Azure Repos: Pull Requests
Pull requests are a core feature of Azure Repos, enabling collaborative code review and integration. They provide a structured way to propose changes to your codebase, get feedback from team members, and merge those changes into a target branch.
Key Concepts
- Source Branch: The branch containing the changes you want to merge.
- Target Branch: The branch into which you want to merge your changes (e.g.,
mainordevelop). - Reviewers: Team members who are assigned to review the code changes.
- Policy: Rules that can be enforced on pull requests, such as requiring a minimum number of approvals or successful build validation.
- Resolution: The process of merging the pull request, rejecting it, or abandoning it.
Creating a Pull Request
Creating a pull request is straightforward. Follow these steps:
Navigate to your repository in Azure Repos.
Ensure your changes are committed to a feature branch (e.g., feature/new-login-page).
Click on the "Pull requests" tab. Then, click the "New pull request" button.
Select your source branch (where your changes are) and your target branch (where you want to merge). Provide a descriptive title and detailed description for your pull request. Add reviewers.
Click "Create". Your pull request is now open for review.
Reviewing a Pull Request
As a reviewer, you play a crucial role in maintaining code quality. When you're assigned to a pull request:
Key Review Actions:
- View Changes: Examine the code diffs to understand the proposed modifications.
- Add Comments: Provide feedback directly on specific lines of code or general comments.
- Approve or Reject: Vote to approve the changes or request modifications.
- Complete: If you have the necessary permissions, you can merge the pull request after approval.
Pull Request Policies
Azure Repos allows you to define policies for branches to ensure code quality and stability. Common policies include:
- Require a minimum number of reviewers: Ensures that multiple team members review the code.
- Link work items: Connects pull requests to specific tasks or user stories.
- Build validation: Triggers an automated build to ensure changes don't break the build.
- Check for comment resolution: Ensures all reviewer comments have been addressed.
These policies are configured at the repository level and can be set for specific branches or branch patterns.
Merging and Completing
Once a pull request meets all the required criteria (e.g., approvals, successful builds), it can be completed. You'll typically have options to:
- Merge: Combines the source branch into the target branch.
- Squash merge: Combines all commits from the source branch into a single commit on the target branch.
- Rebase and merge: Reapplies commits from the source branch onto the target branch, then merges.
After merging, the source branch can often be automatically deleted.
Example Code Snippet (Conceptual Git Command)
# This is a conceptual representation of the underlying Git operation
git merge --no-ff feature/my-new-feature
Best Practices
- Keep pull requests small and focused on a single feature or bug fix.
- Write clear and concise descriptions.
- Assign relevant reviewers.
- Address reviewer feedback promptly.
- Leverage branch policies to automate quality checks.