[Mageia-sysadm] [810] split subversion-tools in its own class, to prepare for svn mirror

Sun Jan 16 20:41:31 CET 2011

On Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 02:49:41PM +0100, nicolas vigier wrote:
+> On Sun, 16 Jan 2011, Michael scherer wrote:
+> 
+> > On Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 02:15:35PM +0100, root at mageia.org wrote:
+> > > Revision: 810
+> > > Author:   misc
+> > > Date:     2011-01-16 14:15:35 +0100 (Sun, 16 Jan 2011)
+> > > Log Message:
+> > > -----------
+> > > split subversion-tools in its own class, to prepare for svn mirror
+> > > 
+> > 
+> > Since we still do not have any svn viewer system, I had a idea that
+> > would allow us to have one without sacrifiying security :
+> > - use a viewer with a readonly clone of svn.
+> > 
+> > For example, we could use svnsync on alamut to copy the svn from valstar.
+> > ( I tried svm, but it seems to be quite broken ). I have a module ready to 
+> > be committed for that.
+> > 
+> > This way :
+> > - we have backups ( until someone do a full real backup system, and
+> > so until we have fiona )
+> > - someone compromissing the server cannot modify the svn ( as this is a copy )
+> > - we will have local access to the data
+> >   - full range of web interface ( and not just viewvc, even if I think it is fine )
+> >   - local access is faster than remote ( after testing viewvc )
+> > - the svn server will not be loaded with web request while at the same time 
+> > 
+> > The only issue is the bin-repos svn repository. I am not sure that it would be wise to 
+> > mirror it on alamut. But we can decide to at least offer viewvc for adm, packages, and web ?
+> 
+> Yes, it looks like a good idea.
+> Only issue would be that we can't see the latest commits immediately.
+> But if we mirror often, it should be ok.
+
+Depend if the sync is push or pull.
+Ie, we can use ssh::auth to generate keys to push and run a snvmirror sync on commit.
+For the moment, I have done it with cron ( safer from my pov ), but we can change 
+later if needed.
+
+> Now we need to find a vhost name for the web interface ? svnweb.mageia.org ?
+
+That seems a call for bikeshedding :p
+Shouldn't we first decide the software to use ?
+So far there is ( on top of my head ) :
+- viewvc
+- websvn
+
+Viewvc do requires a patch to handle big repositories, was what we used
+at mdv. It requires mysql db for searching the repository ( but 
+we can disable it, or port to postgresql if we have time  ), and a 
+backport for fastcgi support. 
+
+I didn't look much at Websvn, except that it requires to run svn on the 
+commandline. While this sound like bad idea for 
+performance reasons, it is also a php web application, so this could 
+conflict with sushosin, or similar protection system. I do not
+know how it handle big repositories, nor the exact requirements except
+"php".
+
+Anyone who want to work and compare both in term of useful
+features ?
+
+( I would favor viewvc, but I am biased toward my tutelar language. )
+
+-- 
+Michael Scherer 
+