Owner approval is based on OWNERS files located in the same repository and top of the merge-to branch of a patch set.
lines := (SPACE* line? SPACE* EOL)* line := comment | noparent | ownerEmail | "per-file" SPACE+ globs SPACE* "=" SPACE* owners | include projectFile include := "include" SPACE+ | "file:" SPACE* projectFile := (project SPACE* ":" SPACE*)? filePath comment := "#" ANYCHAR* noparent := "set" SPACE+ "noparent" ownerEmail := email | "*" owners := noparent | "file:" SPACE* projectFile | ownerEmail (SPACE* "," SPACE* ownerEmail)* globs := glob (SPACE* "," SPACE* glob)* glob := [a-zA-Z0-9_-*?.]+ email := [^ @]+@[^ #]+ project := a Gerrit project name without space or column character filePath := a file path name without space or column character ANYCHAR := any character but EOL EOL := end of line characters SPACE := any white space character
An OWNERS file can include another file with the include filePath or include project:filePath line. When the project: is not specified, the OWNERS file's project is used. The included file is given with the filePath.
If the filePath starts with “/”, it is an absolute path starting from the project root directory. Otherwise, the filePath is added a prefix of the current including file directory and then searched from the (given) project root directory.
The file: ... statement is similar to include ...
file: directive, the file: ... statement ignores the per-file ... and set noparent lines in the directly or indirectly included files. The include ... statement takes all statements in the directly included file.include ... statement is more general and should be used in new OWNERS files.file: <file> directive only includes files in the same repository. The syntax does not accept a “project path” like the include ... statement.file: <file> directive requires the include file to have a name with the ‘OWNERS’ substring, but include ... statement can include any file.Recursive inclusion (loop) is an error, which is detected and logged as a run-time error. The inclusion is then ignored.
Repeated inclusion (non-loop) is allowed but redundant. The effect is similar to duplicated statements in an OWNERS file.
An OWNERS file inherits rules in OWNERS files of parent directories by default, unless set noparent is specified. Note that when a file is included into other files, it does not inherit rules in its parent directory's OWNERS files.
A “glob” is UNIX globbing pathname without the directory path.
per-file globs = owners applies owners only to files matching any of the globs. Number of globs does not need to be equal to the number of ownerEmail in owners.
per-file globs = set noparent is like set noparent but applies only to files matching any of the globs. OWNERS files in parent directories are not considered for files matching those globs. Even default ownerEmails specified in the current OWNERS file are not included.
Without the per-file globs = set noparent, all non-per-file ownerEmails also apply to files matching those globs.
per-file globs = file: <projectFile> is equivalent to per-file globs = emails, where the emails are collected from top-level emails collected from file: <projectFile>.
The email addresses should belong to registered Gerrit users. A group mailing address can be used as long as it is associated to a Gerrit user account.
The * is a special ownerEmail meaning that any user can approve that directory or files.
# A comment starts with # to EOL; leading spaces are ignored. # Empty lines are ignored. set noparent # Do not inherit owners defined in parent directories. # By default, parent directories are searched upwardly, and all # found OWNERS files are included until a "set noparent" is found. include P1/P2:/core/OWNERS # include file core/OWNERS of project P1/P2 include ../base/OWNERS # include <this_owner_file_dir>/../base/OWNERS include /OWNERS # include OWNERS at root directory of this repository per-file *.c, *.cpp = x@g.com, y@g.com, z@g.com # x@, y@ and z@ are owners of all *.c or *.cpp files per-file *.c = c@g.com # c@, x@, y@ and z@ are owners of all *.c files per-file *.xml,README=*,x@g.com # in additional to x@g.com, anyone can be owner for *.xml and README files abc@g.com # one default owner xyz@g.com # another default owner # abc@ and xyz@ are owners for all files in this directory, # including *.c, *.cpp, *.xml, and README files per-file *.txt,*.java = set noparent per-file *.txt,*.java = jj@g.com # Only jj@g.com is the owner of *.txt and *.java files, # not even abc@g.com or xyz@g.com