a-sf-mirror

Infrastructure

code archiving mirror

SHOW HN2015

a-sf-mirror

Effort to clone unmaintained SourceForge projects to GitHub

a-sf-mirror.github.io

#sourceforge#github#archive#cvs#mirror

146points
82comments
#143of 2,565 in 2015
Top 6%of 2015 by points

How HN took it

DebatedReal support and real criticism

5 positive, 7 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 7 critical, out of 19 comments about the project. Thread score -0.06.

Idea: 4 for, 5 againstExecution: 1 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Valuable effort to preserve obscure source code

    From 3 comments
    • Nice. I agree with what the others are saying, there's a lot of source code for solving obscure programs that is only on Sourceforge. One example I found recently is a program…
      jmkni on HN
    • Honestly, this is a serious issue for my field. There are so many obscure academic binaries hosted on SF... I hope someone manages to mirror them. [The fact that a lot of the…
      Osmium on HN
    • Yes, this is a more challenging and potentially risky one. I think you're taking the right approach by capturing the code and the history. In fact, I think you're going above and…
      caseysoftware on HN

Objections

  • GitHub is a commercial provider and may not last

    From 2 comments
    • Why Github? Copying from one commercial provider to another doesn't solve the fundamental problem. Using git helps, but most of those old repos will never get cloned. In 10 years…
      pavlov on HN
    • This seems much more like a temporary fix, not really a solution. A few years from now GitHub can do the same thing that sf did. This after all seems to be the fate of commercial…
      coliveira on HN
  • Binaries are not mirrored

    From 1 comment
    • Why aren't you mirroring the binaries? These are vital for people in the future who do not have the time to set up a build environment for software from a decade ago. I'd also…
      TazeTSchnitzel on HN

Requests

  • Mirror binaries as well as source

    From 2 comments
    • Why aren't you mirroring the binaries? These are vital for people in the future who do not have the time to set up a build environment for software from a decade ago. I'd also…
      TazeTSchnitzel on HN
    • What about creating a torrent containing all these unmaintained SF projects (with binary downloads included)? This would dramatically increase the odds that the content is never…
      jaytaylor on HN
  • Support SVN repositories

    From 1 comment
    • > Currently, for each cloned project, we mirror its CVS repository and its website. Please add "SVN" (Subversion)
      frik on HN

Questions

  • Why GitHub rather than a neutral host

    From 2 comments
    • Why Github? Copying from one commercial provider to another doesn't solve the fundamental problem. Using git helps, but most of those old repos will never get cloned. In 10 years…
      pavlov on HN
    • Note 1: Moving things to GitHub or elsewhere does not remove them from SourceForge. So SF can continue to host and enjoy links on unmaintained websites, search engines etc. Note…
      egsec on HN

Alternatives named

  • Archive Team

    From 2 comments
    • Why aren't you mirroring the binaries? These are vital for people in the future who do not have the time to set up a build environment for software from a decade ago. I'd also…
      TazeTSchnitzel on HN
    • Nice! But in my opinion better help archiveteam with their efforts!
      lcswi on HN
  • GitLab

    From 2 comments
    • > Point me to a good alternative to github that matches all your ideals. A free alternative to github - free as in beer, unless you're willing to fund this effort yourself, of…
      yellowapple on HN
    • At GitLab you are very welcome. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
      sytse on HN
  • Savannah

    From 2 comments
    • savannah? In don't think it's a very good alternative and I subscribe to the "we'll fix ten years problems in ten years" but it doesn't have the same issues.
      riffraff on HN
    • > Point me to a good alternative to github that matches all your ideals. A free alternative to github - free as in beer, unless you're willing to fund this effort yourself, of…
      yellowapple on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

Add a badge to your READMEShown on HackerShow
[![Shown on HackerShow](https://hackershow.org/badge.svg)](https://hackershow.org/show/9789960)