[tahoe-dev] TWN20

Sat Jan 7 16:03:38 UTC 2012

Welcome to the Tahoe-LAFS Weekly News (TWN).  Tahoe-LAFS_ is a secure,
distributed storage system. `View TWN on the web`_ *or* `subscribe to TWN`_.
If you would like to view the "new and improved" TWN, complete with pictures;
please take a `look`_.

.. _Tahoe-LAFS: http://tahoe-lafs.org
.. _View TWN on the web: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/wiki/TahoeLAFSWeeklyNews
.. _subscribe to TWN: http://tahoe-lafs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tahoe-lafs-weekly-news
.. _look: http://tahoe-lafs.org/~marlowe/TWN20.html

Announcements and News
======================

Moving to Git
- -------------

Tahoe-LAFS is `moving to Git`_.  The `repo`_ lives on Github under the
Tahoe-LAFS organization account.

Tahoe-LAFS will run both darcs and git in parallel for a while.  Below are
the restrictions on what we can currently commit:

 * The bridge only handles linear histories. Brian |brian| will enforce this
   by rewriting and rebasing any changes that enter from the Git side
   before landing them on master.  Patches coming from the Darcs side are
   applied in single-file anyways, so no new restrictions there.
 * Brian runs the bridge manually (it's not safe enough to be run
   unsupervised), so there will be a human delay between the time
   something lands on the darcs side and the time it appears on the git
   side. Brian usually gets to it within a day, but feel free to ping him on
   IRC when you push a commit to darcs.
 * Nobody else should commit to the official git repo right now. When we
   stop using darcs (and the bridge), we can fix the permissions so that
   all Tahoe committers will have write access. Send pull requests and
   Brian will merge them appropriately.
 * Release branches will have to be managed specially. 1.8.3 does not
   yet exist in the git repo (Brian will need to build it manually). If we do
   a near-term 1.9.1 release, we'll probably do it from trunk.

Tahoe-LAFS has a new `buildmaster`_, which feeds off the Github
post-commit hook, and instructs buildslaves to update from Github.  We'll
be moving all the existing slaves to this buildmaster, and then
we will determine which ones need to have Git installed (or their buildbot
code updated). We'll also update to a newer buildbot version (0.8.5) at
the same time, and start using "categories" to organize the waterfall
views a bit more easily.

The developers also `moved pycryptopp`_ to Github.  The buildbot now
draws from Github, and all but one of the buildslaves upgraded to match.

  "The first pull request has been merged, to fix compile errors with the
  upcoming gcc-4.7.0 release. The second pull request, to add Ed25519
  signatures, is under review by Zooko."  [`1`_]

.. _`moving to Git`:
   https://tahoe-lafs.org/pipermail/tahoe-dev/2011-December/006898.html
.. _`repo`: https://github.com/tahoe-lafs/tahoe-lafs
.. _`buildmaster`: https://tahoe-lafs.org/buildbot-tahoe-lafs-git/
.. _`moved pycryptopp`: https://github.com/tahoe-lafs/pycryptopp
.. _`1`: https://tahoe-lafs.org/pipermail/tahoe-dev/2012-January/006913.html

1.9.1 Release
- -------------

Brian `announced the upcoming 1.9.1 release`_.  The team hopes to release
1.9.1 in the next couple of weeks.  The main drivers for this release are:

* `#1628`_: UCWE on deep check with recent version
* upcoming Ubuntu LTS freeze.  We hope to get this fix in before the freeze

Ticket 1628 needs review, so please review the ticket.

In addition, some other changes have occurred since the 1.9.0 release which
will be included in 1.9.1:

* the download-status timeline visualizer was rewritten
* the WUI got a favicon
* OpenBSD 5 support was added
* PyCrypto 2.4 was blacklisted
* some internal refactoring

The changes will be included in the 1.9.1 release.

The following tickets are part of the `1.9.1 milestone`_:

* `#1212`_: Repairing fails if less than 7 servers available
* `#1636`_: Unhandled error in Deferred while uploading (current darcs build)
* `#1637`_: compilation errors with pyOpenSSL >= 0.13 on RHEL5 systems (and
  clones)
* `#1643`_: presence of MDMF in aliases break the CLI < v1.9.0
* `#1648`_: assertion failure 'assert len(self._active_readers) >=
  self._required_shares' in mutable retrieve

.. _`announced the upcoming 1.9.1 release`:
   https://tahoe-lafs.org/pipermail/tahoe-dev/2011-December/006901.html
.. _`#1628`: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1628
.. _`1.9.1 milestone`:
   https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/query?status=assigned&status=new&status=reopened&group=status&milestone=1.9.1
.. _`#1212`: https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1212
.. _`#1636`: https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1636
.. _`#1637`: https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1637
.. _`#1643`: https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1643
.. _`#1648`: https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1648

TWN Scribe Strives to Become Developer
- --------------------------------------

With the coming of the new year, I (Patrick |marlowe|) decided to seriously
pursue my goal of learning programming.  Further inspired by Zooko's |zooko|
tweet,

  "Congrats!! Submit a patch to Tahoe-LAFS! We offer mentoring by experts to
  all contributors. :-)" [`2`_]

What better way to learn a language than to work on real problems rather than
sample exercises and have the support of some of the best programmers?  Plus
you get to learn the other details of being a developer: updating tickets,
submitting patches, responding to comments, etc.  So I decided to take Zooko
up on the offer.  I am searching through the `easy tickets`_ to determine
which will be my first try.  I can't wait to get started.

.. _`2`: https://twitter.com/#!/zooko/status/154031644234366976
.. _`easy tickets`:
   https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/query?status=!closed&keywords=~easy&order=priority

- From the tahoe-dev Mailing List
===============================

Tamias
- ------

Jean Lorchat `announced the beta release`_ of `Tamias`_ |tamias|.

  "The Tamias Project is an attempt to create an opensource, privacy-aware
  distributed file storage. When ready, Tamias will provide :

  * Secure and reliable storage for all kind of files
  * Easy sharing with per-object control and container objects
  * Storage provider independence

  Tamias is based on the Tahoe-LAFS storage system and borrows it’s secure
  properties while leveraging a public-key infrastructure on top in order to
  provide distributed access control.

  Why “Tamias” ?

  The Tahoe-LAFS system is based on capabilities, which are very important
  and impossible to remember, which means you have to write them down
  somewhere and mail them around. When looking for shares, users then look
  like a squirrel looking for acorns. Tamias are a kind of chipmunk." [`3`_]

Tahoe-LAFS devs look forward to learning from Tamias' thought processes,
implementation, and any feedback from their users.

.. _`announced the beta release`:
   https://tahoe-lafs.org/pipermail/tahoe-dev/2011-December/006899.html
.. _`Tamias`: https://tamias.iijlab.net/
.. _`3`: https://tamias.iijlab.net/?page_id=6
.. |tamias| image:: tamias.png
   :height: 35
   :alt: Tamias
   :target: https://tamias.iijlab.net/

Patch Needing Review of the Week
================================

There are five (5) tickets still needing review for 1.10:

* `#393`_: mutable: implement MDMF
* `#1265`_: New Visualizer is insufficiently labelled/documented (plus layout
  problem)
* `#1398`_: make docs/performance.rst more precise and accurate
* `#1566`_: if a stored share has a corrupt header, other shares held by that
  server for the file should still be accessible to clients
* `#1593`_: the drop-upload dircap should be in BASEDIR/private/

.. _`#393`: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/393
.. _`#1265`: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1265
.. _`#1398`: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1398
.. _`#1566`: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1566
.. _`#1593`: https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1593

- ----

*The Tahoe-LAFS Weekly News is published once a week by The Tahoe-LAFS*
*Software Foundation, President and Treasurer: Peter Secor* |peter|
*. Scribes: Patrick "marlowe" McDonald, Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn*
*, Editor: Zooko.* `View TWN on the web`_ *or* `subscribe to TWN`_
*. Send your news stories to* `marlowe at antagonism.org`_ *— submission
deadline: Friday night.*

.. _marlowe at antagonism.org: mailto:marlowe at antagonism.org
.. |zooko| image:: zooko.png
   :height: 35
   :alt: zooko
   :target: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/wiki/AboutUs
.. |brian| image:: warner.png
   :height: 35
   :alt: brian
   :target: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/wiki/AboutUs
.. |peter| image:: psecor.jpg
   :height: 35
   :alt: peter
   :target: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/wiki/AboutUs
.. |marlowe| image:: marlowe-x75-bw.jpg
   :height: 35
   :alt: marlowe
   :target: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/wiki/AboutUs

- --
- ----------------------------------------------------------------
| Patrick R. McDonald                       GPG Key: A2D1E972  |
| https://www.antagonism.org/         <marlowe at antagonism.org> |
|                               <mcdonald.patrick.r at gmail.com> |
|                         <patrick at opensecurityfoundation.org> |
- ----------------------------------------------------------------
| Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium           |
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