1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
|
---
stage: none
group: unassigned
info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
type: reference, index
description: 'Read through the GitLab User documentation to learn how to use, configure, and customize GitLab and GitLab.com to your own needs.'
---
# User Docs **(FREE)**
Welcome to GitLab! We're glad to have you here!
As a GitLab user you have access to all the features
your [subscription](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/)
includes, except [GitLab administrator](../administration/index.md)
settings, unless you have administrator privileges to install, configure,
and upgrade your GitLab instance.
Administrator privileges for [GitLab.com](https://gitlab.com/) are restricted to the GitLab team.
For more information on configuring GitLab self-managed instances, see the [Administrator documentation](../administration/index.md).
## Overview
GitLab is a fully integrated software development platform that enables your team to be transparent, fast, effective, and cohesive from discussion on a new idea to production, all on the same platform.
For more information, see [All GitLab Features](https://about.gitlab.com/features/).
### Concepts
To get familiar with the concepts needed to develop code on GitLab, read the following articles:
- [Demo: Mastering Code Review With GitLab](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2017/03/17/demo-mastering-code-review-with-gitlab/).
- [What is GitLab Flow?](https://about.gitlab.com/topics/version-control/what-is-gitlab-flow/).
- [Tutorial: It's all connected in GitLab](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2016/03/08/gitlab-tutorial-its-all-connected/): an overview on code collaboration with GitLab.
- [Trends in Version Control Land: Microservices](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2016/08/16/trends-in-version-control-land-microservices/).
- [Trends in Version Control Land: Innersourcing](https://about.gitlab.com/topics/version-control/what-is-innersource/).
## Use cases
GitLab is a Git-based platform that integrates a great number of essential tools for software development and deployment, and project management:
- Hosting code in repositories with version control.
- Tracking proposals for new implementations, bug reports, and feedback with a
fully featured [Issue tracker](project/issues/index.md).
- Organizing and prioritizing with [issue boards](project/issue_board.md).
- Reviewing code in [merge requests](project/merge_requests/index.md) with live-preview changes per
branch with [Review Apps](../ci/review_apps/index.md).
- Building, testing, and deploying with built-in [Continuous Integration](../ci/index.md).
- View the current health and status of each CI environment running on Kubernetes with [deploy boards](project/deploy_boards.md).
- Leverage continuous delivery method with [Canary Deployments](project/canary_deployments.md).
- Deploying personal and professional static websites with [GitLab Pages](project/pages/index.md).
- Integrating with Docker by using [GitLab Container Registry](packages/container_registry/index.md).
- Tracking the development lifecycle by using [GitLab Value Stream Analytics](analytics/value_stream_analytics.md).
- Provide support with [Service Desk](project/service_desk.md).
- [Export issues as CSV](project/issues/csv_export.md).
With GitLab Enterprise Edition, you can also:
- Improve collaboration with:
- [Merge request approvals](project/merge_requests/approvals/index.md).
- [Multiple Assignees for Issues](project/issues/multiple_assignees_for_issues.md).
- [Multiple issue boards](project/issue_board.md#multiple-issue-boards).
- Create formal relationships between issues with [linked issues](project/issues/related_issues.md).
- Use [Burndown Charts](project/milestones/burndown_and_burnup_charts.md) to track progress during a sprint or while working on a new version of their software.
- Leverage [Elasticsearch](../integration/elasticsearch.md) with [Advanced Search](search/advanced_search.md) for faster, more advanced code search across your entire GitLab instance.
- [Authenticate users with Kerberos](../integration/kerberos.md).
- [Mirror a repository](project/repository/mirror/index.md) from elsewhere on your local server.
- View your entire CI/CD pipeline involving more than one project with [Multiple-Project Pipelines](../ci/pipelines/multi_project_pipelines.md).
- [Lock files](project/file_lock.md) to prevent conflicts.
- Scan your code for vulnerabilities and [display them in merge requests](application_security/sast/index.md).
You can also [integrate](project/integrations/overview.md) GitLab with numerous third-party applications, such as Mattermost, Microsoft Teams, Trello, Slack, Bamboo CI, Jira, and a lot more.
## User types
There are several types of users in GitLab:
- Regular users.
- [Internal users](../development/internal_users.md) often referred to as bot or system users.
- [Auditor](permissions.md#auditor-users) with read access to self-managed instances.
- [GitLab Administrator](../administration/index.md) with full access to
self-managed instances including settings and the [Admin Area](admin_area/index.md).
Each user can be a member in a [group](group/index.md).
See the [permissions page](permissions.md) for details on how each user type is used.
## User activity
GitLab tracks user contribution activity.
You can follow or unfollow other users from their [user profiles](profile/index.md#access-your-user-profile).
To view a user's activity in a top-level Activity view:
1. From a user's profile, select **Follow**.
1. In the GitLab menu, select **Activity**.
1. Select the **Followed users** tab.
### User contribution events
Each of these contribution events is tracked:
- `approved`
- Merge request
- `closed`
- [Epic](group/epics/index.md)
- Issue
- Merge request
- Milestone
- `commented` on any `Noteable` record.
- Alert
- Commit
- Design
- Issue
- Merge request
- Snippet
- `created`
- Design
- [Epic](group/epics/index.md)
- Issue
- Merge request
- Milestone
- Project
- Wiki page
- `destroyed`
- Design
- Milestone
- Wiki page
- `expired`
- Project membership
- `joined`
- Project membership
- `left`
- Project membership
- `merged`
- Merge request
- `pushed` commits to (or deleted commits from) a repository, individually or in bulk.
- Project
- `reopened`
- [Epic](group/epics/index.md)
- Issue
- Merge request
- Milestone
- `updated`
- Design
- Wiki page
## Projects
In GitLab, you can create [projects](project/index.md) to host
your code, track issues, collaborate on code, and continuously
build, test, and deploy your app with built-in GitLab CI/CD. Or, you can do
it all at once, from one single project.
- [Repositories](project/repository/index.md): Host your codebase in
repositories with version control and as part of a fully integrated platform.
- [Issues](project/issues/index.md): Explore the best of GitLab Issues' features.
- [Merge requests](project/merge_requests/index.md): Collaborate on code,
reviews, live preview changes per branch, and request approvals with merge requests.
- [Milestones](project/milestones/index.md): Work on multiple issues and merge
requests towards the same target date with Milestones.
## Account
There is a lot you can customize and configure to enjoy the best of GitLab.
- [Settings](profile/index.md): Manage your user settings to change your personal information,
personal access tokens, authorized applications, etc.
- [Authentication](../topics/authentication/index.md): Read through the authentication
methods available in GitLab.
- [Permissions](permissions.md): Learn the different set of permissions levels for each
user type (guest, reporter, developer, maintainer, owner).
- [Feature highlight](feature_highlight.md): Learn more about the little blue dots
around the app that explain certain features.
- [Abuse reports](report_abuse.md): Report abuse from users to GitLab administrators.
## Groups
With GitLab [Groups](group/index.md) you can assemble related projects together
and grant members access to several projects at once.
Groups can also be nested in [subgroups](group/subgroups/index.md).
## Discussions
In GitLab, you can comment and mention collaborators in issues,
merge requests, code snippets, and commits.
When performing inline reviews to implementations
to your codebase through merge requests you can
gather feedback through [resolvable threads](discussions/index.md#resolve-a-thread).
### GitLab Flavored Markdown (GFM)
Read through the [GFM documentation](markdown.md) to learn how to apply
the best of GitLab Flavored Markdown in your threads, comments,
issues and merge requests descriptions, and everywhere else GFM is
supported.
## To-Do List
Never forget to reply to your collaborators. [GitLab To-Do List](todos.md)
is a tool for working faster and more effectively with your team,
by listing all user or group mentions, as well as issues and merge
requests you're assigned to.
## Search
[Search and filter](search/index.md) through groups, projects, issues, merge requests, files, code, and more.
## Snippets
[Snippets](snippets.md) are code blocks that you want to store in GitLab, from which
you have quick access to. You can also gather feedback on them through [Discussions](#discussions).
## GitLab CI/CD
Use built-in [GitLab CI/CD](../ci/index.md) to test, build, and deploy your applications
directly from GitLab. No third-party integrations needed.
## Features behind feature flags
Understand what [features behind feature flags](feature_flags.md) mean.
## Keyboard shortcuts
There are many [keyboard shortcuts](shortcuts.md) in GitLab to help you navigate between
pages and accomplish tasks faster.
## Integrations
[Integrate GitLab](../integration/index.md) with your preferred tool, such as Trello, Jira, etc.
## Webhooks
Configure [webhooks](project/integrations/webhooks.md) to listen for
specific events like pushes, issues or merge requests. GitLab sends a
POST request with data to the webhook URL.
## API
Automate GitLab via [API](../api/index.md).
## Git and GitLab
Learn what is [Git](../topics/git/index.md) and its best practices.
## Instance-level analytics
See [various statistics](admin_area/analytics/index.md) of your GitLab instance.
## Operations Dashboard
See [Operations Dashboard](operations_dashboard/index.md) for a summary of each project's operational health.
|
