Move Pull Mirror to Free
Problem to solve
If you fork an open source project (like GitLab) to contribute, you are required to keep the fork up-to-date if you plan to continue with contributions. This is a task which needs to be periodically done and can cause multiple problems:
- It is easy to forget and will cause unnecessary merge conflicts
- It is easy to forget the
ci.skippush option resulting in a waste of CI minutes
The pull mirror is perfect for this task as it automates it and if not explicitly enabled, doesn't trigger pipelines for updates.
Problem is, the pull mirror is only available with GitLab Premium and therefore not available for most OSS contributors once the Free Ultimate Features get removed in July.
Proposal
Move the Pull Mirror to GitLab Free. If you don't want to move the feature fully to Free, please consider the following alternative:
Allow all forked projects (in every plan) to use pull mirroring to it's upstream. You can even put a limit, that this pull mirror can only mirror protected branches and can't trigger pipelines for updates.
This would be a huge improvement for the OSS world as it makes sure, a contributor can always have an up-to-date fork and doesn't require to keep it up-to-date by themself.
Intended users
Who will use this feature? If known, include any of the following: types of users (e.g. Developer), personas, or specific company roles (e.g. Release Manager). It's okay to write "Unknown" and fill this field in later.
- Many OSS contributors