Subject: [bug#43442] [PATCH 1/2] gnu: mpfi: Replace 'url-fetch' by 'svn-fetch'.

From: zimoun <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2020 23:51:48 +0200

Hi,

On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 at 23:19, Ludovic Courtès <[email-masked]> wrote:

>> +       (method svn-fetch)
>> +       (uri (svn-reference
>> +             (url "https://scm.gforge.inria.fr/anonscm/svn/mpfi/trunk/mpfi")
>> +             (revision 688)))
>
> Does this have any chance of working with SWH?  Does their HTTP API
> support looking up svn revision for a given origin URL?

Well, I have not yet did my homework on the topic, neither asked on
#swh-devel.

Probably not!

In any case, we should find a way because there are a lot of Subversion
sources. 

> Also:
>
>   scheme@(guile-user)> (lookup-origin "https://scm.gforge.inria.fr/anonscm/svn/mpfi/trunk/mpfi")
>   $6 = #f

Since “guix lint -c archival” I should have forgotten to submit the
request via their Web interface.  Now, it is scheduled:

  <https://archive.softwareheritage.org/save/#requests>

> So the effect today would be the opposite of what we’re attempting: when
> GForge goes down, we’d lose it completely.

I agree.

Well, the shutdown of the INRIA’s GForge is a concrete deadline to add
the support of Subversion (and Mercurial) sources to:

 - fallback to SWH
 - guix lint -c archival

I am working on it. :-)

All the best,
simon