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Transition to GitHub as authoritative version control system

Key Investigators

• Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin (Kitware, Inc.)
• Andras Lasso (Queen’s University)
• Steve Pieper (Isomics, Inc.)

Project Description

Work toward finalizing the conversion from

Slicer SVN repository mirror mirrored on GitHub

to

GitHub only repository

Objective

1. Objective A. Remove all large binary data from current Slicer source version and filter history removing large data from past commits and restore authorship
2. Objective B. Document how developers can upload binary data, and update release process as needed. (based on ITK great documentation)
3. Objective C. Publish updated repository

Approach and Plan

1. See plan documented on the wiki Labs page. See https://www.slicer.org/wiki/Documentation/Labs/TransitionToGit

Progress and Next Steps

Discussion Summary

Copied from Slicer 5 breakout session page

• Rename Slicer -> SlicerGitSVNArchive
• Publish updated history as SlicerGit
  • when ready to switch: Rename SlicerGit to Slicer
• Transition scripts
  • Update commit message to change link from https://github.com/Slicer/Slicer/pull/N to https://github.com/Slicer/SlicerGitSVNArchive/pull/N
  • Add new trailer called: svn-url: http://viewvc.slicer.org/viewvc.cgi/Slicer4?view=revision&revision=REV
• Create FAQ document to explain how and why to re-fork, etc …
• Extract list of all contributors and ask on discourse which emails is preferred
• Mantis:
  • Create redirect from mantisarchive.slicer.org/view.php?id=4681 to https://issues.slicer.org/view.php?id=4681

Post-release Action items:

• Mantis:
  • Create static website with archived mantis issues
  • Ensure mantisarchive.slicer.org/view.php?id=4681 redirects to that website
• SVN:
  • Question: Should we create a static website for http://viewvc.slicer.org/viewvc.cgi/Slicer4?view=revision&revision=28742 or have redirect to the corresponding commit on GitHub

Technical Achievements

1. Generated list of files to remove from the history
2. Created script to remove files and add them to GIT_MIGRATION_DATA_REMOVED.txt. Script is executed using git filter-branch --tree-filter
3. Created git-rocket-filter scripts for:
   • consolidating git trailers, set author name and email based on “From:”
   • fixing authorship
4. Created script to graft release branches onto filter master branch
5. See https://github.com/jcfr/Slicer-github-transition-scripts

Illustrations

Background and References

• ITK documentation
  • ITK Data
  • Uploading binary data in ITK
• CMake ExternalData: Using Large Files with Distributed Version Control
• PR #1158: Reduce source tree size downloading test data from 114MB to 74MB (35% decrease)
• Slicer Wiki: Labs
• git_list_largest_file_from_history
  • git_list_largest_file_from_history.sh
  • slicer_git_history_350_largest_files.txt
• 02_Update_Slicer_CLI_buildsystem_to_download_test_data_from_midas.ipynb