1210001 - Determine next steps for ancient/unused github repos

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(mozilla.org :: Github: Administration, task)

Description

[hwine]

How do we deal with ancient and likely useless repos on github?
 - delete
 - archive somewhere (new org mozilla-history, or mozilla-archive)
 - do we move the upstream first?

Where do we notify? Who signs off?

So many questions!

Concrete example reported by :emorley:
    I've just spotted this repo:
    https://github.com/mozilla/mozilla-history

    ...it appears to be obsolete - is this correct?
    If it is obsolete I think it would be good to delete it.

Comment 1

[Ed Morley [:emorley]]

I've seen other orgs (and even people do it for their individual accounts on GitHub) use another org for old repos (eg mozilla-archive).

This:
* allows people to see a project is no longer maintained, before they waste time using it
* reduces false positives when using the search field on the main org page https://github.com/mozilla and other fields that search repos (eg the "add repo to team" search thing).
* doesn't break links, since GitHub automatically redirects: https://help.github.com/articles/transferring-a-repository/#redirects-and-git-remotes
* will presumably make it easier to prune unneeded org teams, since they'll be left with zero repositories associated with them (the Mozilla org currently has 377 public teams, even ignoring any hidden ones!)

In the case of mozilla-history specifically, since it's a duplicate of other repositories (any thus an edge-case in any new "GitHub repo EOL" policy) I guess concerns over deleting it are probably less - but mozilla-archive might be a good holding ground pending a decision :-)

Comment 2

[hwine]

GitHub now supports an "archive" operation[1] which is superior to what we could do ourselves:
 - no change in URL, so no worry about name reuse
 - blocks pull requests, which is not otherwise possible

The owners list is now actively debating the process issues raised in comment 0, so closing this issue.

Comment 3

[hwine]

The missing link from comment 2:

[1] https://github.com/blog/2460-archiving-repositories