Information.md

Information

• Information
  • What is JLU GitLab?
  • Use cases
  • No storage of research data
  • Who may use JLU GitLab?
  • How can I use JLU GitLab? {#how_to_use}
  • Account termination {#deletion_account}
    • What happens when I leave JLU? {#leaving_JLU}
    • What happens if my g- or s-account becomes invalid?
    • What happens to my data when my account is deleted?
  • Who is maintaining JLU GitLab?
  • The goals of JLU GitLab
  • Future plans
  • Contact

What is JLU GitLab?

JLU GitLab is a GitLab web service. GitLab is a versatile tool for the management of projects that involve file editing. At the core of each GitLab project is a Git repository that keeps versions of the edited files. For each project, GitLab also provides a wiki, an issue tracker, and much more.

JLU GitLab is accessible with a web browser at https://gitlab.test.uni-giessen.de and is hosted on systems of the Justus Liebig University (JLU) Giessen. The deployed GitLab Community Edition is licensed as free software, so JLU GitLab is technically and legally independent from GitLab.com.

JLU GitLab is maintained by a team of voluntary employees.

Use cases

• In Good enough practices in scientific computing von G. Wilseon et. al. (2017) reasons and how to use tools for versioning scientific software and programming code are shown.
• TODO: Add more: lab management, writing and publishing, ...

No storage of research data

JLU GitLab is currently not suited to store research data. Such use is explicitly advised against.

For storage of research data, the JLU provides the JLUbox as well as network drives. For questions regarding management of research data, you find further help at this FAQ or write an email to forschungsdaten@uni-giessen.de.

Who may use JLU GitLab?

Currently nobody; first, the terms of service must be written.

Once this is done, any student or employee with a valid s- oder g-Login may open a user account, as long as they accept the terms of service. This means that internal visibility of projects or groups is applied to all of these people.

Please note that GitLab is currently only accessible within the university network. This means that public visibility of projects or groups applies to anyone with access to the university network. Members of the university can access from outside the university network through the university VPN.

How can I use JLU GitLab? {#how_to_use}

You can find information on the practical use of JLU GitLab at help on use.

Account termination {#deletion_account}

Accounts of JLU GitLab may be terminated in multiple ways:

• Users may voluntarily delete their account at any time. If you want to delete your account, please follow these steps. You may also consider some last steps before you delete your account.
• The account will be deleted after 6 months after your g- or s- account becomes invalid, which most commonly happens if you leave the university.
• The maintainers may delete a user account if its activities violate the terms of service.

Below you find an overview what data will also be deleted when your account gets deleted.

What happens when I leave JLU? {#leaving_JLU}

Once you leave the university (e.g. end of contract, exmatriculation), your g- or s-account will become invalid within a few weeks. The IT service centre is responsible for this procedure; please contact them if you have questions.

What happens if my g- or s-account becomes invalid?

If your g- or s-account becomes invalid, your account on JLU GitLab will become blocked automatically within 24 hours. If your account is blocked, you will not be able to log in to JLU GitLab. After your account has been blocked for 6 months, it will be deleted, see below.

What happens to my data when my account is deleted?

How much of your data will be deleted depends on how you used JLU GitLab. In principle, your account will be deleted along with all your personal data. Personal information will be removed from data that you contributed to projects of groups or other users. The content of such data will remain in the projects and continue to be available to the remaining members.

Who is maintaining JLU GitLab?

JLU GitLab is maintained by a team consisting of volunteers from the faculties and the university library, in accordance with the Guidelines for the IT-system administration at the JLU Giessen (in German). We work in consultation with the JLU-internal IKM work group, and for service operations we exclusively use infrastructure of the IT service centre.

We are always looking for more volunteers who want to join our efforts. Feel free to contact us if you want to know more about our our way of working and decision process.

You can contact us in various ways, see the contact information.

The goals of JLU GitLab

JLU GitLab first serves to assess demands across the JLU and for evaluation of its features in a research context. We believe that currently, Git and GitLab provide the best tools to manage and document the software for our research. Only a locally installed, freely licensed platform like GitLab can ensure our long-term control over its implementation and administration.

Future plans

Once JLU GitLab is usable within the university, we have further plans to make it even more useful. We would like to...

• ...make JLU GitLab accessible directly from the Internet, without VPN
• ...also allow accounts for people from outside the JLU
• ...investigate the possibility to publish content with GitLab Pages
• ...evaluate the use of Git Large File Storage (LFS)

Contact

For questions regarding help and support, please write an email to our support mailing list, gitlab-help@lists.uni-giessen.de.

For anything else, can contact the team of maintainers at our internal mailing list at gitlab-admin@lists.uni-giessen.de.

If you want to get receive news about JLU GitLab, you can subscribe to the mailing list gitlab-news@lists.uni-giessen.de or to the RSS feed. You can also follow the protocols of the IKM work group (only accessible internally, in German).