[Savannah-hackers] Re: The Linux Kernel/BitKeeper Issue and how to Resolve It

[Shlomi Fish]

On 17 Nov 2002, Mathieu Roy wrote:

> Shlomi Fish <address@hidden> said:
>
> > On Sun, 17 Nov 2002, Richard Stallman wrote:
> >
> > >     > Would you like to do the work of making some other VC system run on
> > >     > savannah.gnu.org?
> > >
> > >     With pleasure! But I'll need ssh access to the system, and a path 
> > > where I
> > >     can install Apache 2.0, libdb-4.0, and Subversion itself system-wide.
> > >
> > > Savannah is our CVS hosting site.  It is already running Apache and
> > > many other things.  You can't expect to install some other VC system
> > > there as if you were operating on a blank machine!  You would have
> > > to study the software that is running there now, and figure out how
> > > to change it to support multiple VC systems.
> > >
> >
> > I know that. What I did on my workstations is run Apache 2.0 on a
> > different port (8080). I can install db-4.0 on a dedicated path (say
> > /usr/local/apps/db-4.0/ ) and then link Apache 2.0 against it and again
> > install under a different path, and configure it to run under different
> > HTTP and HTTPS ports that usual. Then, I can install subversion linked
> > against the db 4.0 and compiled to run with this apache.
>
> I do not get why you need apache 2.0.
>

Because Subversion requires it. It's mod_dav_svn only works with the
mod_dav of Apache 2.0.

> But:
>
> - We currently run apache-ssl 1.3 and by reading some mails about Apache
> 2.x, it seems un unmature product, according apparently to his own
> authors.
>
> - It's generally a bad idea to install concurrent version off the same
> software on a server.
>
> - We do not install packages from sources on Savannah (on only on
> very special cases). It's a bad idea to forget to rely on Debian
> maintainers that generally do good job... And a bad idea to forget
> that a software like Apache will need to be updated easily once
> security holes will be found (and it will happens).
>
> And finally, Subversion run Debian stable, and since it's a production
> server, we should keep it that way.
>

You probably meant that Savannah run Debian stable.

> So personally, I'm not agree with your plans. A service proposed on
> Savannah should be dependant only on production/mature softwares, and
> db4 and apache 2 does not fit to this description.
>
> But it's up to Loic to make a decision.
>

Subversion necessitates Apache 2.0 and Berkeley DB 4.0.x. They can safely
be installed on different directories (/usr/local/apps/db-4.0 and
/usr/local/apps/apache2) and run on different ports. Maybe there are
Debian packages available somewhere but I don't know how straightforward
it would be to install them.

>
> > > It is not clear that we want to use Subversion.  We might rather
> > > use Aegis and/or Arch.  They are both GPL-covered, and we prefer
> > > to use GPL-covered software rather than non-GPL-covered free
> > > software when given the choice.
> >
> > Aegis needs to run as SUID-root, and some people may find its
> > process counter-intuitive and an overkill for what they want to
> > do. It is a complete SCM rather than a simple revision control
> > system.
> >
> > I installed Arch. As opposed to subversion it does not support file copies
> > and furthermore, it is very slow to work with.
> >
> > Subversion is fully free software, so I don't see a problem here. I
> > believe most people accustomed to CVS will find it the most appealing.
>
>
> Note that we refuse hosting project licensed with the apache style
> license, for compatibilities with GPLed project issues, and subversion
> use that license.
>

Subversion already has its own hosting at Collab.Net. I'm trying to get
licensing for GPL-compatible free software projects that wish to use
Subversion as their revision control tool.

Regards,

        Shlomi Fish

>
>
> Regards,
>
>



----------------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish        address@hidden
Home Page:         http://t2.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/

He who re-invents the wheel, understands much better how a wheel works.