1.5 direction

Ok, long term goal for 1.5 is replacing the creaking shelf backend with
full on sql (postgres) support.

To get there however, there's some infrastructure stuff  that simply
MUST go first.

The plan is embodied in 1.5.0, which is on the ftp server in the devel
directory. This is NOT workign code yet - this drop won't even build the
rpm, and I don't care why. I just posted it if you're curious to see
where I think current is going.

cadmin split into two: (its always been a mutant little monster, so its
not surprising it would reproduce asexually). cinstall is recognizably
most of the icky bits from cadmin. One time tasks that MUST happen
before the server can even start happen here (ssl keys, apache config
files, database inits, other crimes against humanity).

At the end of cinstall, current is ready to be run. The database is
empty (there's aren't any channels yet for gods sake), but the server is
ready to start.

You start the server, and then the theory is you never have to take it
down, until you want to upgrade. 

Thats right. cadmin is now ..... up2date? Yes, I decided that I hadn't
ripped off the poor RHN people enough, cadmin now uses the same network
code as up2date itself to talk to the server.

Right NOW, cadmin prints my name. Useful, no? However, to print it,
those two strings had to go through the server itself.

How? Just more network API calls. Up2date itself uses the up2date.* and
registration.* calls. rhn_check uses the queue.* calls. Now current has
its own calls.

So, in the semi working demo, current.hello takes two strings and passes
them back. :) 

In the future, things like current.channelAdd and current.channelUpdate
will exist.

Security: security is an issue. up2date itself uses the much discussed
(lately at least) sysid to "prove" that the host (client machine) is
authorized/authenticated to do some things. cinstall will soon create an
"adminid" file of VERY similar format that will auth/authz a _user_ to
do some things. 

Some (most?) sites may well just leave the adminid on the same machine
running current itself and be done with it. But what if you wanted
remote administration? You got it.

What if you wanted a group of people to be admins? make the file group
readable. What if you wanted sub-channel support but were'nt waiting for
a web site? (up2date itself cannot subscribe/unsubscribe from
sub-channels) You got it -cadmin will do that in the future. 

If you can't get this code to run, feel free to report it to the list,
but fixing it won't be a priority for me. If you've got
suggestions/constructive criticisms of the plan, please post them to the
list - those are priority.

-- 
Hunter Matthews                          Unix / Network Administrator
Office: BioScience 145/244               Duke Univ. Biology Department
Key: F0F88438 / FFB5 34C0 B350 99A4 BB02  9779 A5DB 8B09 F0F8 8438
Never take candy from strangers. Especially on the internet.