path: root/Documentation/user-notify.txt

= Gerrit Code Review - Email Notifications

== Description

Gerrit can automatically notify users by email when new changes are
uploaded for review, after comments have been posted on a change,
or after the change has been submitted to a branch.

[[user]]
== User Level Settings

Individual users can configure email subscriptions by editing
watched projects through Settings > Watched Projects with the web UI.

Specific projects may be watched, or the special project
`All-Projects` can be watched to watch all projects that
are visible to the user.

link:user-search.html[Change search expressions] can be used to filter
change notifications to specific subsets, for example `branch:master`
to only see changes proposed for the master branch. If a filter would
match at the `All-Projects` level as well as a specific project, the
more specific project's notification settings are used.

Notification mails for new changes and new patch sets are not sent to
the change owner.

Notification mails for comments added on changes are not sent to the user
who added the comment unless the user has enabled the 'Every comment'
option in the user preferences.


[[project]]
== Project Level Settings

Project owners and site administrators can configure project level
notifications, enabling Gerrit Code Review to automatically send
emails to team mailing lists, or groups of users. Project settings
are stored inside of the `refs/meta/config` branch of each Git
repository, and are placed inside of the `project.config` file.

To edit the project level notify settings, ensure the project owner
has Push permission already granted for the `refs/meta/config`
branch. Consult link:access-control.html[access controls] for
details on how access permissions work.

Initialize a temporary Git repository to edit the configuration:
----
  mkdir cfg_dir
  cd cfg_dir
  git init
----

Download the existing configuration from Gerrit:
----
  git fetch ssh://localhost:29418/project refs/meta/config
  git checkout FETCH_HEAD
----

Enable notifications to an email address by adding to
`project.config`, this can be done using the `git config` command:
----
  git config -f project.config --add notify.team.email team-address@example.com
  git config -f project.config --add notify.team.email paranoid-manager@example.com
----

Examining the project.config file with any text editor should show
a new notify section describing the email addresses to deliver to:
----
  [notify "team"]
  	email = team-address@example.com
  	email = paranoid-manager@example.com
----

Each notify section within a single project.config file must have a
unique name. The section name itself does not matter and may later
appear in the web UI. Naming a section after the email address or
group it delivers to is typical. Multiple sections can be specified
if different filters are needed.

Commit the configuration change, and push it back:
----
  git commit -a -m "Notify team-address@example.com of changes"
  git push ssh://localhost:29418/project HEAD:refs/meta/config
----

[[notify.name.email]]notify.<name>.email::
+
List of email addresses to send matching notifications to. Each
email address should be placed on its own line.
+
Internal groups within Gerrit Code Review can also be named using
`group NAME` syntax. If this format is used the group's UUID must
also appear in the corresponding `groups` file. Gerrit will expand
the group membership and BCC all current users.

[[notify.name.type]]notify.<name>.type::
+
Types of notifications to send. If not specified, all notifications
are sent.
+
* `new_changes`: Only newly created changes.
* `new_patchsets`: Only newly created patch sets.
* `all_comments`: Only comments on existing changes.
* `submitted_changes`: Only changes that have been submitted.
* `abandoned_changes`: Only changes that have been abandoned.
* `all`: All notifications.

+
Like email, this variable may be a list of options.

[[notify.name.header]]notify.<name>.header::
+
Email header used to list the destination. If not set BCC is used.
Only one value may be specified. To use different headers for each
address list them in different notify blocks.
+
* `to`: The standard To field is used; addresses are visible to all.
* `cc`: The standard CC field is used; addresses are visible to all.
* `bcc`: SMTP RCPT TO is used to hide the address.

[[notify.name.filter]]notify.<name>.filter::
+
link:user-search.html[Change search expression] to match changes that
should be sent to the emails named in this section. Within a Git-style
configuration file double quotes around complex operator values may
need to be escaped, e.g. `filter = branch:\"^(maint|stable)-.*\"`.

When sending email to a bare email address in a notify block, Gerrit
Code Review ignores read access controls and assumes the administrator
has set the filtering options correctly. Project owners can implement
security filtering by adding the `visibleto:groupname` predicate to
the filter expression, for example:

----
  [notify "Developers"]
  	email = team-address@example.com
  	filter = visibleto:Developers
----

When sending email to an internal group, the internal group's read
access is automatically checked by Gerrit and therefore does not
need to use the `visibleto:` operator in the filter.

[[footers]]
== Email Footers

Notification emails related to changes include metadata about the change
to support writing mail filters. This metadata is included in the form
of footers in the message content. For HTML emails, these footers are
hidden, but they can be examined by viewing the HTML source of messages.

In this way users may apply filters and rules to their incoming Gerrit
notifications using the values of these footers. For example a Gmail
filter to find emails regarding reviews that you are a reviewer of might
take the following form.

----
  "Gerrit-Reviewer: Your Name <your.email@example.com>"
----

[[Gerrit-MessageType]]Gerrit-MessageType::

The message type footer states the type of the message and will take one
of the following values.

* abandon
* comment
* deleteReviewer
* deleteVote
* merged
* newchange
* newpatchset
* restore
* revert
* setassignee

[[Gerrit-Change-Id]]Gerrit-Change-Id::

The change ID footer states the ID of the change, such as
`I3443af49fcdc16ca941ee7cf2b5e33c1106f3b1d`.

[[Gerrit-Change-Number]]Gerrit-Change-Number::

The change number footer states the numeric ID of the change, for
example `92191`.

[[Gerrit-PatchSet]]Gerrit-PatchSet::

The patch set footer states the number of the patch set that the email
relates to. For example, a notification email for a vote being set on
the seventh patch set will take a value of `7`.

[[Gerrit-Owner]]Gerrit-Owner::

The owner footer states the name and email address of the change's
owner. For example, `Owner Name <owner@example.com>`.

[[Gerrit-Reviewer]]Gerrit-Reviewer::

The reviewer footers list the names and email addresses of the change's
reviewrs. One footer is included for each reviewer. For example, if a
change has two reviewers, the footers might include:

----
  Gerrit-Reviewer: Reviewer One <one@example.com>
  Gerrit-Reviewer: Reviewer Two <two@example.com>
----

[[Gerrit-CC]]Gerrit-CC::

The CC footers list the names and email addresses of those who have been
CC'd on the change. One footer is included for each reviewer. For
example, if a change CCs two users, the footers might include:

----
  Gerrit-CC: User One <one@example.com>
  Gerrit-CC: User Two <two@example.com>
----

[[Gerrit-Project]]Gerrit-Project::

The project footer states the project to which the change belongs.

[[Gerrit-Branch]]Gerrit-Branch::

The branch footer states the abbreviated name of the branch that the
change targets.

[[Gerrit-Comment-Date]]Gerrit-Comment-Date::

In comment emails, the comment date footer states the date that the
comment was posted.

[[Gerrit-HasComments]]Gerrit-HasComments::

In comment emails, the has-comments footer states whether inline
comments had been posted in that notification using "Yes" or "No", for
example `Gerrit-HasComments: Yes`.

[[Gerrit-HasLabels]]Gerrit-HasLabels::

In comment emails, the has-labels footer states whether label votes had
been posted in that notification using "Yes" or "No", for
example `Gerrit-HasLabels: No`.

[[Gerrit-Comment-In-Reply-To]]Gerrit-Comment-In-Reply-To::

In comment emails, a comment-in-reply-to footer is present for each
account who has a comment that is replied-to in that set of comments.
For example, to apply a filter to Gerrit messages in which your own diff
comments are responded to, you might search for the following:

----
  Gerrit-Comment-In-Reply-To: User Name <user@example.com>
----

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