Xfce switches to GitLab

GitLab is here!

Starting today, May 1, we’re switching from our cgit/gitolite setup to GitLab. Our old server, git.xfce.org, is now a ready-only in-sync mirror (so you can still pull code). Our new server is gitlab.xfce.org.

(The detailed version of this blog post can be read in my announcement on the Xfce Mailing List.)

For users nothing changes.

For distributors nothing changes (presuming you’re using the release tarballs and not Git tags).

For developers and contributors quite a few things change.

  • Most importantly: The Git URL changed, so you need to update the remotes of your local repositories. Feel free to use our helper script.
  • Fork repositories and use branches and merge requests!
  • If you don’t have an account yet (we created quite a few for you regulars already) please sign up! We have opened registrations for GitLab accounts as well as allowing you to register with your GitHub account (if you have one).
    Please poke us on IRC or the mailinglist if you’re lacking repository access or ownership. (By default new users cannot fork before being manually approved. Yes. We are afraid of the spambots.)

Have a nice GitLab!

20 thoughts on “Xfce switches to GitLab”

  1. Very nice! I hope this will lead to more collaborators.

    But why did you waste the chance to drop bugzilla? Gitlab offers much better UX and full Integration!

    1. If you read the email I linked you will see that we simply decided not to migrate everything at once. Bugzilla will follow…

        1. Point taken, but
          1) we know about version 6 and actually waited for it for a while (so long that we even revamped our Bugzilla UI)
          2) we don’t have very complicated needs, we only need a very simple/dumb tracker
          3) not having to maintain one more thing is better, especially when you’re short on Infra staff (as we are)
          4) having full Gitlab integration is what makes the platform as a whole attractive (even though we have achieved some basics with our Git hooks already)

  2. I found that helper script really usefull. Simple and clean, I tweak a bit to fit my use case.

    Thanks for the hardwork on XFCE

  3. Now you just need to learn to use git.

    If 99% of your commits are translation updates they belong in a separate branch you can actually see the changes in the code in the master branch.

    1. Are you speaking from a user’s or a contributor’s perspective?

      Yes, having separate translation branches would indeed be possible.
      But as you already mentioned the project doesn’t branch heavily and I also don’t see the problem with having both changes in the same master branch. We have separate scripts that filter out translation changes and we actually write quite ok release notes imo. So users shouldn’t have any problems getting the information they need (at release time).

      Contributors would ideally work based on bugreports and on separate branches (which is actually what we just enabled through the switch), so I’m also not sure I see the problem there.

  4. Way too late for me to chime in with this, but, did you evaluate Gitea at all? The system requirements are *significantly* lower than Gitlab (closer to cgit) and the UX is more familiar.

    1. Yes, we did. There were several arguments for Gitlab though, amongst others that a few of us were already familiar with it (deployment-wise) and that both Gnome and freedesktop.org switched to it, so a lot of experience and scripts (e.g. Bugzilla to Gitlab) already exist.
      We also don’t know any bigger Gitea deployment.

      But we actually tested it and the overall experience was nice!

  5. Xfce el mejor escritorio, facil, rapido, sencillo y elegante, realmente me gusta este escritorio, al igual que muchos usuarios, no me interesan los efectos de otros escritorios que lo unico que hacen es consumir y desperdiciar recursos del sistema.

    Gracias por hacer Xfce.

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