First, we'll clone the component module, change to a new feature branch, and perform edits on the files in the repository. We'll ensure that we use a Git branch during development, so that we can send our code to the upstream Git repository without impacting the original code. We'll end this step with a new snapshot of code on a separate branch of an existing module, so that we can test this code in isolation. This set of steps is the general workflow for the following:

1. Making a copy of the upstream repository for an individual module (git clone/pull)
2. Creating a branch of the module, separate from the Master (git checkout)
3. Making any and all edits to the code (IDE of choice)
4. Creating a snapshot of the current state of the code (git add and commit)
5. Sending the snapshot back to the upstream repository (git push)

In action, the code is as follows:

# Clone the remote git repository for the module. You can skip this step if the
# repository is already present on your local system
git clone [email protected]:puppet/module.git

# If the repository is already local on the system, we'll just want to update our
# local master branch
git pull origin master

# Check out a new environment based on the existing master branch, which is the
# default branch of a git repository, and the branch we should start on on a clone.
git checkout -b new_feature

# We'll edit some files to add new features

# Adding new paramters to init
vim manifests/init.pp - Adding new parameters to init
# Adding a new feature to config
vim manifests/config.pp
# Ensuring the new feature is represented in the deployed template
vim templates/file.epp

# Add all edited files to git staging, assuming you're at the base of the repository
git add .

# Add an atomic commit, not only describing what the commit is, but why it was done
git commit -m 'Added new code to support feature requested by client'

# Push this code back to the origin repository as the new branch
git push origin new_feature

Our edits are now in the upstream repository, in a new_feature branch. The master branch will continue to serve as a reference point for further development for others, and for testing in a staging environment. So that we can begin to test this code, we'll create a new Puppet environment, designed specifically for testing and iteration over this code set.