How to update a pull request description when pushing updates

[Deleted user]

When you create a pull request, the description is constructed from the Git commit message.  However, this description is not updated when either the user force pushes updates to the PR or appends new commits to the PR.

What is the correct workflow to get around this?

[Caroline R]

Hi, @[deleted], welcome to the community! 

This is actually expected, the description isn't dynamic. Bitbucket just auto-suggests that description based on the commit log/commit messages but it's ultimately just a suggestion. 

Once the PR is created, the only way to adjust it is to interact with the PR itself directly. No pushes or git operations will alter the description. 

I hope this clarifies the situation, but please let me know if you have any questions. 

Kind regards, 
Caroline 

[Deleted user]

@Caroline R 

And how do you get the PR description to at least be the full commit message?  It seems to cut it off when you merge meaning you have none of the information in the original commit passed through?

There seem to be a number of bugs.  If I have a commit message such as:

feat: JIRA: message

Header
 - bullet points
 - bullet points

AnotherHeader
 - bullet points
 - bullet points

then the PR description seems to munge the formatting such that I lose my bullet points:

feat: JIRA: message

Header - bullet point - bullet point

AnotherHeader - bullet point -bullet point

then when the actual squash merge hits master, it looks like bitbucket can't be bothered saving the full description and cuts it off:

Merged in <branch> (pull request #num)

feat: JIRA: message

* feat: JIRA: message

Header - bullet point - bullet...

Note the repetition of the first line of the commit message and the three "..." showing that it's cropping the message.  About as useful as a chocolate tea pot.

Any way round this or is there a way of using Gerrit or something that works?

[Caroline R]

Hi, @[deleted]. 

Thanks for the additional information. Allow me to reply to each of your questions directly and feel free to share any further questions or concerns about the information we will share with you. 

There seem to be a number of bugs.  If I have a commit message such as […]

then the PR description seems to munge the formatting such that I lose my bullet points […]

This happens because the PR description renders text as Markdown, which requires two spaces at the end of the previous line to create a new line. In this case, I suggest that you add the two spaces for new lines in the commit message: 

feat: JIRA: message  
  
Header. 
 - bullet points  
 - bullet points  
  
AnotherHeader  
 - bullet points  
 - bullet points  

then when the actual squash merge hits master, it looks like bitbucket can't be bothered saving the full description and cuts it off […]

Note the repetition of the first line of the commit message and the three "..." showing that it's cropping the message.  About as useful as a chocolate tea pot. 

I tested using Squash as the merge strategy and I can see that, if you go to the Commits tab, you will see a part of the commit message, as you described:

 

However, if you open the commit, you will be able to see the full message: 

Could you please confirm if this is what you are referring to? 

Kind regards,
Caroline

[Deleted user]

@Caroline R 

Thanks for the reply. I'll have a look at the markdown issue and see if I can get it to work.

On the commit message truncation issue, what I'm saying is that the final message is also truncated.  Yes, the Commits view of the repo shows truncated messages to fit a summary into one line, but I'm also seeing the full message being truncated.

It looks like there is perhaps a character limit as I've just seen a commit that has been truncated twice:

Header
 - bullet point
 - long bullet point with description of issue that is trunc...

AnotherHeader
 - bullet point
 - another long bullet point again truc..

 Edit: I've just created a test repo to try some thing out and yes, I can indeed format my message such that the pull request description reads correctly, but when the merge hits master, the formatting is dropped and you're left with a mess.

Just as an FYI, what I want is the full commit message history from the pull request merged into master.  I want to be able to create a changelog from the git history but currently Bitbucket truncates it all so it's useless.  Also, given we are deleting our development branches, there's no way to get back by even browsing through the web interface. 

[Caroline R]

Hi, @[deleted], 

Could you please confirm if this is about the Squash commit message or the PR description? 

Since we haven’t been able to reproduce this behavior, we have two options:

• You can reproduce this in a test public repo under your workspace, so we can see it (but without deleting the source branch when you merge, so we can see the commit messages of the source branch and how you get truncated, and without any private information) 

• Alternatively, I see you have access to a paid plan, so we can create a ticket for you or you can create a ticket through this link:

  • https://support.atlassian.com/contact/

In the support ticket, you can give a URL that displays the issue, but again I would ask that you do not close the source branch upon merge, so we can check (you can always close it later). 

Kind regards,
Caroline

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[Deleted user]

@Caroline R 

Hi again,

the main issue is with the squashed commit message which is truncated.  There is a secondary issue with the fact that the formatting is lost while going through the PR process.  So I think there are two bugs here.

It looks like this issue has been encountered by others:  https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/BSERV-5198

Here's a public repo: https://bitbucket.org/shareefjalloqidex/bitbucket_testing/src/master/

[Caroline R]

Hi, @[deleted], 

Thank you so much for sharing this repository with us, I was able to reproduce this behavior. Since the bug you mentioned is for Bitbucket server, I created a new bug request for Bitbucket cloud as you can check here: 

• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/BCLOUD-21795 

Our development team will post an update on the bug report when this is fixed. If you are not familiar with our Bug Request Policy, you can read more about it here. 

You can add yourself as a watcher (by selecting the Start watching this issue link in the bug report) if you'd like to get notified via email on any updates and also select the This affects my team link to indicate you are affected by this issue. 

Kind regards, 
Caroline