GitLab Launch

[Chris Johns]

Hi RTEMS Community.

We will be launching GitLab during the 1st May 2024. You can access RTEMS GitLab
(RGL) at:

  https://gitlab.rtems.org/

Account creation will be enabled on the 1st May 2024.

The goal of the move to GitLab is to modernise our workflow reducing the burden
of merging patches into our project and making it easier to send in changes. We
are excited to accept merge requests in GitLab and we hope this brings more
people into the project and it encourages users to submit back to the project.

The move to Gitlab means we need to change our workflow. You will need a GitLab
account with 2FA and if you wish to create merge requests you will need to add
an SSH key. Additionally, some repos have changed names and the URL in any repos
you currently have cloned will need updating. The issues in Trac have been moved
to GitLab and may need review and updating.

The development list (devel*..) will no longer be used for patches. Any patches
are not merged from devel@ will need to be turned into a merge request to be
merged. Discussions about patches can happen in merge requests.

I will be sending the following emails to help explains the steps you need work
through and how things will work:

 1. Signing on to RTEMS GitLab
 2. RTEMS Project Repos in GitLab
 3. RTEMS Issues in GitLab
 4. Workflows and Merge Requests

These emails are an introduction. Our documentation is a work in progress and we
ask you to consider creating merge requests to update it if things are missing
or not clear. We welcome contributions from the community to get this work
completed. What we present at the beginning is a starting point.

With GitLab active we can finish some remaining server upgrade work. We will be
taking service2.rtems.org down to upgrade it. The server currently hosts Trac,
docs, mailman web, cgit and more. We were asked by OSU OSL, who host our
servers, to do this and it has taken us a couple of years to get to a point we
can. I would like to thank Lance at OSU OSL for his patience and understanding.
I personally appreciate this and I am sure the community does as well.

This is not the end of the server work we would like to do however it is the end
of the current funding. If you would like to donate to help support the server
work please reach out to Joel and I. The funding can be handled confidentially
if that is important. We need funding to improve the services we provide so
please consider helping.

Finally I would like to thank Amar for his hard work and diligence in bringing
this all together. I appreciate the hours you have put in. Awesome effort. I
would also like to thank Joel, Gedare and Kinsey for putting in the hours each
week over the past months to help make this happen.

If you need help please join the #gitlab-support channel on our Discord server.
It is open to posts and questions. You can find our invite link here
https://www.rtems.org/discord. We will also respond to posts on this list when
we have the time.

Regards
Chris Johns
RTEMS GitLab Team