I fail to create the onboarding PR in a branch that is not the default one

[jjcaballero]

Hi,

Please, how is the process to create the onboarding PR (MR in GitLab) in a branch that is not the default one?

• Default branch: master
• Desired base branch: next

The master branch contains neither package files nor the renovate configuration file.

The next branch contains a version file but in a customized path and with a customized name, let's say: dependencies/blah_version.txt

Right now, the MR is not created because it states that no version file was found. That's right in the default branch there is no versions file. Only the next branch contains version files.

In order to specify the next branch, I haved modified the baseBranches parameter in the config.js which triggers/call renovate.
baseBranches: ['master', 'next'],
Note that I would like to keep master branch because other repositories are using that branch as the base for renovate.

Even with that configuration, I see the same error. And the next branch is not verified:
DEBUG: jjcaballero/test-onboarding-renovate default branch = master (repository=jjcaballero/test-onboarding-renovate)
Even, if I remove 'master' from there, I still see the same error.

Then, how can we onboard a project in this scenario? Can I confirm that the branch used is the default one from the previous log message?

I assume if I manage to have this working, then I will have the problem with the customized path for the version file. For this:
Should I create the configuration file specifying the version file in the next branch before triggering renovate onboarding process?

The logs:

         ],
         "packagePatterns": ["^fusion-plugin-*", "^fusion-react*", "^fusion-apollo*"],
         "platform": "gitlab",
         "endpoint": "https://blah.com/api/v4/",
         "labels": ["renovate"],
         "baseBranches": ["next"],
         "git-submodules": {"enabled": true},
         "gitLabAutomerge": false,
         "dockerfile": {"enabled": false},
         "logLevel": "debug",
         "hostRules": [],
         "token": "***********",
         "repositories": ["jjcaballero/test-onboarding-renovate"]
       }

...
DEBUG: config file not found (repository=jjcaballero/test-onboarding-renovate)                                                                                                                              
DEBUG: findPr(renovate/configure, Configure Renovate, !open) (repository=jjcaballero/test-onboarding-renovate)                                                                                              
DEBUG: Found no closed onboarding PR (repository=jjcaballero/test-onboarding-renovate)                                                                                                                      
DEBUG: Repo is not onboarded (repository=jjcaballero/test-onboarding-renovate)                                                                                                                              
DEBUG: getBranchPr(renovate/configure) (repository=jjcaballero/test-onboarding-renovate)                                                                                                                    
DEBUG: findPr(renovate/configure, undefined, open) (repository=jjcaballero/test-onboarding-renovate)                                                                                                        
DEBUG: Onboarding PR does not exist (repository=jjcaballero/test-onboarding-renovate)                                                                                                                       
...                                                                                                                                                                                                            
INFO: Repository has no package files - skipping    
...

Thanks!

[rarkins]

Renovate's config must me in the default branch (master) even if you configure an alternative base branch. If you have no package files in the default branch to trigger the onboarding PR then you can commit a renovate config fine manually and then run the bot.

[jjcaballero]

Oho.. I just read this:
Renovate always uses the config from the repository's default branch, even if that configuration specifies multiple baseBranches. Renovate does not read/override the config from within each base branch if present.
(from configuration-options)

I find this kind of limiting. Different branches can have different version files, different paths to exclude, different assignees, etc. Also, for example, someone could be working on one of the base branches adding a new datasource and in order to accomplish this task, he/she would need to do changes in two different branches: the default and the base one.

Is there any plan/discussion to change this? Or is this by design?

[viceice]

This limitation is by design and we currently have no plans to change that.

Changing that behavior would require a big refactoring and will be difficult to implement.

[rarkins]

Just to clarify, you can use matchBaseBranches in packageRules to completely customize the config per-branch

[rarkins]

We would also welcome a PR for #2496

[jjcaballero]

Thank both! I will stay tuned. The #2496 sounds great to me.