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GitHub Configuration for IETF Working Groups
draft-ietf-git-github-wg-configuration-00

The information below is for an old version of the document.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 8875.
Authors Alissa Cooper , Paul E. Hoffman
Last updated 2019-03-01 (Latest revision 2019-02-13)
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
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Reviews
Additional resources Mailing list discussion
Stream WG state Adopted by a WG
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IESG IESG state Became RFC 8875 (Informational)
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draft-ietf-git-github-wg-configuration-00
wugh                                                           A. Cooper
Internet-Draft                                                     Cisco
Intended status: Informational                                P. Hoffman
Expires: August 17, 2019                                           ICANN
                                                       February 13, 2019

              GitHub Configuration for IETF Working Groups
               draft-ietf-git-github-wg-configuration-00

Abstract

   The use of GitHub in IETF working group processes is increasing.
   This document describes possible uses and conventions for working
   groups which are considering starting to use GitHub.  It does not
   mandate any processes, and does not intend to change the processes
   used by current working groups.

   Discussion of this document takes place on the ietf-and-github
   mailing list (ietf-and-github@ietf.org), which is archived at
   <https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/search?email_list=ietf-and-
   github>.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 17, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2019 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of

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   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Administrative Process and Conventions  . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Creation of GitHub Organizations  . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.2.  Migration of an Existing Organization . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.3.  Personnel Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.4.  Working Group Closing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.5.  Creation of Document Repository . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  Working Group Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.1.  Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.2.  Backing Up and Archiving GitHub Content . . . . . . . . .   5
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     6.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction

   Many IETF working groups and participants make use of GitHub in
   different ways as part of their work on IETF documents.  Some others
   are interested in having their working groups use GitHub to
   facilitate the development of working group documents, but they are
   unfamiliar with how to get started or they are unclear about which
   conventions to follow.

   This document proposes a set of administrative processes and
   conventions for IETF working groups to use if they chose as a working
   group to use GitHub to facilitate their work.  The proposals in this
   document are not directed at working groups or individuals that are
   already using GitHub to do IETF work.  Practices vary among existing
   working groups and some of them are not consistent with the
   conventions proposed here: that is fine.  The goal of the proposals
   in this document is not to require uniformity in current practice,
   but to help working groups to get started using GitHub in a uniform
   way if they want to.

   The document is meant to spur discussion in the IETF community.  If
   there proves to be rough consensus in the community in support of the

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   proposals in this document, the functional requirements would need to
   be discussed with the IETF Tools Team, and the IETF Secretariat who
   would need to support various pieces of what is proposed here.

2.  Administrative Process and Conventions

   This section specifies a proposal for an administrative process and
   conventions to support the creation and management of GitHub
   organizations for working groups and single-document repositories in
   a uniform way.  The steps could be done manually by the IETF
   Secretariat or they could be automated.  For example, see
   <https://github.com/richsalz/ietf-gh-scripts> and
   <https://github.com/martinthomson/i-d-template> for working examples
   of automation that is in use in some working groups.

   In this document the question of whether processes should be manual
   or automated is deliberately left ambiguous since the first question
   that should be asked is whether this is functionality the community
   would want to have supported at all.

   Most of the conventions below are drawn from
   [I-D.thomson-github-bcp].

2.1.  Creation of GitHub Organizations

   This document proposes that there be a facility in the IETF
   Datatracker (<https://datatracker.ietf.org/>) interface to allow an
   area director or working group chair to request the creation of a
   GitHub organization for a particular working group.  Ideally, this
   facility would appear both as part of the working group chartering UI
   as well as the working group page UI.

   When an area director or working group chair makes a request to
   create a GitHub organization, the following process would be
   initiated:

   1.  Create a GitHub organization for the working group.

   2.  Name the organization as ietf-<wgname>-wg

   3.  Initialize the organization by designating the IETF Secretariat
       and the area directors in the working group's area as owners.  If
       the responsible AD for the working group is from another area,
       that AD will be an owner as well.

   4.  Initialize the organization with a team that has administrator
       access.  This team will consist of the working group chairs and
       working group secretary, if one exists.

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   After the organization is created, the URL for the organization would
   be added to the working group's page in the datatracker.

   Steps 3 and 4 above imply that the GitHub identities of the
   organization owners and administrators are known.  Recording GitHub
   identities in the datatracker (see
   <https://trac.tools.ietf.org/tools/ietfdb/ticket/2548>) would
   facilitate this.  The person requesting the organization would need
   to be notified if the GitHub identities of any of the people meant to
   be owners or administrators were not available.

2.2.  Migration of an Existing Organization

   If a working group already has an organization, it would be useful to
   be able to make it have the same management as one would get with
   going through the steps in Section 2.1.  That is, it would be good to
   be able to run steps 3 and 4 from Section 2.1 so that the rest of the
   activities in this section such as personnel work the same for the
   organizations that were created on their own.

2.3.  Personnel Changes

   When there are personnel changes in the area or the working group,
   those changes would be reflected in the GitHub organization.  There
   should likely be an API to specify that there were personnel changes.
   [[ Need to do a bit of research on how to do this through the API, if
   possible. ]]

2.4.  Working Group Closing

   When a working group is closed, the team with administrative access
   would be removed and the owner list would be returned to its initial
   composition.  The organization summary and the repositories within
   the organization would be updated to indicate that they are no longer
   under development.

2.5.  Creation of Document Repository

   There are many different scenarios and configurations where it might
   be useful to have automation and/or established administrative
   conventions for repositories within WG organizations, such as:

   o  Creating a new repository for an individual draft that is at the
      discretion of the WG chair

   o  Creating a new repository for an already-adopted working group
      draft

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   o  Migrating an existing document repository into the WG organization

   o  Creating a new repository that contains multiple drafts

   As an incremental step, this document proposes that there be a
   facility in the Datatracker interface to allow an administrator of an
   ietf-<wgname>-wg organization to request the creation of a new
   repository within that organization for a single document.  The
   document authors would be identified as collaborators.  The
   repository name would be the draft name.  Ideally, the repository
   would be configured with an skeleton draft file, default
   CONTRIBUTING, LICENSE, and README files, and continuous integration
   support, in the vein of <https://github.com/martinthomson/
   i-d-template>.

3.  Working Group Process

   [I-D.thomson-github-bcp] contains discussion of the different
   possible ways that a working group can use GitHub and the large
   number of decisions associated with doing so.  This section proposes
   a basic set of administrative policies for working groups to follow
   and the administrative support needed to carry out those policies.

3.1.  Contributions

   At a minimum, every repository created in a working group
   organization needs to incorporate into its CONTRIBUTING file the
   boilerplate text at <https://trustee.ietf.org/license-for-open-
   source-repositories.html> from the IETF license file for open source
   repositories.  The CONTRIBUTING file can contain other information as
   well (see <https://github.com/ietf/repo-files/tree/master/
   contributing-samples> for examples).

   It would be useful if the user data in the Datatracker could list (at
   a minimum) the GitHub account of the user so that their contributions
   could be tracked more easily.

3.2.  Backing Up and Archiving GitHub Content

   IETF working group mailing lists are automatically backed up by the
   IETF Secretariat, and the archives are publicly available.  All
   official interactions in a WG must be archived.

   It would be good for working group GitHub content to also be backed
   up and publicly archived.  This document proposes using the git
   protocol [git-protocol] itself for both of these tasks.

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   Every IETF working group repository on GitHub will have a mirror
   repository of the same name on a server maintained by the IETF
   Secretariat.  Every hour, a service will use the "git fetch" command
   on every GitHub repository that is being tracked.  The mirror
   repository will allow anyone to read the repository.

   Note that this system will not back up GitHub issues or pull
   requests.  It is very likely that these should be backed up as well.
   The GitHub API possibly allows this; if so, the IETF Secretariat
   should back up those at the same time as it is backing up the GitHub
   repositories.

   [I-D.thomson-github-bcp] has more discussion of backing up and
   archiving.

4.  Security Considerations

   An attacker who can change the contents of Internet Drafts,
   particularly late in a working group's process, can possibly cause
   unnoticed changes in protocols that are eventually adopted.

5.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.

6.  References

6.1.  Normative References

   [git-protocol]
              "Git on the Server - The Protocols", n.d., <https://git-
              scm.com/book/en/v2/
              Git-on-the-Server-The-Protocols#The-Git-Protocol>.

6.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.thomson-github-bcp]
              Thomson, M. and A. Atlas, "Using GitHub at the IETF",
              draft-thomson-github-bcp-00 (work in progress), February
              2017.

Authors' Addresses

   Alissa Cooper
   Cisco

   Email: alcoop@cisco.com

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   Paul Hoffman
   ICANN

   Email: paul.hoffman@icann.org

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