title: How to use a Gitlab Merge Request to finish a release/hotfix branch using Gitflow?
body: <p>So our company is using <a href="https://files.programster.org/tutorials/git/flows/git-flow.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Gitflow</a>. Can't currently change that. I have looked into <a href="https://files.programster.org/tutorials/git/flows/github-flow.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">github-flow</a> and <a href="https://files.programster.org/tutorials/git/flows/gitlab-flow.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">gitlab-flow</a>, but we can't currently move to a different model.</p>
  
  <p>When finishing a <em>hotfix</em> or <em>release branch</em>, right now we don't use merge requests, but manually use gitflow to locally merge the branches into master/dev/release.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a supposed way of finishing a branch using <em>merge requests</em> in <em>Gitlab</em>? We'd like to go protect the master and dev branches from pushes. It's just safer to let gitlab handle the actual merging. </p>
  
  <p>I'd've opened an issue on gitlab directly, but I'm not actually sure where. </p>
  
  <p>Edit: I also thought about making two Merge Requests in Gitlab, but that can't be the way either.</p>