gitolite permissoins with branches and folders

Question

In gitolite I want the @developers to be able to push to any branch except for master.
I want user1 to be able to push to any bran

Answer 1

This should address both:

repo arepo
  RW          = @developer
  -  master$  = @developer

  RW                     = user1
  - master and VREF/NAME/adirectory = user1

The access rules and refex pages explain how /refs/head/master branch is denied for push for @developer.

The Virtual Refs 'NAME' allows you to deny push for a given directory or file.

The Drew Lesueur adds in the comments:

  - master VREF/NAME/adirectory = user1

It seems to not be doing an "and" condition but an "or" for us - master VREF/NAME/adirectory = user1
I ended up writing a custom VREF script for what I needed

I confirm that, in this case, only a custom VREF can match the OP's requirements, until gitolite 3.5 (and the introduction of 'and'): see sitaram (creator of gitolite)'s answer.