rn-106: add URL update article

Author: chriscool

rev_news/drafts/edition-106.md

@@ -21,9 +21,73 @@ This edition covers what happened during the months of November 2023 and Decembe
 ### General
 -->
 
-<!---
 ### Reviews
--->
+
++[[PATCH 0/4] Switch links to https](https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email protected]/)
+
+ Last September Josh Soref posted a 4 patch long series on the
+ mailing list to improve the URLs used throughout the documentation
+ and the code base of the project.
+
+ The main goal was to use HTTPS instead of HTTP in the URLs to
+ improve user security, but along the way some patches replaced URLs
+ that didn't work anymore with some new ones pointing to the same
+ content.
+
+ Eric Sunshine replied to Josh's patches asking why one ULR was
+ changed from `http://json.org/` to `https://www.json.org/` instead
+ of just replacing `http` with `https`. Josh replied that it was
+ because that website was self-identifying with the later URL using a
+[meta refresh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_refresh).
+
+ In the meantime, Junio Hamano, the Git maintainer, replied to some
+ patches saying that it might not be worth updating some URLs, either
+ because it was clear from the context that they were old, or because
+ they were part of some code we borrowed from other projects. In some
+ cases, they were an argument of a Git command and still just worked,
+ while the meaning of the command changed a bit when `http` was
+ replaced with `https`. Junio liked the fact that some broken links
+ were fixed by the series though.
+
+ Josh then sent a
+[version 2 of his patch series](https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email protected]/).
+ This took into account Eric's comments as a commit message was
+ improved to say that some changes were made to respect a site's
+ self-identification. Junio's comments were also taken into account
+ as a number of URLs that were previously changed were now left
+ as-is.
+
+ Elijah Newren and Junio commented on this new version. They both
+ suggested improving commit messages or the cover letter of the
+ series to better explain the reasons for the changes that were made.
+ In one case, Elijah and Josh discussed replacing the URL of a
+ website that seemed to be often down with a link to its content on
+ the [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/).
+
+ Last November, Josh then sent a
+[version 3 of his patch series](https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email protected]/)
+ where the first and second patches had been swapped to avoid some
+ confusion for reviewers who would ask why some URLs weren't changed
+ in the first patch overlooking that the second one would change them.
+
+ The other significant change compared to version 2 was that Josh
+ decided not to replace the URL of the website that was often down
+ saying "we'll risk users getting hacked content from an arbitrary
+[MITM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-in-the-middle_attack)
+ instead of taking archived authenticated content based on the last
+ time their web site was properly maintained".
+
+ Elijah replied that he would be fine with using the archived link if
+ it was better justified in the commit message. But said that he also
+ agreed with merging the whole series as-is, as he had checked all
+ the links and they all looked good to him.
+
+ Josh replied he could come back later to change the URL and prefered
+ the series to be merged as-is. He thanked Elijah for taking the time
+ to re-check every link, saying he knew exactly how tedious that is.
+
+ Junio agreed with merging the series, which is now part of the
+ 'master' branch.
 
 <!---
 ### Support