Re: This project should move to github/gitlab

[Franz Flasch]

Hi Marc!


Thanks for participating in this discussion. I fully respect all the
efforts being done within the GNU project to create a rich ecosystem of
free software.

Personally I always use the GPL(v3) license for all of my own projects.
So of course I understand the principles behind the GNU project.

Still I think that the whole GNU project would benefit if moved to a
hosting platform like github or gitlab. A simple official mirror where
pull requests can be sent would be sufficient. So the main location can
still be Savannah.

I just think this way a lot more (especially younger) developers could
be reached and encouraged to contribute.


Anyway, thanks for the tip to ask for co-maintainership.


Regards,
Franz


On 2/15/22 15:09, Marc Nieper-Wißkirchen wrote:
> The problem is not primarily where the project is hosted; GNU Savannah
> works very well for a lot of successful projects; the problem is, as
> it seems, a project maintainer who has been not as active as would
> have been healthy for this project.
>
> While some may not care whether a project is hosted on Github or not,
> others may do and we should respect them as well. The guidelines of
> the GNU project are less questionable than responsible for why we have
> such a rich ecosystem of free software nowadays.
>
> In any case, I'd suggest - if the current maintainer remains silent -
> to contact the GNU project and ask for a possible co-maintainership or
> replacement. Forking this project on Github or somewhere else should
> be the last resort.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Marc
>
> Am Di., 15. Feb. 2022 um 14:38 Uhr schrieb Franz Flasch <franz.flasch@gmx.at>:
> > It got merged! So it seems there are actually people maintaining this.
> >
> > However, I'm still not convinced that is really an official place to
> > contribute to. It looks official, but I am not really sure about that.
> >
> > Also I saw that according to GNU github.com should not be used:
> > https://www.gnu.org/software/repo-criteria-evaluation.html
> >
> > But honestly, I would not care about that, I really like GNU, but I
> > surely don't follow all of their guidelines.
> >
> > IMHO it's better to have place where (new, young) developers can
> > contribute to than having a dying SW just because of questionable
> > guidelines.
> >
> >
> > Anyway, how can we find out if this is official? If not, I would prefer
> > to host our own fork on github.
> >
> >
> > Seems we are the only ones caring about GNU Lightning currently, as the
> > mailing list also does not seem to be very active...
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> > Franz
> >
> >
> > On 2/14/22 13:22, Paul Cercueil wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > There is already this repository:
> > > https://github.com/gitGNU/gnu_lightning
> > >
> > > This looks like the right place. However I don't know who manages this
> > > repository.
> > >
> > > It is very outdated, so I created a PR to sync it to the latest master:
> > > https://github.com/gitGNU/gnu_lightning/pull/1.
> > >
> > > This way we'll also see if there are people actually maintaining this
> > > repo.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > -Paul
> > >
> > >
> > > Le ven., févr. 4 2022 at 23:16:57 +0100, Franz Flasch
> > > <franz.flasch@gmx.at> a écrit :
> > > > Hi Paul!
> > > >
> > > > I totally agree. I started using GNU lightning just recently and I think
> > > > it is great. I think moving it to github/gitlab could breathe life into
> > > > lightning again.
> > > >
> > > > Personally I prefer github, but gitlab would also be fine.
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > > Franz
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On 2/4/22 10:04 PM, Paul Cercueil wrote:
> > > > > Hi,
> > > > >
> > > > > Sending patches via email works, if there is someone on the other end
> > > > > applying them, which does not seem to be the case for that project
> > > > > anymore. I gave up trying to upstream some patches after 3 attempts
> > > > > without feedback, and I'm not the only one in this case, it seems.
> > > > >
> > > > > I don't blame the maintainer, who may have very little time on his/her
> > > > > hands, but this situation will eventually lead to the death of the
> > > > > project, if those who want to contribute don't have the means to do so.
> > > > >
> > > > > So let's move the project to github/gitlab, which will allow PRs to be
> > > > > *visible* and not buried in a mountain of emails, and bug reports to
> > > > > actually be seen.
> > > > >
> > > > > Last but not least... Improving Lightning right now is a real pain,
> > > > > because truth to be told, nobody will run the tests on all archs after
> > > > > each commit. But a CI instance on github/gitlab can totally do that.
> > > > > Creating a PR would trigger the tests on all supported archs, and we
> > > > > would immediately detect when something has gone wrong.
> > > > >
> > > > > Hopefully you will agree that it makes sense and is a step in the
> > > > > right direction.
> > > > >
> > > > > Cheers,
> > > > > -Paul