[IPython-dev] Code hosting: github, gitorious, ...?

[Fernando Perez]

Hi all,

there were some questions about git hosting, so I want to make sure
that we allow for any points on that front to be clarified.  I'll send
a separate email about bug management to keep each discussion focused
and easy to follow.

For code hosting with git, the basic options are:

* github:

- Brian and I use it heavily and we like it a lot.  Having core
developers experienced with a tool is an important factor, though
obviously not the only one.

- It is free for free projects and has a commercial option; Brian and
I expressed some views on this already, other opinions welcome.

- they explicitly allowed us to host project repos on a 'project'
account, as I don't want to make the main repo be something like
'fperez/ipython'. I think it's healthier to have
'gtihub.com/ipython/reponame' so that the project has an identity
separate from that of any one developer.  Here is their explicit
acknowledgment of this:

http://support.github.com/discussions/email/6289-contact-per-project-account-for-open-source-projects?anon_token=5139fe18a00792fd470a9fe3b7bca187b64ddb8d

- The user interface is *really nice*, very fluid and efficient.  The
team is responsive to user requests and the site continues to improve.
 The code review system allows precise, in-line comments on commits,
their tracking of forks (for new contributors) is very useful, and
their pull request system is great.

- It offers integrated bug tracking. See more on this below, though.


* gitorious:

- It's fully open source, a plus.  Though realistically I don't think
we're looking at self-hosting.

- I know it very little.  I opened an account and played a little with
it, but I have no real usage experience.

- It doesn't offer bug tracking, as far as I can tell.


* other sites, self-hosting:

- I host my private git repos using a self-installed indefero, but I
really don't want to rely on something like this for an open source
project.  We have very limited time for admin work, and hosting always
does take time.

- Beyond gitorious and github, I don't know the other git hosting
platforms at all.


Feedback on this, critical or otherwise, much appreciated.  Based on
this we'll decide how to move forward.

Cheers,

f