What is Gerrit?

Gerrit is an open source code review tool that was name after a dutch software designer Gerrit Rietveld (1888–1964). Gerrit is actually a fork of Rietveld, another review tool.

Gerrit has been designed to integrated nicely with the GIT code archiving system and the two are often used together. When a designer has a patch that they want to submit for review they push it to the GIT repository with a command that looks like:

git push origin HEAD:refs/for/master/topic

The Gerrit system will intercept the patch and display it as available for review on the Gerrit web interface. The designer is then able to select  any number of reviewers to review and or approve the change. Reviewers have the ability to approve with a +1 or to submit with a +2. Patches must have a +2 vote to be committed to the GIT master branch.

If a reviewer assigns the patch a -1, it can still be submitted by another reviewer. If the reviewer assigns the patch a -2, the patch cannot be submitted until that reviewer removes the -2.

Gerrit provides an integrated side-by-side viewing ability that makes it easy for the reviewer to see the changes associated with the patch. Gerrit also provides a built in rebase and cherry pick functionality that helps avoid merge conflicts.

Gerrit is a great way to insure that your code base maintains a consistent quality level, but it also provides a great learning tool for both new designers and designers that are new to the project. For more information on Gerrit visit:

http://code.google.com/p/gerrit/

For the Gerrit installation guide, visit:

http://gerrit.googlecode.com/svn/documentation/2.0/install.html

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