What is the difference between a Pull request and a Merge request?
In GitHub, it's a Pull Request while in GitLab, for example, it's a Merge Request. So, is there a difference between both of these?
6 Answers
1001
votes
GitLab's "merge request" feature is equivalent to GitHub's "pull request" feature. Both are means of pulling changes from another branch or fork into your branch and merging the changes with your existing code. They are useful tools for code review and change management.
An article from GitLab discusses the differences in naming the feature:
Merge or pull requests are created in a git management application and ask an assigned person to merge two branches. Tools such as GitHub and Bitbucket choose the name pull request since the first manual action would be to pull the feature branch. Tools such as GitLab and Gitorious choose the name merge request since that is the final action that is requested of the assignee. In this article we'll refer to them as merge requests.
A "merge request" should not be confused with the git merge command. Neither should a "pull request" be confused with the git pull command. Both git commands are used behind the scenes in both pull requests and merge requests, but a merge/pull request refers to a much broader topic than just these two commands.
73
votes
They are the same feature
Merge or pull requests are created in a git management application and ask an assigned person to merge two branches. Tools such as GitHub and Bitbucket choose the name pull request since the first manual action would be to pull the feature branch. Tools such as GitLab and Gitorious choose the name merge request since that is the final action that is requested of the assignee. In this article we’ll refer to them as merge requests.
63
votes
In my point of view, they mean the same activity but from different perspectives:
Think about that, Alice makes some commits on repository A, which was forked from Bob's repository B.
When Alice wants to "merge" her changes into B, she actually wants Bob to "pull" these changes from A.
Therefore, from Alice's point of view, it is a "merge request", while Bob views it as a "pull request".
9
votes
There is a subtle difference in terms of conflict management. In case of conflicts, a pull request in Github will result in a merge commit on the destination branch. In Gitlab, when a conflict is found, the modifications made will be on a merge commit on the source branch.
See https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/resolve_conflicts.html
"GitLab resolves conflicts by creating a merge commit in the source branch that is not automatically merged into the target branch. This allows the merge commit to be reviewed and tested before the changes are merged, preventing unintended changes entering the target branch without review or breaking the build."
2
votes
As mentioned in previous answers, both serve almost same purpose. Personally I like git rebase and merge request (as in gitlab). It takes burden off of the reviewer/maintainer, making sure that while adding merge request, the feature branch includes all of the latest commits done on main branch after feature branch is created. Here is a very useful article explaining rebase in detail: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Branching-Rebasing
2
votes
GitLab 12.1 (July 2019) introduces a difference:
"Merge Requests for Confidential Issues"
When discussing, planning and resolving confidential issues, such as security vulnerabilities, it can be particularly challenging for open source projects to remain efficient since the Git repository is public.
As of 12.1, it is now possible for confidential issues in a public project to be resolved within a streamlined workflow using the Create confidential merge request button, which helps you create a merge request in a private fork of the project.
See "Confidential issues" from issue 58583.
A similar feature exists in GitHub, but involves the creation of a special private fork, called "maintainer security advisory".
GitLab 13.5 (Oct. 2020) will add reviewers, which was already available for GitHub before.
