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Electronics => Open Source Hardware => Topic started by: ratdude747 on December 23, 2014, 02:10:25 am

Title: OSHW Hosting
Post by: ratdude747 on December 23, 2014, 02:10:25 am
Idiot Question:

I have a project I need to host somewhere, which I intend to be OSHW.

The issue I'm having is hosting the files... I've tried google code and github but I'm a complete noob to git and can't figure it out for the life of me.  |O

For Electronic hardware, where (free preferably) can I host and update the files (original sources and PDF/gerber files)? If I have to learn Git, I will... but I'd prefer to focus my energy elsewhere.

Suggestions?
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: zapta on December 23, 2014, 02:18:30 am
Idiot Question:

I have a project I need to host somewhere, which I intend to be OSHW.

The issue I'm having is hosting the files... I've tried google code and github but I'm a complete noob to git and can't figure it out for the life of me.  |O

For Electronic hardware, where (free preferably) can I host and update the files (original sources and PDF/gerber files)? If I have to learn Git, I will... but I'd prefer to focus my energy elsewhere.

Suggestions?

You could publish using dropbox (you can share link to folders and files) but will loose the versioning of github and google code. IIRC google code supports also friendlier versioning systems but git is the defacto standard.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: EEVblog on December 23, 2014, 02:27:19 am
You could set up a free blog site:
https://www.blogger.com/home (https://www.blogger.com/home)
There are others.
Git is awful for basic stuff, I don't blame you for avoiding.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: nctnico on December 23, 2014, 06:19:16 pm
How about here:
http://www.ohwr.org/ (http://www.ohwr.org/)
The Wiki-based setup of the site makes is a real PITA to navigate and find things though.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: c4757p on December 23, 2014, 06:24:54 pm
I've tried google code and github but I'm a complete noob to git and can't figure it out for the life of me.  |O

Git is awful for basic stuff, I don't blame you for avoiding.

Git's one of the better revision control systems that I've seen. They're all slightly batshit crazy. :scared: Highly advised that you learn it, as once you've climbed the learning curve the benefits seriously outweigh the annoyance.

Code: [Select]
# First time:
git config --global user.name "Name Name Name"
git config --global user.email "email@email.email"
git clone https://github.com/username/repo

workworkwork
git add .
git commit -m "Description description description"
git push

Edit: s/pull/clone/ - surprised nobody called me out on that! ;D
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: mrflibble on December 24, 2014, 04:05:48 pm
Git's one of the better revision control systems that I've seen. They're all slightly batshit crazy. :scared: Highly advised that you learn it, as once you've climbed the learning curve the benefits seriously outweigh the annoyance.
+1 on that. They all have something, and IMO git does a lot of things the right way. And while the learning curve is definitely there, it is well worth it. Aaaah, easy merges.  ^-^ Not to mention being able to go offline for a bit without access to the main repo but still being able to do meaningful commits + log entries while working in offline mode. No such luck with SVN and such.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: c4757p on December 24, 2014, 04:14:23 pm
Aaaah, easy merges.  ^-^

Probably git's biggest advantage - merges are delightfully pleasant. Not such a big deal on a small project, of course.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: rob77 on December 24, 2014, 04:17:02 pm
i hate GIT , i'm an orthodox Subversion user :D even the switch from CVS to SVN was a slow process for me (mainly because of converting my projects) and i strictly refuse to use GIT :D

but on the other hand... GIT is IDEAL for community projects and OFFLINE development. and it's extremely EASY to learn it.

so in short:
1. stop bitching Guys :D
2. RTFM
3. github is your friend to host your project ;)

Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: zapta on December 24, 2014, 04:33:20 pm
i hate GIT , ..

Me too, but it's the version control system l am using for all my hobby projects (can't imagine working on a project without a proper version control). It's the least intuitive version control I ever used.

OP, learning got is a long term investment and you just need to memorize a few commands for daily stuff.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: free_electron on December 24, 2014, 06:24:11 pm
Speaking of SVN.. Are there nas appliances that have this on board ? Id like to start using SVN at home but dont really want a dedicated computer running for that all the time. A NAS box would be handy.

We use tortoiseSVN at work as it i tegrated perfectly with Altium.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: zapta on December 24, 2014, 07:01:29 pm
Speaking of SVN.. Are there nas appliances that have this on board ? Id like to start using SVN at home but dont really want a dedicated computer running for that all the time. A NAS box would be handy.

We use tortoiseSVN at work as it i tegrated perfectly with Altium.

If you consider RPI to be an appliance try this search: svn server raspberry pi. Alternativly you can run the server on your own computer and use the NAS as the underlying storage.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: rob77 on December 24, 2014, 08:08:22 pm
Speaking of SVN.. Are there nas appliances that have this on board ? Id like to start using SVN at home but dont really want a dedicated computer running for that all the time. A NAS box would be handy.

We use tortoiseSVN at work as it i tegrated perfectly with Altium.

if your NAS box is running linux inside, and you have root access to it.. then just compile the svnserve binary for that platform and hook it up to inetd, or make it running all the time.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: free_electron on December 24, 2014, 10:02:37 pm
Speaking of SVN.. Are there nas appliances that have this on board ? Id like to start using SVN at home but dont really want a dedicated computer running for that all the time. A NAS box would be handy.

We use tortoiseSVN at work as it i tegrated perfectly with Altium.

if your NAS box is running linux inside, and you have root access to it.. then just compile the svnserve binary for that platform and hook it up to inetd, or make it running all the time.

You lost me at 'compile'. I'm a hardware guy. All i can so is launch setup.exe when it comes to installing software....  i'm also not looking to hack any nas box. I want a nas box with that stuff already on it.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: c4757p on December 24, 2014, 10:15:33 pm
Find a software guy and pay him?
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: rob77 on December 24, 2014, 10:58:30 pm
Speaking of SVN.. Are there nas appliances that have this on board ? Id like to start using SVN at home but dont really want a dedicated computer running for that all the time. A NAS box would be handy.

We use tortoiseSVN at work as it i tegrated perfectly with Altium.

if your NAS box is running linux inside, and you have root access to it.. then just compile the svnserve binary for that platform and hook it up to inetd, or make it running all the time.

You lost me at 'compile'. I'm a hardware guy. All i can so is launch setup.exe when it comes to installing software....  i'm also not looking to hack any nas box. I want a nas box with that stuff already on it.

synology has almost everything for their NAS boxes... and a very quick googling "synology SVN server" yielded this how-to :)

http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/Step-by-step_guide_to_installing_Subversion (http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/Step-by-step_guide_to_installing_Subversion)

so if it's not too complicated (it's far away from setup.exe , but quite not @ compile :D ), i would suggest a synology NAS box - because it can do the SVN for you ;) 

btw... i'm not a fan of NAS boxes i like to have full control, so i'm running a HP micro server with linux at home - hosting all services i need (it does NAS, DLNA, VPN, ISCSI, SVN... and some more boring stuff ;) ).
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: free_electron on December 25, 2014, 07:05:55 am
Find a software guy and pay him?
Pay for free software ? Surely not !  >:D

Looks like svn can run without complicated intalls.

http://invalidlogic.com/2006/12/06/using-subversion-without-a-subversion-server/ (http://invalidlogic.com/2006/12/06/using-subversion-without-a-subversion-server/)

I do t have to have a server and i can use my existing nas boxes

Great !
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: FrankBuss on December 25, 2014, 09:46:25 am
I've tried google code and github but I'm a complete noob to git and can't figure it out for the life of me.
If you use Windows, I recommend to install the Github client: https://windows.github.com Of course it's not as powerful as the command line, but for 99% of all tasks I do with Github I don't need more. It is not more difficult than a file explorer and even very useful for basic stuff, which tends to get bigger over time anyway :)

Another advantage of Github compared to Dropbox is how easy it is for others for use your project, either clone it (means download), or fork it, means creating their own version of it in Github and then probably sending you pull-requests, if they find bugs which you then can accept for fixing your own project, too. All with an easy to use web interface (except the part when you send pull-requests, that's the time when the pull-request creator needs the command line).
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: fake-name on December 27, 2014, 02:53:08 pm
I've tried google code and github but I'm a complete noob to git and can't figure it out for the life of me.
If you use Windows, I recommend to install the Github client: https://windows.github.com (https://windows.github.com) Of course it's not as powerful as the command line, but for 99% of all tasks I do with Github I don't need more. It is not more difficult than a file explorer and even very useful for basic stuff, which tends to get bigger over time anyway :)

If you're on windows, the only client you should ever look at is TortoiseGit (http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/ (http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/)).

It's based on tortoiseSVN, so the learning curve if you're starting with TSVN is fairly minor, and it exposes *all* the power of command-line git if you need it.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: dansku on January 06, 2015, 03:39:45 pm
Setting up your own blog on blogger or wordpress is super easy.
Git is not that hard, specially if you use their software to make the commits.

I use http://www.git-tower.com/ (http://www.git-tower.com/) as my git software and I love it. I'm not used to do it using the terminal.  :-//
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: zapta on January 06, 2015, 04:30:28 pm
Setting up your own blog on blogger or wordpress is super easy.
Git is not that hard, specially if you use their software to make the commits.

I use http://www.git-tower.com/ (http://www.git-tower.com/) as my git software and I love it. I'm not used to do it using the terminal.  :-//

I tried several times to use version control systems via GUI (perforce, git, others) and found it to be very confusing compare command line. Not sure why. The screenshot in the above link looks to me more complex than 'git st' or 'git dt --cached'. That's subjective of course.


I do like GUI based IDEs and such.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: ratdude747 on January 15, 2015, 02:55:18 am
forgot i made this thread...

For the most part the files get updated as a set... or as needed.

For those who "git or 'go home", are there any good tutorials?

I'll think about the others mentioned...

I primarily use arch linux, but I do all my arduino stuff (via codevisionAVR in C) on windows.

I can't ethically pay somebody as it's for college and If it's a skill worth learning, I'll learn it before I even consider farming it out.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: Medo on January 15, 2015, 04:43:40 am
Try BitBucket (https://bitbucket.org/ (https://bitbucket.org/)). There you can use Mercurial source control. Has pretty much the same functionality as git (distributed, fast, easy branching, ...) but it has really good Windows interface (TortoiseHg) and it just feels (at least to me) more friendly.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: c4757p on January 15, 2015, 04:49:21 am
I primarily use arch linux

Hooray, fellow Arch users! ^-^
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: ludzinc on January 15, 2015, 06:24:21 am
I use Google sites.

You can create pages as file cabinets, drop a zip of your project in there and it's available to the world.

Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: ratdude747 on January 15, 2015, 04:48:32 pm
I primarily use arch linux

Hooray, fellow Arch users! ^-^

I run it on almost all of my systems... but I use gnome 3 (which will get me hate I know)... Best linux I've ever used (after installing aura, that is).

...back on topic...

side note- I'm not of a web design background... if I need to learn HTML again, then I will... but if not, then I'd like to stick to what my specialty is.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: zapta on January 21, 2015, 03:19:58 pm
I primarily use arch linux, but I do all my arduino stuff (via codevisionAVR in C) on windows.

I can't ethically pay somebody as it's for college and If it's a skill worth learning, I'll learn it before I even consider farming it out.

A college student that knows Linux? Then, git is for you and it will be a long term investment.

For the project hope page using one of the online authoring tools (word express, site builders, etc) is probably the easiest, no need to learn HTML. Some version controls sites provide that as well. Github for example support markdown text format (easier than HTML) and wikis.  The nice thing about the markdown files is that they are version controlled like any other file.

This is a file in github markdown format
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zapta/arm/master/pro-mini/README.md

And this is how it looks to visitors
https://github.com/zapta/arm/tree/master/pro-mini#arm-pro-mini

There are other version control web sites with arguably better features (e.g. better online diff, more friendly version control systems, download section with file descriptions and so on) but github is the defacto standard. People are familiar with it, have accounts and know how to fork your repository and submit bug reports. Its a long term investment.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: ehughes on January 22, 2015, 06:50:56 pm
You may find these GIT tutorials helpful:

https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/ (https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/)


I use both Git and SVN.   With Git,  you absolutely need to learn the command line.   The GUI tools often aggregate several operations in one command to try to make it more like SVN.  The problem is that the terminology between the different systems can use the same words with 2 different meanings.

Git can be very powerful but you have to understand what you are doing with every command.

What I have found is that SVN is better suited for tracking hardware revisions and GIT is better for software.   The infinite branch/merge feature of GIT does not reflect how a hardware workflow happens.  Not to say it isn't useful but GIT for hardware doesn't always make sense.


Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: zapta on January 22, 2015, 07:02:30 pm
What I have found is that SVN is better suited for tracking hardware revisions and GIT is better for software.   The infinite branch/merge feature of GIT does not reflect how a hardware workflow happens.  Not to say it isn't useful but GIT for hardware doesn't always make sense.

I am using git for OSH hardware and software. A single branch, no merge, no stashing, very simple.  It's counter intuitive but you need to use only a few basic commands (git add, git rm, git status, git log, git diff, git commit, git push) and remember that 'git status' will suggest a few more commands (e.g. to revert).
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: DIPLover on January 27, 2015, 05:24:43 am
Try BitBucket (https://bitbucket.org/ (https://bitbucket.org/)). There you can use Mercurial source control. Has pretty much the same functionality as git (distributed, fast, easy branching, ...) but it has really good Windows interface (TortoiseHg) and it just feels (at least to me) more friendly.

I use bitbucket also. Free repos for closed projects up to 5 people is useful. You can use mercurial or git. TortoiseHg is nice. Mercurial command line I find I like better than git. Feature-wise they're comparable. But git came from Linus' brain.
Web interface is nice.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: C222 on March 18, 2015, 10:56:38 pm
I've hosted hardware and firmware from the same GitHub repository for a while and it worked fine. They have a halfway decent UI for windows that works well until something in the repo inevitably breaks, then you need a git guru or Google. (GitHub has a built-in STL renderer for some reason)

I've seen Upverter around the internet, but I haven't seen anyone use it or review it yet. It promises a lot. Free trial available.https://upverter.com/ (https://upverter.com/)
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: katzohki on March 25, 2015, 08:52:05 pm
You can build an entirely free website using Google Drive combined with a free DNS rerouter such as changeip.com

see http://www.freeenergy.isasecret.com/ (http://www.freeenergy.isasecret.com/) and http://www.overpriced.organiccrap.com/ (http://www.overpriced.organiccrap.com/) for two examples I made. You can go a lot more complicated, but this are just very basic hand-written HTML.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: codeboy2k on March 26, 2015, 09:54:37 pm
You can build an entirely free website using Google Drive combined with a free DNS rerouter such as changeip.com

see http://www.freeenergy.isasecret.com/ (http://www.freeenergy.isasecret.com/) and http://www.overpriced.organiccrap.com/ (http://www.overpriced.organiccrap.com/) for two examples I made. You can go a lot more complicated, but this are just very basic hand-written HTML.
Woah! that's cool!  Is this something that's generally well known and acceptable use for Google drive?

I have a few friends that have asked me to do websites for their (very small!) home based businesses, but the upfront costs and annual costs + dns registration puts them off.

They would go for a free Google drive solution if Google doesn't care.
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: zapta on March 26, 2015, 10:10:57 pm
You can build an entirely free website using Google Drive combined with a free DNS rerouter such as changeip.com

see http://www.freeenergy.isasecret.com/ (http://www.freeenergy.isasecret.com/) and http://www.overpriced.organiccrap.com/ (http://www.overpriced.organiccrap.com/) for two examples I made. You can go a lot more complicated, but this are just very basic hand-written HTML.

You can also use the site builder. It supports themes, navigation, etc.

https://sites.google.com (https://sites.google.com)

BTW, the google code hosting that was mentioned earlier in this thread is not a viable option anymore so github is the king. I still have an old project that I need to migrate to github, hopefully the migration tool works as promised.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/03/google-to-close-google-code-open-source-project-hosting/ (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/03/google-to-close-google-code-open-source-project-hosting/)
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: katzohki on March 26, 2015, 10:39:39 pm
Yeah, sites.google.com (http://sites.google.com) is even better if you want something a little bit nicer. I like the Google Drive hosting for very simple stuff and I think it can be used with ftp which is why I would want to use it. I've done a few Google Site examples too (https://sites.google.com/site/katzcospace/ (https://sites.google.com/site/katzcospace/)).

As far as Google caring about whether you use Drive for that purpose, I think the only limitations are how much you have stored (how big your files are) and how much bandwidth (number of visitors per timeframe).

You could also use one of these free DNS services and host your website on your own home server. All you have to do is set up an application that updates your IP address (for ISPs that have a dynamic IP) and set up your router (to forward web traffic to the correct computer).
Title: Re: OSHW Hosting
Post by: zapta on March 27, 2015, 12:33:20 am
My aunt wanted a web site for material she authors so I set for her a Dropbox account that acts as a server and she manages it by manipulating the directory on her computer.

It's also possible to serve directly from some version control sites, look for the 'raw' link of the files you submit.  I am using it for serving a help web page for one of my asps and it works great. Make sure it doesn't violate the terms though.