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" SPACE+ (project SPACE* ":" SPACE*)? filePath comment := "#" ANYCHAR* noparent := "set" SPACE+ "noparent" ownerEmail := email | "*" owners := noparent | 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.
An OWNERS file inherit rules in OWNERS files of parent directories by default, unless set noparent is specified.
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 considrered 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 global ownerEmails also apply to files matching those globs.
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