Eclipse Wiki final shutdown handling

[HannesWell]

The Eclipse wiki is planned to be shutdown entirely soon:
https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/wikis/Wiki-shutdown-plan

At the moment it's already read only and I know that, at least some parts, have been migrated to Github wiki, for example

• Migrate releng wiki pages #1084
  • https://github.com/eclipse-platform/eclipse.platform.releng.aggregator/wiki/Platform-Build (co located pages)
• Migrate still relevant SWT wiki pages eclipse.platform.swt#559
  • https://github.com/eclipse-platform/eclipse.platform.swt/wiki
• Migrate JDT wiki pages eclipse-jdt/eclipse.jdt#54
  • https://github.com/eclipse-jdt/eclipse.jdt.core/wiki
• Migration of PDE wiki pages eclipse-pde/eclipse.pde#1142
  • https://github.com/eclipse-pde/eclipse.pde/tree/master/docs
• Wiki migration for the platform/platform UI eclipse.platform#747

But are these migrations complete, i.e. do they cover all wiki pages associated with the eclipse top-level projects?
@trancexpress or @vogella, I know you've worked on these migration: Can you answer this question or point to issues where I can get an overview?

Should we still ask the EF IT team to create a static html dump of all wiki pages associated with the eclipse top-level projects and to store them e.g. in https://archive.eclipse.org/eclipse/ in e.g. a wiki subfolder? Just to be sure?

Regardless of the question if we should ask for or create ourself a full static copy of the wiki, I think it would be important to set up proper redirects from the old wiki's URL to the new home of the content (ideally an up to date one, like the Github wiki).
Because there is there are many links in the internet pointing to the old wiki that we cannot change, either because it's under somebody else's control or e.g. in release artifacts.
Setting up these redirects for a static copy of the wiki is probably easier than to check all pages and redirect them to different GH places individually. IMO A link to a possibly outdated website is better than a dead link respectively a link to just a generic shutdown page.

[trancexpress]

I can speak for SWT and JDT, if I remember right those were migrated by me. I do think I migrated everything I could there and also marked pages with outdated information (at least where I could tell the infirmation is outdated).

Since its only 2 project pages and I knew a lot more info will be gone, I created:

https://github.com/trancexpress/EclipseWiki

This can be used to migrate other missing wikis.

But IMO, yes, please ask for a static copy. Even without link redirection. A source of infos is better than none, even if its often unavailable, like the copied Bugzilla.

[vogella]

Platform, PDE, Platform UI should be completely migrated for the relevant pages. Soon outdated pages like old status reports and task lists have not been migrated.

During their migration, multiple people helped with identifying pages that should be migrated so I believe the above migration is complete.

Wayback machine keeps copies of old pages not sure we need an additional static copy.

[peterkir]

The google cache is holding a lot of references to the wiki pages. And I have a lot of links bookmarked myself.
Even if the information is sometimes outdated, there is no easy way to find them in other places (especially for equinox and p2).
So a whole dump would be a nice tin can which can be downloaded and used by archeologist like myself ;-)

[peterkir]

From my point of view wayback machine or internet archive are no real alternative. They do not allow a full search among the content of the wiki to my knowledge. Which would easily executable on a local archive.

[akurtakov]

Requests for whole dump or anything else have to be made to EF (https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/wikis/home ) . Eclipse Platform project can't do anything on the topic.

[merks]

Even if the information is sometimes outdated, there is no easy way to find them in other places (especially for equinox and p2).

• https://eclipse.dev/eclipse/markdown/?file=eclipse-equinox/p2/master/docs
• https://equinox.eclipseprojects.io/

[HannesWell]

But IMO, yes, please ask for a static copy. Even without link redirection. A source of infos is better than none, even if its often unavailable, like the copied Bugzilla.

I agree with that.

Requests for whole dump or anything else have to be made to EF (https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/wikis/home ) .

Created

• https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/issues/7155

[HannesWell]

• https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/issues/7155

The EF IT team doesn't like the idea of creating our own back-up.
Should we follow their plan assuming everything is migrated and nothing is forgotten or should we insist on having a back-up?
I would feel saver with a back-up but also don't want to start a never-ending debate.

[HeikoKlare]

I would feel saver with a back-up but also don't want to start a never-ending debate.

I fully agree that we should have a backup. I challenge the assumption that everything is migrated. Obviously, it's not even the goal to migrate everything to a new place but to keep/update the most relevant information. But who knows if really no one is interested in all the other information? Just deleting all the data feels wrong given how cheap a backup / static copy is. We should at least have some dump like https://github.com/trancexpress/EclipseWiki but a static and easily accessible copy would be even better. Still I am not sure if it's worth to invest effort into insisting on having a backup hosted by the EF. Maybe a repository with a dump made accessible via a GitHub pages site could be an alternative?

[laeubi]

Migration is one thing the other is that we will leave millions of dead links (and google results!) as there still seems no strategy for redirections.

So would say: If really everything is migrated, then everything can be redirected now and then once there will be simply zero traffic on the server anymore and then it can be deleted...

[trancexpress]

@HannesWell could you also ask this question of the help desk team? https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/issues/679#note_6428952

I have a question about Gerrit reviews. Are the existing Gerrit reviews gone for good?
Can there be a static "archive" for those? Some contain useful information... The Eclipse Bugzilla points to them but the links are dead.

I have no idea where to ask it, so that I get an answer.

[HannesWell]

Fully agree with what has been said.
But it would be good if you would express that opinion also on the EF gitlab issue to show that it's a shared opinion and not only me.

could you also ask this question of the help desk team? https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/issues/679#note_6428952

This issue looks the right place and I don't know a better one. You could just just ask again and directly ping the driving EF person.