Automerging a group from config.js

[nickstolwijk]

I wanted to write some config for a renovate.json file that makes a group from the config.js automerge.

config.js:

packageRules: [
        {
            "groupName": "company parents",
            "matchPackagePatterns": [ "^nl.company:company*" ]
        },
    ]

renovate.js:

  "packageRules": [
    {
      "groupName": "company parents",
      "automerge": true
    }
  ]

This gave me a configuration error:

The renovate configuration file contains some invalid settings
packageRules: Each packageRule must contain at least one selector (matchPaths, matchLanguages, matchBaseBranches, matchManagers, matchDatasources, matchDepTypes, matchPackageNames, matchPackagePatterns, excludePackageNames, excludePackagePatterns, matchCurrentVersion, matchSourceUrlPrefixes, matchUpdateTypes). If you wish for configuration to apply to all packages, it is not necessary to place it inside a packageRule at all.",

Do I have the wrong mindset or is there a way to make this work? (Or should I just repeat the matchPackagePatterns?)

[viceice]

Instead of group name you need to repeat the matcher

[rarkins]

This is why you should avoid having these types of rules in you config.js and instead use config presets which your renovate.json extends. You could define a preset that purely does the matching, and then the other presets extend that.

[rarkins]

Backend rules in config.js are "invisible" to regular repository users so make their life harder. e.g. they'd have to figure out why there's even a "company parents" group existing in the first place when they haven't configured it. If you define a shared preset in a repo then they can trace back the config and extend/override it.

[nickstolwijk]

Thanks for the answer! Just started running Renovate on our repositories on Bitbucket Server.

The shared presets configuration is the next thing I will look at. :-)

[rarkins]

Example of a base pattern for extending: https://docs.renovatebot.com/presets-monorepo/#monorepoaws-java-sdk
Example of a grouping preset which extends it: https://docs.renovatebot.com/presets-group/#groupaws-java-sdkmonorepo

[nickstolwijk]

My first POC would be to have a shared preset in Bitbucket Server working for a repository. ;-)