I wanted to share some news with you. After weeks of hard work and being forced to learn new tech from scratch, the Slackware Community Forge, a git software forge, is now available at https://forge.slackware.nl/ .
It’s not just a git repository server but also a Docker container registry!
What the Forge?
I created this Forge as an autonomous and European based alternative to the popular git forges like Github and Gitlab. I have (well not only I, but a lot of people have) issues with the fact that Github is owned by Microsoft, is fully proprietary and enforces the Microsoft CoPilot AI in weird and unacceptible ways (even though it was ‘by accident’, the tendency and the intent is clear). And Gitlab recently moved office to the US which makes them subjugated to the US administration. Also, Gitlab recently announced their commitment to AI and at the same time will fire 30% of their workforce because of it.
The Slackware Community Forge is not connected to any form of AI, and it is powered by Forgejo, a fully open source software governed by a European company. meant to be used for hosting free, Open Source and Open Standards Software (OSOSS).
I am not principally opposed to US based companies and their software. I worked at IBM, use software from Red Hat and my friend Patrick Volkerding runs the US based Slackware Linux company. But I do have concerns about the dangers of potentially having my data controlled by US based entities. Even if my data is encrypted so that content cannot be accessed, the US administration can still request that my own access to my own data is revoked.
My Slackware Cloud Server series of articles is meant to help you (individuals, groups, communities or companies) to implement self-hosted variants of online services that are under your own control, to prevent the risk of losing access to your data, or having your data being monetized by training AI models or by selling it to advertisement platforms.
I invite you to also read those articles!
Now, the Forge.
The Slackware Community Forge is a web-based familiar interface to manage your own git repositories, use CI/CD runners to validate the changes to your code. The site offers workflows to generate release tarballs. There’s also command-line access via SSH connections using SSH keys.
The CI/CD workflows make use of Slackware Docker images. They are available for stable Slackware release 15.0 and for -current at the time of writing this. Those images come in both 32bit and 64bit flavors. The Slackware Docker images are kept up to date with the changes in Slackware: the images are automatically re-generated when an update to the Slackware ChangeLog.txt is detected.
Of course you can download and use these Docker images locally, the Docker registry is public and does not require an account to download from. For the Slackware “base” images which are really small, the registry URL is https://forge.slackware.nl/slackware/-/packages/container/slackware/versions . The Forge also offers Slackware “builder” images of nearly 2 GB in size, offering all the build tools you would need to compile your project; their registry URL is https://forge.slackware.nl/slackware/-/packages/container/slackware-builder/versions .
If you access the registry via Docker, the hostnames ‘forge.slackware.nl‘ and ‘registry.slackware.nl‘ will both work.
As an example, if you have Docker installed and want to test the image for 64bit Slackware-current, you can run:
$ docker run --rm registry.slackware.nl/slackware/slackware:current bash -c "cat /etc/os-release"
...
Unable to find image 'registry.slackware.nl/slackware/slackware:current' locally
current: Pulling from slackware/slackware
Digest: sha256:74a1caaababd145d40196ee29207c8c0a10602f39463a5077ea1bbe9f05a54d6
Status: Downloaded newer image for registry.slackware.nl/slackware/slackware:current
NAME=Slackware
VERSION="15.0"
ID=slackware
VERSION_ID=15.0
PRETTY_NAME="Slackware 15.0 x86_64 (post 15.0 -current)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;34"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:slackware:slackware_linux:15.0"
HOME_URL="http://slackware.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/"
VERSION_CODENAME=current
The Slackware Community Forge accepts users and organizations that have a relationship to the Slackware ecosystem. If you work on a project that matters to Slackware users, or users of Slackware derivatives, you are invited to request an account. Send an email to forge@slackware.nl from the email address that you want to have associated with your Forge account. I will also need your First and Lastname and the login userID that you want to use.
I will send you the temporary password in reply.
Once you receive your credentials, browse to https://forge.slackware.nl/ and click “Sign In”.
On the sign-in page, click “Sign in with Keycloak”:
This will redirect to the Keycloak server which is the Identity Provider that handles the Single Sign On for Slackware Community Services:
Once you enter your userid and the temporary password you received. you are asked to create a new permanent password.
When the login is complete and you have memorized your new password, you will be directed back from Keycloak to the Forge. There you will be asked whether you want to register a new account or link your account to an existing local account.
Your account only exists in Keycloak, so you select “Register new account” and then Forgejo will create an account in its own database which it will link to your actual Keycloak identity:
You are now ready to start using the Forge in earnest.
Pushing your commits to your repository
Your account lives in the Keycloak Identity Provider (IP). Forgejo’s web interface offers the “Sign in with keycloak” button but when you push your commits to your repository via the commandline interface or via https, Forgejo will not recognize your credentials (it will only recognize local accounts). This is a fundamental aspect of how OIDC authentication works in Forgejo, and it cannot be “fixed” to make Keycloak passwords work for “git push”. This is by design. The OIDC flow requires a browser redirect. There is no way to retrofit it into a non-interactive git credential prompt.
There’s two solutions to this issue:
1: Add a SSH key to your Forge account.
This is recommended for any developer doing regular git work and who wants to access their repositories over a SSH connection.
Assuming that you already have a SSH public/private key pair on your computer called “/home/your_username/.ssh/id_ecdsa_forgejo” that you want to use with the Forge, add that public key in Forgejo:
- ‘Settings > SSH / GPG keys > Manage SSH keys’ (or browse directly to https://forge.slackware.nl/user/settings/keys)
- Click ‘Add key’
- Copy the ASCII text of your public key into the provided field that says:
Begins with “ssh-ed25519”, “ssh-rsa”, “ecdsa-sha2-nistp256”, “ecdsa-sha2-nistp384”, “ecdsa-sha2-nistp521”, “sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256@openssh.com”, or “sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com” - Give your key a name so that you can recognize it when you add more
- Click ‘Add key’ again.
Then on your local computer:
- Add the following lines to your ~/.ssh.config file (create the file if it does not yet exist and do a “chmod 600” on the file or else ssh will simply refuse to use it):
Host forge.slackware.nl
Port 2222
User git
ServerAliveInterval 20
IdentityFile /home/your_username/.ssh/id_ecdsa_forgejo
- Change directory to the clone of your remote repository, and add the remote as follows (it’s a one-time setup, works forever, for all your repositories, and there are no passwords involved at all.):
$ git remote set-url origin forge.slackware.nl:your_username/your_repository.git
All you need to do to push your commits to the remote repository is a:
$ git push origin
No credentials need to be entered at all.
And if this is the first time you connect to the Forge via SSH, you need to accept its SSH server key to continue. This is also a one-time action.
2: Forgejo API token
This works well for HTTPS workflows or in environments where SSH is blocked. The API token (aka Access token) takes the place of a regular password.
If you had already cloned your repository, the “origin” URL definition in the “.git/config” file inside that repository will look like this:
[remote "origin"]
url = https://forge.slackware.nl/your_username/your_repository.git
fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
You generate an API token as follows:
- Login to Forgejo
- Go to ‘Settings > Applications > Access token’ (or go directly to https://forge.slackware.nl/user/settings/applications)
- Click ‘New access token’
- Give the token a descriptive name, make it access to ‘All’
- Select the permissions you want this token to have; at least that should be:
- Repository: “read and write”
- Click ‘generate token’
- Copy and store the token string in a safe place; this token string can not be retrieved later. If you forget it, you can simply create a new token and use that instead.
Then use the token as the password for HTTPS connections:
$ git push origin Username for 'https://forge.slackware.nl': your_username Password for 'https://your_username@forge.slackware.nl': Everything up-to-date
At the “Username” prompt enter your Forgejo username, and at the “Password” prompt enter your API token.
To avoid typing the API token every time, you can store it in git’s credential helper:
$ git config --global credential.helper store
Then do one successful push. Your credentials are saved to the file ~/.git-credentials with mode ‘0600’ which means that only you can read the contents, which look like this:
https://your_username:APITOKEN@forge.slackware.nl
Documentation
In the “forge-docs” repository of the Slackware organization in Forge, you can find:
- User Guide – getting started, git access, CI workflows
- Architecture Overview – how the Forge is built and operates
- GitHub Migration Guide – moving existing repositories to the Forge
- Admin Operations Guide – for Forge administrators
Finally…
I hope you will appreciate this new service and also start migrating your Github / Gitlab repositories to the Slackware Community Forge.
Try the CI workflows and report any issues you encounter! Note that I am the single administrator and moderator. Be gentle.
My commitment is to run this Forge as a stable and long-term service to the Slackware community. I’ve written admin documentation and in time will look for more administrators. Let’s first see if this initiative is going to be used at all 😉
Have fun! Eric
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