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On 37-01--10 03:59 PM, Aryeh Gregor wrote:
IMO, we want git hosting on Wikimedia servers.
That seems sensible to me too.
Has anyone looked at the Gerrit code review tool for git[1]? I have been playing with it recently, and I think it may provide a good tool for the development model you use for MediaWiki.
Gerrit allows any authorized user to submit changes to the repository, rather than requiring changes to be merged by lieutenants or the dictator. Code is kept in a special branch until reviewed and approved for integration (may be merge-if-necessary, always-merge, fast-forward only, or cherry-pick). This can be automatically replicated to external git repositories, such as github, and loose integration with gitweb is possible.
Users can comment on a particular line of code, or the commit as a whole. Administrators can control which users have which level of access in submitting changes for merge. This hierarchy can be levelled out almost totally, or ramped up as needed on a per-project basis.
I think this makes much more sense than having your standard code review process involve committing changes then having a reviewer revert the bad ones. That has always seemed ... "strange" ... to me.
If improving code review is a goal of any change in VCS used, then using an actual code review tool seems to make sense. I think Git and Gerrit are worth looking at if this talk (again) of moving off SVN is serious. But note that as a non-MW-dev, I don't have to live with any of the consequences, so maybe I'm full of it! :D
- -Mike
[1] http://code.google.com/p/gerrit/