Merge branch 'release/6.8' into 'master'

WIP | Release 6.8 post

source/_posts/2014-04-22-gitlab-6-dot-8-released.markdown

+---
+layout: post
+title: "GitLab CE 6.8 released"
+date: 2014-04-22 10:04:04 +0100
+comments: true
+categories:
+author: Marin Jankovski, Jacob Vosmaer
+community: false
+---
+
+Hello everyone!
+
+Gitlab is open source software made for collaborative coding.
+Today we announce the release of a new version of GitLab Community Edition (CE), with new features, usability and performance improvements, and bug fixes.
+The main new feature of this release is protection against force pushes.
+Other changes include improvements to mentioning in comments, Merge Request UI improvements and new API features.
+
+This month's Most Valuable Person is Jeroen van Baarsen for contributing many small fixes and helping people on the issue trackers.
+Thanks Jeroen!
+
+<!--more-->
+
+## Force push protection
+
+In GitLab 6.8 we are changing the behavior of protected branches: force pushes to protected branches will be blocked.
+This allows users to protect against history rewriting on their protected branches (e.g. `master`) while preserving developer flexibility in unprotected feature branches.
+If you really need to force-push to a protected branch you can temporarily 'unprotect' the branch.
+Steven Thonus helped implement this feature.
+
+Note: you need gitlab-shell 1.9.3 or newer to enable force push protection.
+
+## Commenting
+
+In GitLab comments, issues, merge requests and commit messages you can reference GitLab users using the `@username` notation, sending them a notification.
+This is called 'mentioning a user'.
+Besides notifications, mentioning is also used to address invididuals in a larger conversation.
+Before GitLab 6.8, you could only mention project members.
+In GitLab 6.8, you can also mention issue _participants_ who are not necessarily project members.
+
+In addition to extending the reach of mentions, we have also improved the readability of comments; see the screenshot below.
+
+[![screenshot](/images/6_8/comment_layout.png)](/images/6_8/comment_layout.png)
+
+## Merge Request UI
+
+We have restyled the widget that contains the build status and 'Accept merge request' controls.
+
+[![screenshot](/images/6_8/mr_widget.png)](/images/6_8/mr_widget.png)
+
+In addition, it is now also possible to remove a source branch after the merge if you forgot to check the 'Remove source-branch' checkbox.
+
+[![screenshot](/images/6_8/remove_source_branch.png)](/images/6_8/remove_source_branch.png)
+
+## New API features
+
+Thanks to sponsoring by O'Reilly Media it is now possible to create Git branches through the API.
+
+In addition you can also get more detailed information about merge requests and comments.
+You can read more about the GitLab API at [doc.gitlab.com/api](http://doc.gitlab.com/ce/api/README.html).
+
+## OAuth sign-in flow
+
+GitLab can be integrated with external authentication providers such as Twitter or Google through OAuth.
+When a user signs into GitLab through OAuth for the first time, a GitLab user is created for them based on the OAuth user attributes.
+In GitLab 6.8 we no longer assume that all OAuth providers supply an email attribute for the new GitLab user.
+Instead, new OAuth users must now enter and confirm an email address after signing into GitLab for the first time.
+This change does not apply to GitLab LDAP integration.
+
+Also see the [new OAuth documentation page](http://doc.gitlab.com/ce/integration/omniauth.html) compiled by Drew Blessing.
+
+## GZipped assets
+
+Previously, GitLab was not equipped to serve assets with compression.
+This increased the load time since the browser had to download all assets.
+We've added the option to the example Nginx config to serve the pre-gzipped version of the assets.
+Nginx has this module enabled by default in Ubuntu but if you are using the compiled version of Nginx, make sure that you have compiled it with `--with-http_gzip_static_module` flag.
+More information on GZip compression [can be found here](http://guides.rubyonrails.org/asset_pipeline.html#gzip-compression).
+
+To enable Nginx asset compression you need to [edit your configuration files](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/doc/update/6.7-to-6.8.md#5-update-config-files).
+
+## Many, many other improvements
+
+There are over 500 commits in this release, including many small fixes and performance improvements.
+Please see the [CHANGELOG](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/6-8-stable/CHANGELOG) for more information.
+
+- - -
+
+# Install
+
+If you are setting up a new GitLab installation see the [installation section of the README](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/README.md#installation).
+
+# Update 
+
+Upgrade instructions for omnibus-gitlab packages can be found in [the omnibus-gitlab repository](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/blob/master/doc/update.md).
+
+If you installed GitLab from source and you have version 6.4.2 or higher you can use the [upgrade script](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/doc/update/upgrader.md).
+But you have to update GitLab Shell to 1.9.3 manually, see [point 3 of the upgrade guide](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/doc/update/6.7-to-6.8.md#3-update-gitlab-shell-and-its-config).
+
+If you still want to do it manually - see the [Update Guide](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/doc/update/6.7-to-6.8.md).
+
+# Enterprise
+
+For LDAP group support and more have a look at the [feature list of GitLab Enterprise Edition](http://www.gitlab.com/gitlab-ee/).
+
+Access to GitLab Enterprise Edition is included with a [GitLab.com subscription](http://www.gitlab.com/subscription/).
+
+No time to upgrade or maintain Gitlab yourself?
+GitLab.com also offers upgrade and installation services as part of a [GitLab.com subscription](http://www.gitlab.com/subscription/) or alternatively on a [consultancy basis](http://www.gitlab.com/consultancy/).
+
+- - -