Notification when multiple programmers have retrieved same source member into different branches

[Peter John Lyons]

Hi,

We are using BitBucket Server, with RPG code.

We want to know how BitBucket can alert us if multiple programmers have retrieved the same source membr into different branches.

E.g Programmer 1 retrieves source member RPG001 int FT Branch #001 

Programmer 2 retrieves source member RPG001 into FT Branch #002

How does Programmer 2 know that Programmer 1 is working on a version of the source code RPG001 from the Master?

The danger is that changes to Master are overwritten because programmers are unaware of other changes in progress to the same source code.

The only excpetion to this is when the same line of code  is changed, BitBucket will report a conflict.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Best Regards,

Peter

[Ben]

Hi Peter,

Unfortunately - there is no such mechanism available as changes being made locally would not be detected by Bitbucket until the commit is pushed. Regardless, I have created a feature request on your behalf with our developers - please feel free to Watch this to receive future updates related to it and Vote for it to improve its visibility with regard to customer demand:

• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/BCLOUD-23711 

To receive notifications about commits, you can ensure that users watch the repository - further instructions related to notification management can be found below:

• Manage email notifications 

 Alternatively, I'd recommend using a branching strategy - so that users make their changes on their own branch, and PR's are used to merge these changes into the master branch once they are reviewed - this would prevent the issue you've described entirely:

• Bitbucket Cloud - Branch a Repository 
• Learn branching with Bitbucket Cloud 

Please let me know if you require further clarification/assistance with the above.

Cheers!

- Ben (Bitbucket Cloud Support)

[Peter John Lyons]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for your feedback and for raising the feature request.  Just for clarity, as we are just starting to experiment with BitBucket Server (not Cloud), the steps we take when making changes are: -

1. Create a Feature Branch e.g.  FT-20250519-001-ACCBAL
2. Edit a source file member from the Master Repository
3. Commit the changed file via Pull request
4. Merge Pull Request into Feature Branch  FT-20250519-001-ACCBAL
5. Once the Feature Branch is approved to be moved to Production, the branch is merged to the Repository Master 

So this is our current Branching Strategy.

Following your feedback, I've started Watching the repository however, in a department with 50+ programmers working simulateneously it will be interesting to see the volume of generated emails by turning on the Watch feature.

BitBucket Server <> IBM i Interface

An interface for the RPG code in BitBucket to the IBM i machines we use for program compilation, testing & Production systems is to be developed by our Change Management tool supplier Thenon.  

We are principally interested in BitBucket Server for the automated source file merging, because currently we perform this task manually, which is an overhead in a number of ways.

Our current Change Management tool alerts programmers when a source member is locked by another programmer and staff would like to see this feature in BitBucket Server.

I hope this helps clarify how we use the BitBucket Server tool currently.

Let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to your feedback.

Kind Regards,

Peter

[Ben]

Hi @Peter John Lyons 

My apologies - I misread your message and did not realise you were referring to Server (as the tags used for this post/deployment type are both cloud). I'm unable to provide assistance with server so I'll leave this question open to our community. I've changed the tags to server so that these show to server users.

Cheers!

- Ben (Bitbucket Cloud Support)

[Peter John Lyons]

Hi Ben,

OK thanks for this.  I look forward to hearing from the the BB Server community (is that a dedicated support team and/or only Server Users?).

Best Regards,

Peter

[Peter John Lyons]

Hi All,

FYI i discussed this topic with the team here with the following results: -

Hi, Bitbucket does not natively notify users when someone else modifies the same file they are working on unless a merge conflict occurs during a pull request or merge attempt - 

Here's a breakdown of what Bitbucket does and what options you might consider: What Bitbucket Does by Default Merge Conflict Detection: Bitbucket will alert you if there is a merge conflict when you try to merge a pull request. No Notification Without Conflict: If two users edit the same file but in different parts (so no conflict arises), Bitbucket will not notify the second user unless they manually check the commit history or diffs. Possible Workarounds Branch Protection and Pull Request Reviews: You can enforce pull request reviews and require approvals before merging. This way, reviewers might catch overlapping changes. Custom Repository Hooks: Developers can use git log, git blame, or Bitbucket's file history view to see who last modified a file.

Best Regards,

Peter