How to make merge request gitlab

Getting started with merge requests (FREE)

A merge request (MR) is the basis of GitLab as a tool for code collaboration and version control.

When working in a Git-based platform, you can use branching strategies to collaborate on code.

A repository is composed by its default branch, which contains the major version of the codebase, from which you create minor branches, also called feature branches, to propose changes to the codebase without introducing them directly into the major version of the codebase.

Branching is especially important when collaborating with others, avoiding changes to be pushed directly to the default branch without prior reviews, tests, and approvals.

When you create a new feature branch, change the files, and push it to GitLab, you have the option to create a merge request, which is essentially a request to merge one branch into another.

The branch you added your changes into is called source branch while the branch you request to merge your changes into is called target branch.

The target branch can be the default or any other branch, depending on the branching strategies you choose.

In a merge request, beyond visualizing the differences between the original content and your proposed changes, you can execute a significant number of tasks before concluding your work and merging the merge request.

You can watch our GitLab Flow video for a quick overview of working with merge requests.

How to create a merge request

Learn the various ways to create a merge request.

What you can do with merge requests

When you start a new merge request, you can immediately include the following options. You can also add them later by either selecting Edit on the merge request’s page at the top-right side, or by using keyboard shortcuts for merge requests:

After you have created the merge request, you can also:

Many of these options can be set:

Reviewer

WARNING: Requesting a code review is an important part of contributing code. However, deciding who should review your code and asking for a review are no easy tasks. Using the «assignee» field for both authors and reviewers makes it hard for others to determine who’s doing what on a merge request.

The merge request Reviewers feature enables you to request a review of your work, and see the status of the review. Reviewers help distinguish the roles of the users involved in the merge request. In comparison to an Assignee, who is directly responsible for creating or merging a merge request, a Reviewer is a team member who may only be involved in one aspect of the merge request, such as a peer review.

To request a review of a merge request, expand the Reviewers select box in the right-hand sidebar. Search for the users you want to request a review from. When selected, GitLab creates a to-do list item for each reviewer.

Merge requests to close issues

To create a merge request to close an issue when it’s merged, you can either:

In the issue, select Create a merge request. Then, you can either:

If the issue is confidential, you may want to use a different workflow for merge requests for confidential issues to prevent confidential information from being exposed.

Deleting the source branch

When creating a merge request, select the Delete source branch when merge request accepted option, and the source branch is deleted when the merge request is merged. To make this option enabled by default for all new merge requests, enable it in the project’s settings.

This option is also visible in an existing merge request next to the merge request button and can be selected or cleared before merging. It is only visible to users with the Maintainer role in the source project.

If the user viewing the merge request does not have the correct permissions to delete the source branch and the source branch is set for deletion, the merge request widget displays the Deletes source branch text.

How to make merge request gitlab

Getting started with merge requests (FREE)

A merge request (MR) is the basis of GitLab as a tool for code collaboration and version control.

When working in a Git-based platform, you can use branching strategies to collaborate on code.

A repository is composed by its default branch, which contains the major version of the codebase, from which you create minor branches, also called feature branches, to propose changes to the codebase without introducing them directly into the major version of the codebase.

Branching is especially important when collaborating with others, avoiding changes to be pushed directly to the default branch without prior reviews, tests, and approvals.

When you create a new feature branch, change the files, and push it to GitLab, you have the option to create a merge request, which is essentially a request to merge one branch into another.

The branch you added your changes into is called source branch while the branch you request to merge your changes into is called target branch.

The target branch can be the default or any other branch, depending on the branching strategies you choose.

In a merge request, beyond visualizing the differences between the original content and your proposed changes, you can execute a significant number of tasks before concluding your work and merging the merge request.

You can watch our GitLab Flow video for a quick overview of working with merge requests.

How to create a merge request

Learn the various ways to create a merge request.

What you can do with merge requests

When you start a new merge request, you can immediately include the following options. You can also add them later by either selecting Edit on the merge request’s page at the top-right side, or by using keyboard shortcuts for merge requests:

After you have created the merge request, you can also:

Many of these options can be set:

WARNING: Requesting a code review is an important part of contributing code. However, deciding who should review your code and asking for a review are no easy tasks. Using the «assignee» field for both authors and reviewers makes it hard for others to determine who’s doing what on a merge request.

The merge request Reviewers feature enables you to request a review of your work, and see the status of the review. Reviewers help distinguish the roles of the users involved in the merge request. In comparison to an Assignee, who is directly responsible for creating or merging a merge request, a Reviewer is a team member who may only be involved in one aspect of the merge request, such as a peer review.

To request a review of a merge request, expand the Reviewers select box in the right-hand sidebar. Search for the users you want to request a review from. When selected, GitLab creates a to-do list item for each reviewer.

Merge requests to close issues

To create a merge request to close an issue when it’s merged, you can either:

In the issue, select Create a merge request. Then, you can either:

If the issue is confidential, you may want to use a different workflow for merge requests for confidential issues to prevent confidential information from being exposed.

Deleting the source branch

When creating a merge request, select the Delete source branch when merge request accepted option, and the source branch is deleted when the merge request is merged. To make this option enabled by default for all new merge requests, enable it in the project’s settings.

This option is also visible in an existing merge request next to the merge request button and can be selected or cleared before merging. It is only visible to users with the Maintainer role in the source project.

If the user viewing the merge request does not have the correct permissions to delete the source branch and the source branch is set for deletion, the merge request widget displays the Deletes source branch text.

Recommendations and best practices for merge requests

How to make merge request gitlab

Merge requests (FREE)

Merge requests (MRs) are the way you check source code changes into a branch. When you open a merge request, you can visualize and collaborate on the code changes before merge. Merge requests include:

View merge requests

You can view merge requests for your project, group, or yourself.

View merge requests for a project

To view all merge requests for a project:

View merge requests for all projects in a group

To view merge requests for all projects in a group:

If your group contains subgroups, this view also displays merge requests from the subgroup projects.

View all merge requests assigned to you

To view all merge requests assigned to you:

Filter the list of merge requests

To filter the list of merge requests:

GitLab displays the results on-screen, but you can also retrieve them as an RSS feed.

Filter merge requests by ID

You can filter the Merge Request list to find merge requests by their ID.

For example, enter filter #30 to return only merge request 30.

Filter merge requests by approvers (PREMIUM)

Moved to GitLab Premium in 13.9.

To filter merge requests by an individual eligible approver (Code owner), you can type (or select from the dropdown list) Approver and select the user.

Filter merge requests by «approved by» (PREMIUM)

To filter merge requests already approved by a specific individual, you can type (or select from the dropdown list) Approved-By and select the user.

Filter merge requests by reviewer

To filter review requested merge requests for a specific individual, you can type (or select from the dropdown list) Reviewer and select the user.

Filter merge requests by environment or deployment date

To filter merge requests by deployment data, such as the environment or a date, you can type (or select from the dropdown list) the following:

NOTE: Projects using a fast-forward merge method do not return results, as this method does not create a merge commit.

When filtering by an environment, a dropdown list presents all environments that you can choose from:

Add changes to a merge request

If you have permission to add changes to a merge request, you can add your changes to an existing merge request in several ways, depending on the complexity of your change and whether you need access to a development environment:

Assign a user to a merge request

When a merge request is created, it’s assigned by default to the person who created it. This person owns the merge request, but isn’t responsible for reviewing it. To assign the merge request to someone else, use the /assign @user quick action in a text area in a merge request, or:

The merge request is added to the user’s assigned merge request list.

Assign multiple users (PREMIUM)

Moved to GitLab Premium in 13.9.

GitLab enables multiple assignees for merge requests, if multiple people are accountable for it:

To assign multiple assignees to a merge request, use the /assign @user quick action in a text area, or:

To remove an assignee, clear the user from the same dropdown list.

Close a merge request

If you decide to permanently stop work on a merge request, GitLab recommends you close the merge request rather than delete it. The author and assignees of a merge request, and users with Developer, Maintainer, or Owner roles in a project can close merge requests in the project:

GitLab closes the merge request, but preserves records of the merge request, its comments, and any associated pipelines.

Delete a merge request

GitLab recommends you close, rather than delete, merge requests.

WARNING: You cannot undo the deletion of a merge request.

To delete a merge request:

Update merge requests when target branch merges (FREE SELF)

Merge requests with interconnected content updates are usually handled in one of these ways:

This feature works only when a merge request is merged. Selecting Remove source branch after merging does not retarget open merge requests. This improvement is proposed as a follow-up.

Merge request workflows

For a software developer working in a team:

For a web developer writing a webpage for your company’s website:

Getting started with merge requests

A merge request (MR) is the basis of GitLab as a tool for code collaboration and version control.

When working in a Git-based platform, you can use branching strategies to collaborate on code.

A repository is composed by its default branch, which contains the major version of the codebase, from which you create minor branches, also called feature branches, to propose changes to the codebase without introducing them directly into the major version of the codebase.

Branching is especially important when collaborating with others, avoiding changes to be pushed directly to the default branch without prior reviews, tests, and approvals.

When you create a new feature branch, change the files, and push it to GitLab, you have the option to create a merge request, which is essentially a request to merge one branch into another.

The branch you added your changes into is called source branch while the branch you request to merge your changes into is called target branch.

The target branch can be the default or any other branch, depending on the branching strategies you choose.

In a merge request, beyond visualizing the differences between the original content and your proposed changes, you can execute a significant number of tasks before concluding your work and merging the merge request.

You can watch our GitLab Flow video for a quick overview of working with merge requests.

How to create a merge request

Learn the various ways to create a merge request.

What you can do with merge requests

Reviewer

The merge request Reviewers feature enables you to request a review of your work, and see the status of the review. Reviewers help distinguish the roles of the users involved in the merge request. In comparison to an Assignee, who is directly responsible for creating or merging a merge request, a Reviewer is a team member who may only be involved in one aspect of the merge request, such as a peer review.

To request a review of a merge request, expand the Reviewers select box in the right-hand sidebar. Search for the users you want to request a review from. When selected, GitLab creates a to-do list item for each reviewer.

Merge requests to close issues

If the issue is confidential, you may want to use a different workflow for merge requests for confidential issues to prevent confidential information from being exposed.

Deleting the source branch

When creating a merge request, select the Delete source branch when merge request accepted option, and the source branch is deleted when the merge request is merged. To make this option enabled by default for all new merge requests, enable it in the project’s settings.

This option is also visible in an existing merge request next to the merge request button and can be selected or cleared before merging. It is only visible to users with the Maintainer role in the source project.

If the user viewing the merge request does not have the correct permissions to delete the source branch and the source branch is set for deletion, the merge request widget displays the Deletes source branch text.

Creating merge requests

There are many different ways to create a merge request.

From the merge request list

From an issue

When you add, edit, or upload a file

When you create a branch

When you use Git commands locally

You can create a merge request by running Git commands on your local machine.

Create a branch:

Create, edit, or delete files. The stage and commit them:

GitLab prompts you with a direct link for creating a merge request:

Copy the link and paste it in your browser.

You can add other flags to commands when pushing through the command line to reduce the need for editing merge requests manually through the UI.

When you work in a fork

After your work is merged, if you don’t intend to make any other contributions to the upstream project, you can unlink your fork from its upstream project. Go to Settings > Advanced Settings and remove the forking relationship.

By sending an email

You can create a merge request by sending an email message to GitLab. The merge request target branch is the project’s default branch.

A merge request is created.

Add attachments when creating a merge request by email

The combined size of the patches can be 2 MB.

If the source branch from the subject does not exist, it is created from the repository’s HEAD or the specified target branch. You can specify the target branch by using the /target_branch quick action. If the source branch already exists, the patches are applied on top of it.

Set the default target project