authoring not working

We want to use copybara with Gitlab. The workflow I imagine, since copybare doesn’t support Gitlab as good as Github, is the following:

1. A user creates a pull request on the external repo.
2. We use copybara to copy (CHANGE_REQUEST) the branch of the pull request to our internal repo.
3. We do a pull request.
4. We merge this pull request.
5. We sync back (ITERATIVE) our internal source to the external repo.

However, I tried this and the only thing that gets displayed at the external repo is a commit of the “Merge branch ‘external-001’ into ‘master’”. There is no sign of the original author or of the original commit of the author.

I only see the commit of the original author in our internal repo.

My copy.bara.sky looks like this:

internalUrl = "[e-mail]:example/internal_test_repo.git"
externalUrl = "[e-mail]:example/external_test_repo.git"

core.workflow(
    name = "default",
    origin = git.origin(
        url = internalUrl,
        ref = "master",
    ),
    destination = git.destination(
        url = externalUrl,
        fetch = "master",
        push = "master",
    ),
    origin_files = glob(["project_001/share_001/**", "project_001/share_002/**", "project_002/subproject_002/**", "external/README.md"], exclude = ["**/key.txt"]),

    destination_files = glob(["**"], exclude = ["external_only.txt"]),

    mode = "ITERATIVE",
    authoring = authoring.pass_thru(default = "Example <[e-mail]>"),
    transformations = [
        # Move to root of OSS repo.
        core.move("external/README.md", "README.md"),
        core.move("project_002", ""),
        metadata.restore_author(label='ORIGINAL_AUTHOR', search_all_changes=True),
    ],
)
core.workflow(
    name = "import_branch",
    origin = git.origin(
        url = externalUrl,
        ref = "external-001"
    ),
    destination = git.destination(
        url = internalUrl,
        fetch = "master",
        push = "external/external-001",
    ),
    origin_files = glob(["**"], exclude = ["bla.txt"]),

    destination_files = glob(["project_001/share_001/**", "project_001/share_002/**", "project_002/subproject_002/**", "external/README.md"], exclude = ["**/key.txt"]),

    mode = "CHANGE_REQUEST",
    authoring = authoring.pass_thru(default = "Example <[e-mail]>"),
    transformations = [
        # Move from root of OSS repo.
        core.move("README.md", "external/README.md"),
        core.move("subproject_002", "project_002/subproject_002"),
        metadata.save_author(label='ORIGINAL_AUTHOR'),
    ],
)

[samuelba]

I think I found a solution, not sure though if this is the optimal/recommended solution. I use first_parent = False, in git.origin() and I use ITERATIVE mode for both processes. First for getting the external branch with all commits to the internal repository and than to sync back all commits from the internal repository to the external repository. This way I have not only the merge commits, but all commits, including the original author.

Maybe we could add an example like this to the examples? Of course only if this is the optimal/recommended solution for the task.

My copy.bara.sky looks like this now:

internalUrl = "[e-mail]:example/internal_test_repo.git"
externalUrl = "[e-mail]:example/external_test_repo.git"

core.workflow(
    name = "default",
    origin = git.origin(
        url = internalUrl,
        ref = "master",
        first_parent = False,
    ),
    destination = git.destination(
        url = externalUrl,
        fetch = "master",
        push = "master",
    ),
    origin_files = glob(["project_001/share_001/**", "project_001/share_002/**", "project_002/subproject_002/**", "external/README.md"], exclude = ["**/key.txt"]),

    destination_files = glob(["**"], exclude = ["external_only.txt"]),

    mode = "ITERATIVE",
    authoring = authoring.pass_thru(default = "Example <[e-mail]>"),
    transformations = [
        # Move to root of OSS repo.
        core.move("external/README.md", "README.md"),
        core.move("project_002", ""),
        metadata.restore_author(label='ORIGINAL_AUTHOR', search_all_changes=True),
    ],
)
core.workflow(
    name = "import_branch",
    origin = git.origin(
        url = externalUrl,
        ref = "external-001",
        first_parent = False,
    ),
    destination = git.destination(
        url = internalUrl,
        fetch = "master",
        push = "external/external-001",
    ),
    origin_files = glob(["**"], exclude = ["bla.txt"]),

    destination_files = glob(["project_001/share_001/**", "project_001/share_002/**", "project_002/subproject_002/**", "external/README.md"], exclude = ["**/key.txt"]),

    mode = "ITERATIVE",
    authoring = authoring.pass_thru(default = "Example <[e-mail]>"),
    transformations = [
        # Move from root of OSS repo.
        core.move("README.md", "external/README.md"),
        core.move("subproject_002", "project_002/subproject_002"),
        metadata.save_author(label='ORIGINAL_AUTHOR'),
    ],
)

[mikelalcon]

I see. You could make it work with some scripting wrapping Copybara (that we could add native if this starts to be common pattern).

You import to a branch as you do now. Do the merge manually (but in the merge you add the integrate label or any text you want).

Then in the way out you run copybara and after that in the script you git log looking for that label and rewrite history to add a fake merge with the original PR. This would be ~40-50 lines of bash, no much.