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[RFC 0156] No Direct Nixpkgs Pushes #156

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[RFC 0156] No Direct Nixpkgs Pushes #156

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---
feature: no-direct-pushes
start-date: 2023-07-21
author: Silvan Mosberger
co-authors: (find a buddy later to help out with the RFC)
shepherd-team: (names, to be nominated and accepted by RFC steering committee)
shepherd-leader: (name to be appointed by RFC steering committee)
related-issues: (will contain links to implementation PRs)
---

# Summary
[summary]: #summary

Require pull requests for all Nixpkgs commits.

# Motivation
[motivation]: #motivation

There are currently 197 people with commit access to Nixpkgs, all of whom can push directly to any branch without a pull request.
Such pushes generally[^1] do not notify anybody and do not trigger CI.

[^1]: There's no GitHub mechanism that takes care of notifying other people and there's no builtin way to get notified for new commits linked to [the direct push issue](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/118661), but third-party tooling could be implemented to get notified explicitly for direct pushes

This makes such commits susceptible to:
- Be anonymous[^2]
- Include malicious code
- Be broken
- Have poor code quality

[^2]: GitHub does not require committers to match the pushing GitHub account, [here's](https://github.com/infinisil/github-test/commit/0553a1afe8ee38d45ef38c7055a7b6c3ee08f3d3) an example.

While requiring pull requests isn't a panacea, it does help by:
- Running CI (though there's no requirement for it to succeed, see [future work][future])
- Requesting reviews from [Nixpkgs maintainers](https://github.com/NixOS/rfcs/pull/39) via CI
- Requesting reviews from [code owners](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/managing-your-repositorys-settings-and-features/customizing-your-repository/about-code-owners)
- Tying commits to a GitHub account
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- Being discoverable in the pull request list using various filterable and sortable metadata such as (manually and [automatically](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/e0d40b94732d0a077ea8e409d394bcd36750584e/.github/labeler.yml) assigned) [labels](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/labels), update time, authors, reviews, etc.


# Detailed design
[design]: #detailed-design

Turn on GitHub's "Require a pull request before merging" [branch protection rule](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/configuring-branches-and-merges-in-your-repository/managing-protected-branches/managing-a-branch-protection-rule#creating-a-branch-protection-rule) for all branches whose commits get propagated into channels.
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@7c6f434c 7c6f434c Jul 28, 2023 •
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Suggested change
Turn on GitHub's "Require a pull request before merging" [branch protection rule](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/configuring-branches-and-merges-in-your-repository/managing-protected-branches/managing-a-branch-protection-rule#creating-a-branch-protection-rule) for all branches whose commits get propagated into channels.
Require the changes from committers to go through the same technical process as external contributions for all branches whose commits get propagated into channels.
In our current situation, turn on GitHub's "Require a pull request before merging" [branch protection rule](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/configuring-branches-and-merges-in-your-repository/managing-protected-branches/managing-a-branch-protection-rule#creating-a-branch-protection-rule).

(I think this improves the situation from the point of view of separating we is the generic change and what is the GitHub implementation, @amjoseph-nixpkgs was rightfully complaining about the intermixing)

This includes:
- `master`: Used for unstable channels and branched into new release branches
- `release-*`: Used for stable channels

Staging branches are intentionally not included, because they will already require a pull request when they inevitably need to get merged into one of the above branches.
The same applies to similar long-term branches like `haskell-packages`.
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Suggested change
The same applies to similar long-term branches like `haskell-packages`.
The same applies to similar long-term branches like `haskell-updates`.


A NixOS GitHub organization owner needs to implement this change and should therefore review this proposal.

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## Disable the direct push detection workflow

There is a [GitHub Actions workflow to detect directly pushed commits](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/0b411c1e040870e89a3e598437e708979137b665/.github/workflows/direct-push.yml).
When detected, it creates a comment in the commit pointing out that this is discouraged and linking to [this issue](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/118661), where it's easy to see all direct pushes.
The script occasionally has false positives[^3], which creates some unnecessary commit comment notifications.

[^3]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/240314

With this proposal accepted it won't be possible to directly push commits anymore, making that workflow unnecessary.
It can be removed and the above two issues can be closed.

# Examples and Interactions
[examples-and-interactions]: #examples-and-interactions

## Direct pushes listing

Out of the 112217 commits to master in the last year[^4], _at most_ 58 (0.0517%) of them were direct pushes.

[^4]: Unix epoch 1658361600 to 1689897600

To determine whether a commit was pushed directly, the GitHub API was queried for pull requests associated with that commit (see [`associatedPullRequests`](https://docs.github.com/en/graphql/reference/objects#commit)).
If this list includes a merged pull request to the Nixpkgs master branch, the commit is known to be merged with a pull request.
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I would add a remark here that GitHub does allow merging PRs via a direct push of a clean-merge commit. (I cannot figure out from the documentation if it allows pushing an unclean merge, which would be an issue if we took «malicious code» part seriously)

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Will test this

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I think if there are any merge conflicts, then the merge commit may contain arbitrary changes in order to fix that commit. Not sure if this is prevented on PRs with merge conflicts or if this could be prevented.

Otherwise the commit could be directly pushed or be a false positives, which is why the above count is only an upper bound.
All obvious false positives ([example](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/b09d18903c24b8aca88100df86aa2fdd5f05dfcd)) have been removed from this count and listing already.
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Actually, have you kept count how many obvious false positives you had to remove? To estimate how many non-obvious false positives we probably have remaining…

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There were 79 obvious false positive, which after another look are all from seemingly buggy merges using GitHub's web interface. Here's a complete listing:

Complete listing of false positives

Though I don't think this needs to be part of the RFC because it doesn't change any arguments.

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Well, if you just add 79 to show that clear false positives are more numerours than «maybe, who knows», it does strengthen the argument about rarity of true directy pushes and their removal changing nothing at all.

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Hmm I don't think it matters though, it's all just caused by imperfect ways to get at the right data (my script and GitHub bugs in this case). These false positives have no influence on any arguments and in fact only distract from the main point. In fact I should just "fix" my script to not count any commits from @web-flow at all, then I don't need to mention this at all because there aren't any false positives anymore.

Note that these false positives in my script are completely unrelated to the false positives in the automatic notifications in NixOS/nixpkgs#118661, which do have an impact because they annoy people.

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@7c6f434c 7c6f434c Jul 23, 2023 •
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The false positives are relevant for two reasons.

  1. We know that what this RFC seeks to forbid is rare, but we don't even know if it ever happens at all nowadays.
  2. We do not have a real option to allow but closely watch and check after the fact if the case was exceptional, because no amount of waiting before asking GitHub will give you good data. «Allow-but-monitor» could be listed as an a priori plausible alternative by the way (with these false positives explaining why it doesn't work).

ETA: also comparison of web-flow and non-web-flow «positives» now and a few years ago tells us that most of the 5% back then were true positives unless GitHub has dramatically changed the bug occurence ratio between cases without fixing the (better defined) webflow case.

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Suggested change
All obvious false positives ([example](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/b09d18903c24b8aca88100df86aa2fdd5f05dfcd)) have been removed from this count and listing already.
All 79 obvious false positives ([example](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/b09d18903c24b8aca88100df86aa2fdd5f05dfcd)) have been removed from this count and listing already.


<details>
<summary>Complete listing of the 58 potentially directly pushed commits in the last year</summary>

- [`1ce07adbe05e`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/1ce07adbe05e36146e6c47dcad4bff1178b8c572) [@trofi](https://github.com/trofi) - mutt: use more ubiquitous "eee-" placeholder instead of one-off <<NIX>>
- [`205ee073b053`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/205ee073b053fc4d87d5adf2ebd44ebbef7bca4d) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - Revert "texlive.combine: expose licensing information of combined packages"
- [`789271b2c8a4`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/789271b2c8a4cc01398316c211b0d597cde8324d) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - python3Packages.hickle: fixed failing unit tests
- [`69867f9de40f`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/69867f9de40f0d24276eeaf957b36a34541214fe) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - transmission: drop myself from .meta.maintainers
- [`82082e931fd7`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/82082e931fd7199c929fb7901aac05e54cd1e18c) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - vtm: avoid using an alias
- [`62d347770a26`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/62d347770a26663db3332d3a04c5084f6a71dd9d) [@ehmry](https://github.com/ehmry) - nimPackages.eris: wontfix darwin
- [`e2ccc3dd9f4d`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/e2ccc3dd9f4da160bacf7da8d294b353678d2ce8) [@ehmry](https://github.com/ehmry) - cjdns: mark broken for aarch64
- [`2c28f1de7cdc`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/2c28f1de7cdc10be556d2106108411dd2482794b) [@RaitoBezarius](https://github.com/RaitoBezarius) - 23.11 is Tapir
- [`8607b80c8560`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/8607b80c85600c2ad439a8a198ff812b15d01c0c) [@sternenseemann](https://github.com/sternenseemann) - haskellPackages.memfd: mark supported on linux only
- [`d925734d3bb7`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/d925734d3bb7f12924e6016cd33222684b5435f5) [@ehmry](https://github.com/ehmry) - Nim: add meta.mainProgram
- [`6c43a3495a11`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/6c43a3495a11e261e5f41e5d7eda2d71dae1b2fe) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - linux\_6\_1: fixup evaluation without aliases
- [`fa8367c2d507`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/fa8367c2d50781f3e49ed424ea61af0c77615069) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - linux\_6\_1: rebuild on x86\_64-linux
- [`e25dc4a95ed6`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/e25dc4a95ed69f37ce443b8fcad00fb9337e6eed) [@jtojnar](https://github.com/jtojnar) - nixos/nginx: Fix listen string generation
- [`331e2a1c1075`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/331e2a1c1075d4c3f2660da9210ee54ba93d7bda) [@bjornfor](https://github.com/bjornfor) - prometheus-smokeping-prober: cleanup version
- [`fe2ecaf706a5`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/fe2ecaf706a5907b5e54d979fbde4924d84b65fc) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - rocm-thunk: evaluate even on unsupported platforms again
- [`7486a74d9f5c`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/7486a74d9f5c3581c2db0e186d4763ff3a4ae782) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - lisp-modules: avoid the replaced pkgs.webkitgtk\_5\_0
- [`1010c17591db`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/1010c17591db2553d4954cc6a143169604f150e4) [@web-flow](https://github.com/web-flow) - python3Packages.tensorflow: remove @jyp from `meta.maintainers`
- [`5a8991c6b34f`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/5a8991c6b34fc62793f3996cb4614595d5d13a6c) [@ulrikstrid](https://github.com/ulrikstrid) - Fix dune-configurator
- [`972b0fa87ffc`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/972b0fa87ffc622a690461a43c1608bef5b776ee) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - xdp-tools: fix hash of the patch
- [`477de8d913e6`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/477de8d913e6e9b10ba1bb8c405002cada95e832) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - olive-editor: don't use the alias openimageio2
- [`26f55176e776`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/26f55176e77696556658c04f2167db02f401d6b5) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - Revert #222072: "directx-shader-compiler: remove workaround"
- [`006c8313427e`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/006c8313427efae41c59b76a9263c6cd27d0c985) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - volk: fix eval without allowed aliases
- [`53fcb2e5859b`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/53fcb2e5859bfe7b8e88a405c242599efdfa215d) [@jtojnar](https://github.com/jtojnar) - liblouis: 3.24.0 → 3.25.0
- [`7b6e7dd796f8`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/7b6e7dd796f8fe17f673b7434e9366f2f7dbd67e) [@prusnak](https://github.com/prusnak) - electron-bin: move print-hashes.sh script
- [`0724cd4e4cf4`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/0724cd4e4cf44a926a594858f4cbec8967113721) [@dotlambda](https://github.com/dotlambda) - python310Packages.nextcord: 2.3.3 -> 2.4.0
- [`427d0b71b6f7`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/427d0b71b6f788769320391cb779f6387d1ecd9c) [@roberth](https://github.com/roberth) - protonup-qt: Fix CI
- [`91bf862e3c5c`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/91bf862e3c5c67b69797e9740a41e611f674a5a5) [@web-flow](https://github.com/web-flow) - arrow-cpp: fix meta.broken
- [`8030c64577a7`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/8030c64577a7973d07537e2bb446c14ccedaa14c) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - Revert Merge #214786: libvmaf: fix build for BSD
- [`a0acf943cc65`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/a0acf943cc65d56e6708c6a63731473a5752dedb) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - python3Packages.zipfile36: fixup meta
- [`9abbbc5979d7`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/9abbbc5979d7ddff0e479737460e725fb33f1b50) [@peterhoeg](https://github.com/peterhoeg) - nixos/plasma5: add tool needed for kinfocenter
- [`f265af55c584`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/f265af55c584fe7786e35e3dbd15de28c0d74c3a) [@peterhoeg](https://github.com/peterhoeg) - kinfocenter: add a bunch of tools for additional info
- [`880161efe12c`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/880161efe12c0b27e41fd1a45bb74a20c2877021) [@bennofs](https://github.com/bennofs) - Revert "burpsuite: 2021.12 -> 2022.12.7"
- [`8d45d82c71b9`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/8d45d82c71b91872e853f0bce3ed69993508ec5e) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - Revert "nixos/tests/installer: test relative paths in initrd secrets"
- [`9089ee1796b8`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/9089ee1796b8d331d6ddfcb077e8ab0a9fea0288) [@peterhoeg](https://github.com/peterhoeg) - {libsForQt5.kpmcore,partition-manager}: * -> 22.12.1
- [`c73f29c723c2`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/c73f29c723c2dce97e8789c6cf96b36a1b158176) [@Mindavi](https://github.com/Mindavi) - classicube: move runHook postInstall
- [`235799128bfc`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/235799128bfccb6048f36a86e9d32545efca0372) [@Mindavi](https://github.com/Mindavi) - classicube: use makeDesktopItem
- [`52519fd12e63`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/52519fd12e639abdc4dbc8e054f73d68c923a505) [@Mindavi](https://github.com/Mindavi) - classicube: add .desktop file
- [`2c4b97d6a0eb`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/2c4b97d6a0eb6beead204afd4e67c63ea1ad06a0) [@zowoq](https://github.com/zowoq) - Revert "luaPackages.lsqlite3complete: init at 0.9.5-1"
- [`5be120bac3d3`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/5be120bac3d30631cd903010b20fbc80a5d81eba) [@bobby285271](https://github.com/bobby285271) - kubernetes-controller-tools: 0.10.0 -> 0.11.1
- [`5c52e8cbcb32`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/5c52e8cbcb32cfb13d3697ced2991a966a4fe4e3) Yt \<happysalada@proton.me\> - libsForQt5.mauikit-calendar: init at 1.0.0
- [`b660c76d0fbd`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/b660c76d0fbd26dd8735dff51bf4d4df9eda9c91) Yt \<happysalada@proton.me\> - cask-server: init at 0.5.6
- [`21e0f7502b31`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/21e0f7502b315de9cb798a6ac4c71629bd27218a) Yt \<happysalada@proton.me\> - libsForQt5.maui-core: init at 0.5.6
- [`58d84f7f0fb6`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/58d84f7f0fb6a079a5370c384fd6055640ca9fa9) Yt \<happysalada@proton.me\> - maui-shell: init at 0.5.6
- [`3c6d63d22ca8`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/3c6d63d22ca8b57adc4120f7c1ea5262925c8c2d) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - rtw89-firmware: fixup build after rtw89 update
- [`92b4f173803f`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/92b4f173803f65531e066321934e7d1ee7eb5090) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - tennix: avoid URL literal
- [`42a68e6a36b8`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/42a68e6a36b8d7fd7f0cec5ef3b2f0ca6693a5e6) [@jtojnar](https://github.com/jtojnar) - bundlerUpdateScript: Fix evaluation with `allowAliases = false`
- [`6184f635b3c3`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/6184f635b3c3d2794821bb31c04a4e7a99ee0fdb) [@maralorn](https://github.com/maralorn) - nixos/doc: Fix typo in 22.11 release manual
- [`cdad0ce127b0`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/cdad0ce127b0b32ae8c5c07233f44dd63a85661a) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - nixos/filesystems: fix a typo in docs
- [`b68bd2ee5205`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/b68bd2ee52051aaf983a268494cb4fc6c485b646) [@mweinelt](https://github.com/mweinelt) - 23.05 is Stoat
- [`df109d0291d3`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/df109d0291d376e8edae58abd524bd219c65c1da) [@bobby285271](https://github.com/bobby285271) - go-graft: 0.2.14 -> 0.2.15
- [`9971f569a937`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/9971f569a93799dd2dc917d54f7bbf96ec296360) [@bobby285271](https://github.com/bobby285271) - goeland: 0.12.1 -> 0.12.3
- [`54be84c3ac01`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/54be84c3ac0122c2b2272fc68a9015304bc0bb73) [@teto](https://github.com/teto) - pass2csv: 0.3.2 -> 1.0.0
- [`636051e35346`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/636051e353461f073ac55d5d42c1ed062a345046) [@vcunat](https://github.com/vcunat) - linux: avoid NO\_HZ\_FULL on i686-linux
- [`0ab12ad0af7d`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/0ab12ad0af7d8a706cc2035339673ba8a54dd202) [@flokli](https://github.com/flokli) - borgbackup: remove myself from maintainers
- [`9e4c57c08966`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/9e4c57c08966ebd794a15437446c4d1cf30ac213) [@jtojnar](https://github.com/jtojnar) - sublime4-dev: 4136 → 4137
- [`738fe494da28`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/738fe494da28777ddeb2612c70a5dc909958df4b) [@shlevy](https://github.com/shlevy) - Merge branch 'nix-plugins-10'
- [`ad41e043760e`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/ad41e043760ed1da3d8c957b3bf168bdfc9bd9e2) [@jonringer](https://github.com/jonringer) - python310Packages.moto: disable failing tests after werkzeug update
- [`d6d2d6c6d7fc`](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/d6d2d6c6d7fcd5b71e97b9ee5f25c72f30eb9127) [@mweinelt](https://github.com/mweinelt) - python3Packages.twisted: skip failing tests on aarch64-darwin

> **Note**
> This was generated with a fairly hacky and non-reusable script, but it can relatively easily be verified probabilistically by picking a random commit in the time range and checking if it belongs to a pull request, repeat to increase confidence.

</details>

## Emergency changes

Sometimes channels have blocking breakages and need to be fixed as soon as possible (citation needed).
Currently this can be done with direct pushes, but a pull request will be required with this proposal.
The time required to fix such breakages however is barely affected: Since there is currently no requirement for pull requests to be approved or pass CI, they can get merged immediately after opening if necessary.
Comment on lines +145 to +149
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@sternenseemann See this section. Pull requests don't need to pass CI before they can be merged. So if you would have committed directly before, you now just need to open a PR and merge it immediately, no need to wait for CI. (That's of course not a great workflow, but that's kind of the point of this RFC, making these things more discoverable)

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Yes, but my point still stands. If we are to force this workflow, it should also have benefits for the change author thelmselves—i.e. working CI. Everything else is just frustrating.

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The current proposal only affects about 0.05% of commits, has effectively zero downsides, and can be implemented in 1 minute, making me fairly confident that we can get this accepted quickly.

While better CI would be nice, it would expand the scope to also affect the other 99.95% of commits, involve more tradeoffs and take much longer to design and implement. I'd rather split this into a separate RFC for the future. Let's take small improvements where we can.

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As you say, this change affects very little and doesn't change anything about the fact that we need to trust commiters. If they are fixing a typo in the manual, a PR gives them the benefit of confirmation that they did not accidentally wreck the manual build—all we are doing is forcing them to appreciate this benefit. This is not the case in the case of an eval failure on master.

If we are to make PRs mandatory in every case, we should also make PR CI useful in every case.

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Yeah we probably should, but this doesn't have to creep into the scope of this RFC. PR's are useful whether CI passes or not. If you have a concrete plan on how to improve CI, feel free to open a separate RFC, it's entirely orthogonal.

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Well, PR CI is useful for you, PR discoverability is useful for everyone else—hopefully our commiters are Kantians and not frustrated by this…


## Staging workflow

The staging workflow is not affected because it [already uses pull requests](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/241951) for all merges into the affected branches.
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That's not entirely true. Yes, the manual merge into staging-next is done with PR. However, there is also a workflow that automatically merges between master, staging and staging-next. And, as merge conflicts are a thing, these are often resolved with direct pushes.

Regarding the workflow for automatic merges. Can that still be kept? I am thinking here about a potential next step, commit signing.

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Is conflict resolution using direct pushes to staging/staging-next, or also to master?

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Is conflict resolution using direct pushes to staging/staging-next, or also to master?

Right, I see now that staging* is excluded. Generally speaking staging-next to master can be resolved by merging master into staging-next first.

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Yes, the manual merge into staging-next is done with PR.

I'm pretty sure the initial merge from staging into staging-next is done manually. We only use a PR from staging-next into master.

Is conflict resolution using direct pushes to staging/staging-next, or also to master?

Yes, merge conflict resolution is usually done with direct pushes to staging-next.

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We only use a PR from staging-next into master.

Right, I meant that one!

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Suggested change
The staging workflow is not affected because it [already uses pull requests](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/241951) for all merges into the affected branches.
The staging workflow is not affected because it [already uses pull requests](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/241951) for all merges into the affected branches, and the staging branches themselves are not protected.

Or any other wording to help resolve the ambiguity at first read.


# Drawbacks
[drawbacks]: #drawbacks

- Even trivial changes that don't need a review now require a pull request, which takes more effort and creates noise for reviewers.
- It takes slightly longer to push a quick fix in emergency situations.

# Alternatives
[alternatives]: #alternatives

- It would be possible to implement a third-party interface to de-anonymize future commits (even if pushed directly to master) using the [push event GitHub webhook](https://docs.github.com/en/webhooks-and-events/webhooks/webhook-events-and-payloads#push), which includes the `sender` field to match the pushing GitHub user.
- This would not solve the other problems with direct pushes though: It still wouldn't notify others, trigger CI or be discoverable.
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Notifications seem feasible to add if such a thing is implemented; however, I expect GitHub to lose some events on their side just as they lose PR metadata for web flow false positives (which is why the count is relevant there)


# Prior art
[prior-art]: #prior-art

The previous [RFC 79](https://github.com/NixOS/rfcs/pull/79) attempted to do the same, but:
- It had a mistaken estimate for the percentage of direct master commits, calculating it to be 46.85% in the last year.
The mistake was assuming that all non-merge commits were direct pushes.
This made it seem like the change was much more impactful than it actually would've been.
- It was too ambitious by also proposing to require accepting reviews for all pull requests.
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@7c6f434c 7c6f434c Jul 22, 2023 •
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I think another important point is that in the years since #79 the discussions lead to various workflows to migrate gradually away from direct pushes. The old RFC proposed a step change unaligned with then-current practice (also it wanted reviews but whatever), the new RFC proposes to finalise a process transition that has had time to be almost completely implemented in practice.

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It takes a bit of time, but I can also check how many commits were directly pushed to master back then, I wouldn't be surprised if it was already very low.

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@7c6f434c 7c6f434c Jul 22, 2023 •
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It was pretty low for sure, but noticeably higher — and the updates to staging workflows in the meantime probably matter.

Ah, maybe I can put it like that: back then, there were some true positives in the direct push tracking action — comparable amounts to false positives, nowadays this doesn't seem to happen at all.

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@asymmetric asymmetric Jul 22, 2023 •
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@7c6f434c are you saying that customs changed between #79 and now? (If so I would be curious why). Or was there something else that makes the change more palatable now than it was back then? (other than the review requirement)

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Back then, the majority of changes already went through a PR at some point on their way to the main branch. For the exceptions, there were a few years of advertising specific changes to the specific workflows while talking up the virtues of ofBorg eval check until everyone either agrees or is nagged into compliance; apparently after all the workflow work the strong arguments for direct pushes to the channel-feeding branches are resolved.

This is the difference between «now» and «the current RFC transplanted back in time with the data re-processed according to the moment of submission». «RFC 79, try again» would hopefully fail again, because of the other demands it also had.

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@infinisil infinisil Jul 23, 2023 •
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I got the results, out of a total 50457 master commits in the last year at RFC 79 start time 1, at most 2682 of them (5.315%) were direct pushes to master, complete listing here (not counting the 153 obvious false positives from @web-flow, see #156 (comment)).

So while it was still about 10 times less than the original estimate in the RFC (46.85%), it was 100 times more than now (0.0517%)! I will update the RFC with this information.

Footnotes

  1. Unix epoch 1569369600 to 1600992000 ↩


# Unresolved questions
[unresolved]: #unresolved-questions

# Future work
[future]: #future-work
More restrictions could be implemented in the future:
- Require all pull requests to have at least one approval, therefore preventing people from merging their own pull requests (it's not possible to approve your own pull request)
- Require an approval by a code owner, properly establishing code ownership over all parts of Nixpkgs
- Require CI to pass, maybe using GitHub's new [merge queue's](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/configuring-branches-and-merges-in-your-repository/configuring-pull-request-merges/managing-a-merge-queue)
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