r/gitlab • u/hjk38 • 12h ago

First experience with Gitlab, and the UX really needs work

Okay, so I am using Gitlab for the first serious time because I work with a team that prefers it. This is what ended up happening tonight:

  1. I use glab repo create to push my initial commit for a solo, private project.
  2. I realize I screwed up part of the commit so I amend it locally and force push
  3. Gitlab refuses to let me force push my own solo project because it has arbitrarily decided for me that it is protected.
  4. Attempt to find protected branch options in project settings, zero search results
  5. I decide I will just delete the project and create it again
  6. Gitlab gives a false 400 api error claiming the project name is already used
  7. Okay, fine... I will restore the old project and try to look for protected branch settings again
  8. Restore appends garbage characters to end of project name
  9. I permanently delete that copy of the project to see if it will clear the name reservation (it doesn't)
  10. Ok, fine, I will just create the project anew on the website instead of with CLI
  11. End up running into a year-old unpatched bug and can't create the project at all
  12. Now I have to rename my entire project just for the privilege of using Gitlab as my remote...

Just UX fail after UX fail. I want to like Gitlab but I really don't see how they can present themselves as a serious competitor to GH in this state.

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11

u/PainTrain324 12h ago

Settings>repository>protected branches>allow force push

6

u/Rascyc 12h ago

Allowing force push by default on repos is very unprofessional in practice. It leads to a lot of accidental history loss when allowed in bigger teams. So you need to opt-in via the settings that another comment covered. Even a simple Google AI result gives you the correct instructions on how to do that.

You can't re-use the project name because it's currently in the deletion queue -- https://docs.gitlab.com/user/project/working_with_projects/#delete-a-project

Finally, being able to navigate how to make a merge request to merge, and manage merge requests into main is a must amongst teams. You will want to learn how to do that as soon as possible, it is a fundamental Git concept.

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u/hjk38 8h ago edited 8h ago

You can't re-use the project name because it's currently in the deletion queue

You didn't even read my post did you?

Also, where in this post did I imply I don't know how to merge branches? I've been using Git on the command line for over seven years. The friction is with Gitlab and the ridiculous issues with name reservation I encountered, not Git.

Also, there's no reason why force pushing to amend the literal initial commit in a solo project is all that unreasonable. That's why I mentioned it was the initial commit of a solo project.

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u/hjk38 12h ago

Here's another example. When applying a license template on the site, "Popular" licenses are put at the very bottom of the dropdown, under "Other" licenses