[OpenWrt-Devel] OpenWrt / LEDE

[Jo-Philipp Wich]

Hi all,

I think the status quo has now been described several times and can be
summarized as:

 - Launching the new LEDE project/fork/reboot without discussing
   matters in advance with the developers not being involved was
   perceived in a hostile action damaging OpenWrt

 - It has been claimed that any changes implemented by LEDE can be
   likewise implemented in OpenWrt as well, obviously not 100%
   identically without prior discussion but at least in a way keeping
   original intents and spirits

 - Both sides expressed the wish to reunite on several occasions

I very much apologize for the huge surprise the LEDE project has been
to you and I do regret the fact that we didn't discuss it earlier with
you guys. Some of us got caught in the belief that building a new,
shiny sandpit according to our liking would be the better course of
action compared to drastically changing OpenWrt for something not
guaranteed to work in the long run.

That being said I still think that LEDE already is a success, at least
in my personal perception. When I mention "we" here I mean all the
people having participated in LEDE, regardless of affiliation or agenda.

Notable points are:

 - We managed to figure out workflows supporting both mailing-list /
   patchwork-driven development and a more contributor oriented pull
   request model

 - We figured out how to have a linear history without resorting to
   limiting ourselves to svn now (which was the sole argument for
   keeping it btw.)

 - We reworked the buildbots to be more efficient

 - We managed to quickly acquire donations, specifically regarding
   mirror space and build bot capacity

 - We based the web page on a Git repo and mirrored that to Github
   in order to let people contribute

 - We attempted to do everything publically [since the LEDE announcemnt]
   and retroactively published communication regarding the project
   implementation

 - We have between three to four people per server having root access,
   with at least one person not being affiliated with "the cabal"

On the other hand we didn't yet manage to:

 - Clearly communicate our past and future intents upfront and after
   the fact

 - Start a proper discussion with OpenWrt regarding the future direction
   of both projects

 - Untangle the infrastructure (wiki.openwrt.org, dev.openwrt.org,
   git.openwrt.org)


The weak effort on both sides in talking about both projects future
direction paralyzed progress for all of us and in the associated
communities so I'd very much like to reach at least some agreement or
definitive decision soon.

In order to underline my honest intention I'd like to give up
maintenance of the OpenWrt wiki and hand the data / SSH access over to
you guys so that you can migrate / maintain / rework it as you deem
fitting.

We're also still in possession of the secret build key for the CC
release used to sign the package repositories. I'd be glad to throw it
over the fence and assist you with using my package rebuild scripts to
push security updates.

Please tell me a contact and I'll provide the person with suitable
access.

I also still have root access to dev.openwrt.org hosting the Trac,
though you could reach out to Mirko as well to get access to the system.

Luka mentioned that OpenWrt plans to move to Github, we'd be very happy
if we could spare you the conversion work - we have a cleanly converted
repository available at https://git.lede-project.org/openwrt/source.git
which you could use as starting point for future developments - that
repository maps the historic SVN and CVS branch/tag structure as good
as possible to proper Git branches and tags. I also took some care in
converting svn committer nicknames to proper authors.

We did equivalent conversions for the old packages and old feeds svn
repositories in https://git.lede-project.org/openwrt/packages.git and
https://git.lede-project.org/openwrt/feeds.git .

Finally I'd like to hand over my non-root access to the OpenWrt
buildmaster which I'd hand over to interested OpenWrt people. I took
over maintenance for some time because Travis has been rather busy with
real life these days.

If there is truly some interest among the remaining OpenWrt folks to
reunite while adopting the visions and working modes of LEDE then
please speak up and tell us about your demands.


Best wishes,
Jo
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