- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@derp.foo
- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@derp.foo
For a long time Firefox Desktop development has supported both Mercurial and Git users. This dual SCM requirement places a significant burden on teams which are already stretched thin in parts. We have made the decision to move Firefox development to Git.
- We will continue to use Bugzilla, moz-phab, Phabricator, and Lando
- Although we’ll be hosting the repository on GitHub, our contribution workflow will remain unchanged and we will not be accepting Pull Requests at this time
- We’re still working through the planning stages, but we’re expecting at least six months before the migration begins
APPROACH
In order to deliver gains into the hands of our engineers as early as possible, the work will be split into two components: developer-facing first, followed by piecemeal migration of backend infrastructure.
Phase One - Developer Facing
We’ll switch the primary repository from Mercurial to Git, at the same time removing support for Mercurial on developers’ workstations. At this point you’ll need to use Git locally, and will continue to use moz-phab to submit patches for review.
All changes will land on the Git repository, which will be unidirectionally synchronised into our existing Mercurial infrastructure.
Phase Two - Infrastructure
Respective teams will work on migrating infrastructure that sits atop Mercurial to Git. This will happen in an incremental manner rather than all at once.
By the end of this phase we will have completely removed support of Mercurial from our infrastructure.
… which is part of why they aren’t using GitHubs pull request feature to land changes?
Meaning they’re planning/considering to in the future.
That is not what that means
deleted by creator
You should try being a native English reader.
What it means is “they will not be accepting pull requests at this time.” Whether or not they are open to changing this in the future is not specified. They have not specifically stated that this is off the table, nor have they stated this is their intent.
deleted by creator
No. They’re just not publicly saying it’s off the table. Whether they’re entertaining it internally is a totally different question.
deleted by creator
Okay? Is this supposed to change something?
And I’m sure you’ve got a long history of submitting patches to Firefox given your strong opinions on the process Mozilla uses to manage this?
Nobody here needs “a long history of submitting patches to Firefox” to have an opinion on the tools used to manage the project. I assume that most here sharing their opinion don’t and yet you need not scroll far. You merely need some knowledge and experience with the tools, be it in personal, corporate, FOSS, etc. projects. Besides I don’t spend my free time helping FOSS projects just to use it to be like “my opinion better” that’s literally just the “appeal to authority fallacy”. But if you must know, I have helped here and there throughout the years under various different aliases/accounts. (Why “various aliases”? because I enjoy helping not some meaningless credit, it’s just how I am.)
So what you are saying is that as someone who has never worked on the Firefox codebase, you still somehow know more about managing contributions to one of the largest FOSS projects in the world that has been running pretty successfully for the last 25 years?
Idk, maybe try a bit of humility - like if it looks like they are making a weird decision, maybe it’s not because they are dumb and you are very smart, maybe it’s because they know stuff that you don’t?
First off, not what I said.
Second off, I never called them dumb. I actually happen to have a good relationship with them, so I take offense to what you’re implying. I mearly stated that I don’t like GitHub and gave some legitimate reasons. Which btw : Maybe the one who should learn humility is you.