"Include merge request description" or any custom merge commit message not working with Merge Trains enabled

Summary

In a configuration with "Enable merge trains and pipelines for merged results" the option "Include merge request description" does not add the description to the commit message.

Steps to reproduce

Setup a project with "Enable merge trains and pipelines for merged results", open a Merge Request and set "Include merge request description". See commit history.

Example Project

https://gitlab.com/till.steinbach/new-project/

What is the current bug behavior?

Commit message does not contain merge request description

What is the expected correct behavior?

Commit message should contain merge request description

Relevant logs and/or screenshots

Output of checks

This bug happens on GitLab.com

changed title from "Include merge request description" not working with Merge Trains enabled to "Include merge request description" or any custom merge commit message not working with Merge Trains enabled

We just found out that it is not about the "Include merge request description" option but any custom merge commit message

mentioned in issue gitlab-org/quality/triage-reports#290 (closed)

added Category:Code Review Workflow devopscreate groupsource code merge requests severity4 typebug labels

mentioned in issue #233318 (closed)

This bug was reported by a customer: https://gitlab.my.salesforce.com/0016100000aKcHO

added customer label

added priority3 severity3 labels

changed milestone to %Backlog

added [deprecated] Accepting merge requests label

added sectiondev label

Setting label(s) Category:Source Code Management based on groupsource code.

added Category:Source Code Management label

The Premium customer (ZD) running into this - mentions that because of this, they end up with rather meaningless merge commit messages that are not fixable in the future, and is asking if we could increase the priority of this.

/cc @phikai

@cat Thanks - we'll take a look and see what we can do. I've bumped the severity and priority as the workaround is really only to not use merge trains.

removed severity4 label

@m_gill I'm wondering if this is groupcode review or on the CI side where Merge Trains were implemented. WDYT?

@phikai this should stay with Code Review. FYI though, I just had a conversation this morning about areas like this. It is sometimes hard for PMs, and even EMs, to understand the divide between groups until an engineer determines what or where the problem is occurring. For example, in the case of this issue, we may begin investigating and determine that merge trains are not properly gathering the commit data, and then it would end up outside of Code Review. Hopefully there is a better solution to issues like this long-term.

added groupcode review label and removed Category:Source Code Management groupsource code labels

added priority2 severity2 labels and removed priority3 severity3 labels

added SLOMissed label

@phikai : If I understood it right you are the responsible PM. Can you give me an update for when this can be expected to be fixed? We really run into trouble to proof proper documentation (traceability) for a safety critical product as mandatory information does not find its way from the merge request into the merge commit. Thank you for your help!

mentioned in issue create-stage#12806 (closed)

mentioned in issue gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com#10503 (closed)

@marc_shaw would you investigate this issue for %13.11 planning please?

I believe this patch would be the way to fix this problem, but was having trouble getting a git lab runner set up locally to confirm.

I would say this is a high 2.

Sorry, I misunderstood the code - I need to continue the investigation.

I couldn't find the cause of this issue, I was having trouble setting up the merge train locally, and nothing in the code looks incorrect.

I would say this is a high 2, low 3 as it doesn't seem so straight forward

I ended up getting the merge train working locally

I would say this is a high 1, low 2. It looks like the issue is that the merge_request.merge_params is:

=> {"force_remove_source_branch"=>"1",
 "auto_merge_strategy"=>"merge_train",
 "should_remove_source_branch"=>true,
 "commit_message"=>"Merge branch 'root-master-patch-28951' into 'master'\n\nUpdate asdfadsfasdf\n\nSee merge request flightjs/flight!782",
 "sha"=>"333bc3a0843c4cf304721e245d2ce73365303c71"}

where as the code needs it to be a symbol, otherwise it uses the default message

We use the merge_params here: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/f8fe86e5ca84a28c90b1dd7a4311a2c82c267e9a/ee/app/services/merge_trains/refresh_merge_request_service.rb#L65

This calls the commit message function here: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/f8fe86e5ca84a28c90b1dd7a4311a2c82c267e9a/app/services/merge_requests/merge_service.rb#L93

And the commit message function is here: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/f8fe86e5ca84a28c90b1dd7a4311a2c82c267e9a/app/services/merge_requests/merge_base_service.rb#L58

assigned to @marc_shaw

added backend label

set weight to 2

unassigned @marc_shaw

assigned to @marc_shaw

removed weight

set weight to 2

mentioned in issue create-stage#12791 (closed)

changed milestone to %13.11

removed [deprecated] Accepting merge requests label

added Deliverable label

unassigned @marc_shaw

added workflowready for development label

added [deprecated] Accepting merge requests label

removed Deliverable label

This will not make the release due to prioritizing DB performance.

@m_gill I had a free 30 minutes between performance issues and didn't want to pick up a third, so I picked this up and created an MR for it while I see had the context from the investigation

"didn't want to pick up a third" as in I will once one of the others are finished, but three on going is a bit too much context switching :))

Merge request is merged: !57787 (merged)

It seems to have failed to deploy to production, but I checked on Staging and it worked fine.

I am going close this issue

@till.steinbach Should be working fine in the next release, or on .com today or tomorrow :))

@marc_shaw: thanks! Great that you found the time for a quick fix! Really appreciated!

changed milestone to %13.12

created merge request !57787 (merged) to address this issue

assigned to @marc_shaw

mentioned in merge request !57787 (merged)

added workflowin dev label and removed workflowready for development label

removed [deprecated] Accepting merge requests label

closed

changed milestone to %13.11

added Deliverable label

Completely unexpected that you were able to get to this @marc_shaw - thanks for the work!

mentioned in issue gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com#10501 (closed)

mentioned in issue create-stage#12839 (closed)

mentioned in issue gl-retrospectives/create-stage/code-review#9 (closed)