/using-template-repos-for-assignments

What do you miss out on when you use template repositories?
Template repositories do not copy the complete commit history, but instead start with a single commit.

Please clear this confusion up Github Classrooms team

lwcooper · November 2, 2020, 7:50pm

Wondering if this is actually a bug, where the templates are no longer created as templates, and are instead copied somehow?

The newly created repositories are missing the ‘generated from xx template’ link

dmusican · November 2, 2020, 9:41pm

I just ran into the same problem. Super frustrating, because I don’t want my students seeing my old commits – and I had grown accustomed to this being the case. I’ve got a take-home exam rolling out in a few hours… I’m going to have to squash and rebase. Yikes, nearly missed this.

I truly appreciate all the hard work that the GitHub team has been doing on GitHub Classroom. But it has been really challenging to use this fall.

weiglemc · November 3, 2020, 9:31pm

I have noticed this as well. I just got a notification for “import to student’s generated repo is finished!” which I’d never gotten before.

yves-chevallier · November 4, 2020, 2:39pm

I rand into the same problem and all my assignment is now garbage because my students can see the solution.

I am wondering if by any chance we can see the changelog or the releasenotes of GitHub Classroom.

pedroprieto · November 6, 2020, 2:37pm

Same problem here!

pedroprieto · November 6, 2020, 2:38pm

It only happens in recently created assignments. I created one last friday and if I accept it the repo gets created using template mode.

stephaniegiang · November 6, 2020, 5:10pm

Hi everyone

This was a bug that was introduced into Classroom. We just recently released a fix and any new assignments created should not experience this issue anymore.

If you have any questions, I recommend reaching out to us at https://support.github.com/contact.

Thanks!

lwcooper · November 6, 2020, 5:10pm

Thanks for the fix! Glad it was a bug and not intentional.

I’ll have to recreate a semesters worth of assignments now.

Also just to note that I did reach out at support on Nov the 1st but never heard back