From dec361641e4a23a2700fa2b61f03cde85fc1400a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Brandon Rozek Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2023 12:56:33 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] New post --- content/blog/mirror-public-repositories.md | 52 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 52 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/blog/mirror-public-repositories.md diff --git a/content/blog/mirror-public-repositories.md b/content/blog/mirror-public-repositories.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6b9d11 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/blog/mirror-public-repositories.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +--- +title: "Mirror Public Repositories" +date: 2023-11-22T12:28:13-05:00 +draft: false +tags: [] +math: false +medium_enabled: false +--- + +Git is designed to be decentralized. However, many people treat it as a centralized solution by depending on services such as GitHub. What we've seen through the [youtube-dl debacle](https://www.zdnet.com/article/riaa-blitz-takes-down-18-github-projects-used-for-downloading-youtube-videos/) is that repositories that we depend on can be taken down. + +This isn't to say that GitHub is evil and that we should move to Bitbucket, Gitlab, Source Hut, etc. But this is more of a commentary on what happens when we depend on one service to host our code. Git is designed to be decentralized, we should make use of that fact! + +Also, alleged illegal activity is not the only reason repositories are taken down from the Internet. Sometimes, the [developer themselves](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/23/npm_left_pad_chaos/) decide to take it down. + +As individuals, we can maintain mirrors of repositories we care about. That way if it ever gets removed from a particular service, we're not out of luck. + +The simplest way to go about this is to `git clone` the repositories you care about, and regularly `pull` through a cron job or systemd timer. Through systemd maybe it'll look like this: + +`/etc/systemd/system/refresh-hugo.service` + +```ini +[Unit] +Description=Pull latest changes from Hugo + +[Service] +Type=oneshot +WorkingDirectory=/home/brandonrozek/repo/hugo +ExecStart=/usr/bin/git pull + +[Install] +WantedBy=multi-user.target +``` + +`/etc/systemd/system/refresh-hugo.timer` + +```ini +[Unit] +Description=Pull latest changes from Hugo every week +Requires=refresh-hugo.service + +[Timer] +Unit=refresh-hugo.service +OnCalendar=weekly +Persistent=true + +[Install] +WantedBy=timers.target +``` + +Alternatively, you can use a self-hosted git server instance such as [Forgejo](https://forgejo.org/) to set up pull mirrors through the migration tool. As of the time of writing, this is what I currently do with repositories at https://git.brandonrozek.com/github +