249 lines
No EOL
11 KiB
Markdown
249 lines
No EOL
11 KiB
Markdown
# Merge requests
|
|
|
|
Merge requests allow you to exchange changes you made to source code and
|
|
collaborate with other people on the same project.
|
|
|
|
## Overview
|
|
|
|
A Merge Request (**MR**) is the basis of GitLab as a code collaboration
|
|
and version control platform.
|
|
Is it simple as the name implies: a _request_ to _merge_ one branch into another.
|
|
|
|
With GitLab merge requests, you can:
|
|
|
|
- Compare the changes between two [branches](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Branching-Branches-in-a-Nutshell#_git_branching)
|
|
- [Review and discuss](../../discussions/index.md#discussions) the proposed modifications inline
|
|
- Live preview the changes when [Review Apps](../../../ci/review_apps/index.md) is configured for your project
|
|
- Build, test, and deploy your code in a per-branch basis with built-in [GitLab CI/CD](../../../ci/README.md)
|
|
- Prevent the merge request from being merged before it's ready with [WIP MRs](#work-in-progress-merge-requests)
|
|
- View the deployment process through [Pipeline Graphs](../../../ci/pipelines.md#pipeline-graphs)
|
|
- [Automatically close the issue(s)](../../project/issues/closing_issues.md#via-merge-request) that originated the implementation proposed in the merge request
|
|
- Assign it to any registered user, and change the assignee how many times you need
|
|
- Assign a [milestone](../../project/milestones/index.md) and track the development of a broader implementation
|
|
- Organize your issues and merge requests consistently throughout the project with [labels](../../project/labels.md)
|
|
- Add a time estimation and the time spent with that merge request with [Time Tracking](../../../workflow/time_tracking.html#time-tracking)
|
|
- [Resolve merge conflicts from the UI](#resolve-conflicts)
|
|
|
|
With **[GitLab Enterprise Edition][ee]**, you can also:
|
|
|
|
- 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) (available only in GitLab Enterprise Edition Premium)
|
|
- Request [approvals](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/merge_request_approvals.html) from your managers (available in GitLab Enterprise Edition Starter)
|
|
- Enable [fast-forward merge requests](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/fast_forward_merge.html) (available in GitLab Enterprise Edition Starter)
|
|
- [Squash and merge](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/squash_and_merge.html) for a cleaner commit history (available in GitLab Enterprise Edition Starter)
|
|
- Enable [semi-linear history merge requests](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/index.html#semi-linear-history-merge-requests) as another security layer to guarantee the pipeline is passing in the target branch (available in GitLab Enterprise Edition Starter)
|
|
- Analise the impact of your changes with [Code Quality reports](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/code_quality_diff.html) (available in GitLab Enterprise Edition Starter)
|
|
|
|
## Use cases
|
|
|
|
A. Consider you are a software developer working in a team:
|
|
|
|
1. You checkout a new branch, and submit your changes through a merge request
|
|
1. You gather feedback from your team
|
|
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) (available in GitLab Enterprise Edition Starter)
|
|
1. You build and test your changes with GitLab CI/CD
|
|
1. You request the approval from your manager
|
|
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 Enterprise Edition Starter)
|
|
1. Your changes get deployed to production with [manual actions](../../../ci/yaml/README.md#manual-actions) for GitLab CI/CD
|
|
1. Your implementations were successfully shipped to your customer
|
|
|
|
B. Consider you're a web developer writing a webpage for your company's:
|
|
|
|
1. You checkout a new branch, and submit a new page through a merge request
|
|
1. You gather feedback from your reviewers
|
|
1. Your changes are previewed with [Review Apps](../../../ci/review_apps/index.md)
|
|
1. You request your web designers for their implementation
|
|
1. You request the [approval](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/merge_request_approvals.html) from your manager (available in GitLab Enterprise Edition Starter)
|
|
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 Enterprise Edition Starter)
|
|
1. Your production team [cherry picks](#cherry-pick-changes) the merge commit into production
|
|
|
|
## Merge requests per project
|
|
|
|
View all the merge requests within a project by navigating to **Project > Merge Requests**.
|
|
|
|
When you access your project's merge requests, GitLab will present them in a list,
|
|
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).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Merge requests per group
|
|
|
|
View all the merge requests in a group (that is, all the merge requests across all projects in that
|
|
group) by navigating to **Group > Merge Requests**. This view also has the open, merged, and closed
|
|
merge request tabs, from which you can [search and filter the results](../../search/index.md#issues-and-merge-requests-per-group).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Authorization for merge requests
|
|
|
|
There are two main ways to have a merge request flow with GitLab:
|
|
|
|
1. Working with [protected branches][] in a single repository
|
|
1. Working with forks of an authoritative project
|
|
|
|
[Learn more about the authorization for merge requests.](authorization_for_merge_requests.md)
|
|
|
|
## Cherry-pick changes
|
|
|
|
Cherry-pick any commit in the UI by simply clicking the **Cherry-pick** button
|
|
in a merged merge requests or a commit.
|
|
|
|
[Learn more about cherry-picking changes.](cherry_pick_changes.md)
|
|
|
|
## Merge when pipeline succeeds
|
|
|
|
When reviewing a merge request that looks ready to merge but still has one or
|
|
more CI jobs running, you can set it to be merged automatically when CI
|
|
pipeline succeeds. This way, you don't have to wait for the pipeline to finish
|
|
and remember to merge the request manually.
|
|
|
|
[Learn more about merging when pipeline succeeds.](merge_when_pipeline_succeeds.md)
|
|
|
|
## Resolve discussion comments in merge requests reviews
|
|
|
|
Keep track of the progress during a code review with resolving comments.
|
|
Resolving comments prevents you from forgetting to address feedback and lets
|
|
you hide discussions that are no longer relevant.
|
|
|
|
[Read more about resolving discussion comments in merge requests reviews.](../../discussions/index.md)
|
|
|
|
## Resolve conflicts
|
|
|
|
When a merge request has conflicts, GitLab may provide the option to resolve
|
|
those conflicts in the GitLab UI.
|
|
|
|
[Learn more about resolving merge conflicts in the UI.](resolve_conflicts.md)
|
|
|
|
## Revert changes
|
|
|
|
GitLab implements Git's powerful feature to revert any commit with introducing
|
|
a **Revert** button in merge requests and commit details.
|
|
|
|
[Learn more about reverting changes in the UI](revert_changes.md)
|
|
|
|
## Merge requests versions
|
|
|
|
Every time you push to a branch that is tied to a merge request, a new version
|
|
of merge request diff is created. When you visit a merge request that contains
|
|
more than one pushes, you can select and compare the versions of those merge
|
|
request diffs.
|
|
|
|
[Read more about the merge requests versions.](versions.md)
|
|
|
|
## Work In Progress merge requests
|
|
|
|
To prevent merge requests from accidentally being accepted before they're
|
|
completely ready, GitLab blocks the "Accept" button for merge requests that
|
|
have been marked as a **Work In Progress**.
|
|
|
|
[Learn more about settings a merge request as "Work In Progress".](work_in_progress_merge_requests.md)
|
|
|
|
## Ignore whitespace changes in Merge Request diff view
|
|
|
|
If you click the **Hide whitespace changes** button, you can see the diff
|
|
without whitespace changes (if there are any). This is also working when on a
|
|
specific commit page.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
>**Tip:**
|
|
You can append `?w=1` while on the diffs page of a merge request to ignore any
|
|
whitespace changes.
|
|
|
|
## Live preview with Review Apps
|
|
|
|
If you configured [Review Apps](https://about.gitlab.com/features/review-apps/) for your project,
|
|
you can preview the changes submitted to a feature-branch through a merge request
|
|
in a per-branch basis. No need to checkout the branch, install and preview locally;
|
|
all your changes will be available to preview by anyone with the Review Apps link.
|
|
|
|
[Read more about Review Apps.](../../../ci/review_apps/index.md)
|
|
|
|
## Tips
|
|
|
|
Here are some tips that will help you be more efficient with merge requests in
|
|
the command line.
|
|
|
|
> **Note:**
|
|
This section might move in its own document in the future.
|
|
|
|
### Checkout merge requests locally
|
|
|
|
A merge request contains all the history from a repository, plus the additional
|
|
commits added to the branch associated with the merge request. Here's a few
|
|
tricks to checkout a merge request locally.
|
|
|
|
Please note that you can checkout a merge request locally even if the source
|
|
project is a fork (even a private fork) of the target project.
|
|
|
|
#### Checkout locally by adding a git alias
|
|
|
|
Add the following alias to your `~/.gitconfig`:
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
[alias]
|
|
mr = !sh -c 'git fetch $1 merge-requests/$2/head:mr-$1-$2 && git checkout mr-$1-$2' -
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Now you can check out a particular merge request from any repository and any
|
|
remote. For example, to check out the merge request with ID 5 as shown in GitLab
|
|
from the `upstream` remote, do:
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
git mr upstream 5
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
This will fetch the merge request into a local `mr-upstream-5` branch and check
|
|
it out.
|
|
|
|
#### Checkout locally by modifying `.git/config` for a given repository
|
|
|
|
Locate the section for your GitLab remote in the `.git/config` file. It looks
|
|
like this:
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
[remote "origin"]
|
|
url = https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce.git
|
|
fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
You can open the file with:
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
git config -e
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Now add the following line to the above section:
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
fetch = +refs/merge-requests/*/head:refs/remotes/origin/merge-requests/*
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
In the end, it should look like this:
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
[remote "origin"]
|
|
url = https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce.git
|
|
fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
|
|
fetch = +refs/merge-requests/*/head:refs/remotes/origin/merge-requests/*
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Now you can fetch all the merge requests:
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
git fetch origin
|
|
|
|
...
|
|
From https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce.git
|
|
* [new ref] refs/merge-requests/1/head -> origin/merge-requests/1
|
|
* [new ref] refs/merge-requests/2/head -> origin/merge-requests/2
|
|
...
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
And to check out a particular merge request:
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
git checkout origin/merge-requests/1
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
[protected branches]: ../protected_branches.md
|
|
[ee]: https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-ee/ "GitLab Enterprise Edition" |