[ocaml-infra] new Github projects under the "ocaml" organization

[Anil Madhavapeddy]

On 7 Dec 2016, at 14:15, Xavier Leroy <Xavier.Leroy at inria.fr> wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I hope this is the right list to ask this question:

Dear Xavier,

This is indeed the correct list.

> What are the policy and the procedure to create (or migrate) projects
> to Github under the /ocaml/ organization?

So far, the policy has been any project that is reasonably needed
for the operation of the ocaml.org infrastructure. Some of them are
obvious:

https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml.org
https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml.org-media
https://github.com/ocaml/opam
https://github.com/ocaml/opam-depext
https://github.com/ocaml/opam-file-format
https://github.com/ocaml/infrastructure
https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml-logo
https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml.org-scripts
https://github.com/ocaml/opam2web
https://github.com/ocaml/opam-rt
https://github.com/ocaml/platform-blog

Then there are libraries which are necessary for transitional purposes,
such as https://github.com/ocaml/uchar.

When we first created the GitHub org, it was also the home for
some popular community libraries:

https://github.com/ocaml/oasis
https://github.com/ocaml/oasis2opam
https://github.com/ocaml/oasis2debian
https://github.com/ocaml/oasis-db
https://github.com/ocaml/omd

More recently of course, the OCaml compiler and its tools have 
also started moving over:

https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml
https://github.com/ocaml/camlp4
https://github.com/ocaml/tuareg
https://github.com/ocaml/ocamlbuild
https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml-manual

So now that we have been using GitHub for a few years, there
is quite an array of libraries on the ocaml/ organisation, and
possibly time to do a garbage collection and disaggregate the
namespace if necessary.

> The reason I ask is that there are a number of OCaml projects
> residing currently on forges like forge.ocamlcore.org and that are
> considering moving to Github.  There are also parts of the core OCaml
> distribution that should move to independent projects, again
> preferably on Github.
> 
> Some of those projects fit well in the /ocaml/ organization but not
> all of them can be accommodated there, I'm afraid.
> 
> So, what is the policy?  how to request a new /ocaml/xxx project?
> who takes the decision?

Technically speaking, you own the final say on the namespace,
so you make the decision in case of conflict :-)  In practise, we've
just discussed it on a per-project basis and made hopefully sensible
decisions so far without bothering you.

> Personally, pretty soon I'll need an /ocaml/num or /ocaml/bignums
> project to host the otherlibs/num library that is currently part of
> the core OCaml distro.  I think /ocaml/zarith would make a lot of
> sense too, but I need to discuss with the other ZArith authors first.

It would be great to keep the [libraries formerly in the compiler
distribution] underneath the ocaml/ organisation.  There is also
precedent for moving important core libraries such as Zarith into
ocaml/

As a separate step, it may make sense to move some of the
OPAM infrastructure into a separate organisation, since OPAM2
is now more OCaml-independent than it ever has been.

I see no reason to tightly couple these decisions -- it would be
good to get repositories established for the disaggregated portions
of the distributions as soon as possible.  You should have admin
rights on the organisation to do this, and I can of course assist
as you need and ensure that the ACLs are correct or the new
repositories.

regards,
Anil