New controls in the popular code-sharing site are designed to deal with ‘drive-by‘ pull request approvals and ‘spammy’ change requests.
GitHub has added code review restrictions and improved mobile notifications for users of its popular Git-based version control system and code-sharing site. Among the goals of the code review limits is an attempt to address “drive-by” pull request approvals and spammy change requests.
Maintainers now can limit who can approve and request changes on pull requests. At the repository level, a maintainer can limit approvals and changes to only users who have been explicitly granted read or higher access. Maintainers also can enable code review limits across all repositories associated with their use or organization account.
To enable code review limits for a repository, maintainers can go to the repo’s Settings page and select Moderation Settings from the left menu. Then click “Code review limits” and check the box under “Limit to users explicitly granted read or higher access.”
To address the same problems in the GitHub mobile app, users now can easily close the spammy issue and block the requester from an organization right from the developer’s smartphone.
The two new features are among several “quality-of-life improvements” for open source communities that GitHub has delivered this year, the company said. Others include:
- Issue forms, a beta capability to create issue templates with form fields, including required fields, to make issues more actionable.
- GitHub Discussions, providing a space for developers to converse and help each other.
- GitHub Sponsors, allowing companies and developers to invest in projects they depend on, to help make open source more sustainable.
