Codeberg.org

[Joanna from IRC]

It could be more suitable for hosting fpc project and bug tracker. I seem to be able to read source code in it and as you can see it doesn’t ban developers from Syria either -> https://codeberg.org/zaher/

It is of course possible to mirror the FPC project on other hosting sites.  For example the FPC project is mirrored on GitHub. The main benefit is working around current access restrictions to the GitLab repositories, other functionality such as accessing the bug/issue tracker and automatically creating merge requests will be more difficult.

I suspect that GitHub would also ban people from certain countries, in any case I cannot view GitHub either.
I need a site like codeberg or equivalent that doesn’t block old computers.
Preferably a non javascript using site like this forum.

[wizzwizz4]

fpc should have a codeberg mirror.

Codeberg doesn't do mirrors any more, though you could ask them pretty please for an exception. (Only if people are actually going to use it, though.)

The main issue, as I see it, would be migrating the bug tracker. Codeberg lets you use external bug trackers, so the Codeberg repository could point to GitLab's issue tracker until a decision is made about migrating. GitLab doesn't really support migrating away from it, especially as regards the issue tracker, but Forgejo has ways to force the issue (pun intended).

[Fred vS]

fpc should have a codeberg mirror.

Codeberg doesn't do mirrors any more,

Only for "automatic pushing" each n time but you can still do mirroring:

And new manual mirroring can of course still be done by adding multiple remotes and pushing with git push --mirror to Codeberg.org.

Doing this would work nicely:   

Code: Bash  [Select][+][-]

1.  > git push --mirror https://codeberg.org/freepascal-org/fpc/source

[PascalDragon]

Does anyone have any experience with or know how good https://codeberg.org is? Maybe it would be a good alternative to gitlab.

It could be more suitable for hosting fpc project and bug tracker. I seem to be able to read source code in it and as you can see it doesn’t ban developers from Syria either -> https://codeberg.org/zaher/

There is no interest in moving the repositories and the bug tracker. We're still dealing with the migration to Git having had no release for quite some years we're not going to add another migration to that any time soon.

And from everything I've read about that, and still see mentioned in issue trackers, and see other posts and discussions about, that change had a very high cost.

Yes, in time. Also some things are still not up to where it was. While I was an anti GIT man (I still think it is overly complicated and unsafe), my main gripe is now the bugtracker.  Mantis was way better.

The GitLab bug tracker has definitly some improvements compared to Mantis, but Mantis also had its perks... And it definitly was way snappier. 😅

Going to a contemporary devops friendly hosting platform was a major switch, and the benefits of making that switch were supposed to outweigh the cost of the switching.

I think the gitlab move was primarily driven by cutting down on own server maintenance (for SVN and bugtracker), with svn to git change, and popularity issues only secondary and third considerations.

A further consideration was also that we can potentially host a GitLab instance ourself shoud significant issues arise with the official GitLab.

[Joanna from IRC]

A further consideration was also that we can potentially host a GitLab instance ourself shoud significant issues arise with the official GitLab.

zaher who happens to live in Syria has not only contributed to Lazarus project And fixing bugs, but has also helped numerous people {Including myself} With their fpc projects.
I consider banning him and others like him to be a significant issue that is detrimental to the Lazarus Project.

Can you please Exercise the “host an instance of GitLab yourself” option.
Hopefully this should solve the issue of project contributors being banned!

[Bogen85]

A further consideration was also that we can potentially host a GitLab instance ourself shoud significant issues arise with the official GitLab.

zaher who happens to live in Syria has not only contributed to Lazarus project And fixing bugs, but has also helped numerous people {Including myself} With their fpc projects.
I consider banning him and others like him to be a significant issue that is detrimental to the Lazarus Project.

Can you please Exercise the “host an instance of GitHub yourself” option.
Hopefully this should solve the issue of project contributors being banned!

And who is going to:

• pay for the hosting? (of the new GitLab, not GitHub, instance)
• maintain the server the new instance is running on?
• maintain the new instance?

There is no interest in moving the repositories and the bug tracker. We're still dealing with the migration to Git having had no release for quite some years we're not going to add another migration to that any time soon.

Moving to one's own self hosted instance still involves time and effort, in the moving of it, and forever after moving it.

[Joanna from IRC]

Bogen85 Thanks for noticing typo,I’ve fixed it.

Is the non self hosted gitlab currently being used free? Even if no money is required there is the cost of all the code and bug fixes that will never happen because people aren’t able to access gitlab.
If gitlab is currently being paid while banning developers  this is even worse. 

How much would a self hosting cost ? Is the cost dependent upon bandwidth usage? I’m not sure of what is involved but I don’t think that the current strategy of denying access to pascal programmers who have old computers or decided to be born in certain unapproved countries good one.

[Handoko]

I build websites, but most of my customers are small home offices. So I always looking for good hosting with affordable prices.

Based on my experience, the prices of good hosting services are around USD 5 per month. It is not hard to find hostings with $3 or lower but don't use them, they frequently have issues.

Usually they have several packages, each of them has different disk space size and monthly bandwith limitation. A $5 package is okay for most small/medium websites. But for high traffic websites like FPC/Lazarus, I am not sure maybe that is not enough.

It is easy to find unlimited hosting. They say it has no size and bandwidth limitation. Don't believe them. There is no 'real' unlimited hosting.

There are several kinds of hosting service: shared, semi and full dedicated VPS hosting. Share hosting is the cheapest. I use only shared hosting, nothing I can say about the others.

[Marc]

How much would a self hosting cost ? Is the cost dependent upon bandwidth usage? I’m not sure of what is involved but I don’t think that the current strategy of denying access to pascal programmers who have old computers or decided to be born in certain unapproved countries good one.

It's not about the costs of hosting or bandwidth. It's about the time you need to manage such instance. In the time we used Mantis for instance, it required a constant attention and tweeking to keep the thing running. Running a self hosted gitlab wont change that.

[marcov]

The GitLab bug tracker has definitly some improvements compared to Mantis, but Mantis also had its perks... And it definitly was way snappier. 😅

The link between SCM and bugtracker is nice, but mantis was snappier, had better (and persistent) filtering and no forced 2-factor authentication.

[Martin_fr]

I know the auth issue exists for several people... And I don't know the steps to change that.

But, I have my desktop PC logged into (2 factor) Gitlab, and almost never need to re-login (once a year on avg, but some even further appart). Even, if I was away for some days. I don't know why that does not work for others.

It persists (on the main browser) even if I open a 2nd session with the same account in a diff browser. (IIRC, I don't do that often).

I use Firefox, but I don't think its bound to that....


To view bugs I have a little grease-monkey snippet showing me several lists (created, updated, closed, assigned) like mantis used to.

Bit of a hack though, using css from the original gitlab side, means it needs occasional updates.
And cross page rules mean, I have to fake it into the gitlab domain.

[MarkMLl]

The link between SCM and bugtracker is nice, but mantis was snappier, had better (and persistent) filtering and no forced 2-factor authentication.

And was far better tailered to the architecture of the overall project.

MarkMLl

[Joanna from IRC]

The GitLab bug tracker has definitly some improvements compared to Mantis, but Mantis also had its perks... And it definitly was way snappier. 😅

The link between SCM and bugtracker is nice, but mantis was snappier, had better (and persistent) filtering and no forced 2-factor authentication.

I remember actually being able to login to mantis to report bugs.
As for two factor authentication that sounds annoying. I’ll never have to worry about it because when I go to gitlab I’m not allowed to see most of the content. 

Handoko thanks for answering my question.

Usually they have several packages, each of them has different disk space size and monthly bandwith limitation. A $5 package is okay for most small/medium websites. But for high traffic websites like FPC/Lazarus, I am not sure maybe that is not enough.

Maybe something could be done with a self hosted website to keep out non humans consuming all the bandwidth. Recently this forum was slow and I looked over and there were 1000+ “guests” .Inconsiderate bots have become a pervasive problem that is unlikely to go away.

[Handoko]

I can't say for the others but in WordPress-built websites, there are plenty of things we can do reduce the bandwidth wasted for bots. But skilled hackers always a step ahead.

[Bogen85]

Maybe something could be done with a self hosted website to keep out non humans consuming all the bandwidth. Recently this forum was slow and I looked over and there were 1000+ “guests” .Inconsiderate bots have become a pervasive problem that is unlikely to go away.

I often read the forum here when I'm not at home on some other computer or on my phone. And I'm not signed in, so I likely show up as a guest.

While I can only speak for myself, I could easily see there are others who do that same.

Also, some of the first time posters seem like they have reading the forum for a while, and it is quite possible they did not create an account until they needed to ask a question.

For me that is normal for software I use. I may periodically search some forum for some software tool I use, but I don't see the point in creating an account just to do that.

And most of the time, if I have to create an account to do that, I just find the information somewhere else (or don't find it all, and end up abandoning that tool for one where information about it is accessible).

For open source projects, closed sites to me are a big nuisance, and makes me question if the project is being managed well (or I figure they don't don't want to grow their community of user).