GitLab Compliance - Repository Control

Estimated time to complete: 15 minutes

Objectives

Learners will implement various repository controls to help manage repository access and modification.

Task A. Push rules

In this task, you will enable push rules in your repository to ensure that pushes follow a specific set of standards.

1. Navigate to your project.

2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > Repository and expand Push Rules.

For this example, we want to ensure that every commit is targeted towards an issue in the project. Having the issue ID present in the commit message ensures that all activity related to the issue is logged in the issue. To do this, we can enforce an expression to ensure every commit message contains either an epic or an issue ID.

1. In the Require expression in commit messages, add the regular expression: ^.*(#\d+|&\d+).*. The regular expression will match the string based on the pattern:

   • ^ - Matches the start of the string
   • .* - Matches any character (except newline) zero or more times
   • (#\d+|&\d+) - This is a capturing group that matches either:
     • #\d+ - A hash symbol followed by one or more digits
     • &\d+ - An ampersand symbol followed by one or more digits
   • .* - Matches any character (except newline) zero or more times
   • $ - Matches the end of the string (implicit in this case)

2. Select Save push rules.

To test this, let’s first create a new issue in our project.

1. In the left sidebar, select Plan > Issues.

2. Select New issue.

3. In the issue title, input Create compliance frameworks.

4. Leave all other options as default and select Create issue.

Now, let’s create a commit and see how our push rules impacts our commit messages.

1. In the left sidebar, select Code > Repository.

2. Select + > New file.

3. In the Filename, input the title compliance_plan.txt.

4. Without changing the Commit message or Target Branch, select Commit changes.

   Notice here that you will get an error stating that the commit message does not follow the proper pattern.

5. Add the title compliance_plan.txt again.

6. In the Commit message, input the text Starting work on issue #1.

You may need to re-enter the name of the file before committing.

1. Select Commit changes.

   Now, your commit will complete successfully. From here, you can navigate back to your issues to see that the commit is tracked in the issue now.

Task B. Setting Branch Rules

In this task, you will create a branch rule to prevent direct pushes to main in your repository. If main is a deployment target for your project, it’s often ideal to prevent direct pushes to main, since you only want to deploy code that has run through a proper review process.

1. Navigate to your project.

2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > Repository.

3. Expand the Branch rules section.

4. Select View Details next to main.

5. Select Edit in Allowed to push and merge.

6. Check the No one option, then select Save changes.

With this change, now no one can directly push to main. Only merges into main are allowed. To test this:

1. In the left sidebar, select Code > Repository.

2. Select + > New file.

3. Note that the Target Branch is now set to a randomly generated branch name.

4. Add any Filename.

5. Change the Target Branch to main and select Commit changes.

   You will see an error stating that you are not allowed to push into this branch.

Task C. Cleaning Up Rules

Before proceeding to the next set of labs, it’s recommended to remove the commit message rules in your repository. This will prevent any issues of preventing commits due to violations.

1. In the left sidebar, select Settings > Repository.

2. Expand the Push rules section.

3. Remove the content in Require expression in commit message.

4. Select Save push rules.

Lab Guide Complete

You have completed this lab exercise. You can view the other lab guides for this course.

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