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---
stage: none
group: Documentation Guidelines
info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
description: Learn how to contribute to GitLab Documentation.
---
<!---
The clean_redirects Rake task in the gitlab-docs repository manually
excludes this file. If the line containing remove_date is moved to a new
document, update the Rake task with the new location.
https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/blob/1979f985708d64558bb487fbe9ed5273729c01b7/Rakefile#L306
--->
# Redirects in GitLab documentation
When you move, rename, or delete a page, you must add a redirect. Redirects reduce
how often users get 404s when visiting the documentation site from out-of-date links, like:
- Bookmarks
- Links from external sites
- Links from old blog posts
- Links in the documentation site global navigation
Add a redirect to ensure:
- Users see the new page and can update or delete their bookmark.
- External sites can update their links, especially sites that have automation that
checks for redirected links.
- The documentation site global navigation does not link to a missing page.
The links in the global navigation are already tested in the `gitlab-docs` project.
If the redirect is missing, the `gitlab-docs` project's `main` branch might break.
Be sure to assign a technical writer to any merge request that moves, renames, or deletes a page.
Technical Writers can help with any questions and can review your change.
There are two types of redirects:
- [Redirect added into the documentation files themselves](#add-a-redirect), for users who
view the docs in `/help` on self-managed instances. For example,
[`/help` on GitLab.com](https://gitlab.com/help). These must be added in the same
MR that renames or moves a doc. Redirects to internal pages expire after three months
and redirects to external pages (starting with `https:`) expire after a year.
- [GitLab Pages redirects](../../user/project/pages/redirects.md), which are added
automatically after redirect files expire. They must not be manually added by
contributors and expire after nine months. Redirects pointing to external sites
are not added to the GitLab Pages redirects.
Expired redirect files are removed from the documentation projects by the
[`clean_redirects` Rake task](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/blob/main/doc/raketasks.md#clean-up-redirects),
as part of the Technical Writing team's [monthly tasks](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/technical-writing/-/blob/main/.gitlab/issue_templates/tw-monthly-tasks.md).
## Add a redirect
NOTE:
If the renamed page is new, you can sometimes skip the following steps and ask a
Technical Writer to manually add the redirect to [`redirects.yaml`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/blob/main/content/_data/redirects.yaml).
For example, if you add a new page and then rename it before it's added to a release
on the 18th. The old page is not in any version's `/help` section, so a technical writer
can jump straight to the [Pages redirect](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/blob/main/doc/maintenance.md#pages-redirects).
To add a redirect:
1. In the repository (`gitlab`, `gitlab-runner`, `omnibus-gitlab`, or `charts`),
create a new documentation file. Don't delete the old one. The easiest
way is to copy it. For example:
```shell
cp doc/user/search/old_file.md doc/api/new_file.md
```
1. Add the redirect code to the old documentation file by running the
following Rake task. The first argument is the path of the old file,
and the second argument is the path of the new file:
- To redirect to a page in the same project, use relative paths and
the `.md` extension. Both old and new paths start from the same location.
In the following example, both paths are relative to `doc/`:
```shell
bundle exec rake "gitlab:docs:redirect[doc/user/search/old_file.md, doc/api/new_file.md]"
```
- To redirect to a page in a different project or site, use the full URL (with `https://`) :
```shell
bundle exec rake "gitlab:docs:redirect[doc/user/search/old_file.md, https://example.com]"
```
- Alternatively, you can omit the arguments and be prompted to enter the values:
```shell
bundle exec rake gitlab:docs:redirect
```
If you don't want to use the Rake task, you can use the following template:
```markdown
---
redirect_to: '../newpath/to/file/index.md'
remove_date: 'YYYY-MM-DD'
---
This document was moved to [another location](../path/to/file/index.md).
<!-- This redirect file can be deleted after <YYYY-MM-DD>. -->
<!-- Redirects that point to other docs in the same project expire in three months. -->
<!-- Redirects that point to docs in a different project or site (for example, link is not relative and starts with `https:`) expire in one year. -->
<!-- Before deletion, see: https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/documentation/redirects.html -->
```
- Replace both instances of `../newpath/to/file/index.md` with the new file path.
- Replace `YYYY-MM-DD` with the expiry date, as explained in the template.
1. If the documentation page being moved has any Disqus comments, follow the steps
described in [Redirections for pages with Disqus comments](#redirections-for-pages-with-disqus-comments).
1. Open a merge request with your changes. If a documentation page
you're removing includes images that aren't used
with any other documentation pages, be sure to use your merge request to delete
those images from the repository.
1. Assign the merge request to a technical writer for review and merge.
1. Search for links to the old documentation file. You must find and update all
links that point to the old documentation file:
- In <https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com>, search for full URLs:
`grep -r "docs.gitlab.com/ee/path/to/file.html" .`
- In <https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/tree/master/content/_data>,
search the navigation bar configuration files for the path with `.html`:
`grep -r "path/to/file.html" .`
- In any of the four internal projects, search for links in the docs
and codebase. Search for all variations, including full URL and just the path.
For example, go to the root directory of the `gitlab` project and run:
```shell
grep -r "docs.gitlab.com/ee/path/to/file.html" .
grep -r "path/to/file.html" .
grep -r "path/to/file.md" .
grep -r "path/to/file" .
```
You may need to try variations of relative links, such as `../path/to/file` or
`../file` to find every case.
## Redirections for pages with Disqus comments
If the documentation page being relocated already has Disqus comments,
we need to preserve the Disqus thread.
Disqus uses an identifier per page, and for <https://docs.gitlab.com>, the page identifier
is configured to be the page URL. Therefore, when we change the document location,
we need to preserve the old URL as the same Disqus identifier.
To do that, add to the front matter the variable `disqus_identifier`,
using the old URL as value. For example, let's say we moved the document
available under `https://docs.gitlab.com/my-old-location/README.html` to a new location,
`https://docs.gitlab.com/my-new-location/index.html`.
Into the **new document** front matter, we add the following information. You must
include the filename in the `disqus_identifier` URL, even if it's `index.html` or `README.html`.
```yaml
---
disqus_identifier: 'https://docs.gitlab.com/my-old-location/README.html'
---
```
|
