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2SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Amolith <amolith@secluded.site>
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6
7# Willow
8
9[![Go report card status][goreportcard-badge]][goreportcard]
10[![REUSE status][reuse-shield]][reuse]
11[![Donate with fosspay][fosspay-shield]][fosspay]
12
13_Forge-agnostic software release tracker_
14
15
16
17_This UI is Amolith's attempt at a balance between simple, pleasant, and
18functional. Amolith is not a UX professional and would **very** much welcome
19input from someone more knowledgeable!_
20
21## What is it?
22
23_If you'd rather watch a short video, Amolith gave a 5-minute [lightning talk on
24Willow] at the 2023 Ubuntu Summit._
25
26[lightning talk on Willow]: https://youtu.be/XIGxKyekvBQ?t=29900
27
28Willow helps developers, sysadmins, and homelabbers keep up with software
29releases across arbitrary forge platforms, including full-featured forges like
30GitHub, GitLab, or [Forgejo] as well as more minimal options like [cgit] or
31[stagit].
32
33[Forgejo]: https://forgejo.org/
34[cgit]: https://git.zx2c4.com/cgit/
35[stagit]: https://codemadness.org/stagit.html
36
37It exists because decentralisation, as wonderful as it is, does have some pain
38points. One piece of software is on GitHub, another piece is on GitLab, one on
39Bitbucket, a fourth on [SourceHut], a fifth on the developer's self-hosted
40Forgejo instance.
41
42[SourceHut]: https://sourcehut.org/
43
44The capabilities of each platform can also differ, further complicating the
45space. For example, Forgejo and GitHub have APIs and RSS release feeds,
46SourceHut has an API and RSS feeds that notify you of _all_ activity in the
47repo, GitLab only has an API, and there's no standard for discovering the
48capabilities of arbitrary git frontends like [legit].
49
50[legit]: https://github.com/icyphox/legit
51
52And _then_ you have different pieces of information in different places; some
53developers might publish release announcements on their personal blog and some
54projects might release security advisories on an external platform prior to
55publishing a release.
56
57All this important info is scattered all over the internet. Willow brings some
58order to that chaos by supporting both RSS and one of the _very_ few things all
59the forges and frontends have in common: their **V**ersion **C**ontrol
60**S**ystem. At the moment, [Git] is the _only_ supported VCS, but we're
61definitely interested in adding support for [Pijul], [Fossil], [Mercurial], and
62potentially others.
63
64[Git]: https://git-scm.com/
65[Pijul]: https://pijul.org/
66[Fossil]: https://www.fossil-scm.org/
67[Mercurial]: https://www.mercurial-scm.org/
68
69Amolith (the creator) has recorded some of his other ideas, thoughts, and plans
70in [his wiki].
71
72[his wiki]: https://wiki.secluded.site/hypha/willow
73
74## Installation and use
75
76**Disclaimers:**
771. Prebuilt binaries will be available with the [v0.0.1] release, greatly
78 simplifying installation.
792. We consider the project _alpha-quality_. There will be bugs.
803. Amolith has tried to make the web UI accessible, but is unsure of its current
81 usability.
824. The app is not localised yet and English is the only available language.
835. Help with any/all of the above is most welcome!
84
85[v0.0.1]: https://todo.sr.ht/~amolith/willow?search=status%3Aopen%20label%3A%22v0.0.1%22
86[communication platforms]: #contributing
87
88### Installation
89
90This assumes Willow will run on an always-on server, like a VPS.
91
92* Clone the repo with `git clone https://git.sr.ht/~amolith/willow`
93* Enter the repo's folder with `cd willow`
94* Build the binary with `CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o willow
95 ./cmd`
96* Transfer the binary to the server however you like
97* Execute the binary with `./willow`
98* Edit the config with `vim config.toml`
99* Daemonise Willow using systemd or OpenRC or whatever you prefer
100* Reverse-proxy the web UI (defaults to `localhost:1313`) with Caddy or NGINX or
101 whatever you prefer
102
103### Use
104
105* Create a user with `./willow -a <username>`
106* Open the web UI (defaults to `localhost:1313`, but [installation] had you put
107 a proxy in front)
108* Click `Track new project`
109* Fill out the form and press `Next`
110* Indicate which version you're currently on and press `Track releases`
111* You're now tracking that project's releases!
112
113[installation]: #installation
114
115If you no longer use that project, click the `Delete?` link to remove it, and,
116if applicable, Willow's copy of its repo.
117
118If you're no longer running the version Willow says you've selected, click the
119`Modify?` link to select a different version.
120
121If there are projects where your selected version does _not_ match what Willow
122thinks is latest, they'll show up at the top under the **Outdated projects**
123heading and have a link at the bottom of the card to `View release notes`.
124Clicking that link populates the right column with those release notes.
125
126If there are projects where your selected version _does_ match what Willow
127thinks is latest, they'll show up at the bottom under the **Up-to-date
128projects** heading.
129
130## Contributing
131
132Contributions are very much welcome! Please take a look at the [ticket
133tracker][todo] and see if there's anything you're interested in working on. If
134there's specific functionality you'd like to see implemented and it's not
135mentioned in the ticket tracker, please describe it through one of the platforms
136below so we can discuss its inclusion. If we don't feel like it fits with
137Willow's goals, you're encouraged to fork the project and make whatever changes
138you like!
139
140Questions, comments, and patches can always go to the [mailing list][email], but
141there's also an [IRC channel][irc] and an [XMPP MUC][xmpp] for real-time
142interactions.
143
144- Email: [~amolith/willow@lists.sr.ht][email]
145- IRC: [irc.libera.chat/#willow][irc]
146- XMPP: [willow@muc.secluded.site][xmpp]
147
148[email]: mailto:~amolith/willow@lists.sr.ht
149[irc]: ircs://irc.libera.chat/#willow
150[xmpp]: xmpp:willow@muc.secluded.site?join
151[todo]: https://todo.sr.ht/~amolith/willow
152
153_If you haven't used mailing lists before, please take a look at [SourceHut's
154documentation](https://man.sr.ht/lists.sr.ht/), especially the etiquette
155section._
156
157### Configuring git...
158
159…for <code>git send-email</code>
160
161``` shell
162git config sendemail.to "~amolith/willow@lists.sr.ht"
163git config format.subjectPrefix "PATCH willow"
164git send-email [HASH]
165```
166
167…for signing the [DCO]
168
169``` shell
170git config format.signOff yes
171```
172
173[DCO]: https://developercertificate.org/
174
175### Required tools
176
177- [Go](https://go.dev/)
178- [gofumpt](https://github.com/mvdan/gofumpt)
179 - Stricter formatting rules than the default `go fmt`
180- [golangci-lint](https://golangci-lint.run/)
181 - Aggregates various preinstalled Go linters, runs them in parallel, and makes
182 heavy use of the Go build cache
183- [Staticcheck](https://staticcheck.dev/)
184 - Uses static analysis to find bugs and performance issues, offer
185 simplifications, and enforce style rules
186
187### Suggested tools
188
189- [just](https://github.com/casey/just)
190 - Command runner to simplify use of the required tools
191- [air](https://github.com/cosmtrek/air)
192 - Watches source files and rebuilds/executes the project when sources change
193
194[goreportcard-badge]: https://goreportcard.com/badge/git.sr.ht/~amolith/willow
195[goreportcard]: https://goreportcard.com/report/git.sr.ht/~amolith/willow
196[reuse]: https://api.reuse.software/info/git.sr.ht/~amolith/willow
197[reuse-shield]: https://shields.io/reuse/compliance/git.sr.ht/~amolith/willow
198[fosspay]: https://secluded.site/donate/
199[fosspay-shield]: https://shields.io/badge/donate-fosspay-yellow