- **General Documentation**: written by the [developers responsible by creating features](#contributing-to-docs). Should be submitted in the same merge request containing code. Feature proposals (by GitLab contributors) should also be accompanied by its respective documentation. They can be later improved by PMs and Technical Writers.
- **[Technical Articles](#technical-articles)**: written by any [GitLab Team](https://about.gitlab.com/team/) member, GitLab contributors, or [Community Writers](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/technical-writing/community-writers/).
- **Indexes per topic**: initially prepared by the Technical Writing Team, and kept up-to-date by developers and PMs in the same merge request containing code. They gather all resources for that topic in a single page (user and admin documentation, articles, and third-party docs).
Whenever a feature is changed, updated, introduced, or deprecated, the merge
request introducing these changes must be accompanied by the documentation
(either updating existing ones or creating new ones). This is also valid when
changes are introduced to the UI.
The one responsible for writing the first piece of documentation is the developer who
wrote the code. It's the job of the Product Manager to ensure all features are
shipped with its docs, whether is a small or big change. At the pace GitLab evolves,
this is the only way to keep the docs up-to-date. If you have any questions about it,
ask a Technical Writer. Otherwise, when your content is ready, assign one of
them to review it for you.
We use the [monthly release blog post](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/blog/release-posts/#monthly-releases) as a changelog checklist to ensure everything
[`administrator`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/tree/master/doc/administration), and [`contributor`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/tree/master/doc/development).
In order to have a [solid site structure](https://searchengineland.com/seo-benefits-developing-solid-site-structure-277456) for our documentation,
all docs should be linked. Every new document should be cross-linked to its related documentation, and linked from its topic-related index, when existent.
The directories `/workflow/`, `/gitlab-basics/`, `/university/`, and `/articles/` have
| `doc/user/` | User related documentation. Anything that can be done within the GitLab UI goes here including `/admin`. |
| `doc/administration/` | Documentation that requires the user to have access to the server where GitLab is installed. The admin settings that can be accessed via GitLab's interface go under `doc/user/admin_area/`. |
| `doc/api/` | API related documentation. |
| `doc/development/` | Documentation related to the development of GitLab. Any styleguides should go here. |
| `doc/legal/` | Legal documents about contributing to GitLab. |
| `doc/install/` | Probably the most visited directory, since `installation.md` is there. Ideally this should go under `doc/administration/`, but it's best to leave it as-is in order to avoid confusion (still debated though). |
| `doc/update/` | Same with `doc/install/`. Should be under `administration/`, but this is a well known location, better leave as-is, at least for now. |
| `doc/topics/` | Indexes per Topic (`doc/topics/topic-name/index.md`): all resources for that topic (user and admin documentation, articles, and third-party docs) |
Alternatively to the method described above, you can simply replace the content
of the old file with a frontmatter containing a redirect link:
```yaml
---
redirect_to: '../path/to/file/README.md'
---
```
It supports both full and relative URLs, e.g. `https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/path/to/file.html`, `../path/to/file.html`, `path/to/file.md`. Note that any `*.md` paths will be compiled to `*.html`.
### Redirections for pages with Disqus comments
If the documentation page being relocated already has any Disqus comments,
we need to preserve the Disqus thread.
Disqus uses an identifier per page, and for docs.gitlab.com, the page identifier
is configured to be the page URL. Therefore, when we change the document location,
we need to preserve the old URL as the same Disqus identifier.
To do that, add to the frontmatter the variable `redirect_from`,
using the old URL as value. For example, let's say I moved the document
available under `https://docs.gitlab.com/my-old-location/README.html` to a new location,
- Use the current [merge request description template](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/.gitlab/merge_request_templates/Documentation.md)
- Use the correct [branch name](#branch-naming)
- Label the MR `Documentation`
- Assign the correct milestone (see note below)
NOTE: **Note:**
If the release version you want to add the documentation to has already been
frozen or released, use the label `Pick into X.Y` to get it merged into
the correct release. Avoid picking into a past release as much as you can, as
it increases the work of the release managers.
### Cherry-picking from CE to EE
As we have the `master` branch of CE merged into EE once a day, it's common to
run into merge conflicts. To avoid them, we [test for merge conflicts against EE](#testing)
with the `ee-compat-check` job, and use the following method of creating equivalent
branches for CE and EE.
Follow this [method for cherry-picking from CE to EE](../automatic_ce_ee_merge.md#cherry-picking-from-ce-to-ee), with a few adjustments:
- Create the [CE branch](#branch-naming) starting with `docs-`,
e.g.: `git checkout -b docs-example`
- Create the EE-equivalent branch ending with `-ee`, e.g.,
`git checkout -b docs-example-ee`
- Once all the jobs are passing in CE and EE, and you've addressed the
To preview your changes to documentation locally, follow this
[development guide](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gitlab-docs/blob/master/README.md#development-when-contributing-to-gitlab-documentation) or [these instructions for GDK](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/blob/master/doc/howto/gitlab_docs.md).
The live preview is currently enabled for the following projects:
-<https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce>
-<https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee>
-<https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-runner>
If your branch contains only documentation changes, you can use
[special branch names](#branch-naming) to avoid long running pipelines.
For [docs-only changes](#branch-naming), the review app is run automatically.
For all other branches, you can use the manual `review-docs-deploy-manual` job
in your merge request. You will need at least Maintainer permissions to be able
to run it. In the mini pipeline graph, you should see an `>>` icon. Clicking on it will
reveal the `review-docs-deploy-manual` job. Hit the play button for the job to start.
NOTE: **Note:**
You will need to push a branch to those repositories, it doesn't work for forks.
The `review-docs-deploy*` job will:
1. Create a new branch in the [gitlab-docs](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gitlab-docs)
project named after the scheme: `$DOCS_GITLAB_REPO_SUFFIX-$CI_ENVIRONMENT_SLUG`,
where `DOCS_GITLAB_REPO_SUFFIX` is the suffix for each product, e.g, `ce` for
CE, etc.
1. Trigger a cross project pipeline and build the docs site with your changes
After a few minutes, the Review App will be deployed and you will be able to
preview the changes. The docs URL can be found in two places:
- In the merge request widget
- In the output of the `review-docs-deploy*` job, which also includes the
triggered pipeline so that you can investigate whether something went wrong
TIP: **Tip:**
Someone that has no merge rights to the CE/EE projects (think of forks from
contributors) will not be able to run the manual job. In that case, you can
ask someone from the GitLab team who has the permissions to do that for you.
NOTE: **Note:**
Make sure that you always delete the branch of the merge request you were
working on. If you don't, the remote docs branch won't be removed either,
and the server where the Review Apps are hosted will eventually be out of
disk space.
### Troubleshooting review apps
In case the review app URL returns 404, follow these steps to debug:
1.**Did you follow the URL from the merge request widget?** If yes, then check if
the link is the same as the one in the job output.
1.**Did you follow the URL from the job output?** If yes, then it means that
either the site is not yet deployed or something went wrong with the remote
pipeline. Give it a few minutes and it should appear online, otherwise you
can check the status of the remote pipeline from the link in the job output.
If the pipeline failed or got stuck, drop a line in the `#docs` chat channel.
### Technical aspects
If you want to know the hot details, here's what's really happening:
1. You manually run the `review-docs-deploy` job in a CE/EE merge request.
1. The job runs the [`scripts/trigger-build-docs`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/scripts/trigger-build-docs)
script with the `deploy` flag, which in turn:
1. Takes your branch name and applies the following:
- The slug of the branch name is used to avoid special characters since
ultimately this will be used by NGINX.
- The `preview-` prefix is added to avoid conflicts if there's a remote branch
with the same name that you created in the merge request.
- The final branch name is truncated to 42 characters to avoid filesystem
limitations with long branch names (> 63 chars).
1. The remote branch is then created if it doesn't exist (meaning you can
re-run the manual job as many times as you want and this step will be skipped).
1. A new cross-project pipeline is triggered in the docs project.
1. The preview URL is shown both at the job output and in the merge request
widget. You also get the link to the remote pipeline.
1. In the docs project, the pipeline is created and it
[skips the test jobs](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gitlab-docs/blob/8d5d5c750c602a835614b02f9db42ead1c4b2f5e/.gitlab-ci.yml#L50-55)
to lower the build time.
1. Once the docs site is built, the HTML files are uploaded as artifacts.
1. A specific Runner tied only to the docs project, runs the Review App job
that downloads the artifacts and uses `rsync` to transfer the files over
to a location where NGINX serves them.
The following GitLab features are used among others:
General documentation is categorized by _User_, _Admin_, and _Contributor_, and describe what that feature is, what it does, and its available settings.
### Technical Articles
Technical articles replace technical content that once lived in the [GitLab Blog](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/), where they got out-of-date and weren't easily found.
They are topic-related documentation, written with an user-friendly approach and language, aiming to provide the community with guidance on specific processes to achieve certain objectives.
A technical article guides users and/or admins to achieve certain objectives (within guides and tutorials), or provide an overview of that particular topic or feature (within technical overviews). It can also describe the use, implementation, or integration of third-party tools with GitLab.
They should be placed in a new directory named `/article-title/index.md` under a topic-related folder, and their images should be placed in `/article-title/img/`. For example, a new article on GitLab Pages should be placed in `doc/user/project/pages/article-title/` and a new article on GitLab CI/CD should be placed in `doc/ci/examples/article-title/`.
#### Types of Technical Articles
- **User guides**: technical content to guide regular users from point A to point B
- **Admin guides**: technical content to guide administrators of GitLab instances from point A to point B
#### Understanding guides, tutorials, and technical overviews
Suppose there's a process to go from point A to point B in 5 steps: `(A) 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 5 (B)`.
A **guide** can be understood as a description of certain processes to achieve a particular objective. A guide brings you from A to B describing the characteristics of that process, but not necessarily going over each step. It can mention, for example, steps 2 and 3, but does not necessarily explain how to accomplish them.
- Live example: "[Static sites and GitLab Pages domains (Part 1)](../../user/project/pages/getting_started_part_one.md) to [Creating and Tweaking GitLab CI/CD for GitLab Pages (Part 4)](../../user/project/pages/getting_started_part_four.md)"
A **tutorial** requires a clear **step-by-step** guidance to achieve a singular objective. It brings you from A to B, describing precisely all the necessary steps involved in that process, showing each of the 5 steps to go from A to B.
It does not only describes steps 2 and 3, but also shows you how to accomplish them.
- Live example (on the blog): [Hosting on GitLab.com with GitLab Pages](https://about.gitlab.com/2016/04/07/gitlab-pages-setup/)
A **technical overview** is a description of what a certain feature is, and what it does, but does not walk
through the process of how to use it systematically.
- Live example (on the blog): [GitLab Workflow, an overview](https://about.gitlab.com/2016/10/25/gitlab-workflow-an-overview/)
#### Special format
Every **Technical Article** contains a frontmatter at the beginning of the doc
