GSoC idea to setup Gitlab for Fedora Hosted, looking for mentors

[Dan Allen]

Hello everyone,

Since this is my first post, I'll start with a quick introduction. I'm a
core developer in the JBoss Community. I've been working for Red Hat for 3+
years. Down to business.

I proposed an idea on the Fedora GSoC 2012 page to research using Gitlab as
a front end to fedorahosted.org. Gitlab is like an open source clone of
Github, supporting code workflow features such as pull requests, code
review and repository status updates.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Summer_coding_ideas_for_2012#Setup_Gitlab_...

I'm looking for someone who would be interested in mentoring this project,
as well clarifying to goals if necessary.

My hope is that this will help curb the rush of projects moving to github,
which is great, but also proprietary infrastructure :(

I was thinking about two possible approaches here:

1. Work in a staging server, putting the Fedora packaging stuff aside for
the moment and just get an idea of how it will interface with
fedorahosted.org and the FAS accounts...basically, a proof of concept.
Obviously, the users who have access to the deployed system would need to
be limited to avoid the proof of concept becoming prematurely adopted.

2. The other avenue is to just assume we want this and move along the lines
of packaging Gitlab and its dependencies so that it can be easily installed
on a Fedora machine. Then, infrastructure could take it from there and
handle setting it up after that project is done.

I extended an olive branch to the Gitlab team to gauge their interest:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/gitlabhq/SQMDi-yyXmU

I think this could result in a really positive change for Fedora and
attract a lot of developers to the community (if Github is any indication
of how massively popular a front end like this can be for community growth).

-Dan

-- 
Dan Allen
Principal Software Engineer, Red Hat | Author of Seam in Action
Registered Linux User #231597

http://google.com/profiles/dan.j.allen
http://mojavelinux.com
http://mojavelinux.com/seaminaction

[Seth Vidal]

On Thu, 8 Mar 2012 14:46:01 -0500
Dan Allen <dan.j.allen(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  Hello everyone,
>  
>  Since this is my first post, I'll start with a quick introduction.
>  I'm a core developer in the JBoss Community. I've been working for
>  Red Hat for 3+ years. Down to business.
>  
>  I proposed an idea on the Fedora GSoC 2012 page to research using
>  Gitlab as a front end to fedorahosted.org. Gitlab is like an open
>  source clone of Github, supporting code workflow features such as
>  pull requests, code review and repository status updates.
>  
>
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Summer_coding_ideas_for_2012#Setup_Gitlab_...
>  
>  I'm looking for someone who would be interested in mentoring this
>  project, as well clarifying to goals if necessary.
>  
>  My hope is that this will help curb the rush of projects moving to
>  github, which is great, but also proprietary infrastructure :(
>  
>  I was thinking about two possible approaches here:
>  
>  1. Work in a staging server, putting the Fedora packaging stuff aside
>  for the moment and just get an idea of how it will interface with
>  fedorahosted.org and the FAS accounts...basically, a proof of concept.
>  Obviously, the users who have access to the deployed system would
>  need to be limited to avoid the proof of concept becoming prematurely
>  adopted.
>   

I think I can give you a test instance to build gitlabhq on if you
would like. It would be a dirty/fast setup - so you wouldn't want to
rely on it from a backup/persistence standpoint - but it lets you take
notes on what the hangups for deployment or in use.



>  2. The other avenue is to just assume we want this and move along
> the
>  lines of packaging Gitlab and its dependencies so that it can be
>  easily installed on a Fedora machine. Then, infrastructure could take
>  it from there and handle setting it up after that project is done. 
I'd like to see a test instance before we pkg it, honestly. If only to
see if it is even worth the packaging work.


Some changes we've talked about in the past that would be necessary if
we were to want to use gitlabhq:

1. move to $projectname.fedorahosted.org hostnames for Everything. Then
we can have dns bounce people around to whichever host has their code.
Mainly so we don't need a 'fedorahosted.org/projectname' server which
just does redirects.



2. We'll need to get people off of the model of using
git.fedorahosted.org/git/project.git for their git repos and over to,
ideally:
 $projectname.fedorahostedorg/git/project.git

The  advantage we get out of the above is we don't need a load balancer
to automatically support multiple machines on the backend for multiple
projects. It also means we can know who we are impacting in the event
of an outage, immediately, based on which machine is offline.

the problem is it means, potentially, running a backward compat
redirector somewhere (ugh) or having a flag day to get people to fix
their repos and webpages (also ugh).

We could, potentially, leave fedorahosted.org up as-is and just put
new, git-based projects on the gitlabhq servers and migrate things off
that way.




thoughts?

-sv

[Buddhike Kurera]

On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 1:33 AM, seth vidal <skvidal(a)fedoraproject.org&gt; wrote:
>  On Thu, 8 Mar 2012 14:46:01 -0500
>  Dan Allen <dan.j.allen(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>
> > Hello everyone,
> >
> > Since this is my first post, I'll start with a quick introduction.
> > I'm a core developer in the JBoss Community. I've been working for
> > Red Hat for 3+ years. Down to business.
> >
> > I proposed an idea on the Fedora GSoC 2012 page to research using
> > Gitlab as a front end to fedorahosted.org. Gitlab is like an open
> > source clone of Github, supporting code workflow features such as
> > pull requests, code review and repository status updates.
> >
> >
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Summer_coding_ideas_for_2012#Setup_Gitlab_...
> >
> > I'm looking for someone who would be interested in mentoring this
> > project, as well clarifying to goals if necessary. 
Hello

Thanks for taking time to propose an idea.

Dan , as you are the one whose familiar with the idea, why dont you
step in as the mentor?
if you want support you can ask others to co-mentor the idea, that
make sure the student is
supported even though you follow busy schedules.

Thanks again.

-- 
Regards,
Buddhike Chandradeepa Kurera(bckurera)
Fedora Ambassador Sri Lanka
Event Liaison - Design Team

Email: [e-mail] | IRC: bckurera

[Ranjib Dey]

I maintain the gitlabhq instance for our infrastructure, I'll be happy to
take it up if you guys are ok. Setting up gitlabhq  is pretty easy, we
 might have some plumbing work for importing the existing public
keys/repos. Gitlabhq uses gitolite under the hood for repository
management, so from a packaging standpoint its only the rails stack that
we'll need to package and gitolite can have its own rpm.

On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 7:04 AM, Buddhike Kurera
<bckurera(a)fedoraproject.org&gt;wrote:

>  On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 1:33 AM, seth vidal
> <skvidal(a)fedoraproject.org&gt;
>  wrote:
>  > On Thu, 8 Mar 2012 14:46:01 -0500
>  > Dan Allen <dan.j.allen(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  >
>  >> Hello everyone,
>  >>
>  >> Since this is my first post, I'll start with a quick introduction.
>  >> I'm a core developer in the JBoss Community. I've been working for
>  >> Red Hat for 3+ years. Down to business.
>  >>
>  >> I proposed an idea on the Fedora GSoC 2012 page to research using
>  >> Gitlab as a front end to fedorahosted.org. Gitlab is like an open
>  >> source clone of Github, supporting code workflow features such as
>  >> pull requests, code review and repository status updates.
>  >>
>  >>
>
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Summer_coding_ideas_for_2012#Setup_Gitlab_...
>  >>
>  >> I'm looking for someone who would be interested in mentoring this
>  >> project, as well clarifying to goals if necessary.
>
>  Hello
>
>  Thanks for taking time to propose an idea.
>
>  Dan , as you are the one whose familiar with the idea, why dont you
>  step in as the mentor?
>  if you want support you can ask others to co-mentor the idea, that
>  make sure the student is
>  supported even though you follow busy schedules.
>
>  Thanks again.
>
>  --
>  Regards,
>  Buddhike Chandradeepa Kurera(bckurera)
>  Fedora Ambassador Sri Lanka
>  Event Liaison - Design Team
>
>  Email: bckurera(a)fedoraproject.org | IRC: bckurera
>  _______________________________________________
>  infrastructure mailing list
>  infrastructure(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/infrastructure
>

[Kevin Fenzi]

So, some general thoughts here. ;) 

I think gitlabhq is nice looking and could be very handy to have
around and popular with Fedora folks. 

The first thing to overcome will be to package it up. 
The hangup there is likely to be mod-passenger, which is needed for
rails. See: 

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=470696

There is progress though, so not all hope is lost. ;) 
So, packaging it and it's deps is the first step. There's no telling
if/when this might be done, so this could be bad for a summer coding
project where you have to be done in X time. 

Next, the process of getting something deployed is outlined in: 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Request_For_Resources
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Request_for_resources_SOP

It's really important while testing things in a dev instance, and
staging that we get a _group_ of people who understand the application
and how it works and how to maintain it. We really really really don't
want to deploy something just to have no one around to keep it alive
and vibrant down the road. 

A final note is that we have 0 ruby applications currently. So would
likely be a learning curve on how best to deploy things or manage them. 

:) 

kevin

[Dan Allen]

On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 20:34, Buddhike Kurera <bckurera(a)fedoraproject.org&gt;wrote:

>  Hello
>
>  Thanks for taking time to propose an idea.
>  
Sure thing!


>  Dan , as you are the one whose familiar with the idea, why dont you
>  step in as the mentor?
>  if you want support you can ask others to co-mentor the idea, that
>  make sure the student is
>  supported even though you follow busy schedules.
>  
While I'm excited about it, I wouldn't be an effective mentor. Atm, I'm
chronically over-tasked and already struggle to keep up with what I'm
already committed to. More significantly, system administration is not my
strong suit...I can get by :) To be fair to the student, they should have
someone who can give them better advice than I can.

I'll certainly track the development of the project and remove what
barriers I can. Finger crossed that this initiative lines up with someone's
area of focus.

-Dan

-- 
Dan Allen
Principal Software Engineer, Red Hat | Author of Seam in Action
Registered Linux User #231597

http://google.com/profiles/dan.j.allen
http://mojavelinux.com
http://mojavelinux.com/seaminaction

[Dan Allen]

On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 22:43, ranjib dey <dey.ranjib(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  I maintain the gitlabhq instance for our infrastructure, I'll be
> happy to
>  take it up if you guys are ok. Setting up gitlabhq  is pretty easy, we
>   might have some plumbing work for importing the existing public
>  keys/repos. Gitlabhq uses gitolite under the hood for repository
>  management, so from a packaging standpoint its only the rails stack that
>  we'll need to package and gitolite can have its own rpm. 

Ranjib, that would be great! Would you be willing to play the role of
mentor? It sounds like it would be a good role since you have the right
expertise to provide guidance, and that way you would only need to check in
on the progress.

If so, feel free to add yourself on the page:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Summer_coding_ideas_for_2012#Setup_Gitlab_...

Btw, I talked to a few people who know the GSoC program and they agreed
that a proof-of-concept is sufficient for a project to be considered
complete. If you go further and get it all running on a production instance
w/ full cooperation from the infra & engineering teams, then bonus!

There is a chance that the project doesn't get matched up with a student.
In that case, then I would say you can just roll forward with the project
with whomever comes forward. We should know fairly soon, so waiting to see
how the cards fall shouldn't hold up getting started for too long.

I also want to mention that I heard back from the Gitlab lead. He said he'd
be willing to provide all the help we need to make this happen!

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/gitlabhq/SQMDi-yyXmU

I suppose that means he would be willing to be a co-mentor.

Go git, go!

-Dan

-- 
Dan Allen
Principal Software Engineer, Red Hat | Author of Seam in Action
Registered Linux User #231597

http://google.com/profiles/dan.j.allen
http://mojavelinux.com
http://mojavelinux.com/seaminaction

[Toshio Kuratomi]

On Fri, Mar 09, 2012 at 02:31:45PM -0500, Dan Allen wrote:
>  On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 22:43, ranjib dey <dey.ranjib(a)gmail.com&gt;
> wrote:
>  
>      I maintain the gitlabhq instance for our infrastructure, I'll be happy to
>      take it up if you guys are ok. Setting up gitlabhq  is pretty easy, we
>       might have some plumbing work for importing the existing public keys/
>      repos. Gitlabhq uses gitolite under the hood for repository management, so
>      from a packaging standpoint its only the rails stack that we'll need to
>      package and gitolite can have its own rpm. 
>  
>  
>  Ranjib, that would be great! Would you be willing to play the role of mentor?
>  It sounds like it would be a good role since you have the right expertise to
>  provide guidance, and that way you would only need to check in on the progress.
>  
>  If so, feel free to add yourself on the page: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/
>  Summer_coding_ideas_for_2012#
>  Setup_Gitlab_as_a_front_end_for_Fedora_Hosted_git_repositories
>  
>  Btw, I talked to a few people who know the GSoC program and they agreed that a
>  proof-of-concept is sufficient for a project to be considered complete. If you
>  go further and get it all running on a production instance w/ full cooperation
>  from the infra & engineering teams, then bonus!
>   
So I would somewhat disagree with this.  But it really has to do with the
goals that we're attempting to achieve.  I assume that the goal is to move
fedorahosted (at least the git repositories) onto a Fedora hosted gitlabhq
instance.

To do that, we need the following from a Fedora Infrastructure POV:

* A team of maintainers that are familiar with deploying the code and
  committed to doing work as part of the fedora admin team.  They ideally
  come from a group that depends on the work that's being done so that they
  have a vested interest in making it happen.  For instance, see the Fedora
  Insight Team and their deployment of drupal.
* gitlabhq and dependent packages packaged and maintained in Fedora and
  EPEL 6.
* A working proof of concept which we can puppetize the configs from so that
  we know to deploy we just tell puppet to install the appropriate rpms and
  then push the configs to the box.

Now, in my experience, the GSoC program is much like a summer job.  After
the summer, the student often moves on to other things.

If that's the case using GSoC to produce a proof-of-concept for gitlabhq
isn't going to be really helpful to getting it deployed for fedorahosted *by
itself*.  If it's part of a larger effort, it may indeed be useful.  You'll
need to build a team of people who are knowledgable about gitlabq and want
to do the long term maintainance tasks mentioned above (maintaining the
needed packages in Fedora; maintaining the site in Fedora Infrastructure).
That team can then identify what tasks a short term contributor can work on
as a GSoC student to help realize the goal.

Just remember, as you're doing this, that the long term support burden is
the harder problem to solve.  Make sure that whatever tasks the GSoC student
achieves do not make it so that the long term maintainers have to rewrite the
GSoC student's work before they understand how it all works.

-Toshio