No longer prepared to svn commit: WebKit migrates to GitHub
(2022/09/01)
- Reference: 1662041774
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/09/01/webkit_migrates/
- Source link:
Apple web rendering engine WebKit, the basis of its Safari browser, is migrating to Git.
The project will now adopt the Git tool for version tracking and the GitHub service as host for its source code. It previously used Apache's [1]source code management system, Subversion (aka svn).
The project said it froze its Subversion tree and transitioned management and interaction with its source code to the free and open-source software on GitHub on June 23.
[2]
By moving platforms, Apple WebKit ops engineer Jonathan Bedard said the project can take advantage of Git's distributed nature and its large community, thus allowing multiple orgs to collaborate. Moving commits is also easier on Git.
[3]
[4]
“Git’s local record of commit messages, along with Git log’s ability to limit commit history to certain parts of the repository, mean large projects no longer require antiquated ChangeLog files be checked in with each commit,” [5]said Bedard.
And as many new contributors to the WebKit project preferred to use git-svn mirrors, the transition was considered easy when it came to existing tools and workflows and users had many options.
[6]Programmers' Question Time: Tiptoe through the tuples
[7]JavaScript, GitHub, AWS crowned winners in massive survey of 32,000 developers
[8]Google, Apple squash exploitable browser bugs
[9]Microsoft delays controversial ban on paid-for open source, WebKit in app store
What users may find frustrating with the move is that git hashes are not naturally ordered, so WebKit will be employing a system of "commit identifiers" to keep track of ancestors. WebKit has a "zero-tolerance performance regression" policy, meaning no patch can land if it regresses benchmarked performance.
And while many developers are asking why such a migration took so long, not all think it's a great idea.
[10]
"GitHub has had more than 50 outages this year alone, and has a rocky history of recourse-lessly banning users from countries that are sanctioned by the United States. Switching to github makes no sense if 'The WebKit project is interested in contributions and feedback from developers around the world'," commented one [11]user on tech forum hackernews.
Others have expressed how nightmarish the transition to Git can be, even if the end product is smoother.
But as one user put it: "Given that GitHub is a somewhat universally understood host that people seem to like, and it has all that UI/development integration that people like it kind of makes sense to just use that. It also seems that having GitHub accounts is increasingly widely spread so contributors would not necessarily have to create yet another account with yet another service." ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://theregister.com/2020/02/28/apaches_celebrates_20_years_of_subversion/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/devops&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YxDXGFzD-6dkP@N84De70AAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[5] https://webkit.org/blog/13140/webkit-on-github/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2019/05/23/verity_stob_column_may/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/16/jetbrains_developer_survey_2021/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/17/google_chrome_bug/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/08/microsoft_store_open_source_webkit/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/devops&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YxDXGFzD-6dkP@N84De70AAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32668580
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The project will now adopt the Git tool for version tracking and the GitHub service as host for its source code. It previously used Apache's [1]source code management system, Subversion (aka svn).
The project said it froze its Subversion tree and transitioned management and interaction with its source code to the free and open-source software on GitHub on June 23.
[2]
By moving platforms, Apple WebKit ops engineer Jonathan Bedard said the project can take advantage of Git's distributed nature and its large community, thus allowing multiple orgs to collaborate. Moving commits is also easier on Git.
[3]
[4]
“Git’s local record of commit messages, along with Git log’s ability to limit commit history to certain parts of the repository, mean large projects no longer require antiquated ChangeLog files be checked in with each commit,” [5]said Bedard.
And as many new contributors to the WebKit project preferred to use git-svn mirrors, the transition was considered easy when it came to existing tools and workflows and users had many options.
[6]Programmers' Question Time: Tiptoe through the tuples
[7]JavaScript, GitHub, AWS crowned winners in massive survey of 32,000 developers
[8]Google, Apple squash exploitable browser bugs
[9]Microsoft delays controversial ban on paid-for open source, WebKit in app store
What users may find frustrating with the move is that git hashes are not naturally ordered, so WebKit will be employing a system of "commit identifiers" to keep track of ancestors. WebKit has a "zero-tolerance performance regression" policy, meaning no patch can land if it regresses benchmarked performance.
And while many developers are asking why such a migration took so long, not all think it's a great idea.
[10]
"GitHub has had more than 50 outages this year alone, and has a rocky history of recourse-lessly banning users from countries that are sanctioned by the United States. Switching to github makes no sense if 'The WebKit project is interested in contributions and feedback from developers around the world'," commented one [11]user on tech forum hackernews.
Others have expressed how nightmarish the transition to Git can be, even if the end product is smoother.
But as one user put it: "Given that GitHub is a somewhat universally understood host that people seem to like, and it has all that UI/development integration that people like it kind of makes sense to just use that. It also seems that having GitHub accounts is increasingly widely spread so contributors would not necessarily have to create yet another account with yet another service." ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://theregister.com/2020/02/28/apaches_celebrates_20_years_of_subversion/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/devops&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YxDXGFzD-6dkP@N84De70AAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/devops&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YxDXGFzD-6dkP@N84De70AAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/devops&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YxDXGFzD-6dkP@N84De70AAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://webkit.org/blog/13140/webkit-on-github/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2019/05/23/verity_stob_column_may/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/16/jetbrains_developer_survey_2021/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/17/google_chrome_bug/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/08/microsoft_store_open_source_webkit/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/devops&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YxDXGFzD-6dkP@N84De70AAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32668580
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Apple stepping back?
Charlie Clark
Sounds like a prelude to disengaging from the project.
Re: Apple stepping back?
Yet Another Anonymous coward
Especially since they are effectively handing over control to Microsoft.
Re: Apple stepping back?
Charlie Clark
That's not really true: Microsoft just provides the hosting for the main repo + services. There's no transfer of ownership and they're already welded to Blink but it may give them more data to mine…
It's a little sad to see the article start with "Apple-developed web rendering engine..."
The reason even the most up to date Chrome and Safari browsers still have KHTML in their user-agent header is because of the KDE heritage.
Were it not for The Kalle Dalheimer Experience project (KDE for the uninitiated) and their bold move to go and build a HTML rendering engine the right way rather than trying to shoe-horn the Mozilla hodgepodge into a working browser application, there wouldn't have been a Konqueror browser with a KHTML rendering engine that was so good that when Apple wanted to build a browser they actually chose it as their base and said "we can build on this".
So yeah, Apple invested massively in this. But they did not start it, and had it not been for the KDE project and the amazing Konqueror initiative, Apple might well have chosen to build on Mozilla and who knows what Google might have done (instead of building on webkit) for Chrome... The world surely would have been a darker place and my point is I just think KDE should get a bit of credit for that.