gitweb - bare repos integration - owner info in description file

gitweb - bare repos integration - owner info in description file

[Eugene Sajine]

Hi,

Here is another issue with gitweb integration which i think might be
considered as a feature proposal:

I have a central place where bare repos are. They're owned by the user
under which we are serving them, let's say “git”. So, gitweb is going
to show me

Repo1 owner git etc…

In order to show a real owner I have to rebuild gitweb.cgi, to tell it
to use the file for GITWEB_LIST and edit the file… In fact I think
gitweb shouldn’t carry this info, but bare repos should.

So my idea is:

Either provide a key to
$ git clone –bare –u “owner/email”

or take the user.email parameter from .gitconfig.

in both cases the info can go to description file of bare repo, so it
can look like:

$owner=owner@server.com

$description=”very long description”

Or in xml form…


Yes, description file might become a bit more complicated in its
layout. But, the benefits are obvious:

- No need to support multiple lists/files
- Bare repo carries all info about itself (together with –d feature I
described earlier).

I this circumstances gitweb’s GITWEB_LIST will be only filter (only
repo path is necessary to show/not show), and it seems that narrowed
functionality here is a good thing...

Your thoughts?

Thanks,
Eugene

Re: gitweb - bare repos integration - owner info in description file

[Jakub Narebski]

Eugene Sajine <euguess@gmail.com> writes:

> Here is another issue with gitweb integration which i think might be
> considered as a feature proposal:
> 
> I have a central place where bare repos are. They're owned by the user
> under which we are serving them, let's say “git”. So, gitweb is going
> to show me
> 
> Repo1 owner git etc…
> 
> In order to show a real owner I have to rebuild gitweb.cgi, to tell it
> to use the file for GITWEB_LIST and edit the file… In fact I think
> gitweb shouldn’t carry this info, but bare repos should.

It is not gitweb that carries this info, but file with list of
repositories (GITWEB_LIST).  And you can pre-generate this file using
gitweb.

> 
> So my idea is:
> 
> Either provide a key to
> $ git clone –bare –u “owner/email”
> 
> or take the user.email parameter from .gitconfig.
> 
> in both cases the info can go to description file of bare repo, so it
> can look like:
> 
> $owner=owner@server.com
> 
> $description=”very long description”

RTFM (in this case gitweb/README).  gitweb.owner and gitweb.description
configuration variables in per-repository config.

> 
> Or in xml form…

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

%
"To be fair, there are uses for XML. On Halloween, for example."

     - Johannes Schindelin, on git@vger.kernel.org
%
> 
> 
> Yes, description file might become a bit more complicated in its
> layout. But, the benefits are obvious:
> 
> - No need to support multiple lists/files
> - Bare repo carries all info about itself (together with –d feature I
> described earlier).
> 
> I this circumstances gitweb’s GITWEB_LIST will be only filter (only
> repo path is necessary to show/not show), and it seems that narrowed
> functionality here is a good thing...

GITWEB_LIST is meant for the case when you want to avoid scanning
filesystem for git repositories.  And you can filter out repositories
without using GITWEB_LIST (see documentation).

-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland
ShadeHawk on #git

Re: gitweb - bare repos integration - owner info in description file

[Eugene Sajine]

>
> RTFM (in this case gitweb/README).  gitweb.owner and gitweb.description
> configuration variables in per-repository config.
>

Ok, my bad, didn't get there;)It is good to know there are places
where to keep the info. But it is not the point. The point is to
integrate gitweb with bare repo creation more than it is right now by
providing keys which will help filling out this info at the bare repo
creation stage.

shortly i'm talking about command like this (the key names are for sample only):

$ git clone --bare repo repo.git -desc "description" -gwowner
"gitwebowner@server.com" -cloneurl "git://host/repo.git"

seems to me quite comfy, and no headache...


> %
> "To be fair, there are uses for XML. On Halloween, for example."
>
>     - Johannes Schindelin, on git@vger.kernel.org
> %

yeah, to show kids xml print outs as an answer to "trick or treat!".
Can save on candies;)

Thanks,
Eugene

Re: gitweb - bare repos integration - owner info in description file

[Jakub Narebski]

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009, Eugene Sajine wrote:
> >
> > RTFM (in this case gitweb/README).  gitweb.owner and gitweb.description
> > configuration variables in per-repository config.
> 
> Ok, my bad, didn't get there;) It is good to know there are places
> where to keep the info. But it is not the point. The point is to
> integrate gitweb with bare repo creation more than it is right now by
> providing keys which will help filling out this info at the bare repo
> creation stage.
> 
> shortly i'm talking about command like this (the key names are for sample only):
> 
> $ git clone --bare repo repo.git -desc "description" -gwowner
> "gitwebowner@server.com" -cloneurl "git://host/repo.git"
> 
> seems to me quite comfy, and no headache...

The project description, project owner and (clone) url are used by 
gitweb only, so I don't see why git-clone has to feature-creep to
set them.

[cut off part about using XML for all of gitweb config: description,
 owner, cloneurl]
> > %
> > "To be fair, there are uses for XML. On Halloween, for example."
> >
> >     - Johannes Schindelin, on git@vger.kernel.org
> > %
> 
> yeah, to show kids xml print outs as an answer to "trick or treat!".
> Can save on candies;)

Err, I think Dscho meant here that XML is so *scary*... Isn't it?

-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland

Re: gitweb - bare repos integration - owner info in description file

[Eugene Sajine]

>
> The project description, project owner and (clone) url are used by
> gitweb only, so I don't see why git-clone has to feature-creep to
> set them.
>


Well my logic is simple. Gitweb is a part of git bundle. If you don't
want to use gitweb you're free to use git clone as you want. I don't
see  why not to provide some usability features to it. For me it is
quite obvious that it will be more comfortable to setup gitweb if this
would be in  place. Instead of putting info in few different places
manually, why not to give people a possibilty to do that using one
command?

This is usability feature, but i feel that for me as a person who will
support big ceantral bare repo hosting server, this would save huge
time and efforts...

Thanks,
Eugene

Re: gitweb - bare repos integration - owner info in description file

[Jakub Narebski]

On Sun, 11 Oct 2009, Eugene Sajine wrote:
> >
> > The project description, project owner and (clone) url are used by
> > gitweb only, so I don't see why git-clone has to feature-creep to
> > set them.
> 
> Well my logic is simple. Gitweb is a part of git bundle. If you don't
> want to use gitweb you're free to use git clone as you want. I don't
> see  why not to provide some usability features to it. For me it is
> quite obvious that it will be more comfortable to setup gitweb if this
> would be in  place. Instead of putting info in few different places
> manually, why not to give people a possibilty to do that using one
> command?
> 
> This is usability feature, but i feel that for me as a person who will
> support big ceantral bare repo hosting server, this would save huge
> time and efforts...

And this would be best left for a custom script creating repositories
and their git hosting related configuration.  Such script of necessity
would have to be site-specific, or at least contain site-specific 
configuration, like:
 * whether to use gitweb.owner or filesystem uid + GECOS is enough
 * whether to use gitweb.description or description file
 * whether to use gitweb.url, cloneurl file, or let gitweb autogenerate
   clone / fetch URL from base URL
 * gitosis / gitlite configuration, if needed, or setup of public keys
   for SSH authentication
 * project README.html file, if used
etc. 

git-clone is not a dumping ground (also, code speak louder than words).

I even think it might be mistake to have default 'description' file in 
templates...

-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland

Re: gitweb - bare repos integration - owner info in description file

[Johannes Schindelin]

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Hi,

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009, Jakub Narebski wrote:

> On Sat, 10 Oct 2009, Eugene Sajine wrote:
>
> > [something, but forgot to say whom he quoted:]
>
> > > %
> > > "To be fair, there are uses for XML. On Halloween, for example."
> > >
> > >     - Johannes Schindelin, on git@vger.kernel.org
> > > %
> > 
> > yeah, to show kids xml print outs as an answer to "trick or treat!".
> > Can save on candies;)
> 
> Err, I think Dscho meant here that XML is so *scary*... Isn't it?

XML can be scary.  Somebody on usenet once said something like: "XML is 
just a skeleton; if you see a skeleton walking around, wouldn't you 
be scared?"

What is really scary, though, is how many people really believe that just 
using XML will magically solve all problems of this world.  They really 
believe that.

Ciao,
Dscho

Re: gitweb - bare repos integration - owner info in description file

[Eugene Sajine]

Hi,

Somebody from development camp recently complained here that there is
no many end users "chiming" about issues in the mailing list. Well,
don't tell i didn't try;)

First I tried to use gitweb.url, gitweb.description and gitweb.owner
files and none of them worked... gitweb is unable to pickup the info
from those files.

Although it successfully interactively picks up info from description
and cloneurl files. I didn't find a substitution for gitweb.owner...

I might be sent to RTFM again, but i would like to bring an attention
to the fact that setting up bare repo with these simplest parameters
as well as setting up gitweb is a USABILITY NIGHTMARE for beginners. I
would even say more: while gitweb is very flexible and powerful, all
its flexibility and power is hidden behind unusable management
interface, which IMHO requires a lot of improvements . Rebuilding to
configure? Perl look-and-feel for configuration variables? I think
this is not the way to configure web applications no matter how smart
and flexible application should be. There are some problems with XML,
I don't care. Let's use simple property file. 1 property file! and let
gitweb read it. don;t like this solution, propose yours..

But leaving the emotions aside and once again -

On Sun, 11 Oct 2009, Jakub Narebski wrote:

>And this would be best left for a custom script creating repositories
>and their git hosting related configuration.  Such script of necessity
>would have to be site-specific, or at least contain site-specific
>configuration, like:
 >* whether to use gitweb.owner or filesystem uid + GECOS is enough
 >* whether to use gitweb.description or description file
 >* whether to use gitweb.url, cloneurl file, or let gitweb autogenerate
  >clone / fetch URL from base URL

I don't get it. I'm talking specifically about gitweb bundled into git
package by default. It was bundled as i understand to provide full
solution (I don't see any other reason). What the heck is wrong with
continuing to move in this direction? I'm not talking about to enforce
gitweb usage, but just simplify the setup and configuration of a tool
provided by default...
If the user chooses default solution, what is wrong with providing
some usable way of doing things?
Don't want to use git clone, fine. But, please, please save me from
rebuilding gitweb, creating manually those files and putting info
inside... It is 21st century or what?;)


 >* gitosis / gitlite configuration, if needed, or setup of public keys
  >for SSH authentication

Are they included into git bundle? I didn't see those tools there...

 >* project README.html file, if used
>etc.

Yes, I might be stubborn, but is just because i feel that i can
contribute into making git better, although I'm not a developer. And i
think usability is the thing which all beginners would thank you
for... i understand that this issue is not the end of the world and i
will finally overcome the burden, i will develop my script and stuff,
I hope somebody would support me in this:)

Thanks,
Eugene

Re: gitweb - bare repos integration - owner info in description file

[Miklos Vajna]

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On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 05:48:14PM -0400, Eugene Sajine <euguess@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes, I might be stubborn, but is just because i feel that i can
> contribute into making git better, although I'm not a developer.

In a distrubuted environment, there is no need to define who is a
developer and who is not. And contributing is allowed to anyone as long
as you sign the Develoer's Certificate of Origin. :)

(See
http://repo.or.cz/w/git.git?a=blob;f=Documentation/SubmittingPatches;hb=HEAD)

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Re: gitweb - bare repos integration - owner info in description file

[Petr Baudis]

On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 05:48:14PM -0400, Eugene Sajine wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Somebody from development camp recently complained here that there is
> no many end users "chiming" about issues in the mailing list. Well,
> don't tell i didn't try;)
> 
> First I tried to use gitweb.url, gitweb.description and gitweb.owner
> files and none of them worked... gitweb is unable to pickup the info
> from those files.
> 
> Although it successfully interactively picks up info from description
> and cloneurl files. I didn't find a substitution for gitweb.owner...
> 
> I might be sent to RTFM again, but i would like to bring an attention
> to the fact that setting up bare repo with these simplest parameters
> as well as setting up gitweb is a USABILITY NIGHTMARE for beginners. I
> would even say more: while gitweb is very flexible and powerful, all
> its flexibility and power is hidden behind unusable management
> interface, which IMHO requires a lot of improvements . Rebuilding to
> configure? Perl look-and-feel for configuration variables? I think
> this is not the way to configure web applications no matter how smart
> and flexible application should be. There are some problems with XML,
> I don't care. Let's use simple property file. 1 property file! and let
> gitweb read it. don;t like this solution, propose yours..

I think you got confused by perhaps unclear gitweb/README wording. There
is a single property file, it's called "config" and _that's_ where you
set the gitweb configuration variables, in its gitweb section.

Try running

	git config gitweb.owner "Eugene Sajine"
	git config gitweb.description tralala

within the repository (and optionally marveling at the config file again
afterwards). Is this what you are after?

Perhaps the gitweb/README file doesn't make it clear enough that these
are gitweb configuration variables, not stand-alone files, and maybe it
should provide an example on how to set them. I'm sure that if you will
submit a patch for gitweb/README clarifying this, it will be welcome.

Kind regards,

-- 
				Petr "Pasky" Baudis
A lot of people have my books on their bookshelves.
That's the problem, they need to read them. -- Don Knuth

Re: gitweb - bare repos integration - owner info in description file

[Eugene Sajine]

>
> I think you got confused by perhaps unclear gitweb/README wording. There
> is a single property file, it's called "config" and _that's_ where you
> set the gitweb configuration variables, in its gitweb section.
>
> Try running
>
>        git config gitweb.owner "Eugene Sajine"
>        git config gitweb.description tralala
>
> within the repository (and optionally marveling at the config file again
> afterwards). Is this what you are after?
>
> Perhaps the gitweb/README file doesn't make it clear enough that these
> are gitweb configuration variables, not stand-alone files, and maybe it
> should provide an example on how to set them. I'm sure that if you will
> submit a patch for gitweb/README clarifying this, it will be welcome.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> --
>                                Petr "Pasky" Baudis
> A lot of people have my books on their bookshelves.
> That's the problem, they need to read them. -- Don Knuth
>

Thank you for the advice, but I found a better solution than gitweb - cgit!

I should say cgit is an amazing tool - nice design and graphic
appearance, easy to set up and very easy to maintain, full of features
and fits our environment nicely. Many thanks to the Author (Lars
Hjemli) and all contributors!

Eugene