Automerging is inconsistent

[robg-temp]

As mentioned in previous questions, my team is planning to use Renovate to only update internal libraries, which has proven to be quite tricky to configure.

The automerging seems to be a bit haphazard. Some projects have automerge enabled, while others do not. Any ideas why that is? The automerge is configured at the root level.

module.exports = {
  "baseBranches": ["master", "Sprint-150", "Release-152"],
  "branchPrefix": "renovate/",
  "onboarding": true,
  "onboardingConfig": {
    "extends": [ "config:base" ]
  },
  "platform": "github",
  "rangeStrategy": "bump",
  "automerge": true,
  "automergeType": "branch",
  "packageRules": [
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["*"],
      "excludePackagePatterns": ["^@acme"],
      "enabled": false
    },
    {
      "separateMajorMinor": true,
      "major": {
        "enabled": false
      }
    },
    {
      "matchBaseBranches": ["Sprint-150", "Release-152"],
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["common-web-assets"],
      "separateMinorPatch": true,
      "minor": {
        "enabled": false
      }
    }
  ]
};

I tried moving automerge into the packageRules, but that had no effect:

module.exports = {
  "baseBranches": ["master", "Sprint-150", "Release-152"],
  "branchPrefix": "renovate/",
  "onboarding": true,
  "onboardingConfig": {
    "extends": [ "config:base" ]
  },
  "platform": "github",
  "rangeStrategy": "bump",
  "packageRules": [
    {
        "automerge": true
    },
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["*"],
      "excludePackagePatterns": ["^@acme"],
      "enabled": false
    },
    {
      "separateMajorMinor": true,
      "major": {
        "enabled": false
      }
    },
    {
      "matchBaseBranches": ["Sprint-150", "Release-152"],
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["common-web-assets"],
      "separateMinorPatch": true,
      "minor": {
        "enabled": false
      }
    }
  ]
};

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks!

Rob

[rarkins]

The first package rule had no match pattern and so achieves nothing. Add matchPackagePatterns: ["*"]

[robg-temp]

OK, I'll add that to my new config.

Thanks!

[robg-temp]

If I run the jenkins job with the new config, will it change existing PRs to show that automerge is now enabled? Just want to be looking for the right signs.

[rarkins]

PR body will be updated every run

[robg-temp]

That did it. (Except for the failing status check. I'll be looking into that next.)

Thanks again!

[robg-temp]

Based on your suggestion to add matchPackagePatterns: ["*"], I think that I will move the separateMajorMinor rule in there as well, since it does not have any matching either, and we'd like to always exclude major updates in our matching:

"packageRules": [
    {
        "matchPackagePatterns": ["*"],
        "automerge": true,
        "separateMajorMinor": true,
            "major": {
                "enabled": false
           }
    },

Does that look correct?

As I understand it, that rule will trickle down to the following ones. (?)

Thanks!

[rarkins]

No, you can't nest like that - packageRules should be flag. Additionally, separateMajorMinor already defaults to true, so there's no need to include it.

Maybe take a step back and describe in a few dot points what you're trying to achieve and then I can suggest the best way to configure it

[robg-temp]

OK, I didn't realize that.

What we're looking to do is update our own internal dependencies, i.e., those that start with "@acme". So the rules are:

1. On master All packages starting with "@acme" should be updated (minor and patch).
2. On release and sprint branches, only the "common" package should be updated (patch only).
3. All PRs should be automerged.

So here's my latest configuration:

module.exports = {
  "baseBranches": ["master", "Sprint-150", "Release-152"],
  "branchPrefix": "renovate/",
  "onboarding": true,
  "onboardingConfig": {
    "extends": [ "config:base" ]
  },
  "platform": "github",
  "rangeStrategy": "bump",
  "packageRules": [
    {
       "matchPackagePatterns": ["*"],
       "automerge": true
    },
    {
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["*"],
      "excludePackagePatterns": ["^@acme"],
      "enabled": false
    },
    {
      "separateMajorMinor": true,
      "major": {
        "enabled": false
      }
    },
    {
      "matchBaseBranches": ["Sprint-150", "Release-152"],
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["common"],  // this is @acme/common.  Maybe use exact name instead of pattern?
      "separateMinorPatch": true,
      "minor": {
        "enabled": false
      }
    }
  ]
};

Thanks again!

[rarkins]

FYI it's not typical or recommended to put this amount of repo-specific config into the bot's backend config. It doesn't really scale once you get more than 1-2 repositories. Also you're going to need to keep updating your sprint/release branch names regularly.

I have used the optional description field below so that each rule is described for readability.

module.exports = {
  "baseBranches": ["master", "Sprint-150", "Release-152"],
  "onboardingConfig": {
    "extends": [ "config:base" ]
  },
  "platform": "github",
  "rangeStrategy": "bump",
  "separateMinorPatch": true,
  "packageRules": [
    {
       "description": "Disable all updates on all base branches to begin with",
       "matchPackagePatterns": ["*"],
       "enabled": false
    },
    {
      "description": "Enable @acme packages on master",
      "matchBaseBranches": ["master"],
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["^@acme"],
      "enabled": true
    },
    {
      "description": "Disable @acme major updates on master",
      "matchBaseBranches": ["master"],
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["^@acme"],
      "matchUpdateTypes": ["major"],
      "enabled": false
    },
    {
      "description": "Enable @acme/common on sprint and release branch",
      "matchBaseBranches": ["Sprint-150", "Release-152"],
      "matchPackageNames": ["@acme/common"],
      "enabled": true
    },
    {
      "description": "Disable @acme/common minor and major updates on sprint and release branch",
      "matchBaseBranches": ["Sprint-150", "Release-152"],
      "matchPackageNames": ["@acme/common"],
      "matchUpdateTypes": ["major", "minor"],
      "enabled": false
    },
    {
      "description": "automerge every PR",
      "matchPackagePatterns": ["*"],
      "automerge": true
    }
  ]
};

[robg-temp]

Wow, my config wasn't as close as I thought it was!

The main reason for putting all of the rules together was mainly to get them working. Once we add more projects, I think that we will move a lot of the rules to the individual project renovate.json files - especially automerge, which we will probably want to turn off in some cases.

I'll give your config a try today.

Thanks so much for your help with this! Now I'm convinced that I would have been flailing around for who knows how many more weeks.

[rarkins]

There are multiple ways to do things, and I've prioritized readability over brevity, e.g. sometimes using two understandable rules instead of 1 slightly confusing one. There's usually more than one way to do things