Are commit templates supported on DevOps? - azure-devops

I know that on Git in general it is possible to enable commit templates by modifying the git config file in the .git-folder. But as these folders are hidden in DevOps is this possible or even recommended in DevOps? If it is doable on DevOps is the process different?
In Git the process should be, modify git config to include:
[commit]
template = ~/.gitmessage

Agree with Tomasz, It is default git behavior, it's not Azure DevOps specific.
As a workaround:
Enable branch policy, it will reject developers push changes directly to the protected branches. Developers need create pull request to push the changes.
Configure pull request template file.
Update repo and create pull request to push changes.
Use pull request template to update the pull request description.
Then we can check it in the commit details.
Result:

It is not possible to edit .git/config file and store it in the remote repo, for everyone to clone it.
You can include instruction in ReadMe on your repo to change a config with
[commit]
template = ~/.gitmessage
once someone clones it.

Related

Github branch specific pull request template

I was wondering if it is possible to create a branch specific pull request template just like I see we have in Azure Repos.
The only thing I could find is global templates for the whole repo but nothing about specific branches.
Any help would be appreciated!

Azure DevOps force core.hooksPath after clone a repository

I try to implement client side git hooks to a azure devops git repository.
I added a .githooks directory to the root and implement a pre-commit hook. I commit and push everything to the repository.
But of curse the hook is only active if I execute
git config core.hooksPath .githooks
after cloning the repository.
The question is here: is there a possiblity to set the git config core.hooksPath per default to .githooks otherwise it will be impossible to force a user to use a hook. :/
The question is here: is there a possiblity to set the git config
core.hooksPath per default to .githooks otherwise it will be
impossible to force a user to use a hook. :/
Sorry but I'm afraid it's impossible for now, as I know Azure Devops doesn't support such behavior. I totally understand your needs but what you want is not available in either Azure Devops Git Repos or Github Repos.
Currently you have to make your members run the git config core.hooksPath .githooks command manually to enable your custom hooks. We can't avoid a manual step here cause git hooks is designed to trigger actions at certain points per user instead of per team.

GitHub - Pull changes from a template repository

I have created a Template Repository in GitHub and then created some repositories based on the template. Since they were created, there have been updates to the template that I want to pull into those repositories.
Is this possible?
On the other repositories you have to add this template repository as a remote.
git remote add template [URL of the template repo]
Then run git fetch to update the changes
git fetch --all
Then is possible to merge another branch from the new remote to your current one.
git merge template/[branch to merge] --allow-unrelated-histories
https://help.github.com/en/articles/adding-a-remote
I will link to the same location as HRK44 but my answer is very different.
https://help.github.com/en/articles/creating-a-repository-from-a-template
Although forks and templates are mentioned in the same section, they are very different.
One of the differences mentioned in the link is:
A new fork includes the entire commit history of the parent repository, while a repository created from a template starts with a single commit.
This basicly means that you will not be able to pull new changes from the template as your git histories are very different and are not based on the same thing.
If you do use the method mentioned in the accepted answer, you will have very hard manual merges that will result in changes to all of the files received from the template, even if they werent changed since the first time you created that repo from that template.
In short, creating a repo from a template (using only master branch) is the same process as:
git clone template
cd folder
rm -rf .git
git init
git remote add origin <new repo url>
git add .
git commit -m "Initial Commit"
git push -u origin master
A few other things that are not (surprisingly) copied when creating a repo from a template:
(Unless github fix this at a later point)
Repo configurations (allowed merge types, permissions etc)
branch rules
So when using this at your organization, make sure to set all repo configurations on the newly created repo.
If you want to merge changes from a template into your project, you're going to need to fetch all of the missing commits from the template, and apply them to your own repo.
To do this, you're going to need to know the exact commit ID that you templated from, and you're going to need to know the commit ID of your first commit.
ORIGINAL_COMMIT_ID=<commit id from original repo you templated from>
YOUR_FIRST_COMMIT=<first commit id in your repo>
YOUR_BRANCH=master
Next you're going to need add the template as a remote, and fetch it.
git remote add upstream git#github.com:whatever/foo.git
git fetch upstream
And finally, you need to rebase all of the commits you're missing onto your branch
git rebase --onto ORIGINAL_COMMIT_ID YOUR_FIRST_COMMIT YOUR_BRANCH
What this is doing it basically creating a branch off of ORIGINAL_COMMIT_ID, then manually applying all of the commits on your original branch, onto this new branch.
This leaves you with what you would have had, if you had forked.
From here, you can git merge upstream/master just as if you had forked.
Once you've completed your merge, you'll need to use git push --force to push all of the changes up to the remote. If you're working with a team, you'll need to coordinate with everyone when doing this, as you're changing the history of the repo.
Note: It's important to note that this is only going to apply to one branch. If you have multiple feature branches, you'll need to perform the same steps to each one.
#daniel's answer also did not work for me because of the unrelated histories problem mentioned in #dima's answer. I achieved the desired functionality by doing the following:
Copy the URL for the template repository you wish to use to create a new repository. (ex: https://github.com/<username>/my-template.git)
Use GitHub Importer to make a new repository based on the template repository.
This solves the unrelated histories problem because it preserves the entire commit history of the template repository.
You need to use the Importer because you cannot fork your own repository. If you want to use someone else's template repository, you can just fork theirs.
Then, add the template repository as a remote.
git remote add template https://github.com/<username>/my-template.git
After you make new commits to the template repository, you can fetch those changes.
git fetch template
Then, merge or rebase. I recommend to merge on public repos and rebase on private repos.
To merge
git checkout <branch-to-merge-to>
git merge template/<branch-to-merge>
To rebase
git checkout <branch-to-merge-to>
git rebase upstream/<branch-to-merge>
NOTE: When rebasing, you must
git push origin <branch-name> --force
in order to override your old commits on your remote branch. This is why I recommend to rebase only on private repos.
I approached this differently as fetch & merge was not ideal as lot of files diverge across template and downstream projects. I only needed the common elements to sync.
lets says we have the below folder structure locally:
repos
├── template_repo
└── downstream_repo
1. Now create a git patch from the parent folder (repos):
git diff --no-index --diff-filter=d --output=upstream_changes.patch -- downstream_repo/some_common_path template_repo/some_common_path
NOTE - the order of the paths matters!, downstream_repo comes first! (interpret this as "what are the changes we need to make to downstream_repo to make it same as template_repo"; look at the --name-status output, it will hopefully make sense.)
--no-index option generates git diff based on filesystem paths. Path can be a single file or a folder.
--diff-filter=d will ignore any files that are in the downstream_repo but not in the template_repo. This only applies when diffing folder paths.
You can use --stat, --name-status to see what the patch will contain.
Review the generated patch.
2. Change to downstream_repo folder and apply the patch
git apply -p2 ../upstream_changes.patch
explanation for -p<n> option from the official doc:
Remove leading path components (separated by slashes) from
traditional diff paths. E.g., with -p2, a patch against a/dir/file
will be applied directly to file. The default is 1.
Using -p2 will drop a/downstream_repo and b/template_repo from the diff paths allowing the patch to apply.
This is the reason for starting with above illustrated folder structure.
Once the patch is applied, rest of the process should be familiar.
All of these options are clearly explained in git diff and git apply official docs.
Another option is to create a patch from the necessary commits and move the patch to a new project
git format-patch -1 HEAD
Insert a patch
git am < file.patch
details are here
I ran into this same issue. I have 10+ projects all created from the same template project (react-kindling) and using git alone wasn't sufficient, as it would pull in changes to the template that I didn't want in my child projects.
I ended up creating an npm utility for updating child projects from template starter projects. You can check it out here:
LockBlocks
It's been a real life saver. Pulling changes from the template is a heck of a lot easier now.
This works too:
git remote add template git#github.com:org/template-repo.git
git fetch --all
git merge template/main --allow-unrelated-histories

TeamCity automatically update sources and merge to git repo

Does anyone know if it is possible to update source files during a build (from an external source for e.g. like checking if there are new translations and merging those in) and then merge those changes to a git branch via a Pull request with TeamCity as part of the build steps?
TeamCity has an 'Automatic Merge' feature. Please have a look at the documentation and the related blog post

Github / EGit pull request workflow

Say I have a repo and someone forks it. Then they do work and submit a pull request. But the code contains a large number of lines and/or it creates a GUI. I'd like to fetch it so I can actually see it run from Eclipse before merging it into my master. The options I've come up with are:
Create a second repo in EGit and clone directly from their fork.
Create a new branch just for them. Then leave a comment for the request asking them to re-submit the pull request using the new branch and that I'll be closing the current request (without merging)
Always keep around a branch for them to use in their pull requests.
Besides setting up an organization on Github what else could I do?
Then leave a comment for the request asking them to re-submit the pull request using the new branch and that I'll be closing the current request
They don't have to re-submit, it you test and merge first locally, as described in the "Merging a pull request" GitHub page.
git checkout master
git pull https://github.com/otheruser/repo.git branchname
If the local merge works, then you can go ahead and merge the pull request through the GitHub web interface.
GitHub has documented how to checkout a pull request.
As I have illustrated before in "What support for git namespaces exists in git hosting services", you can use refs/pull/<PRNumber>/head as remote pull reference, in command line or in Egit when, for instance, creating a new branch.
If the PR number is 123, you can simply use the EGit Pull action, and use pulls/123/head as reference.