GitLab¶

Overview¶

The IGWN GitLab instance is available at

https://git.ligo.org/

All IGWN members are eligible for GitLab accounts, see below.

Host keys¶

The SSH host keys used for GitLab were updated on 30 April 2024 to be signed by the newly created UWM certificate authority. So that your ssh client automatically accepts keys signed by this certificate authority please add the following to your known_hosts file:

@cert-authority * ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 AAAAE2VjZHNhLXNoYTItbmlzdHAyNTYAAAAIbmlzdHAyNTYAAABBBKQJ2hQgggD8AS3DJSTfMFp83PvKx/P5gdwxgnqYQXVmsoWEmWrdq717vd1GGpCG5e2/aiBJ5ci7/fLO/LBvOZE= UWM_SSH_CERT_AUTHORITY

You may also need to remove the existing entry for git.ligo.org from your known_hosts file. This can be done using:

ssh-keygen -R git.ligo.org

For completeness, the specific fingerprints of the keys are:

256 SHA256:RdfTUwLNyFhuwrkRpV0dyuURs4dYGMAK/NpcgnTX4m8 git.ligo.org (ECDSA)
256 SHA256:Rmg83x7sO+y61xu/kFU8eU1QL2o7e9bWJjrA5Tu3Kb4 git.ligo.org (ED25519)
3072 SHA256:Oqqggzp0CXfFf8ee8D63VcIYdITlzclZrLVOIQUFoJs git.ligo.org (RSA)

Getting set up¶

Create an account¶

1. Browse to https://git.ligo.org, if you are not logged in, or do not have an account, you will be redirected to a login prompt that looks like this:

   

2. Click on the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA sign-in button. If you do not have an existing account, one will automatically be created for you with the default username <firstname>.<lastname> copied from your LIGO.ORG or gw-astronomy (KAGRA) identity.

   Your account

   Older GitLab accounts may have a dash, rather than a dot, in your account name. This is an account local to git.ligo.org that was created from your LIGO.ORG username, but it is not your LIGO account itself!

Change your username¶

You can change your username at https://git.ligo.org/-/profile/account.

Add an SSH key¶

In order to clone Git repositories using SSH (recommended), you should create and upload an SSH key to your GitLab account.

For instructions, see https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/ssh.html

Set a GitLab password¶

If you wish to be able to clone Git repositories over HTTPS, you must set a password at https://git.ligo.org/-/profile/password/edit.

Configure email addresses and notifications¶

GitLab will send e-mail notifications in response to events on projects you manage or participate in. By default, they will be sent to your collaboration e-mail address; for members of LIGO or Virgo, this is <firstname>.<lastname>@ligo.org; for KAGRA members this is the address which was originally registered at https://gw-astronomy.org. If you prefer an alternative, you can add additional e-mail addresses, verify them by clicking on the link sent to you by e-mail, and change your notification address. Additionally, you can customize the events which cause notification e-mails.

When an issue is created in a project that you control, you will receive a notification e-mail according to your notification settings. Each issue has an associated "discussion" to identify a proper solution. You can add to this discussion by replying to the notification e-mail or by clicking on the link in the e-mail and commenting via your web browser.

Available features¶

The IGWN GitLab instance is GitLab Ultimate, providing access to almost every feature available from GitLab.

Some specific features are highlighted below.

GitLab CI/CD¶

Provided with the GitLab instance is a fully-featured continuous integration system, allowing projects to define an automated pipeline to build, test, deploy, and monitor the project during development and deployment.

For more details, see GitLab CI.

GitLab Pages¶

GitLab Pages is a feature of GitLab that allows you to automatically generate websites based upon your projects. A typical use case is to automatically generate documentation.

A given's project webspace will appear at the following URLs

• https://<group/user>.docs.ligo.org/{<subgroup>/}<project>

  This URI is the best supported option by GitLab and the one we recommend. <group/user> namespace is your username if the project appears under your GitLab space, or the group's name if it is in a shared space.

  Example: this guide uses GitLab Pages

  The source documentation for this guide lives at

  https://git.ligo.org/computing/guide/

  where computing is the group namespace, and guide is the project name, so GitLab Pages hosts the output at

  https://computing.docs.ligo.org/guide

  Example: subgroup pages

  The project that configues IGWN Software Metapackages lives in the computing/packaging subgroup at

  https://git.ligo.org/computing/packaging/metapackages

  where computing is the top-level group, packaging is the subgroup name, and metapcakages is the project name. It's GitLab Pages site is hosted at

  https://computing.docs.ligo.org/packaging/metapackages/

• https://docs.ligo.org/<namespace>/<project>

  This URI is provided via a workaround that doesn't appear to work uniformly, particularly with respect to whether users type a trailing slash after the project. You should use it primarily if the namespace/username has a period in it. Users with periods in their username must either use the docs.ligo.org address or the alternative albert_einstein.docs.ligo.org/project.

Service Desk¶

The GitLab Service Desk is a feature primarily aimed at allowing external users -- anyone not in the IGWN community -- to create and track issues via e-mail. Each new project on the git.ligo.org has Service Desk enabled by default; older projects will need to turn it on by selecting "Issues => Service Desk" on the left-hand-side when viewing the project. Each project will receive an e-mail address like contact+lscsoft/lalsuite@support.ligo.org.

When a user e-mails that address:

• a new issue is created and the user receives a confirmation e-mail

• that issue is marked as confidential so that only specifically listed members of the project can see the issue

• all correspondence from the user appears to come from "GitLab Support Bot" even when it has been submitted via email by a LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA member.

  If you have a GitLab account, don't use the Service Desk

  It is recommended that git.ligo.org account holders create issues via the web interface - the web interface provides a much richer feature set than email correspondence and will likely result in better support from the Computing team.

  Service desk should be primarily reserved for enabling interactions with individuals who cannot be granted a git.ligo.org account.