August 2021 Summaries

GitHub's Social Impact and Policy teams issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking a researcher to establish a list of publicly available GitHub platform usage metrics by country, intended to support disciplines such as international development, public policy, and economics. Despite being the world's largest code hosting platform with over 65 million developers, GitHub lacks a standardized, publicly accessible list of platform usage metrics, which has led researchers to rely on third-party resources like GHTorrent that aren't ideal for all fields. This RFP aims to address this gap by identifying metrics like the number and location of active users, repositories, organizations, and engagement activities such as pull requests and repository forks, excluding data from private repositories or Enterprise accounts. The initiative seeks to produce regularly updated metrics in accessible formats like .csv files to enhance research capabilities across various disciplines, with submissions for the RFP closing on November 1, 2021.

GitHub emphasizes the importance of specificity in copyright infringement claims, particularly in cases involving nonliteral copying of software, as demonstrated by its involvement in the SAS Institute, Inc. v. World Programming Ltd. case. The platform argues that vague allegations disrupt the developer ecosystem by potentially removing critical projects based on unclear claims, ultimately leading to inefficiencies and fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD). By submitting an amicus brief, GitHub aims to educate the court on why early identification of specific infringement examples is crucial for effective dispute resolution, allowing developers to address legitimate claims swiftly and ensuring non-infringing code remains accessible. This approach not only benefits federal lawsuits but also influences how DMCA infringement notices are handled, promoting a balanced outcome for developers and copyright holders alike.

In celebration of Linux's 30th anniversary, the article spotlights 30 notable free and open-source Linux games, highlighting their unique features, community involvement, and evolution. It covers a diverse range of genres, such as strategy games like OpenRA and Zero-K, rhythm games like StepMania, and creative sandbox games like Minetest. Each game is praised for its community-driven development and innovative contributions, like Project OutFox's enhancements to StepMania and C-Dogs SDL's multiplayer capabilities. The article also explores the intricate gameplay mechanics of titles like Mindustry and the nostalgic appeal of games like SuperTux. The author, Lee Reilly, humorously notes an off-by-one error in the game count, reflecting the vibrant and sometimes imperfect nature of open-source projects.

To celebrate Linux's 30th anniversary, Lee Reilly highlights 10 free and open-source Linux games ranging from strategy games like FreeOrion and Freeciv to roguelike titles such as NetHack and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. FreeOrion offers a customizable galactic conquest experience, while NetHack provides a challenging dungeon-crawling adventure. Stunt Rally and Red Eclipse 2 cater to racing and FPS enthusiasts, respectively, with features like track editors and parkour elements. Endless Sky and Vega Strike invite players to explore space through trading and combat, while Unknown Horizons and Pixel Wheels offer economic simulation and top-down racing fun. Reilly emphasizes the community-driven development of these games, inviting volunteers to contribute in various roles, from programming and design to content creation and testing.

GitHub prioritizes transparency and developer safety by publishing detailed transparency reports about content moderation and user information disclosure. From January to June 2021, they received 172 requests to disclose user information, mostly from law enforcement, and processed 980 valid DMCA takedown notices, emphasizing a commitment to minimize disruptions to software projects. GitHub aims to limit content removal to comply with legal requirements, using geoblocking rather than global takedowns and notifying users unless prohibited by law. They also provide avenues for users to appeal takedowns and account restrictions, with a focus on supporting freedom of expression and access to information. The company recognizes the importance of adhering to legal standards and international human rights laws, providing transparency through open-sourced policies and public repositories for takedown requests.

Marking the 30th anniversary of Linux, Lee Reilly highlights 10 of his favorite free and open-source Linux games, showcasing a variety of genres including racing, strategy, and space trading, among others. With games such as SuperTuxKart, a homage to the Linux mascot Tux, and Oolite, an open-world space opera, the article emphasizes the diverse gaming experiences available on the Linux platform. Many of these games, like Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead and Warzone 2100, are community-driven projects with robust contributions and expansions, appealing to players and developers alike. Reilly also points out that some games, like OpenTTD and Teeworlds, offer opportunities for contributors to enhance the games further, either through code, art, or translations. While the author provides a glimpse into these games' unique features and community involvement, he teases additional games to be revealed in a follow-up post, leaving readers eager for more insights into the Linux gaming ecosystem.

GitHub CLI 2.0 introduces support for extensions, enabling developers to create and install custom commands that enhance the core functionality of GitHub CLI and cater to specific workflow needs. This update builds upon the foundation of GitHub CLI 1.0, which aimed to streamline common developer tasks in the terminal, by offering improved scripting support and integration with GitHub Actions. Extensions are simple to create, as each is a repository prefixed with "gh-", and GitHub CLI includes tools to help developers get started quickly. Some example extensions provided include utilities for setting user status, switching branches, finding open source issues to contribute to, and even fun features like a terminal screensaver. The GitHub team encourages users to share their own extensions and ideas, promoting a collaborative environment for enhancing productivity with GitHub CLI.

Starting October 4, 2021, all connections to npm websites and the npm registry must use TLS 1.2 or higher to enhance security, aligning with GitHub's commitment to service security and user privacy. Previously, GitHub removed support for TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1, and now the same will be done for npmjs.com. While 99% of traffic to the npm registry already employs TLS 1.2, the transition is expected to minimally impact users. Most Node.js binary releases from v0.10.0 onwards support TLS 1.2, but users on unsupported versions or using custom-compiled binaries may need to upgrade. To prepare, notifications will be sent to users not using TLS 1.2, and TLS 1.2 will be enforced for specified hours on several dates leading up to the final enforcement. Users can verify their compatibility by installing a test package from an HTTPS endpoint.

GitHub's new support for CITATION.cff files aims to simplify the process of citing academic and research work hosted on its platform by providing convenient APA or BibTeX style citation links. This development addresses the challenge researchers face in receiving recognition for their open-source contributions, which are often overlooked in academia despite their significant impact, as seen in projects like the COVID-19 dashboards and black hole imaging software. The feature uses the ruby-cff RubyGem to parse CITATION.cff files, aiding in the proper acknowledgment of researchers' work and enhancing the visibility of open-source projects. GitHub is actively seeking feedback from the research community to refine this feature, which has been tested with the creators of the Citation File Format (CFF) and a select group of beta testers, to further integrate software citation into academic practices.

GitHub Discussions, now officially out of beta, serves as a centralized platform for open source communities to engage productively and collaboratively, offering features such as customizable categories, labeling, mobile access, and integration with GitHub Actions and workflows via GraphQL API and Webhooks. The tool aids in streamlining community management by allowing maintainers to organize discussions, facilitate engagement through polls, and monitor community health with forthcoming analytics dashboards. Feedback from open source community leaders highlights the benefits of GitHub Discussions in fostering growth and interaction, as exemplified by significant community expansion and enhanced collaboration for projects like Next.js, Node, Homebrew, and Gatsby. This platform simplifies the process by eliminating the need for external solutions, offers seamless linkage between issues and discussions, and allows separate spaces for feature launches outside of issue tracking. Admins and maintainers can enable Discussions in their repository settings, further enhancing their ability to connect with and manage their communities efficiently.

Git 2.33 introduces significant updates including geometric repacking and a new merge strategy called merge-ort. Geometric repacking improves the efficiency of repository maintenance by organizing packs of objects in a geometric progression based on size, enhancing Git's performance in busy repositories. Merge-ort, a rewrite of the previous merge-recursive strategy, offers substantial speed improvements and resolves long-standing bugs by optimizing the handling of merges, especially those involving renames. Additionally, Git 2.33 enhances scripting capabilities by allowing the omission of commit headers with the --no-commit-header option and introduces optimizations to reduce unnecessary computation during operations like git log --decorate. Other notable features include the introduction of parallelization in git checkout, improvements to sparse checkouts, and updates to reachability bitmap optimizations. The release is supported by contributions from over 74 contributors, demonstrating a collaborative effort to refine and advance Git's capabilities.

GitHub is enhancing its security measures by eliminating password-based authentication for Git operations, necessitating the use of stronger authentication methods like personal access tokens, SSH keys, and OAuth or GitHub App installation tokens. The platform also encourages enabling two-factor authentication (2FA), with a preference for security methods supporting the WebAuthn standard, such as physical and virtual security keys over SMS-based 2FA. Additionally, GitHub supports commit verification using security keys, and has collaborated with Yubico to offer branded YubiKeys for enhanced security. These efforts underscore GitHub's commitment to safeguarding its developer community against malicious actors by investing in advanced security technologies. The article is authored by Mike Hanley, GitHub's Chief Security Officer, who has a robust background in security leadership, including roles at Duo Security and Cisco.

Students and educators in computer science face significant challenges due to complex tooling and overwhelming systems, which can hinder the learning process before coursework even begins. In response, a new extension for Visual Studio Code, integrated with GitHub Classroom, aims to streamline the teaching and learning experience by simplifying access to necessary tools and reducing setup complications. This extension offers a student-centric approach to learning Git, GitHub Classroom, and Visual Studio Code, featuring functionalities like integrated autograding, live collaboration through Microsoft Live Share, and a one-click setup for assignments. By enabling teachers to include a convenient “Open in Visual Studio Code” button on assignments, the extension minimizes technical barriers, allowing students to focus on their learning objectives while educators can efficiently manage their workload without compromising quality.

In July, GitHub introduced several updates to enhance security and usability for its users, including streamlining vulnerability management with features like GitHub Security Advisories and Dependabot Security Updates, specifically extending these to the Go community. A significant update allowed users to set expiration dates on personal access tokens, with GitHub providing renewal notifications. GitHub Actions now supports dependency caching for Node.js projects and allows configuration of approval requirements for first-time contributors. GitHub Discussions introduced a beta translation feature for multiple languages, while GitHub Releases added a text-editing toolbar to the markdown editor. The CodeQL team improved code scanning by launching a public beta for the CodeQL package manager, refining security alerts with severity levels, and expanding support for additional libraries and frameworks. GitHub also made security alert notifications opt-in and welcomed new secret scanning integrators. Finally, GitHub Sponsors expanded its options by allowing organizations to use personal bank accounts for sponsorships, aiming to ease the process for users.

GitHub has made Codespaces available to Team and Enterprise Cloud plans, transitioning from the macOS model to this cloud-based development environment, which has significantly enhanced their development workflow. The GitHub.com codebase, historically tied to macOS, faced challenges with local development environments that were brittle and time-consuming to maintain. The shift to Codespaces allows for on-demand provisioning of development environments, drastically reducing setup time from 45 minutes to just 10 seconds using prebuilds. This transition has enabled GitHub to treat development environments as commodities, similar to industry best practices for infrastructure, ensuring they are easily replaceable while still customizable. The switch has improved productivity and allowed for greater flexibility, as engineers can quickly create new environments and collaborate more efficiently. Codespaces has also started to replace GitHub's internal review lab, streamlining the process of sharing work with colleagues. Despite initial challenges, GitHub engineers have embraced Codespaces, finding it to be a more reliable and efficient tool for development, with the company planning to further integrate Codespaces into its workflows.

GitHub Education is seeking the next generation of student community leaders through its GitHub Campus Experts Program, which offers tools and resources to enhance campus communities, particularly for those over 18 who have been GitHub users for at least six months and are enrolled in post-secondary education. The program, which has grown from a small group in 2016 to a global community of student leaders from over 35 countries, provides leadership training, event organization resources, and support to help students thrive in their community engagement efforts. The application process for the August 2021 generation includes new, more descriptive questions designed to clarify how the program's benefits will aid applicants in building stronger communities and organizing inclusive events. Applications close on August 29, 2021, with results announced on September 13, 2021, and applicants are encouraged to explore the Campus Experts website, think about their community's unique challenges, and seek advice from current Campus Experts to strengthen their applications.

During a busy period for GitHub employees, numerous open-source projects launched significant new versions, showcasing diverse technological advancements. Terraform reached its milestone 1.0 release, marking its general availability after extensive use and development, while PostgREST 8.0 introduced numerous upgrades for RESTful API management from PostgreSQL databases. Cypress 8.0 enhanced web testing consistency across browsers, and mitmproxy 7.0 improved its HTTPS proxy capabilities. Other notable releases included rrweb 1.0 for session recording, Lottie Android 4.0 for mobile animations, and Husky 7.0 for Git commit enhancements. Additionally, Kratos 2.0 advanced Go framework development, JavaScript Cookie 3.0 updated cookie management, and html2canvas 1.0 enabled webpage screenshotting. React Native Camera 4.0 integrated with Google ML, WebSockets 8.0 improved Node.js library debugging, and BLAKE3 1.0 offered a fast cryptographic hash function. TOAST UI Editor 3.0 enhanced Markdown editing, Nest.js 8.0 expanded server-side application building, and Supabase Auth 2.0 provided a Firebase alternative with new mobile login features. These releases highlight the dynamic and collaborative nature of the open-source community.

In July, GitHub reported no incidents leading to downtime for its core services, reflecting stable service availability. Users are encouraged to visit their status page for real-time updates and explore the GitHub engineering blog for insights into ongoing projects. The report was authored by Keith Ballinger.