Autoware.AI is being moved from GitHub to GitLab. The host move is pretty much complete, with all the source now moved to GitLab and into different repositories depending on functionality. You can find the source at its new home here:
The wiki has similarly been moved; it is now located here:
As always, contributions to improving the documentation are welcome.
Along with moving the code and splitting it into different packages, we have changed how you get the Autoware.AI source. Instead of directly cloning a huge repository and running a script that hides the build process, we are moving to a more ROS-native method using vcs to construct a colcon workspace. This allows us to avoid using git submodules, manage the versions of dependencies easily, include additional algorithms from non-Autoware repositories, and provide variants of Autoware adapted for different purposes. The new from-source installation instructions are available in the wiki:
There are still some parts of the source code reorganisation to be done. Most notably, the scripts that you have used until now to launch Autoware are not yet merged into their new home, which will be a package in the utilities repository. For now, you can either download them directly from the autoware repository or you can grab them from the merge request for their new package. Note that once the merge request is merged, the scripts will be deleted from the autoware repository. However we will update the installation and quick start instructions at that time to account for the change.
This is a fairly major change for Autoware.AI, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask and we will try to clarify them.
@gbiggs Apologies for the already too late comment.
Moving to Gitlab have several pros compared to cons to it is a good move.
However, a project of the magnitude Autoware has reached should run a long parallels (ex., Github and Gitlab at the same time) so people can adjust and make the transition. Autoware is not just for those living in Japan and close to TierIV, and not just for the developers who are contributing. Lots of companies are already adopting Autoware and sudden changes like this one affect their work. For example, issues in the step-by-step documentation confuse them. See the following case at https://gitlab.com/autowarefoundation/autoware.ai/autoware/wikis/ROSBAG-Demo
(people from at least two companies in China asked me about building errors at that step)
Speaking of which, do you guys know Gitlab does not work well in China? It is blocked, so many people at their companies are having issues, things don’t work correctly even behind some VPNs, etc.
I brought this discussion to some people at Nagoya University and I’m happy to hear you will mirror Autoware to Github, at least for a while. How long? Several months to 1 year and keep the information that Autoware moved to Gitlab.
Remember that such sudden changes also affect Autoware Academy training, all materials must be updated accordingly but that takes a long time. A parallel is also necessary for our own sake.
I disagree that this was a sudden change, this was first discussed in the March 20th TSC meeting:
After talking to several members of the Autoware community and the Autoware Foundation, Geoff and I agreed to move Autoware.AI to Gitlab, partly to ease the collaboration with Autoware.Auto, but most importantly because the tools that Gitlab provides are excellent for big projects, such as Autoware itself. These tools will help us evolve and plan the project much more effectively.
