Re: Should we get an account and add them to the Xenofarm?

On Fri, Jan 10, 2003 at 04:29:57PM +0100, Laura Creighton wrote:
> > 
> > This may be difficult if not impossible.  Unless the testdrive setup
> > has changed, HP used to prevent all outgoing connections through their
> > firewall.  This means you cannot do a cvs update from their machines
> > to pull down the latest python.  You would have to ship a tarball
> > there each time.

Technically, this is not necessary. xenofarm gets the sources by HTTP
in the build package. We can hack it so it leaves the source in place.
It's still gonna make things difficult if you want to test manually,
but it won't stop xenofarm.

> > I would love to see this changed.  At least if they openned up CVS
> > pserver access to SF.  It would make life a lot easier.
> > 
> > The testdrive machines are a valuable resource, which I have used.
> > 
> > Neal
> 
> This looks like a job for the Python Business Forum ... <looks around for
> a storage closet, phone booths having gone the way of the dinosaur> 
> Can you please list briefly what you would like me to ask for.  I will
> go write up something, and then get you to proof read it, and then
> go make my pitch.

We need to be able to run cron jobs on the host. Disk requirement is a
full python build, plus a tar ball and some extras, cirka 250Mb.

Ports:
  In: ssh
  Out: HTTP (GET & PUT) (one host)

    Note that the xenofarm client does not currently work over proxy
    or HTTPS.

Requirements for running the xenofarm client:

#  gzip
#  wget              Must handle -N and set the timestamp correctly.
#                    Must handle --referer.
#                    Versions 1.6 and prior of wget are know to mangle
#                    the timestamps and will cause occasional missed
#                    builds. Versions 1.8.2 and newer are known to work.
#
# Requirements that are normally fulfilled by the UNIX system:
# `ls -t`           should list files sorted by modification time
# `uname -n`        should print the nodename
# `uname -s -r -m`  should print OS and CPU info
# `kill -0 <pid>`   should return true if a process with that pid exists
# `LC_ALL="C" date` should return a space-separated string with where the
#                   first substring containing colons is on the form
#                   <hour>:<minute>.*
# tar               must be available in the PATH

... and of course, all the stuff needed to build python.
-- 
Anders "Quest" Qvist

"We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters
will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks 
to the Internet, we know this is not true." -- Robert Wilensky