Version control: Gitea 1.17 brings a package registry for npm and more
The open source tool brings breaking changes and a new package registry. It can handle npm, Maven, NuGet and other package managers.
Gitea 1.17 has been released and remains true to its semi-annual rhythm. The version management tool has some new features on board, including a package registry with links to various package managers. In addition to breaking changes, users should also find improved use on mobile devices, simplified file navigation and the automatic merging of pull requests. A total of 645 changes have been incorporated into the new version.
Package Registry for npm & Co.
As one of the most important innovations, Gitea 1.17 comes with a package registry. It provides connectivity to the following ten package managers: Composer, Conan, Generic, Helm, Maven, npm, NuGet, OCI Containers (Docker), PyPI and RubyGems. The new package registry can be used as a private or public registry and is intended in particular to benefit teams who want to deploy software from their own infrastructure. The documentation provides more insight into their use.
In the new release, Gitea offers the option of automatically merging a pull request if all checks have been successfully completed. This is done either via the WebUI or via the API. However, the feature is only active if the target branch has branch protection.
To counteract spam, for example, issues and thus also pull requests can be permanently deleted in Gitea 1.17. Repository and instance admins can find the delete button at the end of the sidebar in the relevant issue or pull request. Additionally, maintainers of the upstream repository can now be given the ability to push to the head branch of a pull request when creating a pull request from a fork. This is intended to simplify the workflow of pull requests for open source development and is similar to the way Gitea is managed.
New requirements
One of the backwards incompatible innovations is that Gitea 1.17 relies on at least the Git 2.0 version released in 2014. Git version 2.37 is now available. The now required version of Go has increased to version 1.18 or higher. The programming language is necessary to compile Gitea.
Other breaking changes include restrictions on valid email addresses and changing the default branch of master to main. The latter change primarily affects third-party tools and their guesses about the name of the standard branch of a repository. The name change from master to non-racist expression main has already been implemented by the version management platforms GitHub and GitLab, among others.
The Gitea team will share all further details about Gitea 1.17 in a blog entry.
