Re: Updated Sourceware infrastructure plans

[Mark Wielaard <mark@klomp.org>]

Hi Jason,

On Wed, May 01, 2024 at 04:04:37PM -0400, Jason Merrill wrote:
> On 5/1/24 12:15, Jeff Law wrote:
> >We're currently using patchwork to track patches tagged with
> >RISC-V.  We don't do much review with patchwork.  In that model
> >patchwork ultimately just adds overhead as I'm constantly trying
> >to figure out what patches have been integrated vs what are still
> >outstanding.
> >
> >Patchwork definitely isn't the answer IMHO.  Nor is gitlab MRs
> >which we use heavily internally.  But boy I want to get away from
> >email and to a pull request kind of flow.
> 
> Do you (or others) have any thoughts about GitLab FOSS?

The gitlab "community edition" still feels not very much "community".
We could run our own instance, but it will still be "open core" with
features missing to try to draw you towards the proprietary hosted
saas version. Also it seems to have way too much overhead. The focus
is clearly corporate developers where managers want assurances the
mandatory "pipelines" are executed and "workflows" followed exactly.

For now I am cleaning up Sergio's gerrit setup and upgrading it to the
latest version, so people can at least try it out. Although I must
admit that I seem to be the only Sourcewware PLC member that believes
this is very useful use of our resources. Even the biggest proponents
of gerrit seem to believe no project will actually adopt it. And on
irc there were some people really critical of the effort. It seems you
either love or really hate gerrit...

But the part that interests me most is the self-registration part that
Sergio setup. I believe we will need that for whatever system we end
up with to make it as easy to contribute as it is with email.
https://blog.sergiodj.net/posts/installing-gerrit-and-keycloak/

My personal favorite, if we really want a full "forge" would be
sourcehut. We already have mirrors of all projects at
https://sr.ht/~sourceware/ and there is a kind of sample "workflow"
(turning a "pull request" into an email thread) at
https://gnu.wildebeest.org/~mark/fsf-sourceware/presentation.html#slide18

At the moment though the only thing people seem to agree on is that
any system will be based on git. So the plan for now is to first setup
a larger git(olite) system so that every contributor (also those who
don't currently have commit access) can easily "post" their git
repo. This can then hopefully integrate with the systems we already
have setup (triggering builder CI, flag/match with patchwork/emails,
etc.) or any future "pull request" like system.

Cheers,

Mark