GitHub migration

This blog post is designed to be a gathering place for information on the GENIVI repo transition from git.projects.genivi.org to GENIVI's GitHub account. There are a number of reasons for this move which I won't cover here. You can also view these email threads for reference and background: http://lists.genivi.org/pipermail/genivi-projects/2016-April/002039.html and http://lists.genivi.org/pipermail/genivi-projects/2016-May/002216.html 

What is the status of the transition?

The target date is to be fully migrated from our current repo to the new GitHub by July 1st 2016 and it looks like we can make that target. Lot's of folks are involved and many repos have been migrated. The process is fairly easy, with some caveats of course. You can follow this issue tracker for more recent status.

What happens to the git.projects.genivi.org repos? 

These repos are going to get mirrored on a new server. That work has begun with the installation of equipment in JLR's Portland facility and the hiring of a dedicated GENIVI IT person. That person will be joining the Tools Team meetings so you can send questions to the Tools Team should you have them, though hopefully I can answer questions here as well. The repos will be switched to "read only" so that we do not get updates to separate git repos. New development should happen at GitHub, the old repos remain only to provide a link that provides source code for older versions of the GENIVI Compliance Specification and for convenience for automated software builds. As we turn the git repos from write to read only, we'll also be deactivating the public ssh keys associated with the accounts on the repositories. This is for security purposes.

How do we mark GithHub projects as being part of GENIVI?

When repos are put onto GENIVI's GitHub account they automatically become part of the GENIVI GitHub space as it were. This is reflected in the URL for example, as well as other places: https://github.com/GENIVI/capic-poc Everything under https://github.com/GENIVI/ is part of GENIVI. 

Is there a common GENIVI "look & feel" for GitHub projects?

 No, we inherit GitHub's look and feel. There is a substantial API however so we may be able to create our own look and feel if wanted.

Is it possible to transfer a GitHub account to a new maintainer?

Yes. I wouldn't conflate the terms "account" and "maintainer" though since GitHub uses those terms differently than we do. We can create numerous accounts and transfer maintainership between them as well as use team based access control, in fact we're doing that now.

How should a GitHub account be handled, if the project has more than one maintainer? Is it allowed to have more than one maintainer?

Yes, you can have more than one maintainer. The best practice is likely through team maintainership. By adding multiple maintainers to a team you can easily have more than one maintainer. You can also limit each team member to a specific set of functionality, like read-only, or write and push, and even able to create new team repos. Teams can be created around any repo, or set of repos, and can contain one or more GitHub accounts.

What else should we do?

It might be nice if you made your GENIVI GitHub account 'public' – currently they're all private which makes them invisible to team non-members. Also, adding two factor authentication is a good idea. Add an avatar as well to easily identify contributors.