[GSAS-II] GSAS-II migrating to GitHub

Fri Apr 5 11:38:17 CDT 2024

To GSAS-II Users,

   For the last few months, I have been working to move the GSAS-II code from being hosted on an older Argonne-hosted subversion (svn) server to a much more modern platform, GitHub. There are a lot of advantages to GitHub, in that it provides a much more collaborative environment for software development. With GitHub, anyone interested can make their own hosted copy of the code ("forking the repo”), work on it and then provide their changes back via a “pull request” to the main GSAS-II developers, where the changes can be reviewed and integrated. This helps us move towards the community support model for software development that has allowed projects such as Matplotlib and even Python and Linux to prosper. One other nice benefit of GitHub is that it offers an issue tracker (see https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://advancedphotonsource.github.io/GSAS-II-tutorials/bug.html__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!dAorx8G9YI4ptDIky5djLcFpZJz3JvWY4t5yEz37yphd41K8FvXbK2VZNwM8ruFwnGWDKZuRxUZgymM$ ), so bugs and enhancement requests can be logged and discussed. I have started moving items from my personal requests and ideas file there.

    There has been a lot of work behind the scenes on this, since GSAS-II was so tightly integrated into subversion and because of requests the directory organization used for the files was changed to follow the design used for most Python software, but all the functionality previously available has been reimplemented. The scripts for installation, updates and tutorial viewing had to be extensively revised and new self-installers created (https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://github.com/AdvancedPhotonSource/GSAS-II-buildtools/releases/latest__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!dAorx8G9YI4ptDIky5djLcFpZJz3JvWY4t5yEz37yphd41K8FvXbK2VZNwM8ruFwnGWDKZuRx5yPaNI$ ). We also have a new web site (https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://gsasii.github.io__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!dAorx8G9YI4ptDIky5djLcFpZJz3JvWY4t5yEz37yphd41K8FvXbK2VZNwM8ruFwnGWDKZuRKfSCHs8$ ). Also, new versions of the conda packages at briantoby::gsas2pkg. No doubt there are some new bugs.

    The new location of the GSAS-II code is here: https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://github.com/AdvancedPhotonSource/GSAS-II__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!dAorx8G9YI4ptDIky5djLcFpZJz3JvWY4t5yEz37yphd41K8FvXbK2VZNwM8ruFwnGWDKZuRXRSIUjs$ . A similar repository is used to handle the GSAS-II tutorials and web documentation, here: https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://github.com/AdvancedPhotonSource/GSAS-II-tutorials__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!dAorx8G9YI4ptDIky5djLcFpZJz3JvWY4t5yEz37yphd41K8FvXbK2VZNwM8ruFwnGWDKZuRSsUGgtY$ , and finally there is a third repo for building and downloading binary files https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://github.com/AdvancedPhotonSource/GSAS-II-buildtools__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!dAorx8G9YI4ptDIky5djLcFpZJz3JvWY4t5yEz37yphd41K8FvXbK2VZNwM8ruFwnGWDKZuR4uW2xjk$ .

  Another advantage of GitHub is that the website can automate actions after file changes. For now, that has been implemented just for the documentation. The web pages and tutorials, as well as the GSAS-II Developer’s Manual, are updated anytime that information is changed. I hope to do the same for generation of the installation kits and binaries eventually. Also, when the new version of GSAS-II is started it automatically downloads and “stages” updates from GitHub to be ready to install. The download happens in the background, so you will not notice any change, other than that GSAS-II will be able tell you how many updates are waiting to be installed. Just as now, no updates will be made unless you ask for them.

   To switch to the GitHub-based version of GSAS-II, all one needs to do is to reinstall with the new installers (See these instructions: https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://advancedphotonsource.github.io/GSAS-II-tutorials/install.html__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!dAorx8G9YI4ptDIky5djLcFpZJz3JvWY4t5yEz37yphd41K8FvXbK2VZNwM8ruFwnGWDKZuROJXTPNw$ ). My proposal for timing the transition is as follows: for April 2024 we will consider the GitHub version of GSAS-II and new installers as experimental. In May 2024, they will become the preferred method for GSAS-II installation, but the old svn installers will not be removed and the code on the subversion server will be kept in sync with the code on the GitHub site, so that the GSAS-II will be largely the same after updates, regardless of how it was installed. Sometime in the summer a warning message will be added to the svn version of the software say that GSAS-II should be reinstalled and sometime after that GSAS-II updates via svn will end.

For the present, I would like to ask users to consider downloading the new git-hosted version of the GSAS-II software and test it. I would like to clear up any new bugs with that quickly. You do not need to delete the existing GSAS-II software that you already have installed, so you can compare operation between versions for the two sources. Please do let us know your experience with this.

Brian

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