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Code Owners

This feature is available in the Enterprise version, as well as on gitflic.ru

The Code Owners feature allows you to specify users (code owners) responsible for specific parts of the codebase or certain project files. Using this functionality enables you to automatically request approvals for merges if the changes affect files or directories that have assigned code owners.

To use this feature, create a CODEOWNERS file in the root of the repository to specify ownership rules for files and sections of the project. Each repository can only have one CODEOWNERS file. To enable the feature, select the corresponding option on the branch protection page. This feature works independently from merge request approval rules, but all requirements specified in the merge request settings are still taken into account.

Enable Code Owners

Configuring the CODEOWNERS File

The CODEOWNERS file uses a defined syntax to set ownership rules. Each line in the file is a rule and specifies a path or file pattern for one or more owners.

Key elements:

  • File path patterns: specific files or paths
  • Code owners: use @username to specify users
  • Comments: lines starting with # are ignored
  • Sections: optional groups of rules defined with [Section name]

Examples of rule combinations

# Code owners for the file named filename
filename @alias1 @alias2

# Code owners for all files in the repository
** @alias1 @alias2

# Code owners for all .java files in the root of the repository
**.java @alias1 @alias2

# Code owners for the directory directoryName in the root of the repository
directoryName/** @alias1 @alias2

# Code owners for the main directory located anywhere in the repository
**/main/** @alias1 @alias2

# Code owners in the Main section, where the main directory is in the root of the repository
[Main section]
main/** @alias1 @alias2

Examples of matching patterns and the path to test.py

In the Result column, the rule trigger for the file is indicated when using CODEOWNERS

Path Pattern Example file path Result
**/pic/** pic/target/com/test.py true
/pic/** pic/target/com/test.py true
**/com/** pic/target/com/test.py true
com/** pic/target/com/test.py false
**/**.py pic/target/com/test.py true
**.py pic/target/com/test.py false
**/pic/** pic/target/com/test.py true
pic/* pic/test.py true
pic/* pic/target/test.py false
** pic/target/com/test.py true

Example of a CODEOWNERS file

# Code owners for all java files in the repository in the [Java owners] section
[Java owners]
**/**.java @alias1 @alias2

# Code owners for all .md files in the root of the repository in the [DOCUMENTATION] section
[DOCUMENTATION]
**.md @alias1

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