[flashrom] Proposed changes to flashrom hosting and workflow

[David Hendricks]

On Sat, Aug 8, 2015 at 1:23 AM, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger
<c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006 at gmx.net> wrote:
> I would like to avoid git at all costs, even if it means I have to host
> something non-git as main repo myself and pay for the hosting. Cloning
> git into a local svn on my side is not an option because it combines the
> worst usability aspects of git hosting (no version numbers) and svn
> clients (no offline commits).

+1 to what Patrick said, too.

> If there really is a large demand for a non-svn hosting,

AFAICT many active developers already work with flashrom repositories
in git (mirrored or not). They're just doing the reverse of what you
describe, importing the SVN repository into git, to workaround the
usability aspects of SVN.

> I would be open
> to using mercurial (as master) because it at least has some sort of
> usability and can provide (conceptually limited) version numbers. I have
> worked for a few years with mercurial and the version numbers are
> extremely helpful even if they are per-branch and only semi-stable.

The point of this is that maintaining two different SCMs and code
review systems is a pain. Just keeping SVN up-to-date requires dealing
with several (maybe dozens?) extra packages that would not be needed
otherwise (Stefan can clarify).

>
> About jenkins: Seems to be a good idea and would help detect patch bitrot.

Agreed, but still doesn't really help lower the maintenance burden.

>
> About gerrit: Last time I tried gerrit the usability was horrible:
> - needs registration (like a forum)
> - has no usable mail interface (like a forum)

Who says people can't send patches via mail? Those who want to stick
with the current process (but with an arguably better SCM) can
certainly do so. I don't see why it must be one or the other.

Registration does kind of suck, but again, many active developers
already have a GitHub account (if not a Google account).

> - you can't work on drafts for a review unless you keep the web browser
> window open (like a forum)

That't simply incorrect. One can upload drafts and work on them just
as with any other patch. Here's some more info:
http://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2012-November/071963.html

> If we really want to move to gerrit, we should close the mailing list as
> well and switch to a forum which has roughly the same usability as
> gerrit. I really mean it. We seriously should consider moving to a forum
> _if_ developers prefer forum interfaces to mail.

Would you also make the same recommendation for the coreboot mailing
list? I doubt that anybody on the CB mailing list would want to do
that.

>
> Regards,
> Carl-Daniel
>
> On 07.08.2015 20:51, David Hendricks wrote:
>> For those who missed it on IRC, Stefan (Reinauer) has proposed
>> retiring SVN and patch work in favor of Git and (likely) Gerrit +
>> Jenkins. Maintaining SVN and Patchwork represents a surprisingly large
>> maintenance burden on top of Git and Gerrit that coreboot uses.
>> Additionally, many in the community work around SVN's limitations by
>> mirroring the project at places like Github anyway.
>>
>> Stefan put up a Doodle poll here to hear out comments/concerns:
>> http://doodle.com/p2dxtnksmsgwmzrq
>>
>> --
>> David Hendricks (dhendrix)
>> Systems Software Engineer, Google Inc.
>>
>>
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