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Services

The ULHPC Team is committed to excellence and support of the University research community through several side services:

  • ULHPC Gitlab, a comprehensive version control and collaboration (VC&C) solution to deliver better software faster.
  • Etherpad - a web-based collaborative real-time editor
  • Privatebin - secured textual data sharing

Gitlab @ Uni.lu

Gitlab is an open source software to collaborate on code, very similar to Github. You can manage git repositories with fine grained access controls that keep your code secure and perform code reviews and enhance collaboration with merge requests. Each project can also have an issue tracker and a wiki.

The GitLab service is available for UL HPC platform users with their ULHPC account and to their external collaborators that have a GitHub account.

[Github] External accounts access are BLOCKED by default

  • By default, external (github) accounts are denied and blocked on the Gitlab service.
    • Access can be granted on-demand after careful review of the ULHPC team and attached to the project indicated by the UL[HPC] PI in charge of the external.
  • Note: externals cannot create groups nor projects.

EtherPad

Etherpad is a web-based collaborative real-time editor, allowing authors to simultaneously edit a text document, and see all of the participants' edits in real-time, with the ability to display each author's text in their own color.

PrivateBin

PrivateBin is a minimalist, open source online pastebin where the server has zero knowledge of pasted data.
Data is encrypted and decrypted in the browser using 256bit AES in Galois Counter mode.

Gforge @ Uni.lu (DEPRECATED)

Outside Gitlab, the seminal web-based project management and collaboration system deployed at the university was the Gforge @ Uni.lu service. Inspired by the InriaGforge, the general principle is to offer easy access through projects to subversion repositories, mailing lists, bug trackers, message boards/forums, task management, site hosting, permanent file archival, full backups, and total web-based administration. The major features are listed in helpdesk website. Access to GForge is through dedicated accounts, (requested by mail: admin@gforge.uni.lu), for both UL members and external partners.

Service feature comparison between GForge (gforge.uni.lu) and GitLab (gitlab.uni.lu)

Service Git SVN/Subversion ULHPC users External Users Static websites hosting
GForge
GitLab
(restricted use)

Gforge service is decommissioned since 2020

  • Situation: the Gforge @ Uni.lu service has been in production since 2008 and kept up-to-date until now. Nevertheless, the underground product line (Gforge, moved to FusionForge after the a break-up of the original open source project in february 2009) proved to be hard to maintained, security fixes takes time to be integrated and the few unique features of the service (SVN support, static website hosting) no longer justify the maintenance effort as more recent and sustainable alternatives emerged.

For this reason, the Gforge service will be no longer available as of Dec 31, 2020

  • Migration Plan for project repositories

    • For SVN-based projects: Migrate to Git
    • Favor public hosting services for your project as github.com
      • Github offers both private and public projects management free of charge
      • Github also supports SVN clients
    • consider self-hosted solutions on servers you can maintain as gitolite or gitea
    • As a last resort, consider using one of the Gitlab instances running in the different department of the university, or the ULHPC gitlab

    You can then update the Git remote url to transition to the new host for your git project as follows: 

    git remote set-url origin [...]
    This will allow you to keep all commit history. Nevertheless, consider that all other information part of your Gforge project (tickets, project and forum messages etc.) will be lost once Gforge is declared out-of-service.

  • Alternative to Gforge features

    • Git repository hosting: see above
    • Project Management/Bug Tracking: see above as all proposed alternatives (Github etc.) supports this feature
    • SVN repository hosting:
    • Mailing list:
      • The IT service of the university can grant you administration rights on a custom mailing-list upon demand of the service portal
    • Static website hosting: if you really need to maintain a static website, consider:
Last update: April 19, 2024