Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Faust Tanasescu <faust_tanasescu@×××××××.com>
To: gentoo-dev@g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] RFP: System to account users configurations
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2002 16:13:53
Message-Id: F273o4d20Zi6lGnA6PS00003a30@hotmail.com
1 >From: Rufiao <rufiao@×××.net>
2 >Reply-To: gentoo-dev@g.o
3 >To: gentoo-dev@g.o
4 >Subject: [gentoo-dev] RFP: System to account users configurations
5 >Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2002 17:16:21 -0300
6 >
7 >
8 >As stated in bug #3778 (http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3778):
9 >
10 >1. Rationale
11 >
12 >This system is inspired by Debian's popularity-contest package
13 >(http://packages.debian.org/stable/misc/popularity-contest.html) with some
14 >important enhancements. The key idea is to provide means for the Gentoo
15 >community to account the most used packages, hardware configurations,
16 >kernel
17 >versions, compile flags and profiles. Additionaly, this system aims to
18 >provide the following advantages:
19 >
20 >- Allow the creation of CD layouts which include the most used packages for
21 > each profile
22 >- Allow the developers to investigate the most used configurations, and
23 >focus
24 > on them
25 > for setting priorities, documentation, standard kernel configurations,
26 >etc.
27 >- Give some figures about the number of active users in the community
28 >
29 >2. Description
30 >
31 >The system comprises of 2 subsistems:
32 >
33 >- A client-side system that runs periodically through cron to grab
34 >information
35 > from users' configurations and post them to the server system trhough
36 >HTTP.
37 > This system does not require any user intervention beyond the initial
38 > configuration.
39 >
40 >- A server-side system running on the gentoo.org domain capable of
41 >receiving
42 > the information provided by the users, store them on a database and
43 >create
44 > statistics with them. Also, it provides a web front-end to query the
45 > database.
46 >
47 >The following information will be processed by the system:
48 >
49 >- Packages installed, including their versions (as in
50 > `qpkg -nc -I -v` from the gentoolkit package)
51 >- Flags in make.conf (as in
52 > `egrep "^(USE|CHOST|CFLAGS|CXXFLAGS)" /etc/make.conf`)
53 >- CPU info (as in `egrep "^(model name|cpu MHz)" /proc/cpuinfo`)
54 >- System memory (as in `egrep "^MemTotal:" /proc/meminfo`)
55 >- PCI devices (as in
56 > `lspci | colrm 1 8 | sed 's/\(.*\)(.*/\1/'` from the pciutils package)
57 >- USB devices (as in `lsusb | grep iProduct | colrm 1 28` from the
58 > usbutils packages)
59 >- Kernel version (as in `uname -r`)
60 >- Profile being used (as in
61 > `ls -ld /etc/make.profile | awk '{print $NF}' | awk -F/ '{print $NF}'`)
62 >
63 >In the client side, the procedure to provide data for the system is the
64 >following:
65 >
66 >- User emerge the package, which:
67 > - Sets a crontab entry to let the system run periodically, possibly
68 > requiring user intervention to specify when the system should run
69 > - Points to an URL (in the gentoo.org domain) for signup
70 >- User go to the provided url, which requests the e-mail from the user, and
71 > that the user transcribe a random 4-letters message shown as an image to
72 > a text box. These requirements are used to ensure, as long as possible,
73 > the autenticity of the data and to avoid automated signups
74
75 Users are required to 1) want to participate to this survey 2) asked when
76 system should run information grab 3) go to URL to subscribe to service 4)
77 get magic key from server 5) set up client system 6) check it runs well.
78
79 We don't have many users and setup is very complicated to my taste for
80 somethng that brings nothing to me as a gentoo user. And we want people to
81 sue this. the more, the better.
82 I don't know about this, but as a gentoo user, if a system like this were
83 available I would not bother installing it. It is way too lenghty and I get
84 nothing out of it as an individual.
85
86 I propose making this whole process a lot simpler for the client. What we
87 must keep in mind is that no system is perfect, and to not fall into
88 paranoia. I therefore propose shortening the setup of this survey system to
89 something smaller.
90
91 1) user required to emerge package.
92 2) they are asked when the collect should run
93
94 and that's it
95
96 now how to keep people from abusing of this system is a whole new question
97 and I think we should treat it separately. However I'd like to propose
98 something as well.
99
100 it's the server's duty to protect itself from idiots. When client connects
101 to server to upload it's information file, the server sends the client a
102 unique key that expires after 1 week or couple days.. depends on how often
103 we want input. If client tries to send input again it could remove the key
104 file of course and claim it's new to the service, that's why the submitter's
105 IP address needs to be recorded for first-time users as well.
106
107 Of course system is not perfect... the idiot could change his IP address of
108 course no problemo ... he could disconnect/reconnectto his ISP or something
109 similar but that would be rael stupid. I don't think that many people would
110 actually attempt that.
111
112 I think that the person who would attempt this, if it's ever going to
113 happen, it's because our user base has grown very, very large and his impact
114 would be minimal to our system.
115
116
117 This is just an idea.. i'm sure there are better...
118
119
120
121 >- The server-side system will e-mail the user with a key, which must be
122 > placed in the config file
123 >- To post the information to the server-side system, the client-side system
124 > can use the proxy settings defined on /etc/make.conf
125 >- In the first set of data the server-side system receives, it will e-mail
126 > a message to the user to let him know the system is running fine
127 >
128 >Note that it is not guaranteed the system will have internet connectivity
129 >when it gets run. In this case, it may keep periodically checking in the
130 >background for a route to the server.
131 >
132 >The following vars can be set on the config file:
133 >
134 >- Key: as discussed above
135 >- Acknowlege flag: send an e-mail to the user every time a set of data from
136 > him is processed (defaults to false)
137 >_______________________________________________
138 >gentoo-dev mailing list
139 >gentoo-dev@g.o
140 >http://lists.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev
141
142
143
144
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Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-dev] RFP: System to account users configurations Rufiao <rufiao@×××.net>