State of Proposal to improving KDE Software Repository Organization?

[Ben Cooksley]

On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 7:00 AM, Friedrich W. H. Kossebau
<kossebau at kde.org> wrote:
> Am Dienstag, 19. Januar 2016, 13:57:10 schrieb Ben Cooksley:
>> On Tue, Jan 19, 2016 at 7:28 AM, Friedrich W. H. Kossebau
>>
>> <kossebau at kde.org> wrote:
>> > 4 months ago there was the thread "Proposal to improving KDE Software
>> > Repository Organization" on this mailinglist.
>> > What happened to that plan? Are people preparing its execution?
>>
>> That plan is tied up in other things taking priority / lack of time / etc.
>> We'll get there eventually. It is also in part related to the Phabricator
>> move.
>
> Okay, so still work in progress. Good.
>
>> > And would that be a time where some bigger reorganization of the repos is
>> > possible?
>> >
>> > Reason that I ask is that due to the split of Calligra into several repos
>> > (see background^) the layout in the repo structure does no longer
>> > properly reflect the project organisation. Right now there are three
>> > active repos in the calligra/ repo substructure:
>> > "calligra" at "calligra/"
>> > "krita"    at "calligra/krita"
>> > "kexi"     at "calligra/kexi"
>> >
>> > (("calligra" at "calligra/" confuses at least kdesrc-build, sent an email
>> > to mpyne about if moving it to "calligra/calligra" should fix it.))
>>
>> Repositories within repositories is a known bad thing to do, the
>> systems don't handle it properly at all (as it was never an intended
>> thing you should do). The proper fix is to move the repo to
>> calligra/calligra (ie. have a "calligra/" top level grouping project).
>
> This move is now requested on https://phabricator.kde.org/T1337 , the
> respective kde-build-metadata change locally prepared.

Okay. People have jumped on using that board a bit earlier than I
anticipated but we can work with that.

>
>> > Things that are not properly matching organization:
>> > * Krita starting with 3.* no longer is part of Calligra project
>> >
>> >   (screws e.g. api.kde.org/bundled-apps-api/calligra-apidocs/ and also
>> >   what people think to which project Krita belongs)
>> >
>> > * Calligra & Krita are nowhere different to KDevelop, Digikam & Co,
>> >
>> >   so no reason to be in a complete own toplevel structure,
>> >   rather should be in the same sub structure, i.e. "Extragear",
>> >   like extragear/calligra/* and extragear/graphics/krita
>>
>> In the Phabricator world I had envisioned Extragear as no longer existing.
>
> Okay, sounds good.
>
>> > More, not only Calligra & Krita related:
>> > * "Extragear" is an awful grouping name for apps with individual
>> >
>> >   release plans, a legacy term that no longer fits most of the apps
>> >   in that substructure
>> >
>> > * "KDE Applications" is a misleading grouping name for apps with a
>> >
>> >   central release plan, as if those with individual release plans
>> >   are not "KDE" applications (as in, not done in the KDE community)
>> >
>> > * a single category per app as needed by the current tree structure layout
>> >
>> >   of the repos, like "office", "graphics", "utils", is rather awkward,
>> >   many apps do not match exactly one or would match multiple categories
>>
>> Phabricator will allow multiple "categories" to be tagged to a repository...
>
> Nice, sounds even better.
>
>> > So IMHO some update of the repository organisation would be good, to
>> > reflect how things are these days.
>> > Renaming of "Extragear" and "KDE Applications" is surely something which
>> > needs care from promo/marketing/VDG people first to find if that makes
>> > sense at all and what a good solution would be.
>>
>> Extragear is really an internal structure, not part of marketing so I
>> think we can go ahead and just kill it...
>
> Seems we all pull on the same string then, glad to see that :)
>
>> > (Being both maintainer of Okteta, which is in "KDE Applications", and
>> > meta-co- maintainer of Calligra, which is not, but still done in the very
>> > same KDE community, that current naming seems so wrong to me).
>> >
>> > But the actual names and grouping aside, for the pure technical renewing
>> > (which also involves all infrastructure like translation system,
>> > documentation, phabricator, etc), who is currently planning or working on
>> > what?
>>
>> Like most things in this department, Sysadmin...
>
> So in good hands, I leave it there :P Nah, ready to also do some share of work
> on this, as I would like this itch scratched as well. Please call me where you
> see fit.
>
>> > So does it makes sense to wait some more, or should we assume the current
>> > organization stays for longer, and Calligra & Krita repos should be moved
>> > inside that organization for now?
>>
>> Not sure how long things are going to take sorry.
>> Chances are the existing tree will survive in some form (even if it is
>> only in the XML file various things use) so you may as well do it now.
>
> Okay.
>
> So to reduce some complexity in the possibly longer living tree then, and to
> also resolve this strange exceptional state of Calligra & Krita repos, which I
> fear to shape some people's mind, I would like to propose to
> * move the toplevel node "calligra/" below "extragear/",
>   with the repos calligra & kexi ending up at
>   "extragear/calligra/calligra"
>   "extragear/calligra/kexi"
>   (following the example of kdevelop)
> * move the krita repo to either
>   "extragear/graphics/krita" or some new
>   "extragear/krita/krita", if an own krita section makes sense
> So extragear would then contain all non-central repos, and krita would no
> longer be mixed into the calligra repo in all places (and thus help people to
> get that Krita & Calligra are now separate projects, in all friendship :) ).
>
> While this will mean some adaption work now for all of CI, API, LXR, EBN,
> scripty, in the long run it should pay off, for the given motivation.
> It would also match plans to reduce the kdesupport/ subtree I think I read
> about elsewhere.

In terms of CI the only thing you'll need to adapt for that will be
the build metadata I believe.
API / LXR / EBN might need some cleanup to remove the special cases
for calligra/ but should otherwise be fine.

For scripty you will need to talk with Albert / Luigi.

>
> What do you think? Ready to do work where I can to get this done.
>
> On the matter of marketing and the term "KDE Applications" I will poke people
> separately and later,
>
> Cheers
> Friedrich

Regards,
Ben