Re: Linux-libre source code will be taken offline

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi!

Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name> skribis:

> According to the linux-libre team in the #gnu-linux-libre IRC channel on
> Libera.chat, all releases of linux-libre before 4.4.282, 4.9.281,
> 4.14.245, 4.19.205, 5.4.143, 5.10.61, and 5.13.13 will be deleted from
> their servers, and their Git repo is also going to be rewritten to
> remove them.
>
> So, if anybody wanted to build old versions of Guix System (or
> linux-libre based on old revisions of guix.git), some third party should
> preserve and mirror those files and the Git repo:
>
> https://linux-libre.fsfla.org/pub/linux-libre/releases/
> git://linux-libre.fsfla.org/releases.git

At the time you wrote this message (Sep. 4), I and others who were
present on IRC downloaded the tarballs to be on the safe side, so thanks
for the heads-up!

Now we have to see what’s available on berlin & co., and the extent to
which SWH can help with this situation.  So far I’m not sure about the
tarball contents, but the repo seems to be archived:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
scheme@(guile-user)> ,m (guix swh)
scheme@(guix swh)> (lookup-origin "https://guix.gnu.org/sources.json";)
$2 = #<<origin> visits-url: 
"https://archive.softwareheritage.org/api/1/origin/https://guix.gnu.org/sources.json/visits/";
 type: #<unspecified> url: "https://guix.gnu.org/sources.json";>
scheme@(guix swh)> (car (origin-visits $2))
$3 = #<<visit> date: #<date nanosecond: 807978 second: 20 minute: 38 hour: 17 
day: 8 month: 9 year: 2021 zone-offset: 0> origin: 
"https://guix.gnu.org/sources.json"; url: 
"https://archive.softwareheritage.org/api/1/origin/https://guix.gnu.org/sources.json/visit/313/";
 snapshot-url: 
"https://archive.softwareheritage.org/api/1/snapshot/bfdb775f4768dd3d20231effbf29b96cd7184985/";
 status: partial number: 313>
scheme@(guix swh)> (define s (visit-snapshot $3))
scheme@(guix swh)> (car ((@@ (gnu packages linux) linux-libre-urls) "5.14.1" 
"gnu"))
$4 = 
"https://linux-libre.fsfla.org/pub/linux-libre/releases/5.14.1-gnu/linux-libre-5.14.1-gnu.tar.xz";
scheme@(guix swh)> (lookup-snapshot-branch s $4)
$5 = #f
scheme@(guix swh)> (lookup-snapshot-branch s (car ((@@ (gnu packages linux) 
linux-libre-urls) "5.13.14" "gnu1")))
$6 = #f
scheme@(guix swh)> (lookup-snapshot-branch s (car ((@@ (gnu packages linux) 
linux-libre-urls) "5.10.62" "gnu1")))
$7 = #f
scheme@(guix swh)> (lookup-origin "git://linux-libre.fsfla.org/releases.git")
$8 = #<<origin> visits-url: 
"https://archive.softwareheritage.org/api/1/origin/git://linux-libre.fsfla.org/releases.git/visits/";
 type: #<unspecified> url: "git://linux-libre.fsfla.org/releases.git">
scheme@(guix swh)> (car (origin-visits $8))
$9 = #<<visit> date: #<date nanosecond: 729324 second: 34 minute: 9 hour: 17 
day: 4 month: 9 year: 2021 zone-offset: 0> origin: 
"git://linux-libre.fsfla.org/releases.git" url: 
"https://archive.softwareheritage.org/api/1/origin/git://linux-libre.fsfla.org/releases.git/visit/4/";
 snapshot-url: 
"https://archive.softwareheritage.org/api/1/snapshot/cbf57c5bd0c5161c8df8853c64e96040b5c9cd9c/";
 status: full number: 4>
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

For some reason, we seem to be exporting only one tarball in
sources.json currently (the file that SWH periodically reads):

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ wget -qO - https://guix.gnu.org/sources.json|jq |grep linux-libre.fsfla.org
        
"https://linux-libre.fsfla.org/pub/linux-libre/releases/5.4.20-gnu/linux-libre-5.4.20-gnu.tar.xz";,
        
"https://linux-libre.fsfla.org/pub/linux-libre/releases/5.4.20-gnu/linux-libre-5.4.20-gnu.tar.xz";,
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

We should check why we’re not providing all the URLs and fix it.

> The reason for the removal is that some nonfree things were accidentally
> not removed by the previous releases of the deblob scripts.

IMO such issues should be treated as regular bugs, without compromising
on transparency and availability.

Thanks,
Ludo’.