[tahoe-lafs-weekly-news] TWN #9

Patrick R McDonald marlowe at antagonism.org
Sun Jul 31 15:38:23 PDT 2011


======================================================
 Tahoe-LAFS Weekly News, issue number 9, July 31, 2011
=======================================================

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`_.

.. _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

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

The march towards Tahoe-LAFS v1.9 continues.  Brian posted an update of
`which tickets may make it into 1.9`_.  The ticket list is

* #393_  : Medium Sized Distributed Mutable Files!
* #1429_ : David-Sarah's Dropbox-ish inotify-triggered auto-upload feature
* #1425_ : support blacklisting of files at a gateway
* #1010_ : use only 127.0.0.1 as a local address for anonymity
* #1342_ : rename tests of packaging
* #1385_ : stop respecting the pre-v1.3.0 config files

We unfortunately had to `shut down the pubgrid`_.  Various groups
took advantage of the open nature of the grid to store database
dumps, cracking tools and other items. The purpose of the pubgrid was
always to let people experiment with Tahoe-LAFS "live on the web"
without having to first download the software themselves. We're
talking on the mailing list about how to restablish a way for people
to do that which wouldn't be used to host problematic items.

Next week is the tenth issue of TWN.  Any suggestions on what we
should cover for our tenth issue?

.. _which tickets may make it into 1.9: http://tahoe-lafs.org/pipermail/tahoe-dev/2011-July/006577.html
.. _393: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/393
.. _1425: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1425
.. _1429: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1429
.. _1010: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1010
.. _1342: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1342
.. _1385: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1385
.. _`shut down the pubgrid`: http://tahoe-lafs.org/pipermail/tahoe-dev/2011-July/006572.html

Free and Open Source Project of the Week
========================================

The Free and Open Source Project of the Week is bup_.  The author of
bup, Avery Pennarun, details some exciting bits regarding bup.

  "bup has a few advantages over other backup software:

  It uses a rolling checksum algorithm (similar to rsync) to split
  large files into chunks. The most useful result of this is you can
  backup huge virtual machine (VM) disk images, databases, and XML
  files incrementally, even though they're typically all in one huge
  file, and not use tons of disk space for multiple versions.

  It uses the packfile format from git (the open source version control
  system), so you can access the stored data even if you don't like
  bup's user interface.

  Unlike git, it writes packfiles directly (instead of having a
  separate garbage collection / repacking stage) so it's fast even with
  gratuitously huge amounts of data. bup's improved index formats also
  allow you to track far more filenames than git (millions) and keep
  track of far more objects (hundreds or thousands of gigabytes).

  Data is "automagically" shared between incremental backups without
  having to know which backup is based on which other one - even if the
  backups are made from two different computers that don't even know
  about each other. You just tell bup to back stuff up, and it saves
  only the minimum amount of data needed.

  You can back up directly to a remote bup server, without needing tons
  of temporary disk space on the computer being backed up. And if your
  backup is interrupted halfway through, the next run will pick up
  where you left off. And it's easy to set up a bup server: just
  install bup on any machine where you have ssh access.

  Bup can use "par2" redundancy to recover corrupted backups even if
  your disk has undetected bad sectors.

  Even when a backup is incremental, you don't have to worry about
  restoring the full backup, then each of the incrementals in turn; an
  incremental backup acts as if it's a full backup, it just takes less
  disk space.

  You can mount your bup repository as a FUSE filesystem and access the
  content that way, and even export it over Samba.

  It's written in python (with some C parts to make it faster) so it's
  easy for you to extend and maintain."

  --  Avery Pennarun [1_]

.. _bup: https://github.com/apenwarr/bup
.. _1: https://github.com/apenwarr/bup#readme

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

Both Brian Warner and David-Sarah Hopwood explained where `URLs are
generated`_ in Tahoe.

There is a lengthy discussion regarding the shutdown of the pubgrid and
any possible liability_ surrounding grids hosting illegal content.  On a
personal note, I would love for a member of the EFF_ to comment on this.

Olaf TNSB posted `an issue with OS X`_.  It turns out this issue is a
result of an incompatibility_ between zope.interface 3.6.4 and Nevow
0.10.

Kevin Reid started a interesting discussion regarding the use of `Caja
to solve the same-orgin policy hazard`_.

.. _`URLs are generated`: http://tahoe-lafs.org/pipermail/tahoe-dv/2011-July/006578.html
.. _liability: http://tahoe-lafs.org/pipermail/tahoe-dev/2011-July/006581.html
.. _EFF: http://www.eff.org
.. _`an issue with OS X`: http://tahoe-lafs.org/pipermail/tahoe-dev/2011-July/006608.html
.. _incompatibility: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1435#
.. _`Caja to solve the same-orgin policy hazard`: http://tahoe-lafs.org/pipermail/tahoe-dev/2011-July/006613.html

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

Rather than single out any new patch, this week is dedicated to all the
new patches going into 1.9.  So headed on here_ and pick a patch to
review.  Currently there are 13 patches needing review for 1.9.  Let's
see if we can't halve that number by next week.

.. _here: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/query?status=!closed&keywords=~review-needed&group=milestone&col=id&col=summary&col=keywords&col=status&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&col=time&col=changetime&desc=1&order=changetime

----

*The Tahoe-LAFS Weekly News is published once a week by The Tahoe-LAFS
Software Foundation, President and Treasurer: Peter Secor. 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

-- 
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| Patrick R. McDonald                       GPG Key: 668AA5DF  |                
| https://www.antagonism.org/         <marlowe at antagonism.org> |                
|                               <mcdonald.patrick.r at gmail.com> |                
|                         <patrick at opensecurityfoundation.org> |                
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