I am looking to create Github repos with branch protection such that any merges to main branch requires certain checks to pass. We bootstrap Github repositories using code. The issue I am facing is to enable branch protection these checks need to exist beforehand. I have tried creating a webhook on push and added code to create checks and then add rule for branch protection but this way there is a small amount of time where there is no check and anyone can merge in this time. Can someone suggest what I can do to avoid this. Thanks!
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we had an incident one of our devs merged into master branch directly which shouldn't have happened.
We use "feature" branch that goes in "rc" branch directly - which will be QA'ed then merged into "master" after deployment.
I'd like to see if there is a way to restrict only "rc" branches can be merged into master and reject all other push.
Since we are using private repo, branch protection via github setting might not work, so I was looking into pre push hook, but will above scenario be possible?
Thank you.
looked into github setting -> branch protection : it wasn't available for private repo
looked into usage for pre push hook.. wasn't able to find good example for our usage so far.
According to the GitHub docs, you'll need at least GitHub Pro to create branch protection rules with a private repo.
There are other ways to do it, but based on how much time they'll take and what a pain they'll be to deal with, $4/month for pro is almost certainly the easiest way IMO.
I am working on a repo where I am the owner and only author in it.
I want to have in my repo the same behavior as I would when working with a team that protects my branch from direct commits as they must go through a Pull Request. The reason for doing so is to protect from my own mistakes as I sometimes go back to main branch and accidentally push code to it. I want only code that passed through a Pull Request to be able to be merged to main branch.
In order to achieve such behavior I added the following rule to my main branch -
Which is almost what I need, expect that I am locked without the ability to approve my PR's as there is a message I get saying authors of the PR can't approve their PR's - a logical error nonetheless, but if I am working alone in the repo this is not what I am looking for.
How can I achieve what I am looking for?
Simply disable "Require approvals" (the second checkbox in your screenshot), you will still be required to create a PR.
You can merge your own PRs, the only thing you cannot do is to approve your own work (after all: why would you? Hopefully you deem your own changes good!)
Various posts (including Github API - create branch?) give the API calls to make to create a new branch in a github repo, and can obviously be used in a script. I have a slightly different usecase though: I need to create a release branch (like release-1.2.3) when I already have a branch protection rule to cover release-*. The problem: without the branch protection rule, the linked method worked, while with it I get error:
422 Unprocessable Entity
The branch protection rule is fairly standard: requires a PR, requires a status check (I believe only applies to the PR?), "Restrict who can push to matching branches" and "Restrict pushes that create matching branches" are ticked and set to a group that contains all our main team, but includes the user who corresponds to the Jenkins job from where I am running this from.
My guess is that if I can use the new(ish) "bypass branch protections" and clear the "Do not allow bypassing the above settings" settings in the rule would work - can't actually try as yet because I don't have the rights to create the associated custom role but probably will. Alternatively creating the branch on a local repo and pushing it should work given the permissions (yet to try as more scripting but probably will). Question: has anybody got an easier way of doing this?
I'm defining branch protection rules on GitHub, and I would like to know if is there any way to define a Pull Request flow like: qa --> main.
I know it's possible to require pull request before merging (on Require a pull request before merging flag under Branches > Branch protection rule), but I didn't find any option for defining this flow.
There's no way on GitHub to force a source branch to be fixed to a certain value, but you can solve this problem with a required CI check that fails if the PR to main has the wrong source branch. That's the usual way that people handle this sort of issue.
I want to fork a github project to fix a couple of issues and then send a pull request.
The problem I'm running into is that I've already forked the project to adapt it for another user base.
Is it possible to create a second fork? If so, how?
When I try to fork now it just takes me to the previously created fork.
There is no way to have two forks of the same GitHub project unless you use two different GitHub accounts.
So:
Create a separate GitHub account (and verify the email)
Fork the
project
Invite your main GitHub account as a "Collaborator" (from
the settings)
You may need to add the extra step of creating an organization with the new GitHub account and inviting your main github account as an owner of the organization (also make sure your new fork is in that new organization). This will let you do things like deploy automatically to a Heroku app that is connected to your main GitHub account.
Why can't we just have multiple forks???
I mean that I could just commit and push without making a pull request, but I want to do it the offical way and I want somebody else to review the changes before I push to a public project.
GitHub pull requests do not need to be submitted from a fork; they work within a single repository as well:
Pull requests are especially useful in the fork & pull model because they provide a way to notify project maintainers about changes in your fork. However, they're also useful in the shared repository model where they're used to initiate code review and general discussion about a set of changes before being merged into a mainline branch.
There's nothing stopping you from creating a pull request even if you don't technically have to. This is often considered a best practice, and GitHub's own Flow model is largely based on pull requests.
Creating a pull request within a single repository is very similar to creating one from a fork:
Create a feature branch and push your work to that branch on GitHub
In the GitHub web UI, switch to your feature branch
Click the "Compare" & review button
The trick is not to use the master branch to create pull requests. Then you won't need to create multiple forks since you can make as many branches as you need and make pull requests against each branch independently.
Given a clean forked repo, create a dedicated branch and use that branch for the pull request.
You can create branches from the web UI (although it is not obvious).
Click the branch selection dropdown, type the new branch name in the input field, and then you'll see a clickable link Create branch: <new-branch-name> as shown below. The tricky UI part is that it might not be very obvious you should click the "create branch: xyz..." — it is NOT displayed as a button or as a hyperlink, and there is NO indication that this is a clickable link. Moreover, there is NO hint whatsoever that a branch can be created until you type in the search box — anyone would probably assume that the search box is used exclusively for searching branches, and not for creating them.
In case you already made changes directly in your fork's master branch then consider moving those changes into a dedicated branch and hard resetting the master branch to the original remote so that you keep it clean for synching with the upstream repo.
See also:
https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/creating-and-deleting-branches-within-your-repository
The best way, recommended by github manual, is use command line git, mirror clone your repo and push it to your github.
https://docs.github.com/en/github/creating-cloning-and-archiving-repositories/duplicating-a-repository
If you strongly prefer GitHub web interface to the command line, a GUI friendly workaround is create a new organization and fork to that new organization.
Another GUI way I can think of is to declare a fork as a template repo using repo's setting so you can create as many forks as you need.