How should I handle a pull request in BitBucket which requires some tweaks?

Question

Someone has sent me a pull request on BitBucket. The change in question is submitted on the default branch. Before I merge it in, I'd like to make a couple of tweaks, but more importantly, I'd like to publish a preview build of this change, for the community to evaluate it and see if they're happy.

Ideally I would like to pull the change into the main repo, but put it on a branch. Make a couple of tweaks. Tag it like I would any other build, and publish. However, it doesn't seem like this is possible: if I understand correctly, the branch is "baked in" and I can't pull the change onto a different branch. Is this correct?

If so, what can I do instead? I could pull and then merge the second head into oblivion, while also creating a branch off the change I pulled. Or I could do the work on a fork, but this would mean that there will be no tag associated with this build in the main repo. Or should I do something else altogether?

P.S. The change itself is high quality and this is not about asking the original author to improve it.

Answer 1

Rather than using the Bitbucket 'accept pull request' just pull the changes into your local repo. You can use rebase to move the commit (or set of commits) on to a named branch. Then just push the changes you main bitbucket repo. (and possible reject the bibucket pull request with a comment saying the changes have been push to the main repo)

For example:

if you repo is: bitbucket/ProjectA/MainRepoForProjectA

and the pullrequest is from: bitbucket/someuser/MainRepoForProjectA

1. pull from bitbucket/someuser/MainRepoMainRepoForProjectA
2. rebase to newly pulled commits to named branch.
3. Make any extra changes you want to make.
4. push to bitbucket/ProjectA/MainRepoMainRepoForProjectA

Note: If you haven't used rebase before then:

1. Enable it in TortoiseHg File -> Settings -> Extensions
2. Update to the head of branch you want to move the the changes too.
3. Right click on the base of the changes you to move -> Modify History -> Rebase

Answer 2

This may be helpful:

http://www.electricmonk.nl/log/2014/03/31/test-a-pull-merge-request-before-accepting-on-bitbucket/

Basically, the link says to do the following:

• git fetch https://bitbucket.org/myrepository/master somename
• git checkout FETCH_HEAD
• inspect code and test to heart's content.
• (if code is accepted), git checkout master
• git merge FETCH_HEAD
• git push