I'm a bit of a beginner here. I'm looking to set up a process where, when someone wants to merge their branch into the main branch, I can run all the unit tests. If all tests pass, then the merge can proceed; if not, the merge should be blocked. What tech stack or tools would you recommend for achieving this? Also, should the tests be run from the branch being merged or from the main branch?
4 Answers
I personally use GitHub along with CircleCI to handle my unit tests. There are some additional tools, but for what you're looking for, that's a solid choice.
With this setup, unit tests, linters, and vulnerability scanners automatically run on every push to a branch or pull request. When a PR gets approved, it enters a merge queue where it goes through the same checks again before merging. If it passes, it merges; if not, it just gets removed from the queue.
This is actually a pretty standard CI/CD process and is supported by pretty much all CI/CD tools. If you're using GitLab, you can look into branch protection rules, merge request settings, and setting up a pipeline to cover all of your requirements. Good luck with the setup!
This is actually a pretty straightforward issue to tackle! One of the easiest ways is to use GitHub Workflows to automate the process for pull requests. Here’s a quick rundown:
1. Set up branch protection rules for the main branch, ensuring changes require PRs.
2. Create a workflow that runs tests each time a PR is created.
3. Write your unit tests as needed.
4. Show your team how to manage those PRs effectively.
You can check out the GitHub docs for help setting up the workflows!
Are you going to add new unit tests in the branch you're merging? Just a heads-up, you should run all unit tests in your project, including any that you’ve added to your branch for this to work properly.
Yep, the new branch has additional tests that aren’t in the main branch yet.
That’s a great overview! It’s super helpful to see the whole process laid out like that.