Apply Gerrit Submit-Requirement to Multiple Branches

[Ioana Silas]

Hello,

From what I have seen, defining function = MaxWithBlock is deprecated in the label definition. As a result, we need to use submit-requirements. However, I would want the submit-requirement to apply to the same branches as those defined in the label definition. 

Let's say we have this in the label def:

branch = ^refs/heads/master|refs/heads/(aaa|bbb)/[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+|refs/heads/bbb/(?!exempt[1,3])(?!another_one[1,2,3])

The problem is that the applicableIf block form the submit-requirement does not support the same kind of regex and I have trouble finding an efficient way of defining exempt branches. So far, I came up with this:
applicableIf = -branch:refs/heads/bbb/exempt1 AND -branch:refs/heads/bbb/exempt3 AND -branch:refs/heads/another_one1 AND -branch:refs/heads/bbb/another_one2 AND -branch:refs/heads/bbb/another_one3... (there are a lot of branches).

This does not seem like a viable solution long term, especially if new branches are added. Is there a better alternative?

Thank you.

[Nuno Costa]

Try with escaped double quotes like below:

applicableIf =  branch:\"^refs/heads/master|refs/heads/(aaa|bbb)/[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+|refs/heads/bbb/(?!exempt[1,3])(?!another_one[1,2,3])\"

The Label to SR migration tool does this but be aware that it escapes too much, as I reported here >> https://issues.gerritcodereview.com/issues/493952648

[Ioana Silas]

Hello Nuno,

Thank you for your answer. Escaping double quotes works, but there are some particularities to the allowed syntax.  After some research and testing, we have the following findings:

• simple regex works without double quotes, but complex regex does not, so we recommend always using double quotes;
  
• ?! is not supported; rather it is interpreted literally; instead, we have the ~ operator, which is set complement. We can use it to simulate behavior similar to ?!;
  • example1: applicableIf = -branch:refs/meta/config AND branch:\"^refs/heads/bbb/(?!exempt1)\"
    • expectation: it should apply to every bbb branch except exempt1
    • reality: it interprets ?!exempt1 literally, and there is no branch with that name. It ends up not being applied on any branch.
  • example2: applicableIf = -branch:refs/meta/config AND branch:\"^~(refs/heads/bbb/exempt1)\"
    • this applies the submit-requirement to every branch that is not bbb/exempt1, or refs/meta/config.
    • it can be further modified to: applicableIf = branch:\"^~(refs/meta/config|refs/heads/bbb/exempt1)\"
• both refs/heads/<branch-name> and <branch-name> should be supported (according to the documentation), but we found that refs/heads/<branch-name> does not work in all cases

• • example1: applicableIf = -branch:refs/meta/config AND branch:\"^~(refs/heads/bbb/exempt1.*|2)\"
    • expectation: we expected this to apply to non bbb/exempt1.* branches and non 2 branches.
    • reality: on multiple bbb that fit the bbb/exempt1.* pattern:  bbb/exempt12, bbb/exempt12 , bbb/exempt13  , but not on branch called 2.
    • from this result, we infer that refs/heads/bbb/exempt1.* is being interpreted literally, and since there is no branch called  refs/heads/bbb/exempt1.* , this does not limit the scope of the submit-requirement in any way.
  • example2: applicableIf = -branch:refs/meta/config AND branch:\"^~(bbb/exempt1.*|2)\"
    • if we remove refs/heads, this actually limits the scope of the submit-requirements as we expected the previous example to do.
• [ ] is supported;
  
• global matching is not supported: e.g. applicableIf = branch:^refs/meta/.* works, but applicableIf = branch:refs/meta/* does not;
• .* can be replaced with @ according to author (maintainer) of dk.brics.automaton.

I hope this information proves to be useful.