Gentoo Archives: gentoo-project

From: Alec Warner <antarus@g.o>
To: gentoo-project@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-project] utilizing GH functionality that Gentoo infra does not provide
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2022 19:29:41
Message-Id: CAAr7Pr-y7eQpWKBUhDOBT8wYreJ7cXwp1u-VBeHTGue_UHsnhw@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: [gentoo-project] utilizing GH functionality that Gentoo infra does not provide by Mike Frysinger
1 On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 10:56 AM Mike Frysinger <vapier@g.o> wrote:
2 >
3 > starting a dedicated thread for
4 > https://archives.gentoo.org/gentoo-project/message/ec2b560480627371a7bda5c85924eddd
5 >
6 > GH provides a lot of functionality for free that Gentoo infra does not cover.
7 > these are particularly useful for projects that are used beyond Gentoo.
8
9 GH is non-free, and so in the spirit of the social contract, I do not
10 believe it should be used. Arguably it shouldn't be used now, but we
11 have not stood up an alternative. The alternative is currently in
12 alpha (see notes below.)
13
14 >
15 > * release management (e.g. distfiles hosting)
16
17 I agree this is a gap.
18
19 > * CI runs (e.g. GH actions)
20
21 We have CI but it's mostly not self-service and the primary issue on
22 the infra-side is always resources / people. I agree we should aim for
23 something more accessible.
24
25 > * Projects for task management
26
27 I'm not sure what this is (I haven't used it.) We use bugzilla for
28 task management (issues) and mailing lists (for discussion.) I'm not
29 sure github issues are "better" but they do have some advantages; I've
30 gotten complaints about bugzilla, particularly on mobile. Plus you
31 cannot reply to bugs easily via email.
32
33 For the time being the gitlab alpha does not intend to move issues out
34 of bugzilla; nor use gitlab for discussions; aside from discussions on
35 PRs (which will be on gitlab.)
36
37 > * possibly even Discussions since it'll provide a clear/scoped space for
38 > non-Gentoo users & devs. Gentoo forums are huge and require custom accts,
39 > and mailing lists are huge and a bit restrictive old timey.
40
41 We have an SSO solution (sso.gentoo.org) that we are rolling out for
42 developers, and our gitlab (in alpha testing) will support external
43 account providers (probably google, gitlab, github accounts.)
44
45 I'm honestly unsure how to receive feedback like "mailing lists are a
46 bit restrictive old timey". What does that mean?
47
48 - It's hard to know which list to email.
49 - I often have to subscribe to the list to post.
50 - Hard to have pretty content in an email.
51
52 >
53 > this is all orthogonal to the git content itself (objects, branches, tags,
54 > etc...). those should remain in the read-only clobber mode that exists now.
55 >
56 > there is no downside for Gentoo here. it's all functionality that can be
57 > had for free, does not introduce any risks, and many devs are already using
58 > GH heavily for Gentoo projects -- albeit, they don't do it under the Gentoo
59 > umbrella, they fork it into their own personal space and maintain it there.
60 > we shouldn't be forcing devs & projects away from Gentoo for such basic
61 > functionality.
62 > -mike
63
64 I think you present a 'free lunch' here and I'll just say "there is no
65 such thing as a free lunch." The downside is that we present Gentoo as
66 an open distro that doesn't depend on proprietary software, but is
67 developed using Github, a proprietary solution that provides all this
68 cool functionality that we don't have implemented in house. In general
69 that's not a sustainable approach. I get that we make tradeoffs
70 (firmware, drivers, being an obvious place where compromises are
71 made.) I'm not sure I'm willing to support this one.
72
73 I will tell you I have an alpha version of gitlab up, and I'm looking
74 for repos to mirror there. If you are satisfied with gitlab as the
75 platform to provide the features you want I'm happy to set up some
76 time to get your repos on gitlab; collect requirements, and figure out
77 what we need to deliver in our gitlab to host your repos (and
78 eventually all the Gentoo repos.)
79
80 Find me on signal or in #gentoo-gitlab on irc.libera.chat.
81
82 -A

Replies