The CentOS project has announced the launch of a collaborative development service based on the GitLab platform. The decision to use GitLab as the primary platform for hosting CentOS and Fedora projects was made last year. Notably, the infrastructure is hosted not on its own servers but on the gitlab.com service, where a section for CentOS-related projects has been provided at gitlab.com/CentOS.
Currently, work is underway to integrate the section with the user database of the CentOS project, which will enable developers to connect to the GitLab service using existing accounts. It is also noted that git.centos.org, based on the Pagure platform, will continue to be regarded as a place for hosting the source code of packages migrated from RHEL, as well as the foundation for the CentOS Stream 8 branch. However, the CentOS Stream 9 branch is already developing on the new repository in GitLab and allows participation from community members in the development process. Other projects hosted on git.centos.org will remain in their current places and are not being forced to migrate.
Opponents of the transition to the SaaS model, during discussions of the adopted decision, noted that using an off-the-shelf service provided by GitLab does not allow for full control over the infrastructure. For example, it is not possible to ensure that the server infrastructure is properly maintained, that vulnerabilities are addressed promptly, that telemetry is not imposed, and that the environment has not been compromised as a result of external attacks or the actions of unscrupulous employees.
When choosing a platform, in addition to standard operations with repositories (merging, creating forks, adding code, etc.), requirements such as the ability to send push requests via HTTPS, access control measures for branches, support for private branches, separation of access for external and internal users (for example, to work on fixing vulnerabilities during an embargo on disclosing information about the issue), user-friendly interface, unification of subsystems for working with issue tracking, code, documentation, and planning new features, availability of integration tools with IDEs, support for standard workflows, and the option to use a bot for automated merging (CentOS Stream is required for maintaining kernel packages) were presented.
Source: opennet.ru
