Gerrit Code Review - Searching Changes
======================================

Default Searches
----------------

Most basic searches can be viewed by clicking on a link along the top
menu bar.  The link will prefill the search box with a common search
query, execute it, and present the results.  If exactly one change
matches the search, the change will be presented instead of a list.


[options="header"]
|=================================================
|Description          | Default Query
|All > Open           | status:open '(or is:open)'
|All > Merged         | status:merged
|All > Abandoned      | status:abandoned
|My > Drafts          | is:draft
|My > Watched Changes | status:open is:watched
|My > Starred Changes | is:starred
|My > Draft Comments  | has:draft
|Open changes in Foo  | status:open project:Foo
|=================================================


Basic Change Search
-------------------

Similar to many popular search engines on the web, just enter some
text and let Gerrit figure out the meaning:

[options="header"]
|=============================================================
|Description                      | Examples
|Legacy numerical id              | 15183
|Full or abbreviated Change-Id    | Ic0ff33
|Full or abbreviated commit SHA-1 | d81b32ef
|Email address                    | user@example.com
|Approval requirement             | Code-Review>=+2, Verified=1
|=============================================================


Search Operators
----------------

Operators act as restrictions on the search.  As more operators
are added to the same query string, they further restrict the
returned results. Search can also be performed by typing only a
text with no operator. It will try to match a project name by
substring.

E.g. Searching for just "gerrit is:starred" will try to match a
project name by "gerrit" as substring.

[[age]]
age:'AGE'::
+
Amount of time that has expired since the change was last updated
with a review comment or new patch set.  The age must be specified
to include a unit suffix, for example `age:2d`:
+
* s, sec, second, seconds
* m, min, minute, minutes
* h, hr, hour, hours
* d, day, days
* w, week, weeks (`1 week` is treated as `7 days`)
* mon, month, months (`1 month` is treated as `30 days`)
* y, year, years (`1 year` is treated as `365 days`)

[[change]]
change:'ID'::
+
Either a legacy numerical 'ID' such as 15183, or a newer style
Change-Id that was scraped out of the commit message.

[[owner]]
owner:'USER'::
+
Changes originally submitted by 'USER'. The special case of
`owner:self` will find changes owned by the caller.

[[ownerin]]
ownerin:'GROUP'::
+
Changes originally submitted by a user in 'GROUP'.

[[reviewer]]
reviewer:'USER'::
+
Changes that have been, or need to be, reviewed by 'USER'. The
special case of `reviewer:self` will find changes where the caller
has been added as a reviewer.

[[reviewerin]]
reviewerin:'GROUP'::
+
Changes that have been, or need to be, reviewed by a user in 'GROUP'.

[[commit]]
commit:'SHA1'::
+
Changes where 'SHA1' is one of the patch sets of the change.

[[project]]
project:'PROJECT'::
+
Changes occurring in 'PROJECT'. If 'PROJECT' starts with `^` it
matches project names by regular expression.  The
link:http://www.brics.dk/automaton/[dk.brics.automaton
library] is used for evaluation of such patterns.

[[branch]]
branch:'BRANCH'::
+
Changes for 'BRANCH'.  The branch name is either the short name shown
in the web interface or the full name of the destination branch with
the traditional 'refs/heads/' prefix.
+
If 'BRANCH' starts with `^` it matches branch names by regular
expression patterns.  The
link:http://www.brics.dk/automaton/[dk.brics.automaton
library] is used for evaluation of such patterns.

[[topic]]
topic:'TOPIC'::
+
Changes whose designated topic at upload was 'TOPIC'.  This is
often combined with 'branch:' and 'project:' operators to select
all related changes in a series.
+
If 'TOPIC' starts with `^` it matches topic names by regular
expression patterns.  The
link:http://www.brics.dk/automaton/[dk.brics.automaton
library] is used for evaluation of such patterns.

[[ref]]
ref:'REF'::
+
Changes where the destination branch is exactly the given 'REF'
name.  Since 'REF' is absolute from the top of the repository it
must start with 'refs/'.
+
If 'REF' starts with `^` it matches reference names by regular
expression patterns.  The
link:http://www.brics.dk/automaton/[dk.brics.automaton
library] is used for evaluation of such patterns.

[[tr,bug]]
tr:'ID', bug:'ID'::
+
Search for changes whose commit message contains 'ID' and matches
one or more of the
link:config-gerrit.html#trackingid[trackingid sections]
in the server's configuration file.  This is typically used to
search for changes that fix a bug or defect by the issue tracking
system's issue identifier.

[[label]]
label:'VALUE'::
+
Matches changes where the approval score 'VALUE' has been set during
a review.  See <<labels,labels>> below for more detail on the format
of the argument.

[[message]]
message:'MESSAGE'::
+
Changes that match 'MESSAGE' arbitrary string in the commit message body.

[[file]]
file:^'REGEX'::
+
Matches any change where REGEX matches a file that was affected
by the change.  The regular expression pattern must start with
`^`.  For example, to match all XML files use `file:^.*\.xml$`.
The link:http://www.brics.dk/automaton/[dk.brics.automaton
library] is used for the evaluation of such patterns.
+
The `^` required at the beginning of the regular expression not only
denotes a regular expression, but it also has the usual meaning of
anchoring the match to the start of the string.  To match all Java
files, use `file:^.*\.java`.
+
The entire regular expression pattern, including the `^` character,
should be double quoted when using more complex construction (like
ones using a bracket expression). For example, to match all XML
files named like 'name1.xml', 'name2.xml', and 'name3.xml' use
`file:"^name[1-3].xml"`.
+
Currently this operator is only available on a watched project
and may not be used in the search bar. The same holds true for web UI
"My > Watched Changes", i. e. file:regex is used over the is:watched
expression. It never produces any results, because the error message:
"operator not permitted here: file:regex" is suppressed.

[[has]]
has:draft::
+
True if there is a draft comment saved by the current user.

has:star::
+
Same as 'is:starred', true if the change has been starred by the
current user.

[[is]]
is:starred::
+
Same as 'has:star', true if the change has been starred by the
current user.

is:watched::
+
True if this change matches one of the current user's watch filters,
and thus is likely to notify the user when it updates.

is:reviewed::
+
True if there is at least one non-zero score on the change, in any
approval category, by any user.

is:owner::
+
True on any change where the current user is the change owner.
Same as `owner:self`.

is:reviewer::
+
True on any change where the current user is a reviewer.
Same as `reviewer:self`.

is:open::
+
True if the change is either open or submitted, merge pending.

is:draft::
+
True if the change is a draft.

is:closed::
+
True if the change is either merged or abandoned.

is:submitted, is:merged, is:abandoned::
+
Same as <<status,status:'STATE'>>.

[[status]]
status:open::
+
True if the change state is either 'review in progress' or 'submitted,
merge pending'.

status:reviewed::
+
Same as 'is:reviewed', matches if there is at least one non-zero
score on the change, in any approval category, by any user.

status:submitted::
+
Change has been submitted, but is waiting for a dependency.

status:closed::
+
True if the change is either 'merged' or 'abandoned'.

status:merged::
+
Change has been merged into the branch.

status:abandoned::
+
Change has been abandoned.


Argument Quoting
----------------

Operator values that are not bare words (roughly A-Z, a-z, 0-9, @,
hypen, dot and underscore) must be quoted for the query parser.

Quoting is accepted as either double quotes
(e.g.  `message:"the value"`) or as matched
curly braces (e.g. `message:{the value}`).


Boolean Operators
-----------------

Unless otherwise specified, operators are joined using the `AND`
boolean operator, thereby restricting the search results.

Parentheses can be used to force a particular precendence on complex
operator expressions, otherwise OR has higher precendence than AND.

Negation
~~~~~~~~
Any operator can be negated by prefixing it with `-`, for example
`-is:starred` is the exact opposite of `is:starred` and will
therefore return changes that are *not* starred by the current user.

The operator `NOT` (in all caps) is a synonym.

AND
~~~
The boolean operator `AND` (in all caps) can be used to join two
other operators together.  This results in a restriction of the
results, returning only changes that match both operators.

OR
~~
The boolean operator `OR` (in all caps) can be used to find changes
that match either operator.  This increases the nubmer of results
that are returned, as more changes are considered.


[[labels]]
Labels
------
Label operators can be used to match approval scores given during
a code review.  The specific set of supported labels depends on
the server configuration, however `Code-Review` and `Verified`
are the default labels provided out of the box.

A label name is any of the following:

* The label name.  Example: `label:Code-Review`.

* The one or two character abbreviation shown in the column header
  of change list pages.  Example: `label:R` or `label:V`.

A label name must be followed by a score, or an operator and a score.
The easiest way to explain this is by example.

`label:Code-Review=2`::
`label:Code-Review=+2`::
`label:Code-Review+2`::
+
Matches changes where there is at least one +2 score for Code-Review.
The + prefix is optional for positive score values.  If the + is used,
the = operator is optional.

`label:Code-Review=-2`::
`label:Code-Review-2`::
+
Matches changes where there is at least one -2 score for Code-Review.
Because the negative sign is required, the = operator is optional.

`label:Code-Review=1`::
+
Matches changes where there is at least one +1 score for Code-Review.
Scores of +2 are not matched, even though they are higher.

`label:Code-Review>=1`::
+
Matches changes with either a +1, +2, or any higher score.

`label:Code-Review<=-1`::
+
Matches changes with either a -1, -2, or any lower score.

`is:open Code-Review+2 Verified+1 -Verified-1 -Code-Review-2`::
+
Matches changes that are ready to be submitted.

`is:open (Verified-1 OR Code-Review-2)`::
+
Changes that are blocked from submission due to a blocking score.


Magical Operators
-----------------

Most of these operators exist to support features of Gerrit Code
Review, and are not meant to be accessed by the average end-user.
However, they are recognized by the query parser, and may prove
useful in limited contexts to administrators or power-users.

visibleto:'USER-or-GROUP'::
+
Matches changes that are visible to 'USER' or to anyone who is a
member of 'GROUP'.  Here group names may be specified as either
an internal group name, or if LDAP is being used, an external LDAP
group name.  The value may be wrapped in double quotes to include
spaces or other special characters.  For example, to match an LDAP
group: `visibleto:"CN=Developers, DC=example, DC=com"`.
+
This operator may be useful to test access control rules, however a
change can only be matched if both the current user and the supplied
user or group can see it.  This is due to the implicit 'is:visible'
clause that is always added by the server.

is:visible::
+
Magical internal flag to prove the current user has access to read
the change.  This flag is always added to any query.

starredby:'USER'::
+
Matches changes that have been starred by 'USER'.
The special case `starredby:self` applies to the caller.

watchedby:'USER'::
+
Matches changes that 'USER' has configured watch filters for.
The special case `watchedby:self` applies to the caller.

draftby:'USER'::
+
Matches changes that 'USER' has left unpublished draft comments on.
Since the drafts are unpublished, it is not possible to see the
draft text, or even how many drafts there are. The special case
of `draftby:self` will find changes where the caller has created
a draft comment.

limit:'CNT'::
+
Limit the returned results to no more than 'CNT' records.  This is
automatically set to the page size configured in the current user's
preferences.  Including it in a web query may lead to unpredictable
results with regards to pagination.

resume_sortkey:'KEY'::
+
Positions the low level scan routine to start from 'KEY' and
continue through changes from this point.  This is most often used
for paginating result sets.  Including this in a web query may lead
to unpredictable results.

sortkey_after:'KEY', sortkey_before:'KEY'::
+
Restart the low level scan routine from 'KEY'.  This is automatically
set by the pagination system as the user navigates through results
of a query.  Including either value in a web query may lead to
unpredictable results.


GERRIT
------
Part of link:index.html[Gerrit Code Review]