324 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
324 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
# Merge requests
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Merge requests allow you to exchange changes you made to source code and
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collaborate with other people on the same project.
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## Overview
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A Merge Request (**MR**) is the basis of GitLab as a code collaboration
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and version control platform.
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Is it simple as the name implies: a _request_ to _merge_ one branch into another.
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With GitLab merge requests, you can:
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- Compare the changes between two [branches](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Branching-Branches-in-a-Nutshell#_git_branching)
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- [Review and discuss](../../discussions/index.md#discussions) the proposed modifications inline
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- Live preview the changes when [Review Apps](../../../ci/review_apps/index.md) is configured for your project
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- Build, test, and deploy your code in a per-branch basis with built-in [GitLab CI/CD](../../../ci/README.md)
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- Prevent the merge request from being merged before it's ready with [WIP MRs](#work-in-progress-merge-requests)
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- View the deployment process through [Pipeline Graphs](../../../ci/pipelines.md#pipeline-graphs)
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- [Automatically close the issue(s)](../../project/issues/closing_issues.md#via-merge-request) that originated the implementation proposed in the merge request
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- Assign it to any registered user, and change the assignee how many times you need
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- Assign a [milestone](../../project/milestones/index.md) and track the development of a broader implementation
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- Organize your issues and merge requests consistently throughout the project with [labels](../../project/labels.md)
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- Add a time estimation and the time spent with that merge request with [Time Tracking](../../../workflow/time_tracking.html#time-tracking)
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- [Resolve merge conflicts from the UI](#resolve-conflicts)
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- Enable [fast-forward merge requests](#fast-forward-merge-requests)
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- Enable [semi-linear history merge requests](#semi-linear-history-merge-requests) as another security layer to guarantee the pipeline is passing in the target branch
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- [Create new merge requests by email](#create-new-merge-requests-by-email)
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- Allow maintainers of the target project to push directly to the fork by [allowing edits from maintainers](maintainer_access.md)
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With **[GitLab Enterprise Edition][ee]**, you can also:
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- View the deployment process across projects with [Multi-Project Pipeline Graphs](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/multi_project_pipeline_graphs.html#multi-project-pipeline-graphs) **[PREMIUM]**
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- Request [approvals](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/merge_request_approvals.html) from your managers **[STARTER]**
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- [Squash and merge](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/squash_and_merge.html) for a cleaner commit history **[STARTER]**
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- Analyze the impact of your changes with [Code Quality reports](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/code_quality_diff.html) **[STARTER]**
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## Use cases
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A. Consider you are a software developer working in a team:
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1. You checkout a new branch, and submit your changes through a merge request
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1. You gather feedback from your team
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1. You work on the implementation optimizing code with [Code Quality reports](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/code_quality_diff.html) **[STARTER]**
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1. You build and test your changes with GitLab CI/CD
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1. You request the approval from your manager
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1. Your manager pushes a commit with his final review, [approves the merge request](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/merge_request_approvals.html), and set it to [merge when pipeline succeeds](#merge-when-pipeline-succeeds) (Merge Request Approvals are available in GitLab Starter)
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1. Your changes get deployed to production with [manual actions](../../../ci/yaml/README.md#manual-actions) for GitLab CI/CD
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1. Your implementations were successfully shipped to your customer
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B. Consider you're a web developer writing a webpage for your company's:
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1. You checkout a new branch, and submit a new page through a merge request
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1. You gather feedback from your reviewers
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1. Your changes are previewed with [Review Apps](../../../ci/review_apps/index.md)
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1. You request your web designers for their implementation
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1. You request the [approval](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/merge_request_approvals.html) from your manager **[STARTER]**
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1. Once approved, your merge request is [squashed and merged](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/squash_and_merge.html), and [deployed to staging with GitLab Pages](https://about.gitlab.com/2016/08/26/ci-deployment-and-environments/) (Squash and Merge is available in GitLab Starter)
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1. Your production team [cherry picks](#cherry-pick-changes) the merge commit into production
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## Merge requests per project
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View all the merge requests within a project by navigating to **Project > Merge Requests**.
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When you access your project's merge requests, GitLab will present them in a list,
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and you can use the tabs available to quickly filter by open and closed. You can also [search and filter the results](../../search/index.md#issues-and-merge-requests-per-project).
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## Merge requests per group
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View merge requests in all projects in the group, including all projects of all descendant subgroups of the group. Navigate to **Group > Merge Requests** to view these merge requests. This view also has the open and closed merge requests tabs.
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You can [search and filter the results](../../search/index.md#issues-and-merge-requests-per-group) from here.
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## Removing the source branch
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When creating a merge request, select the "Remove source branch when merge
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request accepted" option and the source branch will be removed when the merge
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request is merged.
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This option is also visible in an existing merge request next to the merge
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request button and can be selected/deselected before merging. It's only visible
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to users with [Master permissions](../../permissions.md) in the source project.
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If the user viewing the merge request does not have the correct permissions to
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remove the source branch and the source branch is set for removal, the merge
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request widget will show the "Removes source branch" text.
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## Authorization for merge requests
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There are two main ways to have a merge request flow with GitLab:
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1. Working with [protected branches][] in a single repository
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1. Working with forks of an authoritative project
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[Learn more about the authorization for merge requests.](authorization_for_merge_requests.md)
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## Cherry-pick changes
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Cherry-pick any commit in the UI by simply clicking the **Cherry-pick** button
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in a merged merge requests or a commit.
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[Learn more about cherry-picking changes.](cherry_pick_changes.md)
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## Semi-linear history merge requests
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A merge commit is created for every merge, but the branch is only merged if
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a fast-forward merge is possible. This ensures that if the merge request build
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succeeded, the target branch build will also succeed after merging.
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Navigate to a project's settings, select the **Merge commit with semi-linear
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history** option under **Merge Requests: Merge method** and save your changes.
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## Fast-forward merge requests
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If you prefer a linear Git history and a way to accept merge requests without
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creating merge commits, you can configure this on a per-project basis.
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[Read more about fast-forward merge requests.](fast_forward_merge.md)
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## Merge when pipeline succeeds
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When reviewing a merge request that looks ready to merge but still has one or
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more CI jobs running, you can set it to be merged automatically when CI
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pipeline succeeds. This way, you don't have to wait for the pipeline to finish
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and remember to merge the request manually.
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[Learn more about merging when pipeline succeeds.](merge_when_pipeline_succeeds.md)
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## Resolve discussion comments in merge requests reviews
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Keep track of the progress during a code review with resolving comments.
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Resolving comments prevents you from forgetting to address feedback and lets
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you hide discussions that are no longer relevant.
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[Read more about resolving discussion comments in merge requests reviews.](../../discussions/index.md)
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## Resolve conflicts
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When a merge request has conflicts, GitLab may provide the option to resolve
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those conflicts in the GitLab UI.
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[Learn more about resolving merge conflicts in the UI.](resolve_conflicts.md)
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## Create new merge requests by email
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*This feature needs [incoming email](../../../administration/incoming_email.md)
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to be configured by a GitLab administrator to be available for CE/EE users, and
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it's available on GitLab.com.*
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You can create a new merge request by sending an email to a user-specific email
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address. The address can be obtained on the merge requests page by clicking on
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a **Email a new merge request to this project** button. The subject will be
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used as the source branch name for the new merge request and the target branch
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will be the default branch for the project. The message body (if not empty)
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will be used as the merge request description. You need
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["Reply by email"](../../../administration/reply_by_email.md) enabled to use
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this feature. If it's not enabled to your instance, you may ask your GitLab
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administrator to do so.
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## Find the merge request that introduced a change
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> **Note**: this feature was [implemented in GitLab 10.5](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/2383).
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When viewing the commit details page, GitLab will link to the merge request (or
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merge requests, if it's in more than one) containing that commit.
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This only applies to commits that are in the most recent version of a merge
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request - if a commit was in a merge request, then rebased out of that merge
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request, they will not be linked.
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[Read more about merge request versions](versions.md)
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## Revert changes
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GitLab implements Git's powerful feature to revert any commit with introducing
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a **Revert** button in merge requests and commit details.
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[Learn more about reverting changes in the UI](revert_changes.md)
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## Merge requests versions
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Every time you push to a branch that is tied to a merge request, a new version
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of merge request diff is created. When you visit a merge request that contains
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more than one pushes, you can select and compare the versions of those merge
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request diffs.
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[Read more about merge request versions](versions.md)
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## Work In Progress merge requests
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To prevent merge requests from accidentally being accepted before they're
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completely ready, GitLab blocks the "Accept" button for merge requests that
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have been marked as a **Work In Progress**.
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[Learn more about settings a merge request as "Work In Progress".](work_in_progress_merge_requests.md)
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## Merge request diff file navigation
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The diff view has a persistent dropdown for file navigation. As you scroll through
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diffs with a large number of files and/or many changes in those files, you can
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easily jump to any changed file through the dropdown navigation.
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## Ignore whitespace changes in Merge Request diff view
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If you click the **Hide whitespace changes** button, you can see the diff
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without whitespace changes (if there are any). This is also working when on a
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specific commit page.
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>**Tip:**
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You can append `?w=1` while on the diffs page of a merge request to ignore any
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whitespace changes.
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## Live preview with Review Apps
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If you configured [Review Apps](https://about.gitlab.com/features/review-apps/) for your project,
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you can preview the changes submitted to a feature-branch through a merge request
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in a per-branch basis. No need to checkout the branch, install and preview locally;
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all your changes will be available to preview by anyone with the Review Apps link.
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[Read more about Review Apps.](../../../ci/review_apps/index.md)
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## Tips
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Here are some tips that will help you be more efficient with merge requests in
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the command line.
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> **Note:**
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This section might move in its own document in the future.
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### Checkout merge requests locally
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A merge request contains all the history from a repository, plus the additional
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commits added to the branch associated with the merge request. Here's a few
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tricks to checkout a merge request locally.
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Please note that you can checkout a merge request locally even if the source
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project is a fork (even a private fork) of the target project.
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#### Checkout locally by adding a git alias
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Add the following alias to your `~/.gitconfig`:
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```
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[alias]
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mr = !sh -c 'git fetch $1 merge-requests/$2/head:mr-$1-$2 && git checkout mr-$1-$2' -
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```
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Now you can check out a particular merge request from any repository and any
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remote. For example, to check out the merge request with ID 5 as shown in GitLab
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from the `upstream` remote, do:
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```
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git mr upstream 5
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```
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This will fetch the merge request into a local `mr-upstream-5` branch and check
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it out.
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#### Checkout locally by modifying `.git/config` for a given repository
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Locate the section for your GitLab remote in the `.git/config` file. It looks
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like this:
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```
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[remote "origin"]
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url = https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce.git
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fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
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```
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You can open the file with:
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```
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git config -e
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```
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Now add the following line to the above section:
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```
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fetch = +refs/merge-requests/*/head:refs/remotes/origin/merge-requests/*
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```
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In the end, it should look like this:
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```
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[remote "origin"]
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url = https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce.git
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fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
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fetch = +refs/merge-requests/*/head:refs/remotes/origin/merge-requests/*
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```
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Now you can fetch all the merge requests:
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```
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git fetch origin
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...
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From https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce.git
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* [new ref] refs/merge-requests/1/head -> origin/merge-requests/1
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* [new ref] refs/merge-requests/2/head -> origin/merge-requests/2
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...
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```
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And to check out a particular merge request:
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```
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git checkout origin/merge-requests/1
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```
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[protected branches]: ../protected_branches.md
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[ee]: https://about.gitlab.com/products/ "GitLab Enterprise Edition"
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