launchpad-dev team mailing list archive

[Colin Watson <cjwatson@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi folks,

The fact that Ubuntu archive admins require shell access to ftpmaster to
get their work done has been a wart for as long as I can remember
(although I'll admit it was a while before I was persuaded that it was
an actual problem).  Since the Launchpad API was created, we've chipped
around the edges of the problem a bit, and some big chunks were dealt
with as part of the derivation project by Julian's team, but we haven't
really sat down to enumerate all the remaining things we need shell
access for and to make a concerted effort to fix them.  There's still
plenty of work required both in Launchpad itself and on the Ubuntu side.

In a fit of enthusiasm, I've been working on setting down both the
rationale and as many details as I can manage in
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/foundations-q-replace-archive-admin-shell-access,
and (if my manager is still willing in a few months' time) I'm
interested in spending some time extending the Launchpad API and fixing
Ubuntu archive admin processes in the Q cycle, aiming for all archive
admin work to be possible without ftpmaster shell access by the end of
that cycle.  I'd welcome feedback on this in advance.  Things where I
could particularly use feedback include:

 * Have I missed anything that archive admins use cocoplum for
   (disregarding manual inspection of the archive that could just as
   well be done on a mirror such as lillypilly)?

 * Have I missed instances of APIs that are broken or that we sometimes
   have to work around using shell commands, as opposed to features that
   are missing?  I'm assuming that on the whole the API is less
   susceptible to timeout bugs than the UI because its responses are
   simpler, but I know we still run into the odd API timeout as well.

 * Is there anything that might be vastly more complicated than I think?
   I'm pretty confident that I can deal with API extensions and the
   like, and with all the client-side work, but (say) things that
   involve serious remodelling would take rather longer.

 * Is there anything that we use sufficiently infrequently that we could
   just ask webops to run things for us rather than spending lots of
   time on APIs?  For instance (without meaning to disparage Matthias,
   who's probably the main user of this), if populate-archive.py were
   the only remaining thing we needed direct ftpmaster access for, then
   it might be a reasonable tradeoff to terminate our shell access and
   handle that by means of webops requests.

 * Am I stepping on anyone's toes with any of this?

Thanks,

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson@xxxxxxxxxx]