Move config to `.gitpod` folder

[svenefftinge]

As suggested here we should put the gitpod config below .gitpod. It will reduce the noise on the top level, as most setups use two config files (.gitpod.yml, .gitpod.Dockerfile).

[asomervell]

Yeah so i'd just see at least

/.gitpod/config.yml (or anything / *.yml)
/.gitpod/Dockerfile

And it gives rise in the future to being able to have scripts and things in subfolders

/.gitpod/startup/run_some_test.sh

[JesterOrNot]

Any updates on this?

[RDIL]

Can we please add this and also support .theia? This is something I really really really want.

[JesterOrNot]

@RDIL can you elaborate? .theia is already a folder!

[RDIL]

No I mean putting .theia in .gitpod for ultra organization

[Kreyren]

or ideally allowing to specify the location of those files by the user and standardize one directory that is used by default if end-user doesn't override it.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[csweichel]

To make this happen we'd have to at least:

• update ConfigProvider.fetchExternalGitpodFileContent whereby we would remove support for /.gitpod as config file and replace it with support for /.gitpod/config.yaml.
• update supervisor to look for /.gitpod/config.yaml when creating the config service (determine filename first, then create service. Don't drag variance into the service).
• update the setup-manager to produce the new file
• search and replace every occurrence of .gitpod.yml in the repo with .gitpod/config.yaml

We'd also have to agree on some conventions:

• the new config file is in /.gitpod/config.yaml - notice it's config.yaml not config.yml which is more in line with the cloud native world (e.g. Kubernetes) and the YAML creator's FAQ.
• if the old and the new file are present (/.gitpod.yml and /.gitpod/config.yaml) the new one takes precedence

Lastly, we should think about a way to migrate old configurations, or do we want to support both modes indefinitely?

[svenefftinge]

We should keep the gitpod.yml filename to make it easier talking about it, no matter it sits top-level or below .gitpod/. We also should support both .yml and .yaml it would be very confusing if you got the extension wrong and gitpod just ignores it. The checking order (priority) should be

• .gitpod/gitpod.yaml
• .gitpod.yml # legacy
• .gitpod.yaml # confused legacy
• .gitpod/gitpod.yml # confused legacy

We can get everyone towards .gitpod/gitpod.yaml by deprecating all other variants and providing a quick fix.

The gp init CLI should create a scaffolding for .gitpod/gitpod.yaml.

[akosyakov]

Just fyi: Theia and Code expects .gitpod.yml to be in checkout location. Maybe it would be better to enhance the supervisor info endpoint to provide a URL to the config.

[shaal]

Would it be possible to get this feature in, before the next Gitpod release?

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[shaal]

Requesting to add meta: never-stale label to this issue. I think this feature is important, is it going to be implemented?

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[shaal]

Requesting to add meta: never-stale label to this issue. I think this feature is important, is it going to be implemented?

[shaal]

I still wish we can get this feature. Everything related to Gitpod, under .gitpod/ directory.

[jldec]

Tracking under developer experience in https://github.com/orgs/gitpod-io/projects/20/views/10

[shaal]

Checking on the status of this feature request, can it be scheduled?

[ericsampson]

Shouldn’t files go into a .gitpod folder? .github is for GitHub config files etc, not a dumping ground for everyone AFAIK?

[shaal]

@ericsampson AFAIK this whole issue is all about moving Gitpod config files to .gitpod folder.

[cart]

I'd personally love it if we could put .gitpod.yml into our .github folder. We've been discussing adopting gitpod for Bevy Engine (https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/4700), but we like to keep our root directory as clean as possible. A .gitpod folder doesn't solve this problem for us as it still increases the noise at the root.

[ericsampson]

@cart why not both :)

Seems like it would be relatively easy and desirable for the feature to be: "check for X files in root folder, then check in .gitpod, then check in .github"

[pattacini]

"check for X files in root folder, then check in .gitpod (if present), then check in .github (if present)"

This would be definitely great as it will guarantee back-compatibility.

[ericsampson]

Based on @svenefftinge design above I would propose this update:

The checking order (priority) should be

.gitpod/gitpod.yaml .gitpod.yml # legacy .gitpod.yaml # confused legacy .gitpod/gitpod.yml .github/gitpod.yaml .github/gitpod.yml

[cart]

Yup that sounds great to me!

[szab100]

Personally, I think it is nice and clean as it is today and adding such a checking order would increase the noise.

I have always been using the following structure:

• a single .gitpod.yml (or .yaml) file in the repo root, with references to files under .gitpod/
• a single .gitpod/ folder, containing all the helper files (dockerfile, scripts, helpers, docs, etc)

I feel this is the cleanest for both humans & reading programmatically (think of enterprise self-hosted users with custom infra elements aimed at detecting or dealing with "gitpodized" git repositories), since there is always a single, fixed starting point, no need to replicate the checking order logic. Where all the helper files are stored should really be a user preference, while official Gitpod docs and examples should consistently promote a clean structure.

Either way, just my 2-cents.

[jacobparis]

I'd like to see tools adopt a /config convention as a place to put their configuration files. I think it would only take a few big players to start before other tools follow suit

config:
  .gitpod.yml
  .gitpod.Dockerfile
  .eslintrc
  .prettierrc