CSuite Workshop Notes - October 9, 1996

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Agenda:


PAT Update - ftp proxy

David Trueman compiled, configured and ran the apache 800 proxy server with little difficulty, using /ccn/etc/proxy and /ccn/etc/cache. Apache serves only the http protocol directly, but has an API for adding functionality, e.g. ftp proxy via lynx

Landon Boyd reported that Netscape would run with no swapping in a 16 M Linux system, with no window manager.

To Do:

It was agreed that we need to maintain a log for configuration of the PAT and Router machines. A logfile of the installation would help to facilitate upgrading, (Beta 2), using md5 to generate checksums like tripwire uses.

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Surveys - cgi wrapper

There is a survey generator package available (Dalhousie) which creates scripts and forms to do surveys. We should consider installing the package, or importing the scripts as generated. This would provide some of the enhanced capability that is if interest to som e of our Information Providers (IP's). Using a cgi-wrapper function would allow the script to run as the owner of the target file. (Ownership could be assigned to a "non-login" user.)

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Concurrent Version System - CVS

Landon Boyd gave a talk on Concurrent Version System (CVS), a development tool that maintains an archive of a project, and allows multiple users to check out parts of the project simultaneously. CVS keeps its database in a "Repository" which is equivalent to the /RCS directories with which we are familiar. CVS exists as a layer on top of RCS.

Sample repository:

/usr/local/cvsroot/     ; all files and RCS files managed by CVS are in this tree.
                   CVSROOT    ; contains administration and configuration data.
                   csuite/bin/           ; these files are never touched by users.
                              lynx
                          lib/
A user can, for example, checkout the lynx source tree:
	$cvs checkout csuite/bin/lynx
A csuite/bin/lynx directory is added to your home directory. Changes take effect upon commit, which records changes back into the Repository, but does not change the checked out status of the files.
	$cvs commit Makefile
- calls RCS to copy files, do log, etc. - if the same file is committed by another editor, then cvs notifies you of close differences, which must be resolved before the commit is accepted.
cvs import
builds a database from a file set. to check a file set back into cvs:
	$cvs release -d csuite
-warns about uncommitted changes.
cvs tag
makes a record of revision levels for all files in a project, so that a given version can be rebuilt or serve as a branching point for multiple versions. CVS supports remote access, using environment variable $CVSROOT e.g.
	$CVSROOT=user@chebucto.ns.ca/usr/local/cvsroot
Either .rhosts or Kerberos are used to authenticate remote access. NFS is also an option, although there are performance problems.

A new version of CVS has just been released.

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Information Providers

File edit functionality improvement is needed: It is currently possible to install files into an RCS controlled area, and then move or copy them to another directory. This breaks RCS continuity, leaves orphaned RCS files, and breaks links in the go recent listing. Perhaps the modify/name, modify/location functions need to be brought under RCS, along with a cleanup function that optionally moves/removes orphaned RCS logs.

Functionality to revert RCS versions would also be nice.

It is also possible to reinstall a document from one directory to another, so perhaps some of the required functionality is already present.

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Distribution

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Disk Quota sales

Work continues on the Disk Quota system. A lengthy discussion concluded that a system processing user submitted requests as orders, generated by a HTML form system, and simply processing cheques to verify the user's order requests, would be simpler to implement than a system which tries to generate the order at the time the cheque is processed. Locking of the order until the complete transaction is verified seems to be a major problem, as our plan is to have the system automatically carry out the changes when the office processes the money.

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Next Workshop October 16, 1996

Previous Workshop October 2, 1996

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Submitted by Ed Dyer aa146
Workshop Coordinator David J Murdoch djm


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