branch name with same prefix will have same access control in gitolite

Question

I wrote gitolite.conf file:

repo Lib
   RW+     = git
   RW  dev = fabby
   RW  develop = fabby
   RW  dev_tele = fabby

1. fabby can not only make changes on dev, develop and dev_tele,
2. but can also on branches with dev prefix like dev1, dev_1, devdd or dev_drv...
3. fabby can not make changes on branches with dev postfix like mdev

so how can I edit gitolite.conf file, and make fabby only have write access control on branch dev, develop and dev_tele?

Answer 1

According to the documentation, this is how "refexes" are treated:

Note 2: refex matching:

(refex = optional regex to match the ref being pushed)

• an empty refex is treated as 'refs/.*'
• a refex that does not start with 'refs/' is prefixed with 'refs/heads/'
• finally, a '^' is prefixed
• the ref being pushed is matched against this resulting refex

Since "refexes" are regular expressions, and the system automatically prefixes them with ^refs/heads/, this explains your experience. (In regular expressions, the ^ character is an anchor to match the beginning of a line.)

Adding a $ to the end of your branches should anchor the end as well, giving you the results you want:

repo Lib
   RW+     = git
   RW  dev$ = fabby
   RW  develop$ = fabby
   RW  dev_tele$ = fabby

This will cause Gitolite to see, e.g., ^refs/heads/dev$, which should match your dev branch name exactly.