Vol. I – Fedora Council 2024 Hackfest

During the Council’s February 2024 hackfest, we discussed the future of Fedora’s git forge – that is, the platform Fedora uses for version control and tracking for packages, source code, documentation, and more. This topic has been around for quite some time. If you are just coming into this conversation, or would like a refresher, #git-forge-future is a good place to start.

Instead of one huge post, the Fedora Council divided the follow-ups from our hack-fest into a mini-series of posts throughout April that will cover all the topics we discussed and made decisions on. In each post, we will walk through one core topic, and share our discussion and thought process on how we reached our outcomes. The first in this series, because why not start strong 🙂 , is an update on our git forge evaluation. Read on for important information.

The Council arrived at two main decisions during this discussion. 

Pagure

First, the Council does not see Pagure as a viable git forge solution for Fedora’s future. Instead, we will investigate other git forge options which meet our core community values: Freedom, Features, Friends, First. When a suitable solution is found, the work needed to migrate to the new git forge will be shared. 

At a later date, the Council will announce a sunsetting date for Pagure, with ample time for projects to migrate to the replacement.

Options for an alternate git forge

Second, the Council examined a long list of possibilities, and eliminated those that do not fit. We narrowed down the list to these options we think might meet the needs and spirit of Fedora: 

  1. GitLab Community Edition
  2. Forgejo (a fork of Gitea)

In both cases, the Council determined that the project will need to run the software in Fedora Infrastructure. Fedora Infrastructure previously investigated hosting possibilities from GitLab at length, and could not find something workable without compromising on our community values for software freedom.

The Council is grateful to everything the Pagure developers have done for us, and acknowledge Pagure’s immense positive impact on Fedora. In the end, these other two options were what the Council felt we could honestly ask our community to use. 

The Community Platform Engineering (CPE) Team is a Red Hat-sponsored team that supports Fedora Infrastructure and Release Engineering with staffing, efforts, and resources. The Council will ask the Red Hat CPE to lead the maintenance efforts alongside the community. Therefore, the Council encourages the community to collaborate and support the Red Hat CPE in an in-depth technical evaluation for both options.

When these investigations are complete, the project will have at least two weeks of community discussion on the reports. Then, the Council will select an option and will launch a Community Initiative implementing the migration plan.

Share your feedback on git forge future

To keep track of feedback and conversations in one place, direct all feedback and comments to the #git-forge-future tag on Fedora Discussion. You can reply to an existing topic or start a new one.

This will be a long journey for us to take together as a community. Thank you for your patience and feedback as we go down this road together. Please remember to keep your feedback courteous, respectful, and aligned with the Fedora Code of Conduct.