CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gitlabbranching-and-mergingissue-tracking
JonasN89
JonasN89

Reputation: 1476

Creating a branch from issue in GitLab

I've just started using GitLab, and have created a set of issues, in order to keep an overview of what needs to be done for my application. I was wondering if it was possible to create a branch from these issues, such that the branch and issues are linked, similar as in jira and Stash from atlassian?

Upvotes: 65

Views: 66923

Answers (4)

VonC
VonC

Reputation: 1324258

2017:

If you create a branch with the name <issue-number>-issue-description and push that branch to GitLab, it will automatically be linked to that issue.

This is now customizable, with GitLab 15.6 (November 2022):

Configure default names for branches created from issues

Define a custom template for naming branches created from issues. The previous setting {issue ID}-{issue-title-hyphenated} remains the default.

To define a custom template for your project, go to Repository Settings > Branch defaults.

https://about.gitlab.com/images/15_6/configure_default_names_for_branches_created_from_issues.png -- Configure default names for branches created from issues

See Documentation and Issue.

Upvotes: 2

Timothy L.J. Stewart
Timothy L.J. Stewart

Reputation: 1754

TLDR: do a merge request add #2 in the title and/or in the comment box and/or the commit message and it will link the issue to the branch and commit, you could just do a MR right from the start to link it.

It seems the only option for Gitlab is name your branch following this format: <issue-number-some-branch> like 2-bad-ai this will autolink the branch to the issue.

However, I organize my branches so they live nicely in the .git/ref/heads folder structure like this feature/2-<some-branch> then when you do a merge request add #2 in the title and/or in the comment box and/or the commit message and it will link the issue to the branch and commit, you could just do a MR right from the start to link it.

$ ls .git/refs/heads/; ls .git/refs/remotes/upstream/
2-bad-ai  dev  feature/  hotfix/  master  release/
2-bad-ai  dev  feature/  hotfix/  master  release/

I'd much rather have feature/2-bad-ai in the above output...

From what I can tell on Github you can link pull-request to feature/2-<some-branch> but doesn't have the autolinking of 2-<some-branch> like GitLab

Upvotes: 2

Robert Echlin
Robert Echlin

Reputation: 713

On the Issue screen, you see a green button labeled "Create merge request", with a down-arrow to its right.

That's not a button, that's a drop down list of buttons.

  • Click on the down arrow
  • Choose "Create branch"
  • Click on "Create branch"
  • A branch is created from the issue number, plus the title of the branch
    • For example, my issue #2, with title "Test repoSearch with no repos" will have a branch called:
    • 2-test-reposearch-with-no-repos
    • Notice that it changes case to all-lower-case

Upvotes: 54

Jawad
Jawad

Reputation: 4665

If you create a branch with the name <issue-number>-issue-description and push that branch to gitlab, it will automatically be linked to that issue. For instance, if you have an issue with id 654 and you create a branch with name 654-some-feature and push it to gitlab, it will be linked to issue 654.

Gitlab will even ask you if you want to create a merge request and will automatically add Closes #654 to the merge request description which will close issue 654 when the merge request is accepted.

Also if you go to a given issue page on gitlab, you should see a New Branch button which will automatically create a branch with a name of the form <issue-number>-issue-description.

Upvotes: 89

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