Issue closing pattern (FREE SELF)

NOTE: This is the administration documentation. There is a separate user documentation on issue closing pattern.

When a commit or merge request resolves one or more issues, it is possible to automatically close these issues when the commit or merge request lands in the project's default branch.

Change the issue closing pattern

The default issue closing pattern covers a wide range of words. You can change the pattern to suit your needs.

NOTE: You are advised to use https://rubular.com to test the issue closing pattern. However, since Rubular doesn't understand %{issue_ref}, you can replace this by #\d+ when testing your patterns, which matches only local issue references like #123.

To change the default issue closing pattern:

::Tabs

:::TabTitle Linux package (Omnibus)

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and change the gitlab_rails['gitlab_issue_closing_pattern'] value:
```
gitlab_rails['gitlab_issue_closing_pattern'] = /<regular_expression>/.source
```
Save the file and reconfigure GitLab:
```
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```

:::TabTitle Helm chart (Kubernetes)

Export the Helm values:

helm get values gitlab > gitlab_values.yaml

Edit gitlab_values.yaml and change the issueClosingPattern value:

global:
  appConfig:
    issueClosingPattern: "<regular_expression>"

Save the file and apply the new values:

helm upgrade -f gitlab_values.yaml gitlab gitlab/gitlab

:::TabTitle Docker

Edit docker-compose.yml and change the gitlab_rails['gitlab_issue_closing_pattern'] value:

version: "3.6"
services:
  gitlab:
    environment:
      GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
        gitlab_rails['gitlab_issue_closing_pattern'] = /<regular_expression>/.source

Save the file and restart GitLab:
```
docker compose up -d
```

:::TabTitle Self-compiled (source)

Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml and change the issue_closing_pattern value:

production: &base
  gitlab:
    issue_closing_pattern: "<regular_expression>"

Save the file and restart GitLab:

# For systems running systemd
sudo systemctl restart gitlab.target

# For systems running SysV init
sudo service gitlab restart

::EndTabs