Move part of macports infrastructure to GitHub

[MK-MacPorts at techno.ms]

On 16 Mar 2014, at 21:07 , Rainer Müller <raimue at macports.org> wrote:
> I am afraid of the increased complexity of git and the changing workflow for other
> developers.
> 
> We cannot simply swap out Subversion and bless a git mirror as the new
> main ports tree, a new way of working with git has to be worked out first.
Yes, absolutely!

> Coming from the Linux kernel, pure git expects a pull-based workflow.
> One central instance pulls up changes from many other repositories into
> the main repository. I would rule out such a person-based pull model for
> MacPorts, as who would take the responsibility for all the merges?
Well, that would also be my reservation against git...

> At the moment, the MacPorts project gives out commit access to a central
> repository. Transferring that to git, that would mean giving everyone
> push access.
I’d prefer Mercurial, but I am afraid it could be just as dangerous.

But it’s not so much whether one uses git or mercurial, it’s rather the
infrastructure around it which defines how the port tree is maintained.
Your refs [1-4] are good ways to find new workflows!!!
I do like the review-based workflow.
That’s actually what Ryan does for probably half of all port commits already now! ;-)

> With this point you make the assumption we would use GitHub. How do you
That was also my thought. Why to get dependent on GitHub?
There are Open Source alternatives, but they need hosting, maintenance,
development, administration, etc…

> And for some others it will be more work to learn git only to get an
> update to MacPorts…
Yep, even Mercurial would be equally complicated for a newbee.

> Just in case you did not know that, you can already add any git ports
> tree to your sources.conf and start using it. The official tree is the
> only way to use ports and if someone wants to experiment with it you can
> already create overlays that only contain new or updates to existing ports.
I do this - using Mercurial - since years.

So, I would really like a DVCS for MacPorts, and I am hoping for what
Sean will come up with soon using Mercurial+evolve+hgsubversion.
I think that could offer the chance of a smoother transition, because one
could work in parallel with SVN and Mercurial for quite a while. Devs and
port maintainers could slowly migrate while learning how to work Mercurial
bit by bit without being forced to toss SVN from a certain date on.

Would be cool to get news from your very ambitious project, Sean!!!

Greets,
Marko