Repositories¶

Review Board supports talking to multiple source code repositories of various types. A single Review Board server can be configured with nearly an unlimited number of repositories, making it useful in large projects and companies as well as small. These are managed in the Administration UI through either the database section or the Administrator Dashboard.

A repository can be linked up with a supported hosting service. This provides a fast and easy way to configure a repository without having to figure out specific paths. See Hosting Services for more information.

Managing Repositories¶

Adding Repositories¶

In order for Review Board to talk to a source code repository, it must first know how to access it.

To add a new repository, click the Add link next to the Repositories entry in the database section or the Administrator Dashboard.

A form will appear with fields split into the following sections:

General Information
Repository Hosting
Repository Information
Bug Tracker
Access Control
Advanced Settings

General Information¶

Name (required)

This is the human-readable name of the repository that users will see. The name can be whatever you like and will appear on the “New Review Request” page and in the review request’s displayed information.
Show this repository (optional)

Determines whether or not the repository will be show. If this is unchecked, then users won’t see the repository in Review Board or through third-party applications that talk to Review Board.

This is most often used for hiding a repository that’s no longer in use.

Repository Hosting¶

This is a complete list of fields that can be shown in this section. Not all of them will actually be shown at once. The fields will depend on the selected Hosting service and Repository type.

Hosting service (required)

The source code hosting service this repository will use, if any. Review Board provides a list of supported hosting services.

See Hosting Services for more information.
Account (required)

The account used for the hosting service, if one is used. Select <Link a new account> to specify a new account for the service.
Account username (required)

The username for the new account, if <Link a new account> is used.
Account password (required)

The password for the new account, if <Link a new account> is used and the hosting service requires a password.

Repository Information¶

This is a partial list of fields that can be shown in this section. The fields listed will depend on the requirements of the hosting service.

Repository type (required)

This is the type of the repository. This will depend on the Hosting service selected.
Repository plan (required)

The plan on the hosting service used for this repository, if needed. This may be used to specify a public vs. private repository, for example.

This is only shown for certain hosting services.

Path (required)

This is the path to the repository on the server. It must be accessible by the server running Review Board. The value depends on the repository type. See Determining Repository Information below for more information.

This is only shown when Hosting service is set to (None - Custom Repository).

Mirror Path (optional)

This is an alternate path for the repository that is used during lookups. It’s usually used when there’s separate developer and anonymous URLs for the repository, with the anonymous URL entered in Path and the developer URL entered in Mirror Path. Review Board will always use the main path when looking up files.

This is only shown when Hosting service is set to (None - Custom Repository).

See Determining Repository Information below for more information on the URLs.

Raw file URL mask (optional)
The raw file URL mask is a path to a raw file blob on a cgit or Gitweb server with special tags that will be substituted to build a real URL to a file in the repository. This field is needed when using Review Board with a remote Git repository.

For example:
- cgit: http://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk+/blob/<filename>?id=<revision>
- Gitweb: http://git.kernel.org/?p=bluetooth/bluez-gnome.git;a=blob_plain;f=<filename>;h=<revision>
This is only shown when Hosting service is set to (None - Custom Repository) and Repository type is set to Git.

Username and Password (optional)

Some repositories will require a username and password for access, some require only a username, and some don’t require either and instead allow for anonymous access.

Subversion repositories, for example, generally provide anonymous access, while CVS and Perforce generally require a username but not a password.

The administrator of the repository should know what is required. This varies depending on the setup.

This may or may not be shown depending on Hosting service and Repository type.

Bug Tracker¶

In most projects, there’s a bug tracker associated with the repository or project, and review requests will often reference bugs.

Review Board will automatically link any bugs to the bug tracker associated with the repository if this field is provided.

Use hosting service’s bug tracker (optional)

If checked, and if the selected Hosting service has a built-in bug tracker, then that bug tracker will be used for this repository.

If unchecked, a bug tracker can be specified below.
Type

The type of bug tracker to use. Depending on your choice here, you may be presented with additional fields for choosing the bug tracker.

If you choose (Custom Bug Tracker), you will be presented with a Bug tracker URL field, as documented below.

If you choose (None), bug linking will be disabled for this repository.
Bug tracker URL (optional)
A custom URL to your bug tracker.

The value of the field should be the path of a bug/ticket, except with %s substituted for the bug/ticket ID.

For example:
https://mytracker.example.com/bugs/%s

Access Control¶

Repository access can be limited to certain users and review groups. See Access Control for more information on how this works.

Publicly accessible

If checked, all users will be able to access review requests and files on this repository. Otherwise, they’ll only be accessible to users or groups that are granted access below.

By default, this is checked.
Users with access (optional)

If the repository is not publicly accessible, only users listed here will have access to the repository and review requests on it.
Review groups with access (optional)

If the repository is not publicly accessible, only users on the invite-only review groups listed here will have access to the repository and review requests on it.

Advanced Settings¶

Encoding (optional)

In some cases there’s confusion as to the proper encoding to expect from files in a repository. You can set this to the proper encoding type (such as utf-8) if you need to, but generally you don’t want to touch this field if things are working fine. You can leave this blank.

When done, click Save to create the repository entry.

Editing Repositories¶

In the event that you need to change the information on a repository (for example, if the repository path or the bug tracker URL has changed), you can edit your repository information by clicking Repositories in the Administrator Dashboard or Database section of the Administration UI.

See Adding Repositories for a description of each field.

When done, click Save to save your changes.

Deleting Repositories¶

To delete a repository, follow the instructions in Editing Repositories to find the repository you want to get rid of. Then click Delete at the bottom of the page.

Warning

Deleting a repository will delete any and all review requests, reviews, diffs, or other data associated with it. You should never delete a repository that has been previously used, unless the server is really dead and gone with no replacement (in which case review requests won’t be able to grab the diff information anyway).

SSH-Backed Repositories¶

Many types of repository setups can only be accessed through a working SSH connection. This requires a public/private key setup, where the repository to be accessible by a Review Board server providing a pre-approved SSH key.

Review Board can generate an SSH key to be used with repositories. An existing SSH key can also be uploaded. Once a key is stored in Review Board, the accompanying public key can be assigned to the server.

See the SSH Settings documentation on how to configure an SSH key.

Configuring the SSH key access on the repository or on the server hosting the repository is not covered here. There are plenty of resources on granting access via SSH keys.

Hosting Services¶

Review Board can be easily configured to work with different hosting services. This is a convenient method for specifying the repository paths and other information necessary to talk to the particular repository.

By changing the Hosting service field, the list of repository types (Subversion, Git, etc.) will be limited to the list that the hosting service supports. The list of fields you need to fill out will also change.

If you’re using a custom code repository, whether hosted on a private server or on some other hosting provider, you can set Hosting service to (None - Custom Repository) and fill out the information manually

If you have a repository with a hosting service from a version of Review Board prior to 1.6.7, you will need to set your hosting service again, as the mechanism for storing and linking hosting services has changed.

Linking Accounts¶

When configuring a hosting service, an account must be linked. For some hosting services, linking an account will first authenticate against the hosting service and store a token as part of the account.

Some hosting services will require a password as part of the linking process. The password will not be stored, just used to initially link the account.

Determining Repository Information¶

The Path field for a repository is very dependent on the type of repository you’re configuring. This section provides some help for determining which value to use.