Documentation on configuration is not clear

[mratwork-dev]

How are you running Renovate?

Self-hosted Renovate

If you're self-hosting Renovate, tell us which platform (GitHub, GitLab, etc) and which version of Renovate.

Bitbucket - 38.142.7

Please tell us more about your question or problem

I think I don't fully understand the documentation on how to configure Renovate correctly. I try to make clear where I have doubts how it works.

As for global config, I have the following configuration in config.js:

module.exports = {  
  platform: 'bitbucket',
  username: 'xxxxxx',  
  onboardingConfig: {
    extends: ['config:recommended'],
  },
  repositories: [
    'org/repo1',
    'org/repo2',
    { repository: 'org/repo3', bumpVersion: 'patch' },   
  ],
  // Configuration of authentication for Azure Devops Artifacts
  hostRules: [
    {   
      hostType: 'nuget',  
      matchHost: 'https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/org/',
      username: 'user', // doesn't matter for azure
      password: xxxxxxxxxx,
    },
    {   
      hostType: 'npm',  
      matchHost: 'https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/org/..../registry/', // for npm an exact url is needed
      username: 'user', // doesn't matter for azure
      password: process.env.AZURE_DEVOPS_PAT,
    }
  ],  
  packageRules: [
    {      
      // Configure Azure Devops Artifacts as a package source for nuget packages
      matchManagers: ['nuget'],      
      registryUrls: ['https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/org/.../v3/index.json']
    },  
    {      
      // Configure Azure Devops Artifacts as a package source for npm packages
      matchManagers: ['npm'],      
      registryUrls: ['https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/org/.../registry/']
    },    
    { 
      // For all nuget packages with a name like Org.*, wait 7 days before updating to a new version
      matchManagers: ['nuget'],
      matchPackageNames: ['Org.*'],      
      minimumReleaseAge: '7 days',      
    },
    {
      // Group all updates of Org.PackageXyz in a single PR
      matchManagers: ['nuget'], 
      matchPackageNames: ['Org.PackageXyz*'],
      groupName: 'Org.PackageXyz monorepo'
    },    
    // Disable major updates for all packages
    {
      matchUpdateTypes: ['major'],
      enabled: false
    },
  ],
  // Cache private packages during a Renovate run to improve performance
  cachePrivatePackages: true,
  // Default, wait 60 days before updating to a new version
  minimumReleaseAge: '60 days',   
  // Maximum number of PRs to have open per repository (note: security PR's will always be created)
  prConcurrentLimit: 3,
  // Maximum number of PRs to create per hour
  prHourlyLimit: 3,
  // Update pr branches when other changes are pushed to the main branch (base-branch)  
  rebaseWhen: 'behind-base-branch',
  // Don't use semantic commits
  semanticCommits: 'disabled',
};

Most repositories have the following config in renovate.json:

{
  "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
  "extends": [
    "config:recommended"
  ]
}

My goal is to disable major updates completely and for other updates, wait 7 days in case of packages produced by ourselves (Org.*) and 60 days for other packages.

To me it's from the documentation not clear if packageRules have precedence over configuration settings in the root (i.e. outside of packageRules) of the config. It seems so, because I have the impression that our internal packages are updated by Renovate after 7 days instead of having to wait 60 days, but from the documentation I could not confirm that to myself.

Perhaps having packageRules directly in the global config is not the approach that I should use, but I couldn't get that clear from the documentation as well.

Therefore I have the following question:

• Can you make clear what has higher precedence: Config in packageRules or config outside (and located below) the config in package rules

Logs (if relevant)

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[github-actions[bot]]

Hi there,

Please stick to one topic/question per Discussion. Start a new discussion per topic.

This prevents future users from finding this discussion and getting confused by multiple questions and answers. One question and answer per Discussion works best.

For example:

• Don't create a discussion with multiple questions requiring multiple answers
• If you got an answer to your first question, don't change topic like "Can I also ask you how I might..." which would then require a different answer. Mark the current discussion as answered and open a new one.

Thanks, the Renovate team

[mratwork-dev]

I updated the description to a single question. Will raise a new discussion for the other question.

[RahulGautamSingh]

Can you make clear what has higher precedence: Config in packageRules or config outside (and located below) the config in package rules

Can you make this clearer please?

[mratwork-dev]

Sure:

Have a look at the following parts of my configuration:

packageRules: [
   ...
    { 
      // For all nuget packages with a name like Org.*, wait 7 days before updating to a new version
      matchManagers: ['nuget'],
      matchPackageNames: ['Org.*'],      
      minimumReleaseAge: '7 days',      
    },
   ...
  ], 

  // Default, wait 60 days before updating to a new version
  minimumReleaseAge: '60 days',   

When I have a dependency with PackageName: Org.Xyz, what is the minimumReleaseAge that Renovate uses when deciding to create a PR or not.

Is it 7 days because the packageRule has higher precedence that the minimumReleaseAge setting that is outside the packageRule? (Answer A)
Or is it 60 days, because the minimumReleaseAge of 60 days is defined later in the config and as such, applies to each and every dependency? (Answer B)

And based on what documentation (please point me to the documentation page) is the answer A or B?

[mratwork-dev]

I think I just found part of the answer to my question.
In #19384, @rarkins wrote:

Package rules take precedence over non-package rules.

Still I could not find this information clearly in the documentation.