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Policy for Archiving Repositories

Repositories that have had no activity for 365 consecutive days will be flagged for automatic archival.

Why consider archiving repositories?

Repositories that are not actively maintained pose a security risk to the organization because of code that is not being maintained based on results of security scans as well as questionable management of repo admins and other user permissions. Archiving repositories will let users know that this repository is no longer maintained and should not be integrated into their projects or used on its own.

Criteria and process for archiving repositories

Repositories that have had no activity for 365 consecutive days will be flagged for automatic archival. Repo owners and admins will be notified via pull request at least 30 days prior to archival so they have sufficient time to take action in order to prevent archival. During this time period users or admins may prevent archival by commenting on the pull request to provide reasoning for not archiving and closing the pull request, archiving the repository on their own, or allowing the repository to be automatically archived.

Repo owners and admins can still access their archived repository as they normally would, though no new code can be added unless the repository is unarchived. Repositories will be archived until the current or new repository owners resume maintaining the repository.

Admins of the repository can unarchive the repository in the repository settings. If the repository no longer has any active admins within the VA, a user can request to unarchive a repository by opening an issue in the github-support repository in GitHub.com by selecting “New Issue” and choosing the “Unarchive Repo” template at which time the repository will be unarchived and new admins assigned.

Communication Plan and Timing

  • Archival process announcement will be shared throughout June in:
    • Product Security CoP 6/17
    • GitHub and Engineering Slack channels
    • DOTS Emerging Technologies weekly call
    • GitHub Office Hours 6/15
    • GitHub Discussions post to “All VA Users”
  • The archival process will become effective July 1, 2021

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