[OpenAFS] (no subject)

Jenkins, Steven JENKINSS@mail.etsu.edu
Wed, 30 Apr 2003 11:51:54 -0400


We've been working with Norbert on his AFS Perl API, and the bos & vos
APIs are next on the list, so I thought I'd get input on the
design/requirements people have. =20

What particular issues or requirements do you have on either bos or vos?
In particular, what commands are highest priority?  What commands are
lowest priority?  Are there any that should simply be dropped?

My thoughts are:

Overall design: the API should match the command-line API as much as
possible (the current API mostly follows this, but it does deviate in a
few place).  If there are other interfaces exposed, that's fine, but the
API should match the command-line to make it easy for SAs to go from
commands to code.

Do bos first, primarily because this will be the first 'AFS internals'
development project for the student, and the bos interface will be
easier:=20

start with the add*, list*, and remove* to gain experience.  Then do the
most critical bos operations, which are: create, delete, restart, start,
stop, shutdown, status, salvage.  Then finish up the rest of the command
suite.  Most of the bos API would return a straightforward scalar,
array, or hash (exec is different enough, though, to make me wonder if
it's worth including at all).  I'm also thinking that the
install/uninstall commands are unused, so they're not worth providing an
interface to.

Then do vos.  I view the list* & examine as the most important, followed
by the release, sync*, create, delete, with the rest (eg,
backup,restore, etc) being in the third tier.

Note that this list is a first cut -- feedback will be very helpful in
prioritizing.

Thanks,
Steven